A week in Guatemala. Pick your volcano first.
What the Acatenango overnight costs and how cold the ridge gets at three in the morning. Whether Tikal is better at sunrise or at sunset. Which Atitlán villages the boats actually reach. Reviews of every tour you can book in Guatemala.
Acatenango, Tikal, Pacaya, Atitlán. The four that fill a first week.
Almost every Guatemala itinerary is built from these four. What each one costs, how long it takes and what the people who went say about it.
01The night on the ridgeAdventure, 2-Day Hiking to Acatenango VolcanoTwo days out of Antigua, sleeping at 3,700 metres so Fuego is erupting at eye level after dark. Bring more layers than you think.
02The Maya dayTikal Guided Tour with TransportationThe temples above the canopy, an early minibus out of Flores and a guide who can read the stelae. Eight hours, and worth every one.
03The easy volcanoHike to Pacaya Volcano from AntiguaPacaya is a half day, ends on a warm lava field and needs no training. The one volcano day that fits around everything else.
04The lake dayLake Atitlan One Day Tour from AntiguaPanajachel, a boat across to the villages and back to Antigua by dark. The long version of a day trip, but the water carries it.
Pacaya in an afternoon, or two days up Acatenango.
Guatemala sells volcanoes the way other countries sell beaches. The difference between the two big ones is a night in a tent and about thirty degrees of temperature.
Antigua first, then the lake, then the jungle in the north.
A cobbled colonial town under three volcanoes, a caldera lake with villages on every shore, the capital’s markets and museums, and a flight north to the Maya cities. Six bases, and the best day out from each.
Antigua takes a morning to see and a week to leave.
Everything in Antigua →
Ten blocks of cobbles, a ruined cathedral on every other corner and volcanoes closing off the end of each street. Do it on foot early, then let somebody else drive you up the hill.
The old town, on foot, before ten
Santa Catalina arch, the shell of La Merced and the cathedral ruins behind the plaza, with the cobbles still in shade. It is the cheapest good hour in Guatemala.
Coffee and cacao on the volcano’s skirt
The slopes above town grow some of the country’s best beans. Farms take you from the cherry on the bush to a cup on the terrace, and most throw the chocolate in.
The ridge bar above the valley
A hillside of hobbit huts and swings hung over the drop, forty minutes up a dirt road. Ridiculous, photogenic, and the view down the valley does the rest.
The Guatemala days more travellers book than any others.
Every Guatemala tour we have reviewed →Volcano climbs, the Tikal minibus and the Atitlán boat carry most of the country’s traffic. Here is what each one gives you for the money.
1
Adventure, 2-Day Hiking to Acatenango Volcano
You’ll hike from La Soledad to a shared high camp with Spanish-speaking guides such as Luis, Roberto, and Santiago. Expect steep volcanic gravel, basic food, cold nights, a sunrise climb, and optional extra time near erupting Fuego.
From · $54
Read our review →
2
Pacaya Volcano Tour in English/Spanish
from $23
3
Tikal Guided Tour with Transportation
from $20
4
Pacaya Volcano Trek
from $23
5
Antigua, Guatemala: Volcano Acatenango Overnight Hiking
from $90
6
Hike to Pacaya Volcano from Antigua
from $35
7
City Highlights Guided Walking Tour
from $25
8
FROM ANTIGUA, ROUND TRIP: EXPLORING THE VILLAGES OF LAKE ATITLÁN.
from $95
Tikal at first light, and a market that only opens twice a week.
Petén holds the great cities: Tikal above the canopy, Yaxhá on its lakeshore at sunset. In the highlands the Maya present tense is easier to find, in Chichicastenango’s aisles and at the shrines above Atitlán.
Atitlán has no ring road. The boat is the road.
Three volcanoes stand over a flooded caldera and twelve villages sit around the shore, each with its own language, weaving and hour of the day. Panajachel is the gate; San Juan, Santiago and San Marcos are the reasons.
Every Atitlán day out →
What a day out in Guatemala actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Guatemala is cheap by any standard, and the best day here is not the dearest one.
Walking tours of Antigua, the Pacaya climb, the Flores minibus to Tikal, coffee mornings on the hill.
- 1Pacaya Volcano Tour in English/Spanishfrom $23
- 2Tikal Guided Tour with Transportationfrom $20
- 3Pacaya Volcano Trekfrom $23
The Acatenango overnight, the full Atitlán village loop, quad days and the private guides at Tikal.
Private drivers for a whole day, sunrise permits with a small group, and the once-a-trip splurges.
Three things that happen in Guatemala and nowhere else.
Volcanoes and ruins exist all over Central America. An erupting cone watched from a neighbouring summit, a market where the church steps still smoke with copal, and a river that runs under its own waterfalls do not.
A night on Acatenango
Fuego erupts every twenty minutes or so, and Acatenango stands right beside it at almost the same height. Groups climb five hours to a camp on the saddle, eat in the dark and then sit out with blankets watching lava run down the neighbouring cone. It is freezing, sleep is optional, and nobody who has done it talks about anything else.
- 1Adventure, 2-Day Hiking to Acatenango Volcano★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 1,189 reviews
- 2Antigua, Guatemala: Volcano Acatenango Overnight Hiking★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 645 reviews
- 32-Day Acatenango Volcano Hiking with Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 366 reviews
The Chichicastenango market
Twice a week the highland town fills with traders and the aisles run from cut flowers to live turkeys to masks nobody sells to tourists. On the steps of Santo Tomás the k’iche’ still burn copal for the old calendar before going in to Mass. Any other day of the week the plaza is empty and swept.
- 1Chichicastenango and Lake Atitlan Tour From Antigua★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 63 reviews
- 2Chichicastenango and Lake Atitlan★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 30 reviews
- 3One-day visit to Chichicastenango from Antigua Guatemala★★★★★★★★★★ 3.9 · 23 reviews
Semuc Champey
The Cahabón river disappears under a limestone bridge and the pools that form on top of it stay turquoise all year. You swim down the terraces, climb to the mirador for the shot everybody has seen, then take candles into the K’anba cave, where the water is chest deep and the light is whatever you carry.
- 1Semuc Champey Park and Kanba Cave Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 43 reviews
- 2From Guatemala City Semuc Champey in one day.★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 26 reviews
- 3From Guatemala City to Semuc Champey in one day.★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 8 reviews
Four Guatemalan bookings that do not wait for you.
Most of this country can be arranged from a hostel desk the night before. These four run on tent counts, park permits and a market calendar that has been set for four hundred years.
- 01Adventure, 2-Day Hiking to Acatenango VolcanoThe camps on the saddle hold a fixed number of tents and the weekend nights go first. Turning up in Antigua on a Friday afternoon is how people end up on Pacaya instead.
- 02Tikal Sunrise Archaeological TourSunrise entry needs an extra permit and a guide who holds one; the gate opens at four only for those groups. It cannot be bought at the gate on the morning.
- 03Chichicastenango and Lake Atitlan Tour From AntiguaThe market runs on Thursday and Sunday. Book it for any other day and you are looking at an empty plaza and a shut church.
- 04Semuc Champey Park and Kanba Cave Guided TourSemuc sits hours past the last decent road, so it runs as an overnight or an all-day haul from Lanquín. Nobody fits it in on a whim.
Guatemalan rain keeps office hours. Book the morning, keep the afternoon indoors.
From May to October the pattern barely changes: clear mornings, cloud building over the volcanoes by lunch, an hour of proper rain in the afternoon, then a rinsed evening. Climb and travel early. Leave the roasting rooms, the weaving rooms and the hot springs for three o’clock.
By place — highlands, lake and Petén
Guatemala City, Antigua, a volcano, the lake, then the flight to Flores.
The newest reviews, from Antigua to Petén.
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Yaxha at sunset with transportation, guide plus entrance
Read our review →
Tour and transportation with tour guide to Tikal.
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Tikal Sunset, Archeological focus and Wildlife Spotting
Read our review →
Tikal from Hotel Camino Real El Remate – All Inclusive
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Temazcal sauna and dinner experience, cultural sharing
Read our review →
Lake Atitlan Day Tour from Antigua or City | Boat & Villages
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