Antigua by breakfast, a volcano by dusk, Tikal by the weekend.
Which Acatenango operator feeds you properly. What the boat across Atitlán costs. Whether Tikal is worth the flight north. Reviews of every tour you can book in Guatemala.
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Acatenango, overnightAdventure, 2-Day Hiking to Acatenango Volcano★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 1,189 reviewsfrom $54 - 2
Pacaya, half a dayPacaya Volcano Tour in English/Spanish★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 930 reviewsfrom $23 - 3
Tikal, from FloresTikal Guided Tour with Transportation★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 875 reviewsfrom $20
Pacaya before dinner, or Acatenango through the night.
Every volcano day in Guatemala is really a decision about sleep. Walk up Pacaya after lunch and be back on the cobbles in Antigua by evening, or carry a pack to nearly four thousand metres and watch Fuego throw fire at the ridge opposite until dawn.
Antigua first. Then the lake, the capital, and the flight north to the jungle.
Cobblestones under three volcanoes, a caldera lake ringed with Maya villages, a capital most travellers only see from the airport road, and a temple that clears the rainforest canopy. Six starting points, and the best day out from each.
Tikal is the one people fly for. Three more sit within a morning of it.
Temple IV clears the canopy at Tikal and the forest runs to the horizon in every direction. Then there is Yaxha on its ridge between two lakes, empty at sunset, and Iximché in the highlands, where the Kaqchikel still leave offerings among the plazas.
Antigua takes an afternoon to walk. The capital takes a guide.
Antigua is a grid you can learn in an hour, a ruined church on almost every block and the yellow arch at the top of 5a Avenida. Guatemala City is the opposite: worth the day, much easier with somebody who knows which streets to use and which to skip.
Acatenango, Pacaya, Tikal, and everything just behind them.
Every tour we have reviewed in Guatemala →Guatemala is small enough that most trips converge on the same handful of days. Here they are, with what each one costs.
1
Adventure, 2-Day Hiking to Acatenango Volcano
Acatenango Volcano hiking review from Antigua: a tough two-day climb, cold camp, sunrise views, Fuego eruptions, meals, costs, and practical tips.
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
Atitlán is a drowned volcano with a village on every shore.
Panajachel is where the shuttle drops you and where most people leave from. The lake proper starts once you are in a boat: San Juan for the weavers and the dye gardens, Santiago for the Tz’utujil, San Marcos for whatever it is San Marcos does.
Every day out on the lake →
Guatemala stays cheap right up until you sleep on a volcano.
Every tour on the site at three price points. Down at the bottom end you are not making the compromise you would be making anywhere else.
Pacaya, the Antigua walks, market days in the highlands and the boats across the lake.
- 1Pacaya Volcano Tour in English/Spanishfrom $23
- 2Tikal Guided Tour with Transportationfrom $20
- 3Pacaya Volcano Trekfrom $23
Acatenango overnight, Tikal out of Flores, the coffee fincas and the quad tracks.
Private guides, Semuc Champey the long way, and the multi-day runs north.
Three things Guatemala has that nowhere else does.
Volcanoes and ruins turn up all over Central America. A river running under a limestone bridge, a coffee slope with three cones behind it, and a Maya city you can have to yourself at sunset do not.
Semuc Champey
The Cahabón river vanishes under a natural limestone bridge three hundred metres long, and on top of that bridge sits a staircase of turquoise pools you can swim down one at a time. Getting there is the price of admission. The road in from Lanquín is unpaved and slow, and the people who enjoy it most are the ones who gave it a night rather than a day.
- 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
The Antigua coffee slopes
The valley floor sits at fifteen hundred metres with three volcanoes standing over it, which is most of the reason Antigua coffee tastes the way it does. The fincas on the slopes will walk you from the cherry on the branch to the cup in about three hours, and most of them roast in front of you at the end of it.
- 1Coffee and Gastronomic Bike Tour in Antigua★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 284 reviews
- 2Antigua ATV Coffee tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 113 reviews
- 3Experience: Organic Coffee, Avocados, Honey & More!★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 101 reviews
Yaxha
Yaxha stands on a ridge between two lakes an hour short of Tikal, and hardly anybody goes. Climb Structure 216 in the late afternoon and the whole basin turns orange while the howler monkeys start up in the trees below. Tikal has the temples and the crowds. Yaxha has the same temples and the quiet.
- 1Yaxha Shared Sunset Tour with Transportation & Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 176 reviews
- 2Yaxha Ruins Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 29 reviews
- 3Yaxha at Sunset Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 13 reviews
Four Guatemalan days that run on somebody else’s calendar.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast the morning before. These four cannot. Two of them run on market days and gate times, one fills up weeks out, and one is simply too far away to improvise.
- 01Chichicastenango and Lake Atitlan Tour From AntiguaThe market runs on Thursdays and Sundays. Any other day of the week it is a quiet highland town with the stalls folded away.
- 02Adventure, 2-Day Hiking to Acatenango VolcanoGroups are capped and the good operators fill up weeks ahead in dry season. Turning up in Antigua hoping for a bed on the ridge rarely works out.
- 03Tikal Sunrise Archaeological TourSunrise at Tikal means being at the gate before it opens, on a ticket that costs extra, after a start from Flores at three in the morning.
- 04Semuc Champey Park and Kanba Cave Guided TourThe road in from Lanquín is unpaved and the pools are a long way from everything. This is a day you build the week around, not one you slot in.
From May to October it rains in Guatemala, but almost never before lunch.
The pattern holds through most of the season. Bright mornings, cloud stacking up over the volcanoes by two, an hour of hard rain, then a clear evening on the cobbles. Book anything outdoors for the morning and keep the afternoon for a roastery, a kitchen or a long lunch.
By place
The capital, Antigua, the lake, the market, then north to the temples.
New reviews from Antigua, the lake and the Petén.
The rest of the new ones →
Tikal from Hotel Camino Real El Remate – All Inclusive
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Kayak Hike Adventure. Visit Tzununa, Jaibalito, Santa Cruz
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Altamira and Hobbitenango Movie Themed Parks Tour
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Lower Mayan Trail: San Marcos to Santa Cruz 4-Hour Hike
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2-day tour from Antigua 1 night in Acatenango Volcano
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