As travellers yearn for more expansive, authentic experiences, the hunt for under-the-radar destinations that beat the tourist crowds is on. This is the CF guide to Guatemala.
In Central America, attention is slowly shifting away from familiar favourites such as Mexico and Costa Rica to long unsung hero, Guatemala, offering the same depth of culture and dramatic landscapes, but with fewer crowds and a rougher – arguably more compelling – edge. From volcano hikes and ancient Mayan ruins to colourful cities and characterful stays, Jess Miles travels through Guatemala’s standout sites for Citizen Femme, exploring a less-polished alternative to its well-trodden neighbours.
Antigua
We arrived in Antigua just in time for the afternoon bustle of the city, though the vibrant pace here feels worlds apart from the hardness of London we left behind almost 24 hours ago. Despite the jet lag, my eyes light up like a magpie in a treasure trove as I acclimatise to my new surroundings. Between the crowds of happy shiny people catching up on plaza corners and threading through cobblestone streets, rows and columns of colourful Spanish colonial buildings chart a map of the gridded city like a patchwork quilt. Everywhere you look another colour is added to Antigua’s spectrum – bright tuk-tuks, exotic flowers, and street vendors selling anything from textiles to fresh fruits, or highlighter pink ice-cream cones out of decorative hand painted wooden carts, being just a couple of contenders stealing my attention with every glance.
The Arch of Santa Catalina and the Volcán de Agua
But what makes this “one of the most beautiful cities in Latin America,” our guide says, as he ushers us around a corner, “is its backdrop.” Half paying attention, half distracted by the curiosities at every turn, I double take the view he gestures toward and stop in my tracks. It feels like an impossibly perfect scene – the vivid yellow Arch of Santa Catalina offering a cinematic frame of the Volcán de Agua as it rises beyond, both serene and monumental. Above it, nothing but sky and drifting clouds, gathering softly around its peak.
Not to be mistaken with the widely known Caribbean island of the same name, this Antigua was the original capital of Guatemala up until 1773, when after suffering a series of devastating earthquakes and mudslides, it was moved to the safer location of Guatemala City. With much of the city lovingly restored and scattered ruins fiercely protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, Antigua is now the country’s most visited destination, and for good reason.
What To Do
For such a historic city, there’s a vast array of cool cafes, buzzing restaurants, and trendy boutiques tucked behind unsuspecting doorways. Step through and courtyards follow on to further courtyards, and before you know it you’ve popped out on to an entirely different street – and perhaps if you’re lucky you might stumble upon a lively procession to follow along. There’s also plenty of museums, gothic churches, and old ruins to take a tour of. Though small, the city is easily walkable, and you could certainly spend a day or two getting gladly lost amongst it all.
A Finca Filadelfia coffee tour
A likely place to base yourself for a shorter visit to Guatemala, or a starting point for a bigger trip, there’s also much fun to be had within easy reach of the cobbled streets of Antigua. With thanks to the high altitude volcanic terrain, coffee plantations in and around the area are some of the best in the country, producing a unique tasting bean that is distributed around the globe. Family run R. Dalton Coffee, is a household name brand in Guatemala, and their plantation, Finca Filadelfia, is perhaps the best known for offering insightful tours and tastings. Even if you don’t want to do the rough and ready 4×4 experience through the farm, the sprawling estate itself is beautiful to visit – the restaurant and roastery exuding the same architectural charm as Antigua.
Sitting on an active tectonic zone and surrounded by four volcanoes – Agua, Fuego, Acatenango and Pacaya – Antigua is a natural playground for the adventurous. Rising to 3,768 metres and among the most active volcanoes in the world, Volcán de Fuego is the headline act and, as its name – aka Fire Volcano – would suggest, it constantly sends plumes of ash billowing into the sky. For front-row views, an overnight hike and camp on neighbouring Volcán Acatenango offers a mesmerising spectacle, with Fuego’s lava lighting up the horizon from dusk through dawn.
Touring on horseback in Antigua
Short on time? Volcán Pacaya offers shorter hikes that can be comfortably tackled as a day trip – or even quicker by horseback, allowing you to take in the views without breaking too much of a sweat. Though currently dormant, the surrounding landscape is a stark reminder of nature’s force, with hardened lava fields slicing through verdant greenery from previously devastating eruptions. Now considered safe up to designated points, the reward at the top is unexpectedly novel – pizza cooked directly on volcanic rocks, using the earth’s residual heat as a natural oven – before saddling up and heading back down, ready to move on to the next stop.
Where To Stay
Good Hotel Antigua occupies a beautifully restored mansion in the heart of the UNESCO-protected historic centre. With just 20 rooms, the hotel pairs considered design with a thoughtful, community-minded ethos, maintaining a close connection to its surrounding neighbourhood. Just beyond the city, Villa Bokeh offers a slightly different proposition. Set on a six-acre, hacienda-style estate, the property’s leafy parkland setting of contemporary cool makes for a more easy going pace. While Antigua is only minutes away, Villa Bokéh makes a compelling case for staying put, with a swimming pool, spa and two restaurants.
LAKE ATITLÁN
Tempting as it is to see Antigua as the be-all and end-all, Guatemala still has more numbers on its bingo card. Once you move on, it becomes clear that Antigua is just the first ball out of the roller. A winding three-hour journey west brings us to Panajachel, where bustling streets are lined with travel agencies advertising shuttles and tours, market stalls spilling into the road, and tuk-tuks weaving through the traffic. The most accessible by road, Panajachel is also the most popular springboard for exploring Lake Atitlán – Central America’s deepest caldera lake, whose beauty, undulating landscape and turquoise waters are often likened to Italy’s Lake Como.
Lake Atitlán. Photo Credit: Jess Miles
Getting here? We opted for a private transfer – less daring but better suited to a packed itinerary. The alternative is Guatemala’s infamous ‘chicken buses’: retired US school buses repurposed for public transport, flamboyantly customised with polished bumpers, flashing lights and hand-painted murals. Not to be beguiled by their novelty, they look more fun than they probably feel and are best reserved for short jaunts, unless you fancy sharing a seat with the livestock to which they owe their nickname. Budget-friendly tourist shuttles offer a more comfortable middle ground, running direct routes between major destinations.
Encircling the lake’s vast expanse of blue, verdant mountains and volcanic peaks rise sharply before tumbling back down to the shoreline. Beyond its beauty, Lake Atitlán’s mysticism is defined by its villages, stacked vertically along the water’s edge, where Mayan culture remains deeply embedded in daily life. Predominantly inhabited by Tz’utujil and Kaqchikel Maya communities, the region is known for its spiritual traditions and the coexistence of ancient customs with contemporary rhythms.
Lake Atitlán. Photo Credit: Jess Miles
Like its Italian counterpart, Lake Atitlán is often spoken of as a single destination, yet each village has its own distinct identity. Different Maya groups, languages and industries shape each settlement – some famed for weaving, others for pottery, painting, coffee or agriculture – while certain towns are prized for their volcano views or dramatic positions clinging to the slopes above the lake.
What To Do
Though not by the sea, the vast expanse of Lake Atitlán lends the surrounding villages the same easy rhythm as a beach town – a place to slow down, reset and catch your breath. Perhaps anchored by the lake’s spiritual significance, there’s a strong emphasis on restoration and wellness here, and days are best spent at an unhurried pace, soaking up both the scenery and the atmosphere.
You could happily base yourself in one village, but moving between them is part of the experience. Lancha boats – public speedboat shuttles – link the lakeside settlements, making it easy to visit several in a single day and still return back to base by evening. We spent two days exploring, though a week could easily be idled away hopping from one town to the next depending on what you are after.
Photo Credit: Jess Miles
From backpacker-favourite San Pedro La Laguna to the spiritual, barefoot calm of San Marcos La Laguna, the contrasts are all part of the draw. Colour, too, plays a starring role, nowhere more so than in San Juan La Laguna. From the moment you step off the rickety dock, vibrancy takes over – a steep, rainbow-painted street climbing through the town, lined with shops and stalls showcasing local craft and cuisine. For shopaholics like me who can’t resist a memento or two, it’s both a delight and a test of restraint.
For travellers led more by curiosity than commerce, slipping past these shopfronts often reveals something unexpected – a coffee farm, an artist’s studio or, in our case, a weaving cooperative, where demonstrations and workshops offer insight into traditional textile-making and the symbolism woven into each pattern.
Mayan culture is embedded in the fabric of everyday life around Lake Atitlán, so encounters often feel organic rather than staged. For those keen to understand more, interacting with the local communities, or hiring a knowledgeable local guide can offer deeper context and shared perspectives – and, if you’re fortunate, an opportunity to witness one of the rituals or ceremonies that still take place on and around this sacred body of water.
Where To Stay
Casa Palopó sits on the edge of Lake Atitlán, perched up on the road to San Antonio Palopó. Once a private home, it became a boutique hotel in 2000 and today channels the heritage of its setting through seven vibrantly coloured rooms, each featuring contemporary and indigenous Guatemalan artwork. A newer villa-style homestead adds to the offering, with soaking tubs overlooking the lake and access to a heated infinity pool, gazebo, fireplace and hot tub.
TIKAL & EL PETÉN
If Lake Atitlan was the place to experience Mayan culture in practice, the El Peten region shows you where it all began. It’s perhaps not fair to say that I’ve saved the best till last, as every spot in Guatemala was equally varied and fascinating, but it is safe to say that El Peten, and in particular, Tikal National Park, is not to be missed. One of the largest archaeological sites and urban centres of the pre-Columbian Maya civilisation in the world, skipping this is comparable to not visiting the pyramids in Egypt, or the Taj Mahal in India.
Tikal National Park. Photo Credit: Jess Miles
With a choice between an 11-hour cross country journey through Guatemala’s rugged terrain by road, or 35 minutes in the air, we took the latter. Waking up at the crack of dawn in Guatemala City, after the short journey we arrived at the bitesize Mundo Maya airport just as the world was waking up. Almost as far north as you can go between the Belize and Mexican borders, much of what lies beyond is covered by Maya Biosphere Reserve and conservation zones. Luckily for us, Flores, the lakeside airport town, is alive and buzzing with the hum of modern civilization, and we pause for breakfast at a cool waterfront café on the island of Flores with views across the tropical Lake Peten Itza.
Connected to the mainland by a causeway, Isla de Flores is where most will base themselves. Like many places in Guatemala the people are warm and friendly, and an unhurried pace is part of the repertoire. Houses and buildings are stacked high and low, soaked in hues of varying vibrancy from one to the next, topped with rusted corrugated metal roofs, whilst motorbikes and tuk-tuks nip through the narrow-cobbled streets. Boutique stays are aplenty, as well as cafes, restaurants and bars that champion traditional cuisine in innovative ways.
Isla de Flores. Photo credit: Jess Miles
Though modern in atmosphere, Flores itself has its own history, being the last Maya stronghold to fall to the Spanish in 1698. Today it serves as the gateway to Tikal, and in some ways acts as a soft landing into ancient Mayan civilisation that lies ahead, its historic significance a small introduction.
What To Do
Tikal may not be counted among the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, but as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, once you see it, you’ll wonder why it didn’t make the list. With 57,600 hectares of wetlands, savannah, tropical broadleaf and palm forest, the approach is as immersive as the destination. Anticipation builds as the road cuts through dense jungle, eyes scanning for shy jaguars and ears tuned for the unmistakable call of howler monkeys. Feet on the ground, the sticky tropical air hits, and if the monkeys have eluded you so far, you’ll certainly hear them now – their low, echoing calls far more dramatic than their gentle presence suggests, as they swing calmly through the canopy overhead.
Howler monkeys in Tikal National Park
The park is largely walkable, with well-maintained paths that make navigation straightforward without compromising the site’s authenticity or disrupting its rich mix of neotropical flora and fauna. A good guide makes all the difference, leading quieter routes through the site while pointing out native plant species, explaining their traditional Maya uses, and offering glimpses into how people once lived here.
Wildlife appears with surprising regularity – toucans cutting through the trees, leafcutter ants crossing the path, tree frogs clinging to bark, and, in our case, a family of coatis suddenly scuttling past our feet, the young tumbling over one another before jostling away into the undergrowth.
Tikal National Park
Impressive as the setting is, the ruins remain the reason you’re here. As they slowly reveal themselves through the trees, their scale is far more striking than any photograph prepares you for. Crumbling temples, overgrown plazas and the moss-covered architectural traces of a once-thriving civilisation are scattered throughout the park, and in the ethereal presence of each, time seems to stand perfectly still. A handful of temples are stable – and permitted – to climb, rewarding the effort with sweeping views across the jungle canopy, stone towers piercing the green – a moment that makes the heat, humidity and early start entirely worth it.
Where To Stay
For slice of relaxation in amongst your adventures back in time, the La Lancha experience is very much as cinematic the films of one of its owners, Francis Ford Coppola. Set along the edge of Lake Petén Itzá and wrapped in thick rainforest, the luxe but small-scale retreat is made up of ten casitas that sit lightly within the landscape, making a perfect base for exploring Tikal.
FAQs ABOUT TRAVEL IN GUATEMALA
What are the visa requirements for visiting Guatemala?
For UK citizens, you can visit Guatemala as a tourist for up to 90 days without a visa. As we transited through the US (via Dallas and Miami) we did however need to get an ESTA. Always check the GOV.UK website for up to date information depending on your personal circumstances.
When is the best time to visit Guatemala?
You can visit Guatemala year-round, but most popular is from November to April, during the dry season. Temperatures are generally warm and pleasant, between 23°C and 32°C. In the same trip, this can vary depending on what environment you are planning to visit e.g. jungle, lake, mountain and city.
What languages are spoken in Guatemala?
Spanish is Guatemala’s official language, though the country is home to dozens of Mayan languages. Most guides and hotel staff, and some locals, speak English, but brushing up on a little conversational Spanish goes a long way.
What is the currency in Guatemala?
Guatemala’s official currency is the Guatemalan Quetzal (GTQ) which is approximately 9 pence to 1 quetzal. Most places in towns and cities accept card, though it’s worth carrying some cash when travelling to more rural areas to pay for food and public transport, like lanchas.
Best tourist etiquette?
A little courtesy goes a long way. Politeness and respect are highly valued, so a friendly greeting – buenos días, buenas tardes or buenas noches – is always appreciated. Tipping is seen as the same as in the US, but at a minimum of 10%. When photographing people, especially in indigenous communities, it’s best to ask first, and even better to strike up conversation, rather than assume.
How to travel in and around Guatemala?
Travelling around Guatemala is straightforward, with private transfers and dedicated tourist shuttle buses offering the easiest way to move between major destinations such as Antigua and Lake Atitlán. Domestic flights are useful for longer distances, particularly to Flores, while public lanchas connect villages around Lake Atitlán.
For practical guidance on routes, regions and responsible travel, Instituto Guatemalteco de Turismo (INGUAT) is a helpful point of reference when planning your journey. See more at visitguatemala.gt
Lead image: Lake Atitlán. All image credit: Jess Miles
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Any Questions or Tips to add?