Three weeks in Guatemala – land of volcanoes – the light at the end of the tunnel after four stressful months in Berlin and the perfect destination to escape the German winter. Before we left, many people told us how much the country had to offer, but our travels really exceeded my expectations. From colonial towns to sky high volcanoes, from black sand beaches on the coast up to the jungle in the north. Guatemala really is magical.

Antigua and Volcano Acatenango

Antigua, a small colonial town surrounded by breathtaking volcanoes (Guatemala has around 37 of them) in the southern highlands of Guatemala. As most backpackers, we decided to make Antigua our first stop. skip Guatemala city and to spent New Years here. We stayed in Tropicana Hostel, which is famous for its rooftop parties and its tours up to Acatenango volcano due to the fact that they have their own base camp with breathtaking views. Besides that, we had a good stay there, the staff was super nice and they even have a pool, which makes sunny afternoon in the city even more bearable and gives you the opportunity to meet other guests. Only downside was the limited number of bathrooms for the amount of guests and that I woke up three nights in a row with bedbugs in my bed (and others too), even after they cleaned the rooms. They, however, were super friendly, offered to clean all of our stuff and beds and were very concerned about our well-being, which is a huge plus.

Location

The hostel is located just a 5 minute walk from Plaza Mayor, Tanque de Union, Catedral de San Jose as well as Palacio de los Capitanes Generales and a variety of very delicious restaurants and street food. In general, you cannot really get lost in the city so I recommend strolling through the streets and enjoying its colonial style, multiple churches and scenic volcanic backdrop. Cerro de la Cruz, a viewpoint over the city (just 25 minute walk from the hostel), is a good place to visit for sunset. Its gorgeous up there (almost as gorgeous as #GorgeousGary), just bring a cold drink, sit down and enjoy. If you are interested in museums, you can visit the Museo de Arte Colonial or the Choco museum. Or how about visiting the local Mercado (always fun to discover local vendors and food from the country), Mercado de Artesanias (more touristy, but good when you want to buy some souvenirs – also maybe not smart to do it at the beginning of your trip as we did) or the Arco de Santa Catalina, where lots of street vendors sell art during the evening.

Food

Antigua is a tourist paradise. From Italian to Indian food, you can find a restaurant for almost everything. But why go to an Italian restaurant, when you can try Guatemalan cuisine. My favorite places were Rincon tipico, which is a local restaurant just 5 minutes from Tropicana hostel. The portions are massive and the food was really delicious. Doña Lupita for sure was a life saver and their tacos and nachos were the perfect cure for a mean hangover (or after a hard climb up the volcano for that matter). Last but not least, I also really liked the food at La cuevita de los Urquizu, however, I am pretty sure they instantly raised the price once they saw that we were foreigners, which was a little disappointing, but happens a lot in touristy places like this. You can choose your type of meat and three different side dishes. Breakfast wise, you have to check our el Local – I already found this cute little place on Instagram beforehand and the food there is incredible. Fresh made bread, amazing smoothies and the interior is super cute.

Tour to Acatenango volcano

Let me tell you – this was probably the hardest hike I have done in a really long time (looking at you, Villarrica volcano). This might be because I am fairly out of shape ever since I got back from my sabbatical, but mainly because this hike really isn’t the easiest one.

As mentioned before, we did the tour with Tropicana hostel, which costs around 50 US Dollar including lunch, dinner, breakfast, guides, van to and from the location, the night in a tend and red wine in the evening. You can also rent warm clothes (and please do so if you haven’t brought any). You have to bring four liters of water (2, 5 for you, 1,5 for the guides to cook your meals), snacks, toilet paper and, as said, warm enough clothes to survive the night. We brought clothes from home and I didn’t sleep a single minute that night, because I thought my legs would fall off from the cold. They provide sleeping bags and blankets in tends and I am not sure if it was extremely stupid to sleep with all my clothes on or a matter of surviving (good that I am not a drama queen at all haha but really, others took their clothes off so that the sleeping bag could hold their body heat in and it worked better for them than for me – as you might have noticed, I am not really much of a camper). Also, I would recommend bringing a head torch. It will make it way easier than walking up the final bit with your phone in your hand, trying to find the path while holing on to you walking stick (… I mean, what can I say).

So, the actual hike on the first and main day of hiking takes around 5 to 6 hours and then another hour early in the morning on day two. Its steep, its not easy to walk up on the fragile ground at times, its hot (and at night super cold), but the view is so worth all the pain and seeing Fuego erupt from the base camp and again on top of Acatenango was one of the dopest travel experiences I have ever had. Nothing compares to standing on top of a volcano above the clouds, seeing the sun go down and then lava running down. Nature is crazy and so beautiful, I truly could have cried when we reached the very top.

In general, I am very grateful that we had a fun group to walk up there and such great guides that stuck by us and motivated us to keep on going throughout the entire 1,5 days (also, listening to the Titanic soundtrack and best of Mariah Carey songs blasting from your guides backpack on repeat really is extra motivating ;)).

New Years Eve in Antigua

Guatemalans do love a good firework. And they do love their fire crackers. And it was so much fun watching them on Plaza Mayor, ignite their fire works, laughing like children and celebrating the different colors shooting to the sky. We originally spent New Years Eve on the rooftop of Tropicana, but because we started early, we went on a little trip to the Doozy Koala (hostel and bar) and also spent some time at the Plaza. Antigua is definitely a great city to spend New Years. You can find lots of different parties, you can watch the locals counting down the seconds until midnight and by the end of the night, everybody is going to a big techno party in an abandoned swimming pool, which (as my friends told me, because I didn’t go) gives some major Berlin party vibes and was suppose to be epic. So, if you are looking for a fun destination to celebrate NYs at – Antigua is definitely a good bet.

El Paredon

From Antigua up in the mountains, we made our way down to the pacific coast to el Paredon to finally get some very much needed time at the ocean. Shuttles from Antigua run at least twice a day (I think at 9 and at 12) and take around 3 hours to get there (be aware, the roads can be very shaky, so if you get motion sickness, you might wanna take a pill).

El Paredon is a tiny place with only a few hostels and guesthouses along the coast, but I am pretty sure it will be the up and coming destination in the future (If you won’t open your hostel there – I will). Black sand beaches, pacific ocean and el Paredon Surf House made our stay perfect there. We stayed in one of the beachfront bungalows, which was perfect for the three of us and offers an open front, ensuring that you can listen to the ocean before falling asleep and waking up to the sounds of the wave. Whats special about the Surf House is the family style dinner they offer ever night, which is included in the price and gives you the chance to interact with other guests. You can rent surf boards there as well, but I would recommend checking out the surf shop around the corner, as others told us that it was cheaper and the quality of the boards were the same.

The next 5 days, we spent our time surfing, chilling at the pool, reading, eating (the guest house food is good, but if you want a nice local experience check out Yuli’s Local Cuisine and get some fresh ceviche or fresh seafood pasta – so good, more local and cheaper as well). If you are staying at the surf house, there won’t be much going on after the family dinner, because people tend to rest to get up early to surf the next day. If you are not tired yet, you can walk over to the Driftwood Hostel and drink some cocktails made by #GorgeousGary and his fellow Driftwooders. We spent almost every night over there, dominating in beer pong and socializing with other backpackers. Also, they have a hostel pig – I mean hallo, how cool is that?!

Lake Atitlán

From El Paredon, we made our way up to Lake Atitlán, a beautiful and second largest lake in Guatemala, which is surrounded by volcanoes and tiny villages reachable by speed boats.

We stayed in the tiny village Santa Cruz at Free Cerveza hostel (yes, you heard me – free cerveza (free beer)). This eco hostel is located right up front on the lake and you can either choose to stay in one of their tends or in the tree house. The view from the hostel is amazing, especially in the morning to watch the sun rise. We stayed in a private room in the tree house, which was alright (you always have to bare in mind that this is an eco hostel and for the simplicity of it, I thought it was pretty amazing), but can get a little cold at night. The staff, however, offers extra blankets and so its actually quite nice. If you want to take part of the two hour free cerveza deal (from 5Pm until 7PM), you will have to sign up for family dinner at night (which is a three course dinner, food is really good and again gives you a great chance to interact with fellow backpackers). The bar is open until 10 or 11 PM at night, but you have the chance to go to Iguana Hostel just up the main pier if you want to continue drinking for a bit longer. They also have a sauna that you can use, a bunch of cool hostel games and it overall has a very relaxed vibe to it, so that I was a little sad when we left.

Whats special about Lake Atitlán is that you can explore its surroundings by hopping from village to village. During our stay, we went to San Marcos and San Pedro. San Marcos La Laguna is a village on the western bank of the lake and is famous for its hippie vibes and vendors. You can stroll around, take a bite to eat, visit the Cerro Tzankujil Nature Reserve or just buy a coffee and chill at the pier.

In San Pedro La Laguna we used the day to just walk around the tiny streets and explore the surroundings a little bit. Get some lunch at one of the many restaurants with a view over the lake, walk up to the church or visit the local market there. Its a good city to spend a day there, they have multiple hostels if you want to sleep over and we met many backpackers who spent a couple of weeks there to attend Spanish school and stayed with host families, which sounds pretty nice if you are asking me.

Flores and Tikal

Our last stop was Flores, a city in the northern part of Guatemala. We stayed in Los amigos hostels, which was recommended to us by almost all other backpackers. It has a jungle like vibe, they have turtles and bunnies running around (no kidding), a very relaxed common area with hammocks and their food is very good. Only downfall is the lack of toilets (just not enough for the amount of backpackers staying there) and the beds are very basic (also I had to share mine with the house cat, which gave me a heart attack during the night every once in a while). You can book yoga lessons and massages there, which can be purchased for a decent price and they have a laundry place right next door.

Flores is a cute little island with tons of restaurants and lots of places where you can go kayaking, paddle boarding, you can visit the Jorge Rope Swing or you can visit Ixpanpajul Natural Park. Not sure if its always there, but if you get the chance go get some Tacos at the market in the main square in front of the church – so good.

The main reason people probably visit Flores is because it serves as a hub to get to Tikal. Tikal is an antique Mayan city and one of the most significant and best researched sites, located in the rain forest of Petèn (dating back to the 4th century).

We booked a sunset tour with the hostel, which is Q 85 for transportation both ways in a private shuttle and a guide in either English or Spanish and an extra Q 150 for a normal day tour and an additional Q 100 if you would like to see sunrise or sunset. We were lucky to get a special deal, so the extra Q 100 did not apply for us.

The guide picked us up at 12:00 pm and it is approximately an hour to get there via shuttle. We decided to stick with the Spanish speaking tour (I mean, we all understand at least a little bit and the guide was able to clarify in English as well), as the other one had just so many people. It’s a nice little walk through the entire site, so make sure to bring comfortable shoes, enough water and maybe some snacks. The guide gives you tons of insights about the former Mayan life and what all the ruins once stood for and you then have time to explore the sites a little bit by yourself as well. When visiting sites like this, its always incredible to imagine, how these people build all of this so many centuries ago and it takes me forever to finish an Ikea cupboard properly.

The last stop of the day will be the viewpoint for sunset. Around this time of the year, you can either be lucky and have an amazing view, of the sky will be completely cloudy. For us, it was a cloudy day almost the entire time, it just started open up right before sunset, so we at least got a little peak of the sun going down over the jungle. And that was our last experience in Guatemala before heading over to Belize.

Guatemala – what a great place you are. The variety of this country is amazing and it therefore just skipped right onto my top five of nicest places on this earth. It offers activities for everyone, the people are friendly and nature is, as in many Central American countries, purely breathtaking. If Guatemala isn’t on your bucket list, you just have to change that instantly. For me, this will not be my last time visiting, that’s a promise.