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A holiday designed just for you to suit your tastes and budget
Take your family on an adventurous trip
Guatemala is a very special destination for a honeymoon with a difference
An expertly-designed wide-ranging holiday for an insightful individual experience of this amazing country.
A very comprehensive trip covering much of the wonderful range of sights and experiences Guatemala offers.
Deep-dive into life in the Guatemalan highlands in all its richness of cultures and crafts
Even if your time is short there is still a lot you can see and do.
Helpful advice and expert knowledge is just a phone call away
Best times, busiest times, and times to avoid
Lots of choices
Options for getting about in Guatemala
We can book your flights to Guatemala or you can book your own if you prefer.
Combine a trip to Guatemala with a visit to neighbouring Belize
A truly modern Latin American capital.
The Spanish colonial city of Antigua Guatemala, beside active volcanoes. Once the capital, now a pleasant colonial-style town.
'The most beautiful lake in the world' below majestic volcanoes in Guatemala's western highlands
One of the most atmospheric of Guatemala's cities, bursting with life and the Mayan cultures that typify the Western Highlands.
A large area of sparsely-populated highlands spreading north and west to the Mexican border.
The long, straight band of volcanic shoreline known locally as 'La Costa Sur'.
A huge area of forested wilderness that was once the heart of a Mayan world that continued into Belize and Mexico.
The mountainous and remote departments of Alta Verapaz and Baja Veragaz, together known as 'Las Verapaces'
Where the highlands divide and descend to meet the Caribbean Sea and a coast settled partly by the Garifuna diaspora from the Windward Islands
Guatemala's finest in a single week - the Maya city of Tikal, beautiful Lake Atitlán, the Chichicastenango market and colonial Antigua.
The most magnificent of all Maya cities, and rightly the climax of any journey to Guatemala. Once a superpower of the Maya lowlands, Tikal's steep temple-pyramids rise more than sixty metres above the forest floor, their roof-combs breaking clear of the canopy. Toucans and spider monkeys move through the trees, and the dawn roar of howler monkeys is unforgettable.
Ringed by three volcanoes and cradled in the western highlands, Atitlán fills a vast collapsed caldera with astonishingly blue water. Aldous Huxley famously thought it "too much of a good thing"; most visitors simply fall for it. Days here are spent out on the water, wandering the lakeside villages, or doing very little at all before one of Central America's finest views.
Scattered around the lake, each reached most easily by boat, are traditional villages with their own dress, dialect and crafts. In Santiago Atitlán the Tz'utujil Maya keep age-old customs alive, including devotion to the folk saint Maximón, while San Juan la Laguna is known for its weavers' co-operatives and natural dyes. A window onto highland Maya life.
Twice a week the highland town of "Chichi" fills with one of the largest and most colourful markets in the Americas. K'iche' Maya traders come down from the surrounding hills to sell textiles, masks, pottery and flowers, while copal incense drifts from the steps of the whitewashed church of Santo Tomás, where Maya and Catholic ritual meet. A feast for the senses.
Guatemala's old colonial capital, and still its soul. Cobbled streets of low pastel houses run between baroque churches and the romantic ruins of others, all beneath the perfect cone of Agua and the smoking summit of Fuego. A UNESCO World Heritage jewel, shaken by earthquakes down the centuries and rebuilt time and again — today an unhurried town of courtyard cafés, craft shops, fine restaurants and some of the best coffee in the Americas.
You will be met on arrival at Guatemala City airport and transferred to a hotel in Zona 10, the city's shopping/entertainment district where you stay for the night
Early this morning you will be privately transferred to Guatemala City airport for a flight to Flores in the northern Guatemalan state of Peten, home of Tikal, a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the largest, most impressive complex of ruins in the Maya world. Fly Guatemala City/Flores Here you stay for 2 nights at a lodge within access of the Tikal National Park.
Today you will be taken on a private guided tour of Tikal, set within the 575km² Tikal National Park part of the much larger 16,000km² Maya Biosphere Reserve which was created in 1990 to protect the vast tropical rainforests of Peten state. The name Tikal is said to derive from the Itza Maya language, meaning ‘city of voices’. It is extremely impressive and atmospheric site - majestic palaces, tombs and stelae are dotted through the jungle, huge soaring limestone temples, over 60m high burst up through the forest, the temple-tops offering spectacular views out over the canopy, which is teeming with wildlife including 54 species of mammals, and 333 species of birds (63 of the 74 families in Guatemala). Includes lunch at a restaurant within the National Park. After your guided tour you will be transferred back to your hotel where you have the afternoon free.
This morning you will be privately transferred to Flores airstrip for your flight to Guatemala City Fly Flores/Guatemala City You will be met on arrival and privately transferred towards Lake Atitlan, nestled within Guatemala's dramatic western highlands, heartland of the country's Maya population. Here the bustling Panamerican highway which traverses the Americas cuts through vast expanses of striking mountainous landscapes dotted with Maya towns and villages and covered in a patchwork quilt of forest and agricultural land - the rich volcanic soils producing an abundance of crops including pineapples, coffee, cabbages, carrots and at higher elevations maize and potatoes. Lake Atitlan (which means “at the water” in nahuatl), is one of the most picturesque destinations in all Guatemala. Created over 80,000 years ago by a violent volcanic eruption, the lake is recognised at the deepest lake in Central America. It is surrounded by three impressive volcanoes on its southern shores (Atitlan at 3,535m, San Pedro at 3,020m and Toliman at 3,158m) and small Mayan villages backed by steep verdant hillsides. The majority of villages here are Tz’utujil and Kaqchikel and traditional Maya culture still prevails in most parts - local residents wear vibrant traditional clothing, practice ancient Maya customs and gather at colourful weekly markets to sell their produce. Here you stay for 2 nights at a hotel in a small lakeside village.
Today you will be taken on a boat excursion around the lake, visiting two of Atitlan's most interesting lakeside communities. San Juan La Laguna, an authentic, artistic local village where the population is almost exclusively Tz’utujil Maya. Here traditions of farming and fishing stand alongside production of reed mats, textiles, handicrafts, naïf painting, medicinal plants and leather goods – naturally dyed textiles are a particularly famous product from this village. Pastel coloured adobe houses, small shops and cooperatives line the paved clean streets, many of which are covered in colourful painted murals. Modernity and tradition side side - men dressed in jeans, shirts and cowboy hats walk by women riding motorbikes dressed in traditional huipiles. Visit some of the villages cooperatives such as “Asociacion de Mujeres de Colores Botanicos” where local ladies use plants, fruits, herbs, seeds and even coconut shells to produce dyes to colour wool and cotton and a local medicinal plant garden where you learn about the various used of herbs and flowers in local medicine. Almost all profits from these cooperatives go directly back to the women involved. Santiago Atitlan, the biggest and most important lakeside village in Atitlan, is a commercial and traditional town where the majority of residents are also Tz’utujil May. Many of the local ‘atitecos’ as they are known wearing indigenous dress, including the men who wear white and purple striped shorts adorned with colourful embroidered birds and flowers, cowboy hats and textile belts. A daily market (largest on Friday) fills the streets and is very much for the locals, as you start to walk towards the dock it is more geared to tourists with shops and stalls filled with souvenirs, trinkets etc. Santiago is home to Maximon, the Maya folk 'sinner' saint venerated by local Maya predominantly in western highlands. A mixture of Catholic saint and Mayan deity (although not endorsed by Catholic church) said to be ‘the saint of gamblers and drunks’. He is represented as an almost life-size effigy with a moustache, wide-brimmed hat and is often smoking a lit cigarette out if the corner of his mouth. He is passed between different members of the ‘cofradia’ or brotherhood each year, residing in a dedicated shrine-type room within their houses. Worshippers bring money, alcohol and tobacco goods to the shrine as an offering to Maximon, who they hope in return will bring them wealth, rain and fertility etc.
Early this morning you will be taken to visit one the largest indigenous markets in Guatemala, Chichicastenango or “Chichi” as it is known to locals (approx 1.5hrs drive from Lake Atitlan). This small town comes alive on its Thursday and Sunday market days, its streets a riot of colour and hustle and bustle, filled with stalls selling a variety of Guatemalan handicrafts from woven goods, trinkets made of colourful beads, wooden icons and masks, colourful local ‘huipiles’ (traditional dress worn by local women) to modern clothing, rugs, bags, scarfs as well as stalls selling meat, fish, flowers and medicinal herbs, puppies, ducks and turkeys! There is a large fruit and veg market in a covered hall in the middle of town, there is balcony pn the upper-level of the hall from here you can watch locals as they go about buying pineapples, tomatoes, cabbages, carrots etc. – noticeable is the size of the produce at the market, everything is huge! The Church of Santo Tomas is located in the heart of the market area, a 500 year old church built by Dominican priests on top of a Maya worship site. It is attended by locals who practice a unique blend of Maya and Catholic religions. The air just outside the church is thick with burning copal incense as worshippers perform their rituals at its entrance. There are 18 steps leading up to the church, (each of which represents a month in the Maya calendar) covered with local vendors selling flowers (hydrangeas, gladioli, roses) which are used as offerings. You can enter the church through the side door but no photos are allowed. It’s a fascinating scene inside – worshippers shuffling along the aisles on their knees in penance towards the altar, ‘spiritual’ men clad in red headscarf’s sitting cross legged in the aisles around makeshift shrines (e.g vegetables surrounded by candles to pray for crops). Popol Vuh, the ancient Maya sacred text, a manuscript of Maya creation was discovered in the convent here. Dominican friar Francisco Ximenez transcribed and translated the manuscript into Spanish in the 18th century. Time allowing visit Chichicastenango cemetery on the outskirts of town, a very photogenic spot filled with brightly painted crypts and gravestones and good views over the town and surrounding countryside. Then continue on to Antigua (approx 2.5hrs), the beautiful historical and cultural capital of Guatemala where you stay for the next 2 nights at a characterfully restored hotel in the heart of the city.
This morning you will be taken on a private guided walking tour of Antigua, one of the most impressive colonial cities in all of the Americas - a UNESCO world heritage site due to its well preserved Spanish Baroque architecture. Antigua was the capital of the Spanish Kingdom of Guatemala and flourished as an important administrative centre during the 18th century, until it was devastated by an earthquake in 1773. Today much of Antigua's colonial splendour is still visible in its plentiful and well-preserved churches, monastries, convents and ruins. It is an atmospheric place - encircled by three mighty volcanoes (Agua, Acatenango and Fuego), its picturesque cobbled streets are flanked by colourful low-rise colonial buildings - some of which are now hotels, cafes and galleries, their terracotta roofs brimming with bougainvillea and heliconia. Local Maya ladies sell vibrantly trinkets and textiles alongside tropical fruits such as papaya, mangos and limes. Church bells chime and the scent of wood-smoke and incense hang in the air. After your tour you have the rest of the day free to wander and enjoy Antigua at your leisure or do one of the many optional excursions available locally. Perhaps stop at one of Antigua's characterful cafes to sample some of the city's world-renowned coffee, or visit a nearby cooperative coffee farm and learn about the processes involved in bringing coffee to cup. You could try your hand at a local cooking class or chocolate making workshop, or do some dusk birding at local Finca El Pilar preserve, nestled on the slopes of a former farm and coffee plantation.
Today you will be transferred to Guatemala City for your onwards international flight
Recent reviews are shown here from holidays based on this initial design. In each case the itinerary may have been modified (a little or a lot) to suit the individual traveller.
Max °C figures are the average daily maximum temperatures for the month. Rainfall is the average precipitation for the month.