Antigua was our first stop on our Central American trip, and still to this day, one of my favorite cities of all time! And we missed the Fuego eruption by about 2 months.
We flew into Guatemala City, and there were 30 shuttles at the airport making their way to Antigua. That’s a good tell-tale sign it is a tourist trap. I’m not usually one to like overly touristic places but Antigua is absolutely amazing. Tons to do in the near by area and the colonial architecture and history there is beyond beautiful.
I will say that Antigua is the priciest city in Guatemala, but everything about it is, for me anyways, mind-blowingly awesome! Most of the sights and attractions in Antigua are free also, so it helps with the bank account. We were originally planning on 3 days there and ended up staying a week, and I easily could have stayed another week! We had a one night break of Antigua when we did the Acatenango Volcano overnight hike.
Free things to do in Antigua:
–The Cerro de la Cruz, which translates to the cross on the hill. You can tuk-tuk if you want but the walk is easy to do and not too far out of the centre. There are quite a bit of stairs to get to the top but it is so worth it! The view of Antigua and the surrounding volcanoes is spectacular and you will soon be forgetting about the climb to the top. If you get there early enough it won’t be filled with other people, when we first got there it was decently empty, maybe like 20 people, but after staying up there for over an hour, it was soon swamped with other people trying to catch a glimpse.
–Santo Domingo del Cerro is an art park with both wonderful masterpieces and awesome vistas. NOTE: The shuttle to the top is free! There is a certain spot in town to wait for the shuttle (the spot is on Maps.Me, definitely an app you should have when travelling) or you can walk to the bottom of the hill and wait at the security booth for the shuttle to pass. We hadn’t learned any Spanish at this point and told the security guard we were walking (by hand gestures with your two fingers of course). “It’s only 1.6 km” we said to ourselves and he gave us the weirdest look, I’m sure tried to tell us it was free was we couldn’t understand. IT IS 1.6 KM STRAIGHT UP HILL! Don’t walk, whatever you do!! We made it about a fifth of the way before the shuttle drove by and they thankfully picked us up. After asking others how much the shuttle was and them telling us free we felt really silly trying to walk, and now understand this guards confusion haha. View from the park is below:
–Arch de Santa Catalina, which if you have ever researched Guatemala you have seen this arch! It is just an beautiful as the pictures, but you will need to get there early as it is always crawling with people. It is right in the centre of town and easy to find. Try to go for a sunset as I have heard it is beautiful, even though we were there for a week we ended up missing it every night.
And finally, the Volcan Acatenango hike.
I just want to say how heart broken I was to hear that Fuego erupted. The surrounding Guatemalan community are the most generous and giving people even though they have so little themselves, and they rely so heavily on this volcano to drive tourism and it won’t be the same for a while. It was one of the many highlights of my trip and you should go, help the community get past this hump and help them fix their economy that is so hurt.
I’m not even going to lie to you, the hike is HARD. Like, super hard. And cold, super cold. But it is such an accomplishment to say that you did it, and I didn’t hate it enough to not hike up 4 more volcanoes.
We did the hike with the hostel Wicho and Charlie’s and I would recommend that place to any one, ever, always!! It is a more expensive tour and we normally wouldn’t spend that much but I am so happy we did it. It is 400Q plus the 50Q entrance when you get to the volcano, approximately $75CAD or $60USD (as a Canadian that conversion makes me sad). You can find the tours offered as low as 250Q plus the 50 but the experience you have 100% reflects that price.
I can only say what I have heard about the cheaper experiences, but make sure you will be warm enough at the top of the volcano. It does get to 0 Celsius/32 F sometimes! Like I said, really cold. The nice thing about Wicho and Charlie’s is they supply warm clothes for you to borrow at no extra charge (unless you lose them), so even if you have warmer clothes they aren’t going to get dirty. I would say bring all the warm clothes you have plus the ones you borrowed, it is damn cold. The extra cost of the tour is worth it right there, you will need extra gloves and toques to survive up there, I also had a retro bright yellow puffy coat I borrowed.
Another benefit of W&C’s is the tent and sleeping bags are already at the top, you don’t have to carry them up. It is 4.5-6 hours of hiking, so the less you have to carry the better. Your backpack is already filled with water, warm clothes, and your bag of food, which are all pretty heavy. I have a rockstar boyfriend who carried my bag of food up for me, but if I had to carry anymore I don’t think I would have made it.
Collectively, as a group, you decide if you want to hike to the summit that night for sunset or in the morning for sunrise. We did it for sunset, which I’m happy we did it that way. Even though the sunset was kind of a bust, with the wind blowing super hard and creating a pretty thick cloud coverage, it would have been better than trying to wake up at 3AM and getting your sore muscles to move your butt to the top of a volcano. The sunrise from the W&C’s base camp is still one of the best sunrises I have seen, I’m not sure how much better it would have been at the top.
We are those travelers who pinch every penny we can, but I can say that the extra money spent was worth it. If you have done it recently let me know how the tour is now that Fuego erupted.
Where Will I Wander 