Guatemala Two Week Itinerary
One morning I woke up with the ‘wanderlust’. I turned to my boyfriend and said, “Let’s go on a trip PLEEEEEAAASEEEEE”. He agreed, so I went straight to my laptop and searched fares to every major city in Central and South America. I found a great price so we booked it immediately. Our destination would be Guatemala.
If you only have limited time off from work, don’t fret. You can see plenty of Guatemala in the time frame that we had; 2 weeks
Here is my fun and very doable 2 week itinerary:
We arrived in the capital, Guatemala City. Since I am more into nature travel and small towns, and had also heard that the city was a bit dangerous, we headed right out to the charming town of Antigua only about 45km away.
Charming streets of Antigua
There, we rented scooters and explored the town and surrounding areas. By the way, for a great view I recommend the restaurant El Tenedor del Cerro, easily accessible with your scooters.
Ty kicking butt on his scooter
View from El Tenedor del Cerro
We also walked all around visiting cathedrals, and ruins, relaxed, and ate A LOT!
I ate refried beans until I could no longer fit in my pantalones
We hiked up Pacaya Volcano. It’s a steep climb, but if it’s too much you can take a horse the first half of the way. At the end of the hike we got to roast marshmallows on the lava, pretty darn cool.
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If you have more time there are other volcanoes that take a few days to hike, Acantenango and Fuego.
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After four days in Antigua we headed to Lake Atitlan(my personal favorite)
We stayed in the most wonderful eco sustainable hotel, Isla Verde
The most wonderful sustainable hotel I have ever visited
Swam in the lake
Took fishing lessons from locals on Cayukos (a tour provided by the hotel).
Cayucos, the local canoes
Ate fresh grown local food at the hotels slow cook restaurant.
IslaVerde menu
Hiked through the different towns surrounding the lake, and jumped off cliffs
After 6 days at Lake Atitlan we took a bus ride to the Mayan ruins of Guatemala, Tikal(approximately 9 hour trip).
Tikal
We stayed at the Jaguar Hotel which sits within the park.
We went on the sunrise tour, which is a hike through the jungle while it is still dark. We climbed to the top of one of the ancient temples. From there we watched the sun rise and listened to the sounds of the animals waking up. It was breathtaking.
Climbing Love vines in the jungle
We also explored the ruins during the day and took lots of pictures. Many people that we spoke to were heading to Belize afterwards but we headed back to Guatemala City for our flight home.
If you have any questions or comments please share below.
Categories: Guatemala
JustMeTravel 
Hi. I read that lake Atitlan is having problems, cyanobacteria, a blue green algae that seems mostly to be caused by chemical fertilizer runoff. That fertilizer causes increased algae growth, blocks light from fish who live at bottom. They die from the lack . Also. way back, maybe in the 50’s, Pan American airlines suggested that Guatemala add the Black Mouth Bass into the lake as a way to attract fishermen from all over the world. I don’t think it did, but those Bass, were highly predatory and ate most of the species which had kept the lake bacteria balanced.
Did you see or hear about this during your stay? Or smell it?
Thank you again for the interesting and inspiring blog.
Where to next?
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Very knowledgeable Declan. I actually wrote a paper on this very topic for Grad School. My degree is in Global Sustainability so I find this very interesting. Thanks for sharing and having an awareness about Global issues.
I did not notice any of the issues that you write about while I was there.
Thanks for your continued support, next I am heading to India 🙂
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Hi! My friends and I are visiting Guatemala and Belize in December/January. Loved reading your update on Guatemala. Did you need a specific driving licence for scooters to be able to rent them? Also, do you remember how much it cost to rent them? I look forward to your reply,
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Hi Elaine 🙂 Thanks for checking out my post. I went to Guatemala around 2013. The rental was around US $10 or $15 and we didn’t need any license. There are some places that require you leave a passport to ensure you bring back the scooter, but others don’t even request that. I hope you have a great time! Guatemala is so beautiful. If you head to Lake Atitlan check out Isla Verde, such a lovely eco hotel. Safe Travels!
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Hi there! My husband and I will be arriving in Guatemala City on Monday, and we’re going to do something similar to your itinerary. Did u make reservations for hotels in advance or just looked for places with vacancy when u arrived? I noticed from pictures that the cabins at Isla Verde were pretty open….did u have any problems with mosquitoes? And what bus line did u use to get to Tikal? Thanks for posting your experience!
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