A Week In Guatemala With Kids

Over Spring Break 2022 we spent a week in Guatemala with our kids, and it was a fantastic experience! Guatemala is truly a wonderful place to travel to in general, and with kids in particular. There is so much to see and do in this small country, that we had to carefully choose our itinerary.

As if jungle temples, unique wildlife, and active volcanos weren’t enough, our family was welcomed with open arms everywhere we went. Guatemaltecos are friendly and warm, and are happy to offer a helping hand when needed. Overall, everywhere we visited felt very safe. We were even told that people keep an eye out for tourists to make sure you they are safe. We were so happy to have spend a week traveling Guatemala with our kids as it truly is a wonderful destination for families!

Getting there

We flew to Guatemala City from San Francisco with a layover in Houston. Even though the flights were short, it still took the entire day to get there. There are lots of people waiting at Arrivals to offer you a ride to pretty much anywhere in the country. Because we were staying at the Barcelo Hotel for one night, we arranged for the hotel shuttle to pick us up.

First Stop: Tikal National Park

After a quick overnight layover in Guatemala City, we went back to the airport to catch our flight to Flores. Flores is the main town near Tikal. It is where most people stay when they visit the ancient Mayan city.

When we were planning our Guatemala trip we knew we definitely wanted to visit Tikal. Because we had a limited amount of time, we decided to fly to Flores instead of taking the 12-hour bus ride there. We flew with Tag Airlines and had a lovely experience. Our kids loved walking on the runway to get on to the small double propeller airplane!

Instead of staying in Flores, we chose to stay at the Jungle Lodge Tikal, which is one of 3 lodges located inside Tikal’s protected area. We wanted to stay inside the park to maximize our time there, saving ourselves the 1-hour ride to and from Flores to visit the ruins.

We chose the Jungle Lodge because it offered the most amenities. It had a variety of room options to chose from (we chose a Junior Suite and it worked great for our family of 4), and it was the closest to the park entrance (about a 5 minute walk). They also have a very comfortable airport shuttle, and offer guided tours of the ruins, including a sunrise and a sunset walk. You can choose to join a guided group, or you could opt to hire a private guide. We chose the private option because we wanted to go at our own pace. The private tour also allowed us to customize our tour to our specific needs.

Tikal Guided Walks

You can visit Tikal without a guide, but one is strongly recommended. You need to hire a guide if you want to do a sunrise or sunset walk. The main reason for this is that you’ll be walking at night and, with so many paths, it’d be easy to get lost. Our guide even told us about a couple of people who got lost and died in recenf years.

In general, we thought it was very nice to have a guide to lead us through less transited paths. This allowed us to just enjoy the walk without worrying about following a map. Plus, the guides take you on really nice circuits that often times follow historical timelines, helping you better understand what you are seeing. Having a guide really helped us focus on the kids without worrying about anything else.

The Jungle Lodge offers a variety of guided walks. We opted to do the sunset walk on the day we got there, and the sunrise walk the next morning.

Sunset Walk – Tikal Eterno

The sunset walk took about 2 hours (5-7pm), and it took us to some lesser-known temples first, which was neat to see. We chose to skip watching the sunset from Temple IV and headed to the Gran Plaza instead. The Gran Plaza is where the Gran Jaguar temple is (the one you often see in photos). This change in plans turned out to be a great choice because nobody was there! I guess all the people were watching the sunset from Temple IV.

Sunrise Walk – El Amanecer de Tikal

As much as we loved the sunset walk, the real winner was the sunrise walk! For the sunrise walk, we woke up at 3:30am so we could grab a 3:45am coffee and snack, and be at the park’s entrance right at 4am. For the first hour or so we walked in complete darkness. We had to headlamps and our guide had a small flashlight to help us keep an eye on the path. It was such a unique experience to be walking in the jungle at night! The sounds were incredible, with howler monkeys howling in the distance, and the sounds of birds getting louder as the day broke.

The sunrise walk lasted a bit over 4 hours. In that time, we climbed a temple in the pitch black, watched the sunrise while listening to birds and howler monkeys from the top of Temple IV, had a close encounter with a coral snake and a spider monkey, wandered through a pack of coatis, climbed more temples, and more! It was such an epic walk, we were all smiling from ear to ear with joy!

Tips for Visiting Tikal

• Bring lots of water on your hike. They recommend at least 2 liters per person for the sunrise walk.
• Wear breathable clothing. Don’t wear shorts or sandals because they make you more vulnerable to snake and other bites.
• Bring bug repellent–we didn’t have many bugs when we were there, but we heard it can get quite bad, especially after the rain.
• Pack a headlamp or flashlight if you are planning on doing the sunrise or sunset walks. You are guaranteed to walk in the dark, so even a phone flashlight will do the trick.
• Wear a hat and sunscreen. Even though most of the trails are shaded, you do come out to openings and the sun is very strong.
• Be respectful of the signs and only climb the temples you are allowed to. Tikal is still a sacred place for many Mayans. People still go to these same temples to make offerings and conduct ceremonies.
• There are a couple of restrooms along the way so use them when you get a chance. The toilet paper is located at the bathroom entrance and not inside the stalls, so grab some on your way in.

Next stop: Antigua

After Tikal we headed to Antigua. We first flew back to Guatemala City and a driver picked us up to take us to our Airbnb in Antigua. We used Authentic Guatemala to arrange transfer from the airport to Antigua, and though they were great!

Antigua is one of the most popular destinations in Guatemala, and with good reason! We spent 5 days in Antigua so that we could explore the city, and also go on a couple of day trips from there.

We really loved Antigua’s vibe! It is a super low-key city, and very safe! There are 3 volcanoes (one of which is one of the most active volcanoes in the world!) surrounding the town, it has stunning colonial architecture and ruins, and it has super yummy restaurants and cafes.

Antigua Sights

We especially enjoyed visiting the ruins of the 16th century cathedral that got largely destroyed by an earthquake in 1773. Our kids LOVED running around here and visiting the old cript, which was still in pretty good shape.

Another gem is the Iglesia Catolica San Francisco el Grande. This church was also partly destroyed during the same 1773 earthquake. Although it’s been partially reconstructed, some areas remain as ruins, making it a great place to explore with kids!

The main plaza is great place to relax and engage in some great people-watching. Here you can find vendors selling fun handicrafts, a very unique water fountain, and you can also buy seeds to feed the pigeons (a classic!). There are lots of restaurants, cute stores, and ice cream shops around the plaza. The cathedral ruins are right next to it too.

The Arco de Santa Catalina is probably the most photographed sight in Antigua. During the day, this area is buzzing with vendors, locals and tourists alike. If you are looking to take a photo of the arch, I recommend you stop by early in the morning. We stopped there around 6 a.m. after we were picked up to go to Lake Atitlan, and there was not a single person around.

One activity our family really enjoyed was visiting the Choco Museo. The museum offers ‘bean to bar’ chocolate-making workshops. We opted for the 2-hour workshop and it was wonderful! Our kids got to see all the steps that go into making chocolate, while actively participating in the process. They roasted and ground the beans, and their favorite part was walking out of the workshop with their own homemade chocolate bar!

Antigua’s best viewpoint is Cerro de la Cruz. We didn’t get a chance to walk up to the overlook, but we would’ve liked to. On a clear day, you can get a great view of Antigua and the three surrounding volcanos from up there. The lookout is only a 20-30 minute walk from the center of Antigua, or you can also catch a Tuk Tuk to take you there.

Day trips from Antigua

Antigua is a great home base to explore more of the surrounding area. We loved how easy it was to arrange day-trips from there. It was also nice coming back to a town full of good eating options after an active day of exploring!

These are some the day-trips we did while in Antigua:

Pacaya Volcano

The Pacaya hike is an easy day trip from Antigua (unless the main roads leading to the trailhead are closed and you have to take a 2.5-hour detour through treacherous mountain roads, past remote villages to reach it, like we did). Normally, it takes about 1.5 hours to reach the trailhead. The hike is a steep 1.5 miles up to the volcano (total 3 miles roundtrip).

Once you arrive at the entrance of the park, and you check in, get assigned a local guide. There you’ll also find people offering horseback rides up the trail. Because our our detour, we arrived to the entrance around noon, so we decided to get horses for our kids to spare them the climb. We paid $20 for each horse and up they went. The horses dropped them off at the start of the side trail that leads you to the actual volcano, and they hiked happily from there.

After hiking up the side of the mountain, you reach a trail that cuts sideways to the Pacaya volcano. Here you walk to where the volcano had recently erupted, and our guide roasted marshmallows for the kids over a steam vent. We admired the lava that had flowed onto the valley last year, ate a picnic lunch, and felt burning hot rocks under our feet. It was pretty epic!

On the way back, our guide showed the kids some shortcuts, and they all ran down back to the start. The kids had the best time doing this!

This hike was awesome, and the views of the volcanos Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango were pretty impressive. I definitely recommend this hike to other families.

After completing the hike, we decided you could probably do most of this hike on your own, but it’s definitely better to have a guide for the part of the trail where you walk by the recent lava flows. But, if you pack a good lunch, hire a driver to take you to the entrance of the park, you can just hire a local guide there.

For this hike, definitely wear sturdy shoes and layers (it can be pretty hot with the sun, but also pretty windy and cold). Bring lots of water as you’ll be climbing a steep path at altitude, so you’ll need to stay hydrated!

Lake Atitlán

The other day trip we did while in Antigua was to Lake Atitlan. We knew we wanted to see it, but we didn’t want to be switching accommodations too much, so we decided to go there for the day, and it was well worth it!

To visit the lake, we booked a daytrip with @authenticguatemala and it was great! They picked us up around 6am, drove an hour to a super yummy restaurant for breakfast, and then another hour or so to Panajachel to meet our local guide. Once there, we jumped on a motor boat and started our tour of different towns on the lake.

Our first stop was the colorful town of San Juan La Laguna. There we learned about how coffee is produced, from planting a seed to packaging it for export. We then visited a @abejasmayasguatemala to learn about the stinger-less Mayan bees. Our last stop was at a women’s weaving cooperative, where we learned about natural dyes, thread-making, and traditional weaving practices. The kids really enjoyed each stop, and we all learned so much!

Next we made a brief stop at the backpacker haven town of San Pedro La Laguna. This was quite the scene, and probably a place we’d have spent some more time back in our younger days!
 
Our last stop was Santiago Atitlan, where we grab a yummy lunch, visited some craft stores and then jumped on a tuk tuk with our guide’s buddy (also a tour guide) who took us to visit the Mayan deity Maximon. This was a very cool experience as it involved riding through medieval-like narrow streets, and then walking through even narrower alleys to reach Maximon, a god who will grant you only positive requests. 

After Santiago Atitlan we boated back to Panajachel where we met our driver, and we headed back to Antigua. This daytrip was about 7-hours long and we thoroughly enjoyed it! Yet another highlight of our trip to Guatemala!

Where To Eat In Antigua

You can pretty much find food from all over the world in Antigua. We really enjoyed dining in lush old courtyards, to the sound of live music while overlooking volcanos. Also, because of its weather, restaurants in Antigua offer lots of fresh foods and fruits, which I especially loved! Most places have outdoor seating, or rooftop terraces, which is a plus in a place with such nice weather. Here’s a list of places we ate at (and liked!) while in Antigua:

• Antigua Brewing Company: Good beer and good pub food. We loved the view from their rooftop terrace.
• Patio de la Primavera: Great pizzas and pastas, and unique cocktails in a gorgeous patio. They have a lovely herb garden with a fire ring, and they use their own home-grown herbs in their dishes and cocktails. Live music every night.
• Y Tu Piña También: We had breakfast here twice because it was so good! We loved their yogurt and granola option (came with loads of fresh fruit!). The kids couldn’t get enough of their waffles and eggs plates. All dishes come with a generous serving of fresh tropical fruit. We also had the best smoothies and excellent coffee here.

• Bistrot Saul: They serve delicious poke bowls and very unique (and delicious!) cocktails. The setting is in a beautiful lush garden with artsy decor.
• Luna de Miel: Our son was really in the mood for crepes one day, so we ended up at this place. Once again, we loved the ambiance of the place, and the food was delicious. Lots of savory and sweet options, as well as salads and fresh smoothies. We were the only foreigners here, which is always fun.

One thing to keep in mind when eating in Guatemala, is that the serving sizes are pretty large. We could’ve easily ordered 2 plates to feed our entire family in most places, so don’t order too much unless you are really hungry!

Guatemala was a wonderful destination, and we felt like we only scratched the surface. Every day felt like an epic adventure as we climbed active volcanoes, boated around a lake surrounded by volcanoes, and explored old ruins left behind after massive natural disasters. On top of that, the people of Guatemala were welcoming and very friendly. An absolutely wonderful family destination!

Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about visiting Guatemala. To read about other Central American destinations, click here.