Antigua, Guatemala, is a beautiful, colonial-era town surrounded by hills and impressive volcanoes. From town, you can see Acatenango, Fuego, and Agua, but this environment also means the town is prone to earthquakes. It was the Spanish seat of government in Guatemala from 1543 until around 1773, when a particularly destructive earthquake prompted the government to officially pack up and move to what is now Guatemala City. When they left, Antigua was mostly abandoned and the original architecture and city infrastructure weren’t developed or knocked down for new construction. This organic preservation led to the town being declared a national monument in 1944 and a UNESCO world heritage site in 1979.
The streets are all cobblestones and there are protected ruins all around town. The leafy, green central park is surrounded by grand, old buildings with wide colonnades. The (free) National Art Museum is on the square in the old Royal Palace of the Captains General. Local vendors hawk colorful souvenirs and snacks. My favorite were the mini-chicken buses selling ice cream. (Chicken buses are old U.S. school buses that have been extravagantly redecorated and are used for public transportation in Guatemala.) Antigua has become a popular tourist destination in the last 20 years (the country’s civil war ended in 1996), and there are excellent restaurants ranging from hole-in-the-wall to expensive and gourmet, rooftop bars, markets, and tours to keep anyone entertained. Temperatures are almost always between the 60s and 80s F.
For the first week we were here, I loved walking around the cobblestone streets and marveling at the colonial architecture against the backdrop of volcanoes. I found the whole experience to be incredibly charming but, about a week into the stay, the novelty and charm wore off. Our Airbnb and its courtyard are nice, but the streets of Antigua are hectic, polluted, and not the most pleasant to walk around; the sidewalks are narrow, uneven, and crowded.
There also aren’t many free public spaces to relax in or take a break during walks around town. I’ve been thinking about other places we’ve visited in Latin America (most recently Mexico, Chile, and Argentina) and how impressed I usually am by the quantity and quality of the public parks, and how well used they are. I read that Antigua’s UNESCO status limits the city’s ability to develop public parks and other shared green spaces, but I didn’t dig deeper into the details. Whatever the reason, it’s something that I’m noticing more and more as our time goes on here.
Nevertheless, Antigua is a good home base for trips around Guatemala. We visited Lake Atitlan, hiked Volcan Acatenango and watched Volcan Fuego erupt in the night, and spent the day at nearby Hobbitenango. I wish we had gone farther away to see Semuc Champay and Tikal, but we both worked during the week, which limited how far we could go on the weekends. We also took Spanish classes our first week in Antigua, which kept us tethered as well.
Andrew and I agree that a month in Antigua was too long for us, but it is the perfect place for a week-long vacation, especially if you add on a few side trips.
Some of our favorite in-town experiences—that you can easily do in under a week—were:
- Spanish lessons
- National Art Museum (MUNAG)
- Cerro de la Cruz
- Lunch at Caoba Farms
- Casa de las Sopas (we ate there twice)
- ChocoMuseo (it was fun to learn the process of making chocolate, even though the chocolate they gave use to make our own bar wasn’t very good)
- Ulew Cocktail Bar, where you tell the bartenders what types of drinks you usually like, and they create a delicious, custom cocktail presented in a delightfully over-the-top show
- The local fruit and veggie market near our apartment, where we never felt overcharged and our favorite vendor explained the new produce to us
