Antigua, Guatemala

I visited Antigua Guatemala for six days in celebration of a friend’s birthday. My friend is an Expat currently living in Guatemala so a large group of us went down there to visit. I absolutely loved every moment of this trip. Antigua doesn’t have the same Wild swings of “bad areas” that other parts of Guatemala are known to have. It’s known for being a generally safe city and that was certainly my experience. While I certainly got a few stares because they’re just isn’t a large Black population there – I saw one Black woman who seemed like she could be Guatemalan, and one Black man who was definitely a tourist like myself – at no point in my trip did I feel unsafe. People were overall quite friendly in my experience. It’s the type of place where people say hello and how are you good afternoon good day etc. etc. to each other. I stayed at two different hotels while I was there and both staff were friendly and accommodating and courteous (and judging by my experience and the experience of my friends staying at different hotels throughout the Antigua area – most of the hotel staff spoke at least some English). I ate at myriad restaurants from total local dives to more upscale restaurants and again received nothing but not only courteous service but friendly service. I went to the Mercado which is definitely the most touristy thing we did and it’s the kind of place where – like a lot of open markets – if you are not paying attention you could potentially get pickpocketed or what have you, but if you are paying attention then it’s great. I went out at night with a group of my friends to a local bar and I don’t generally like bars and didn’t plan to stay long but I ended up staying longer and dancing the live music that was there and the people at the bar were great. The Uber drivers were always super friendly and I never felt unsafe. I just had the most spectacular time and I easily could’ve stayed another several days schedule permitting.

As far as expense goes, the US dollar goes quite far there. My hotel was about $75 US a night. Ubers with a really good tip came to about $5 US each, meals were generally around $5 to $10 each. The night we went out and really did it up fancy for my friend’s birthday came to $20 each (not incl alcohol – I think with alcohol it was $40ish).

I loved it and I absolutely plan to go back.