| | Antigua Hotel Hotel Aurora – Small hotel just off the Central Plaza. Very Guatemalan. Clean, nice, inexpensive. Wonderful with kids. Loved the breakfast (which comes with it). Extremely helpful staff. Computer in Family Room you can use. No phone in room, but they come get you if you have a call and you can call from terrace phones. Highly recommended. To swim, go to Hotel Antigua and pay to use their pool. www.hotelauroraantigua.com |
| | Antigua Eats Café Condesa – in a bookstore on the Central Plaza. Wonderful food and Limonada. You must get it! Fine with kids but did not have a lot for them to eat... |
| | Eats Hotel Don Rodrigo – Has a marimba band that plays during lunch. Wonderful food. Beautiful restaurant that overlooks the gardens. Wonderful woman that sells woven purses and other pieces. Fine with kids. Had spaghetti kids love. |
| | Eats Santa Domingo – Go at night to dinner there. Beautiful hotel/restaurant that used to be a monastery. Evenings the place is lit by candles. Very nice Jade store in it too. Fine with kids. |
| | Eats Café La Escudilla – Great place for an inexpensive dinner or lunch. When you enter, make sure you go to Escudilla, not another café as there are two cafes and a night club together in the same building. Escudilla has a beautiful terrace restaurant. Fine with kids. Easy to find food they would eat there. Close to Central Plaza. |
| | Eats we don’t recommend: Frida’s – we were very unimpressed Not worth the money. |
| | Antigua Sights Arco de Santa Catalina – everyone knows this and it’s a great way to figure out the lay of Antigua by finding this. |
| | Sights LaMerced church – Beautiful and the monastery behind it is worth going to see. Beautiful very large fountain in the middle of it. In the shape of a water lily. Second Floor terrace gives you great views of the city. |
| | Sights College of San Geronimo – Used in the 1700’s as a school by friars, then became a custom house. Interesting to walk around the grounds and figure out the rooms. |
| | Sights Convento de Santa Clara – Another 1700’s church that was ruined. Cool structures to walk around in. Impressive structure. |
| | Sights Cerro de la Cruz – It overlooks Antigua from the north. Wonderful views. Well worth going, but don’t go alone. Have someone take you up there. |
| | Store Deliciosa (Pancho’s) – this store is run by a Guatemalan of European descent. It’s a very nice grocery store with lots of stuff tourists need. It also has a great chocolate shop in the back. Its near the square. 3a Calle Poniente #02 |
| | Sights Artisans Market – It’s worth the visit if you’re shopping. Beautiful things. Some are made by the people selling them. We bought a few table runners from the woman who weaved them right there. Takes more than 6 weeks for her to complete and she gets $35 for it. Bought wonderful handmade ornaments from a teenager who makes them himself. It’s nicer than the regular market and less pushy. There’s also a bathroom there you can use for a few Qs. And, a nice coffee shop on one corner. |
| | Store Jades SA – We liked this Jade store as the tour is cool. It has a museum that has a lot of interesting jade pieces including a skull (it is now a fake one as the guy said the real one too many people down there were uncomfortable that it was real) that shows how the Mayan communities would have the head of the community put a piece of Jade into his front tooth. Drilled a hole and put it in there! Pretty cool! They’ll custom make anything you want too. I had earrings from an earlier trip and they made a necklace to match. I had a necklace from another earlier trip and they made a pair of earrings to match that. All in under half an hour. And they’ll deliver to your hotel if that’s more convenient. |
| | Sights Common Hope: This is a tour I would not miss if you’re staying in Antigua. The tour is about 1.5 hours and its free. Tours are every Monday at 10:00am and Thurdays at 2:30 pm (Except Holidays). Groups meet at the fountain in Antigua's central park. We contacted them to say we were coming and when. info@mn.commonhope.org It’s a really informational tour that helps you understand what some Guatemalan families face every day and how CH is helping them. You may get to visit a Guatemalan family’s house that was built by Common Hope and perhaps a school. Then you tour the CH facility. We really came away with a greater appreciation of the country and its people from going on that tour. I highly recommend it. |
| | Sights Azoteo Cultural Center in (Jacotenengo) – This coffee plantation and museums and shop is very close to Antigua. You can contact them and they’ll come pick you up. For a minimal fee you can go on a coffee plantation tour, then go on the nature walk, visit the two wonderful museums and shop in the two shops. It’s really a wonderful place. We went there on two trips and loved it. |
| | Sights Tuk,Tuk Take one! They are SO much fun! |
| | Sights Chicken Bus – we took one from Guatemala City to Antigua (and back) and really recommend it. It’s a total Guatemalan experience. Really fun and educational at the same time. Everyone was very helpful and nice. |
| | Antigua Tips: Don’t take a stroller. The cobblestone streets are a devil on it. Child backpack is better. |
| | Tips Wear really comfortable shoes – you’ll need them! |
| | Tips Get yourself oriented. Avenues go North and South. Calles go East to West. Number 1 is North and it goes to 8. The Square is 4 and 5. Numbers are how far its located north (Norte)/south (Sur) or east (Oriente)/west (Poniente) of the plaza. |
| | Tips It’s easy to use ATMs there. Don’t worry about carrying a lot of extra money. |
| | Tips Though I can’t remember the name, the bakery which is just down from Hotel Aurora (going to the square) is wonderful. Buy some bread from there and enjoy! |
| | Tips Also, the cookie shop on the corner (again going to the square from Hotel Aurora) is really nice to sit in. Cookies are good too! |
| | Tips And finally, the toy store, also on the same street as Hotel Aurora is really cool! Buy some stuff there! |
| | Outside of Antigua Lake Atitlan – Take a trip there and go out on a pleasure boat and to lunch. It’s well worth it. Shopping is fun and challenging! While there, you can order pens with people’s names on them. Just take a list with you so the names are spelled right. We found the pen makers to be walking around near the lakefront... The pens are bic pens that are wrapped in very thin thread and they weave the name into them. They cost about $2 each and are really worth the cost. They also make these at Chichi. The pens are a great gift for folks back home. Oh yes, and the pens are customized very quickly. It took about 6 minutes per pen. If you get a chance while at Lake Atitlan, go out on a boat. We rented the whole boat for the afternoon. It held about 20 people. It was very reasonable to rent. They did have life jackets. It was beautiful to see this lake this way. |
| | Outside Antigua Restaurant Katok – in Tecpan. On the way to Lake Atitlan or Chichi, it looks like a Swiss chalet restaurant. It’s fun and different! Great breakfast. You can eat next to women making tortillas. |
| | Outside Antigua Iximche – Ruins of a Mayan civilization. Wonderful place that has a lot of walking. You can climb onto what is left of the ruins. It’s really interesting. In the back of the ruins, there is sacred ground that is still used do special masses and such. While we were there, there was a cleansing ceremony going on. The Mayan is very open about anyone participating. They prayed in every direction and made an alter. It’s a mix of Catholic and traditional Mayan religion. They sacrificed a lamb, but we had kids and did not stay for that. Museum is OK. Slight cost to enter the ruins. Take toilet paper with you to the bathrooms there. |
| | Outside Antigua Chichi – we went on the traditional Sunday markets and they were well worth it. Lots of walking, exciting, fun. Definitely bargain with them. While there, you can order pens with people’s names on them. Just take a list with you so the names are spelled right. We found the pen makers to be walking around the markets. The pens are bic pens that are wrapped in very thin thread and they weave the name into them. They cost about $2 each and are really worth the cost. They also make these at Lake Atitlan. The pens are a great gift for folks back home. A very good lunch place was Casa San Juan. It’s in the middle of the markets and it’s upstairs in a building. Food was very reasonable and very good. Kid friendly too. |
| | Guatemala City Hotels Marriott – It was a great adoption hotel. Nice digs, pool and restaurants. Breakfast was very good. Gift shops are very good. We stayed in a suite and it was well worth it. On a concierge floor with Internet access, free juice, coffee and breakfast pastries as well as wine and beer in afternoon. |
| | Guatemala Hotels Grand Tikal Futura – Nice adoption hotel. I don’t like it as well as Marriott. (Maybe because I didn’t care for the room as much. It was really dark) Pool is inside and cold. It’s connected to a mall, so if you’re stuck and can’t go anywhere, that is a definite plus. The main restaurant was very adequate for any meal. Gift shop leaves something to be desired. |
| | Guatemala City Sights Mapa en Relieve – This map was made about 100 years ago and it’s very large and outside. You climb up onto towers to see the whole map. It gives you a good feeling of what the whole country looks like topographically. |
| | GC Sights La Aurora Zoo – This zoo is really very good and it’s a great place to take kids. It has some rides in the middle of it for kids. |
| | GC Sights Mercado de Artesian – if you miss other shopping places, go here. Its right next to the airport and it does have beautiful Guatemalan handicrafts. |
| | Tour Guide Edwin Rodriguez –edwin_rodrigu31@hotmail.com Edwin was our tour guide and driver during all three trips to Guatemala. I really recommend him. He did a great job. He speaks pretty good English. His writing is not very good, so emailing him can be tricky. But, he was fairly priced and he gave great service. Very attentive to your family’s needs, has worked with a lot of Americans. He’s also fostering a little boy. |
| | Guidebook We found the Lonely Planet Guatemala book to be really good compared to a lot of other books. It’s also easy to bring with you as it’s not too big. |