Antigua
In all the long, earnest discussions about where to get off the beaten track in Guatemala, you can be sure the name Antigua won't come up.
In all the long, earnest discussions about where to get off the beaten track in Guatemala, you can be sure the name Antigua won't come up.
Guatemala’s capital city, the largest urban agglomeration in Central America, spreads across a flattened mountain range run through by deep ravines.
The departments of Quetzaltenango, Totonicapán and Huehuetenango are more mountainous and generally less frequented by tourists than regions closer to Guatemala City.
Quetzaltenango, which the locals kindly shorten to Xela (shell-ah), itself an abbreviation of the original Quiché Maya name, Xelajú, may well be the perfect Guatemalan town – not too big, not too small, enough foreigners to support a good range of...
It all comes down to what you’re looking for – price wars between competing businesses keep San Pedro among the cheapest of the lakeside villages, and the beautiful setting attracts long-term visitors whose interests include (in no particular...
Guatemala’s most dramatic region – the highlands – stretch from Antigua to the Mexican border northwest of Huehuetenango.
This lush little corner of the country really packs in the attractions.
Quite unlike anywhere else in Guatemala, this largely Garífuna town is fascinating in itself, but also an attraction for a couple of good beaches, and its location at the end of the river journey from Río Dulce.
Mostly a stopping-off point for more interesting places, Huehuetenango, or Huehue (way-way), offers few charms of its own, but some people do love it for its true Guatemalan character.
Divided from the highlands by a chain of volcanoes, the flatlands that run down to the Pacific are known universally as La Costa.
Guatemala’s most dramatic region – the Highlands – stretches from Antigua to the Mexican border northwest of Huehuetenango.
Surrounded by valleys, with mountains serrating the horizons, Chichicastenango can seem isolated in time and space from the rest of Guatemala.
The country becomes even more lush, tropical and humid heading east from La Ruidosa junction toward Puerto Barrios.
The coastal area around Monterrico is a totally different Guatemala.
Another departmental capital, this one set in a mining and tobacco-growing region, Chiquimula is on Hwy 10, 32km south of the Carr al Atlántico.
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