Accommodation around Lake Atitlan over New Year's...

Hey there,
My friend and I are travelling around Lake Atitilan during the last week of December (New Year's...) We were going to book our first couple nights in Pana. and then leave the rest open. We want to check out San Marcos and San Pedro. Looking for suggestions/advice from anyone who has travelled in this area around holiday time. Would you recommend booking everything in advance? Will rooms still be available closer to the date? And finally, any recommendations for a fun lake town for New Year's celebrations?
Thanks in advance :)

Yes, things really fill up around then... lots of foreign and domestic visitors.

SP and SM are both great towns to spend NYE in... there will be celebrations in all of the towns, processions, fireworks, tons of fun around midnight. SM is a bit more reserved, Pana is more of a wild party.

I tend to say this a lot, but check out Airbnb and VRBO for those dates. If you can find somewhere you think looks good, just snatch it up for the week or 5 days. If you end up wanting to spend one of those nights in another town, you could easily do that in a cheap hotel while your stuff is back at your base. If you wait until you get there though, you may be stuck with the bottom of the barrel. I seem to remember that last year, people were wandering around SM trying to find pretty much anything since all of the available rooms were booked.

Hey, thanks so much for your feedback. We are definitely going to look at securing accommodation then in that case... In your opinion, are day trips to places like SM and SP sufficient or would you recommend at least overnighting?

Well, others opinions differ, but I strongly recommend overnighting at least a few eves in one of those places... Pana is great for an intro and a base, but the main area is just very touristy and revolved around merchandise and short-term visits. You don't get the same immersion in daily indigenous life as you do in the villages (there are plenty of indigenous people in Pana, but most just come from other towns to sell their wares). There's just nothing like the feeling of walking up in San Marcos and being there in the thick of it in the middle of the woods, or along the lake in San Pedro where you can go grab breakfast and stroll the town.

Pana is a great base but if you have time (not sure how long you have) I recommend staying in a smaller village as well. San Marcos was already mentioned. San Juan maybe (close to San Pedro). I like Santa Cruz and Jaibalito.

Don't miss Santiago (Maximon, church with saints, market, weaving museum...). You can take a boat there from Pana or San Pedro. The nature reserve in Pana has great hiking (hanging bridges, waterfalls) and extreme ziplining with great views. You can take a pick-up truck from Pana to Santa Catarina Palopo. On Tuesdays and Fridays there is the market in Solola, a short bus ride from Pana. Hike between Santa Cruz and Jaibalito and maybe on to San Marcos (ask if you need a guide for the latter). In San Pedro walk up the hill to the village, church and market (market days are Wednesday and Sunday). You can also hike up volcano San Pedro or Indian Nose.

Okay, wow, great... so many places and things to consider!
Do either of you have suggestions about travel in between towns? For example, from Pana it looks like boats go to most of the places. Did either of you use vehicle transportation between towns? Is it pretty easy to catch transportation between places?

Thanks...:)

There are tuk tuks that go between some of the towns, like San Pedro and San Juan. You could take one from SP to San Marcos, but it's a long drive and boat is more practical. OTOH some times like Santiago are very hard to reach by road (not impossible, just not feasible), so boat is best. There are also a few technicalities; for example, San Marcos is a bit of a conservative area that actually closes a gate across the one main road leading in after 11 p.m... so, hard to hang out in SP until 2 a.m. and get a ride back. Even if you could, many drivers don't want to due to risk of robbery at that time and/or inter-town rivalries.

This all adds to the character of the lake, but can be pretty inconvenient. If you decide you want to go to Pana at 8 p.m. on a Saturday from SP, you're out of luck unless you want to shell out a few hundred for a private boat, which is always an option if you really want to go anywhere at any time.

Santa Cruz and Jaibalito are only accessible by boat. There are regular boats from Pana and San Pedro to Santiago, Santa Cruz, Jaibalito, San Marcos.

It is a beautiful ride from san pedro to santiago, the busses leave at 5am, 6am and around 12pm. Then a boat back as I have done it both ways but coming back is going up hill over a section of the road that is very bad, you eat a lot of dust as you climb very slowly.

Id also support the suggestions of staying in one of the smaller villages for a night or two. There are some great lakeside hotels and hostels that are really relaxed and surrounded by great scenery and walks. Id recommend aiming between Santa Cruz and Jaibaliti. I stayed at La Iguana Perdida , which is right next to the boat stop at the bottom of the hill up to Santa Cruz.

Awesome, okay... good info to know! Thanks everyone!! :)

just make sure you don't let the boats over charge you!!!

They are notorious for making the prices up on the spot and the "gringo" price can be excessively high!

One of the captains' favorite tricks is to tell you the next public boat won't leave for 4 hours, you'll have to pay more for a private boat unless you want to wait. Sometimes they keep locals at bay while you wait, hoping you'll change your mind, then they finally give up and folks come out of the woodwork to fill the boat. The boats leave when they're full, however long that takes. I think the longest I've ever waited in Pana is about half an hour.

It's important to understand that the foreigner price and the local price are set by the official organization, and that's that. I've seen people argue, scream, and yell about it... even refuse to get off the boat once (an ugly yet somewhat hilarious scene that wasn't helped by the language barrier). Sort of unseemly considering that the locals are basically getting a volume discount for traveling every day, while foreigners get a cheap price anyway. Once someone lives at the lake long enough, they can start getting the regular price, but it's best to save everyone the hassle and not argue with these hard-working people over a 50 cent or 1 dollar difference in price. That said, there are standard prices and if someone is asking for more than that, it's not OK, but the tiered price system makes perfect sense and is there for a reason.

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