Guatemala City
Time Stayed:
1st trip: 35 Days 9 Nov 2024 - 14 Dec 2024
2nd trip 43 Days 18 Apr 2026 - 31 May 2026
Elevation: 4921 ft (1500 m)
Lodging Cost:
1st trip: $18.29 per night; Airbnb Zone 1
2nd trip: $18.72 per night; Airbnb Zone 10
Staying in Guatemala City
Guatemala City is the largest city in Central America. Most travelers ask me "Why Guatemala City?!?" because most of them just use it as the stop to fly into when going to Lake Atitlan or Antigua. In my opinion, writing off Guatemala City is a mistake. There is a lot of cool free stuff to do in the city and some decent tours to go on. Guatemala City also has a special place in my heart because that is where I met Nancy, really the only friend I've made while traveling that I have kept in touch with, hence the second trip.
Getting from the airport or bus station is pretty straightforward because of Uber. But when booking the place to stay there is a little you need to know about the zones or "zonas". Guatemala City has 21 zones. The four that most tourists should focus on are Zones 1, 4, 9, and 10. Zones 3 and 5 you should NOT be staying at as a tourist but be aware of their existence. They are right next to Zone 4 and are considered unsafe. Zone 4 is a relatively safe spot for tourists, but it is right between these two zones and you should be aware of them if on foot. Honestly, besides the botanical gardens I didn't see much of Zone 4 so I can't really speak on staying there.
Zone 1 is where I stayed for my first trip and this is where I would recommend everyone stay. Although not considered as safe as 9 and 10 I think it is the best spot to absorb the culture and see what the city has to offer. It's generally pretty safe during the day but you should not go anywhere besides Plaza de la Constitucion or 6A Avenida at night (more on these later).
Zones 9 and 10 are the safest in the city and where most travel sites recommend people stay. I honestly think they are kind of boring. It is just a lot of high rise buildings, upscale restaurants and some malls. Although I do highly recommend checking out Oakland Place. It is one of the nicest malls I have ever been to.
Palacio Nacional de la Cultura. Right in front of Plaza de la Constitucion. I consider this the true heart of the city. I was there around Christmas and they set up a festival that runs for most of December. It even had an ice rink so that Guatemalans who have never seen snow have the same opportunities to bust their ass and crack their heads as those from colder climates.
The Mapa en Relieve. You walk around it but it also has two towers to get a bird's-eye view. There are even pumps to put water in the lakes and ocean parts. They were drained when I was there though. No idea if they are working now.
Things to do around town
One of my favorite things to do in Latin America is to see the markets. Mercado Central, right around the corner from Plaza de la Constitucion, was great. This was my favorite place to get lunch. Guatemala is considered kind of expensive compared to a lot of Latin American countries and this place has some great food at low prices. It is also just kind of a cool set up, the whole market is kind of underground.
Another thing worth seeing is the Mapa en Relieve de Guatemala. If you are staying near the palace it is a long-ish walk but it's through a pretty safe area and half of it was a great tree covered path full of dog walkers and joggers. It is a huge topographical map, probably around the size of two basketball courts, showing the entire country. What makes it such a marvel is that it is over 100 years old and all mapped with...well, I dunno, let's call it "old sciencey shit". The horizontal map has a 1:10,000 ratio but what is neat and makes it "pop" is the vertical is distorted and is 1:2,000 so the mountains are deliberately exaggerated. If possible, I would recommend seeing this first when you visit the country to see all the places you will go.
As always, I love to check out the botanical garden in any city I am in. Jardin Botanico Guatemala is in Zone 4. It is one of the better ones I have visited, much bigger than I thought it would be.
I took a bus to get there and this was pretty easy to do. They have colored bus lines that are pretty easy to navigate and the stops aren't like most in Latin America, they are big elevated platforms the bus pulls up to and they are flush with the entrance to the bus, quite nice actually and very easy to spot. At most of them you can buy a rechargeable card for 10 quetzals ($1.30) and each ride is 1 quetzal ($.13). They also have their own dedicated lanes, so even though it is stopping between places, it is still faster than the brutal Guatemalan traffic a lot of the time. It can get packed to the gills though.
Torre del Reformador. Step off the bus and into Paris. But seriously, this was built to honor the 100th birthday (dude was already dead) of General Jorge Ubico Castaneda. It is within walking distance of the Jardin Botanico.
Very well maintained oasis in the middle of a concrete jungle
Kaminaljuyu Archaeological Site
The final "in city" must see is the Kaminaljuyu Archaeological Area. Need me to pronounce that? It's Kah-mee-nahl-hoo-yoo. It means "Hill of the Dead".
For this I'd say take an Uber, it's likely outside the range of wherever you are staying and it's in Zone 7. Not the worst neighborhood but not the best either. Just have them drop you at the gate and order another when you leave. Don't explore the area, there is nothing else to see anyway.
You need a guide for this but it is included in the entrance fee. 50 quetzals ($6.50). They have a few that just rotate through, if they aren't available you just have to wait. I want to warn you, I got very lucky. The guide was about 10 minutes into the tour and saw me and let me join and she spoke excellent English, not all of the guides do speak English. Worst case scenario, the tour takes about an hour and if you just miss the only English speaking guide, you either gotta wait an hour or join the tour without an English speaker and just enjoy the sights. I have been on a lot of tours without a guide I can understand and enjoyed. This isn't one of those tours. Trust me, wait for the guide.
At first you go through a small museum at the entrance. This was the part I missed when I arrived, but she saw my white ass standing alone at the gate like a lost puppy and told me to join the group right then and later I could follow the next group through the museum.
It was an excellent tour. Lot of really cool info. What I found neat was what they do to preserve the sites. The archeologists uncover them, learn everything they need to know and then re-bury most of them. There are tons of giant hills all over the park and the few they left uncovered they built shelters over them to protect from the elements.
It is also still a Mayan holy site. There was a section we could see but not photograph of Mayans doing ceremonies and a big stone circle, the original stone circle, that they were building fires and doing other "holy shit". At the end there is a big tower you can climb and see the whole site and get a great view of the city.
I don't know this for sure, but I feel like this is one of the few places in the area a tip is "strongly encouraged". I can't say with any certainty but from the passion she had, I felt like she was a volunteer at the site and did this for the passion of teaching. Or I'm way off base and she was like all of the other strippers that fooled me into thinking they were one credit away from getting their law degree. Either way she was great and I gave her 100 quetzals ($13)
Seriously. Go see this. One of the coolest things in Guatemala.
Fireworks show from a rooftop in Guatemala
Flags Hall inside the National Palace of Culture. The center of this room is called Kilometer Cero. This exact spot is the official geographic starting point from which all highway distances in Guatemala are measured.
Tours to take outside of the city
So there are 4 popular tours to take. I did two. The big one is Acatenango. This is a volcano that is constantly spewing lava in the air. Like shit out of an "end of the world" movie. It is usually an overnight hike so you can camp out and see it at night. I didn't do this one, I tell everyone "oh I couldn't, it's an overnight thing and I had to work" but the truth is that I heard it was a brutally hard hike and I am an out of shape fat ass. The other I didn't do is Tikal, for this you have to take a flight across Guatemala. It can be done in a day I'm told. Both of these sound incredible but due to my policy of only showing pics I took myself, you don't get to see either one. At least on this site. I know you either already opened a new tab to Google or closed this window entirely and I'm talking to myself.
HOWEVER...if you are still reading this and are interested, you can click the links below to see how the hike up the Pacaya Volcano went and see some pics of the lovely town of Chichicastenango and the Iximche ruins, which I had the pleasure of going on with the even lovelier Nancy.
Final thoughts on Guatemala City (and a short history about La Limonada)
Well, I spent 78 total days here. Am I recommending you do the same...No, of course not. But I also don't recommend you go straight from the airport to the bus station headed to Lake Atitlan or Antigua. I'd take 3-4 days and enjoy the city. Earlier, I mentioned as a tourist you have no business in a few zones.
Speaking of that. Another point I want to mention is stay the hell out of La Limonada. Seriously. It looks very interesting driving through Guatemala City, it is a very deep, long ravine that is entirely filled with a shanty town, and honestly, probably a pretty cool pic if you stop in the right place. One day Nancy and I were going bowling and I saw it. I had all kinds of questions for her and then researched it later when I got home. But that is where the fascination should end.
Sometimes fucking Instagrammers treat these types of areas as some sort of urban zoo and think they will get views and show the "real Guatemala". I'm not exaggerating when saying it is one of the most dangerous places in the Northern Hemisphere. There are very few entrances and exits to the ravine, and they have spotters watching. An outsider, especially one who is not Latin, will make it about two blocks before getting confronted and best case scenario, getting their shit stolen with a boot in the ass to turn around. Even the police and most emergency personnel don't go there.
I say "most" because while researching this area led me down a rabbit hole and I learned about a group of heroes called the Bomberos. While the police wait on the outskirts, these guys go in to do shit like rescue kids or innocents caught in the crossfire of gang violence and put out literal fires. Nearly 100,000 people live in this ravine and they aren't all gang members (most aren't in fact; they are just stuck in a shitty situation).
The gangs have an unspoken rule not to fuck with these guys, because they are truly neutral and just want to help and the gangs are well aware of the fact that the next day it could be a member of their own familia that could be the next victim.
Anyway, I found all of that interesting. Most of the stuff on this site is stuff I wanted to share about my first hand experience but I just really found this part interesting. Click below to follow me to the next country.