Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala 7 Day Itinerary

Two volcanoes bookend a week in Antigua, and cobblestone streets that were rebuilt after a 1773 earthquake flattened the old capital still slow every car to walking pace. Seven days here is enough to properly earn both summits without rushing the town in between.

Day 1: Arrival and Settling In

  • Land at La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City. Shared shuttles to Antigua wait at the yellow “Airport Taxis” booth inside the terminal and run 15 to 25 USD per person, cash only. A private taxi runs closer to 50 USD total, worth splitting if you’re traveling with others. The drive covers about 45 kilometers and takes 45 minutes in light traffic, but budget up to two hours if you land during Guatemala City rush hour.

  • Check into a hotel near the center. Hotel Casa Santo Domingo, built into a former Dominican monastery, is the higher-end pick; smaller B&Bs closer to Parque Central run cheaper and put you within walking distance of everything on this list.

  • Spend the afternoon just walking. Antigua’s grid is small enough to disorient yourself pleasantly in an hour, with Volcán de Agua looming at the end of half the streets whether you’re looking for it or not.

My opinion on Day 1: don’t book any tours for today. Jet lag plus altitude, Antigua sits at roughly 1,530 meters, hits harder than people expect on day one.

Day 2: Historical Sites and Local Culture

  • Breakfast at Cafe Condesa, right across from Parque Central, does traditional Guatemalan plates alongside solid coffee, unsurprising given Guatemala is one of the world’s serious coffee-growing regions.

  • Visit La Recolección, the collapsed ruins of a former convent whose surviving arches and half-toppled walls are more dramatic than a lot of the “restored” sites in town precisely because nothing has been rebuilt.

  • Walk through the ruins of the San Francisco church and monastery, still an active pilgrimage site around the tomb of Hermano Pedro, a 17th-century friar and Guatemala’s first saint.

  • Santa Catalina Arch, the yellow archway spanning 5a Avenida Norte, was built so cloistered nuns could cross the street unseen. It’s the single most photographed spot in Antigua for good reason, especially with Volcán de Agua framed behind it.

  • Dinner at Rincón Antigüeño, a local favorite that draws lines out the door for lunch and dinner alike, mainly for its wood-fired pollo a la leña at prices well below the tourist-menu spots nearer the park.

Day 3: Pacaya Volcano

  • Pacaya is the easier, more family-friendly volcano hike, roughly 90 minutes each way from Antigua, and tours run 20 to 50 USD per person depending on operator, plus a 100 quetzal entrance fee not always included in the tour price. Horses are available partway up for anyone who doesn’t want to walk the full ascent.

  • The marshmallow-roasting-on-lava bit is real and not just a marketing line; certain sections of cooled lava rock stay warm enough to roast a marshmallow on a stick, though how hot depends on recent activity levels.

  • Skip the “Lenca art workshop” idea if you see it listed anywhere; Lenca weaving and pottery traditions belong to Honduras, not Guatemala. What you want here is a Maya textile demonstration, ideally with Kaqchikel or Tz’utujil weavers, since backstrap-loom weaving is the actual living craft tradition around Antigua and the surrounding highland villages.

  • Dinner at El Portal de la Fruta for a solid vegetarian-friendly menu after a day of volcano dust.

Day 4: Markets and a Language Lesson

  • Mercado Central de Antigua is the working market, produce and household goods rather than souvenirs, and worth an hour just to see how the town actually shops. For crafts and textiles, the Nim Po’t complex and the smaller stalls near the market do better prices than anything sold right on the park.

  • Lunch at Mesón Panza Verde, a longtime Antigua institution with a genuinely good wine list for a town this size.

  • Antigua is one of the cheapest places in the world to take intensive one-on-one Spanish lessons, and prices still sit around 5 to 8 USD an hour through most of the established schools, cheaper than the outdated 10 USD figure some guides still quote. A few days of morning lessons paired with afternoon sightseeing is a genuinely good way to structure a longer stay here.

  • Dinner at Porta Via for Italian in a quieter, more romantic setting than the busier restaurants on the main tourist strip.

Day 5: Ruins and a Maya Capital

  • The Merced Church, with its ornate yellow-and-white facade, is a five-minute walk from the center and often gets skipped in favor of Santa Catalina, which is a mistake given the intricate stucco work.

  • Iximche, the former capital of the Kaqchikel Maya kingdom until Spanish conquest in the 1520s, sits about an hour from Antigua and gets a fraction of Tikal’s visitors despite being an easy half-day trip. Entrance runs around 8 USD, and the ceremonial plazas here are still used for Maya spiritual ceremonies today, so keep a respectful distance from any active rituals you come across.

  • Dinner at El Comal for barbecue-style Guatemalan dishes back in Antigua.

Day 6: Acatenango

  • Acatenango is the serious hike, a genuinely tough 4 to 6 hour ascent to a base camp at around 3,600 meters, done specifically to watch Volcán de Fuego erupt at close range through the night. Overnight tours run anywhere from 80 to 150 USD depending on whether you get a shared or private cabin, and porter hire for your pack is worth the extra 12 to 15 USD if you’re not in serious hiking shape.

  • Fuego’s activity is genuinely variable year to year. It went quiet for stretches in early 2025 before a significant eruption in June 2025 triggered evacuations nearby, so tour operators do sometimes reroute or cancel the overnight leg depending on current activity. Check with your operator close to your date rather than assuming the lava show is guaranteed.

  • Dinner happens at your camp on the mountain; don’t plan a return trip to town for a restaurant reservation on this particular night.

My opinion on Day 6: this is worth the discomfort. Freezing overnight in a tent while an active volcano lights up a few kilometers away is not something you get to see from many places on earth, and it’s the one day of this trip people talk about years later.

Day 7: Departure

  • Use the morning for whatever got missed, a last coffee at the park, a final pass through the textile stalls, or just sitting somewhere quiet before the trip back to noise and traffic.

  • Shuttle back to La Aurora runs the same 45 minutes to two hours depending on Guatemala City traffic, so book a departure time with real buffer, especially if you’re catching an international connection.

  • Skip exchanging leftover quetzales at the airport if you can avoid it; the rates there are consistently worse than a bank or ATM withdrawal back in Antigua before you leave.