Guatemala's Heartbeat: Maya Market & Atitlan Lake Immersion

Our travel guide Juan was very informative and awesome! We enjoyed learning about the history and people of Guatemala

Nice panoramic view of Atitlan Lake. The Maya market is good. Lunch is excellent. The driver also spoke in English for us although I joined a Spanish-speaking tour.

The views you see in Atitlan are unforgettable, kind of the feeling you get at the Grand Canyon, majestic. The only problem I see is that after a 3 hour ride to the lake, they give you an hour to walk around, the hour is spent ordering and eating your food before returning.

I based my ratings on three things: Customer Service, Experience with the Activity, and Cost. Customer Service: Stellar communication (5 stars) Experience with the Activity: I was the only English speaker and the guide did his best to provide me with information on the trip, but seemed to provide more to the Spanish speakers. I shared the same experience as some of the reviews here (the time at the lake was very short). Also, we had to make a stop in Antigua which ate up about 2 hours (to and from Guatemala City), so it was unnecessarily added time. Time at the market was nice and we got to stop at the church. (2.5 stars) Cost: For two people, I paid $160 USD, which is a little steep for Guatemala. (2 stars) Overall: If I could do this again, I would reconsider and take an Uber or taxi to the market and then Uber again to the lake. I recommend anyone who is more interested in the lake to avoid this tour as it spent approximately 1 -1.5 hours here with about 20-30 minutes of alone time. In sum, the tour accomplishes everything it says but at a steep cost and added stops in Antigua.

Urbano picked us up at the hotel and brought us back home. We picked up Celestino our tour guide at Antigua. They were both friendly and knowledgeable. You do spend apt of time in the car as it is far away, however it was worth the drive.

Chichicastenago is a very interesting town full of Mayan History, it kind of has a feeling of a mystery town from the market to the churches and the cemetery its full of history. Atitlan is just breathtaking the view, the people and of course the food....just spectacular!

Guide (Tino) and driver (Mynor) very nice and professional. I learned a lot about Guatemala 🇬🇹 just be aware that you will spend 6-8 hours on the road.

I took this tour on August 1, 2021 with Adolfo as my tour guide. He was a wonderful tour guide who helped us all understand the area and kept us entertained with information and stories during the drive. Chichicastenango was a little overwhelming - very busy with tons of vendors approaching us to sell small items. I enjoyed visiting the churches and the cemetery was really interesting. It looked a little like the cemeteries in New Orleans, except all of the tombs were painted different colors. Other reviews mention that they ate in Chichi - Adolfo gave us the choice and we decided to eat in Panajachel instead. After a little bit of shopping, we got back into the van and drove to Pana. The views were really beautiful. He took us to a restaurant where we sat right next to the lake and enjoyed the beautiful sights while eating seafood and drinking Gallo beers. I was traveling alone and one of my favorite parts of this tour was meeting the other people on it. There were six of us total, from Spain, Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala, and the US. I was a little hesitant to book such a long day trip and if possible, it would probably be nice to spend a couple of nights in Panajachel. Three of the people in our group took this tour and brought their luggage with them. We left them there at a hotel in Pana and the rest of us went back to Antigua, so keep in mind that you have that option. Definitely recommend this tour if you are on a tight time schedule like I was!

Overall tour was good. We went to the market, went to a church, had lunch, then went to the lake then back home I wish we spent more time at the lake, lunch would've been better there. Our tour guide and driver was amazingly sweet.

Great tour. Such a long drive from Antigua that we had 10-12 at the market and could meet for lunch at the church. There’s a tour of the church that took almost 30 min so that left us with 2.5 hours to eat and shop. We didn’t have time to find the street food vendors. We found a couple of spots to eat really fast and get back to the meeting spot. The drive to Lake Atitlán wasn’t that long but it is literally just a stop to take a picture. Really cool for me bc I make panoramic la but I think others like my wife would rather have liked to spent the extra time at the market. Either way you’re talking about at least 5 hours in the car round trip. Better off spending a night in Pana so you can enjoy the lake and then go to the market. They have local shuttles there for that. Or if you’re set on Antigua as your starting point like us, just book a 50Q shuttle from Antigua to Chichicastenango and spend the day at your own pace then return. You don’t need a guide for this one.