Pacaya Volcano Tour and Hot Springs from Guatemala City

The guide and driver were super friendly with minimal English. The volcano hike fee is NOT included. You can purchase a horse to take you up and down the hike for a low fee. Not a lot of time at the spa to really enjoy and food is very American. Felt rushed for all events.

The view from Pacaya was fantastic. The guide Claudio was great, very informative. The hike was MUCH harder than expected, or I was more out of shape then I thought. The SPA was the highlight of the afternoon, the people there were great and the facilities were great.

I was so upset that we didn’t get to roast the marshmallows. I came on this hike specifically to roast marshmallows and eat pizza from the lava rocks. It wasn’t until we came to the fork in the pathway that we were told we had to make a choice. I was literally so shocked that this was even a thing. I was out voted so we went the opposite way of the marshmallows and then we’re told we couldn’t do both so it was a done deal. Then the horses and the men with the horses are entirely too close the entire way up asking every couple of minutes if you want a taxi. Ot was too much. The guide should have a talk and explain the hike in the beginning instead of starting right up especially when it immediately begins with the cobblestone going straight up.

Accomplishing such a feat. The trek is not easy but worth the climb once you get to the destination.

The reason for 4 stars and not 5 is only due to lack of description of this tour on Viator website and lack of explanation of lunch activity from our guide. The volcano hike was great, however after the hike we thought we were going to have lunch onsite at the mountain. It had been 6 or 7 hrs since we had eaten breakfast and our group was really excited to eat an outdoor lunch. But instead we bussed about 30 mins to another town to a hotel with thermal pools. We were told to go in the pools and eat in the restaurant later. We told him we needed to eat now so we ate in a ho-hum hotel restaurant then to the pools (not hot springs) at 2:30. Overall the volcano experience great! Hotel lunch not so great. “Hot springs” description needs to change to “hotel thermal pools”.

We really enjoyed ourselves. Communication could be improved but that did not spoil our outing. Remember to bring a warm jacket. The wind can kick up and the temperature drops.

Very good experience! Highly recommend the horses unless you are a frequent hiker in great shape. The guys at the bottom for horses tried to double charge us so we had to walk down which kinda sucked (nothing to do with this tour). Guide who walked with us up the volcano was the BEST! I wore the worst running shoes with no grip and almost plunged to my death a few times LOL. He held my hand the ENTIRE TIME! We walked back slowly and talked the whole entire time, he didn’t even mind that the group was way ahead. Thank you so much to the guide!!! As for the hotsprings, they were very relaxing. Unfortunately I think they forgot about us at the hotsprings and we were there for like 4hrs and it was pretty late by the time we got back, like 7pm. For everyone saying it’s not actual lava, no it’s not because it erupted so long ago. But it’s still crazy to roast marshmallows from a volcano!

Volcano and hot springs good, but tour operator wasted an extra 3 1/2 hours in heavy traffic detouring to Antigua to pick up and drop off passengers in crowded van when the ad for the tour was to be only direct. This was obnoxious and unacceptable.

The hike is s very important part of this trip. That cannot be understated. But it's worth it. 10/10 would recommend. Definitely recommend bringing a speaker. Food was good. The spa at the end was necessary.

This was a great way to relieve our designated driver for a day and so glad we opted for this tour. A lovely little hike to see Pacaya Volcano close-up, we were the first party to ascend that day and glimpsed some lava. The views from the top were well worth it and taking El Arenal route on the descent was an adventure. After the hike, the Kawilal Spa was just the ticket! We even had the whole area to ourselves due to the pandemic, so all felt very safe. The smoothie and lunch there were also very delicious. Could have done with a tad more direction at times, but all part of the fun!