Antigua Guatemala Travel Forum

Excited to get there in mid March.

I have some questions.
1. What is the best/cheapest method to get from Guatemala City Airport to Monterrico on the Pacific coast early in the morning? We land around 5am I think.
2. Any hotel reccomendations or warnings for Monterrico? We'll be ther just 1 night. We'll have a 4 month old baby with us. looking for a laid back, relaxing environment.
3. After Monterrico we are heading to Anitgua as home base for the rest of our wk long trip. Any must see's or must do's while based there?
4. How far are some Maya ruins from Anitgua?
5. Any food reccomendations while in Antigua?
6. I'm assuming once we get to Antigua, we can then plan the remainder of our week in terms any tours or day trips we wish to do. I also assume finding info on these touristy activities will be easy to find and not booked up ahead of time. Am I right?
7. Any recomendations in Antigua on great places to see some live local music in the evenings to relax and have a drink?

I'm having trouble finding complete and detailed info for some travel planing
Thanks!
-dan

Try these mate
http://www.transportguatemala.com/index.htm
Never used them so contact them,Lake Atitlan,Panajachelare good places to visit also.

Driving your own personal vehicle from Guat.City to Monterico takes approx.4 hours.Second class bus service[the only kind available] can take upwards of 6 hours.A better option[other than renting a car at the airport],would be to go to Antigua first,where you will find dayly,non-stop shuttle service directly to Monterico.Be aware this is not a day trip,it is a long,hot ride to a sweltering,black-sand and mosquito infested beach.With only a week to spend in Guat.,I would not reccomend this as part of your itinerary.

Thanks for the replies so far.
I'll look up that url.
So if Monterrico is not recomended, where would you recomend I spend the 2 days/1night I have before I can check into my timeshare in Antigua? I'm fully open to ideas and locations.
One thing I really want to see and experince is a Maya settlement ruins. I have been to aztec ruins around Mexico city and loved it. Would there be a good ruins to visit during my 2days/1night?
Thanks for the help and keep it coming.. ;)

Thanks for the replies so far.
I'll look up that url.
So if Monterrico is not recomended, where would you recomend I spend the 2 days/1night I have before I can check into my timeshare in Antigua? I'm fully open to ideas and locations.
One thing I really want to see and experince is a Maya settlement ruins. I have been to aztec ruins around Mexico city and loved it. Would there be a good ruins to visit during my 2days/1night?
Thanks for the help and keep it coming.. ;)

i've had some very enjoyable times in monterrico. the hotel pez de oro is pleasant and quite comfortable. taking a sunrise tour into the mangroves is amazing and putting your car onto a barge for the 20 minute ride to the next highway isn't to be missed. mosquitos? yes, some. black sand? definately but not a problem. ocean breezes kept us cool and the food was excellent. the drive from antigua was a leasurely 2 and 1/2 hours with the last half hour skirting the ocean past loofa farms.....interesting. the atmosphere there is very different from what you'll find in antigua. things are very laid back and if you go thru the week, there are no crowds. weekends get pretty noisy.

if you choose to avoid monterrico, there are interesting mayan ruins in the guatemala city suburb of mixco and another (about an hour further on hwy c.a. 1) at tecpan. both are interesting but offer no guided tours. there are signs indicating what the structures were used for but unless you read spanish better than i, you'll be fairly lost. good luck...don

Definitely I would consider a trip to Lago Attitlan[Panajachel]A short[4 hour]trip from Antigua and serviced by first-class[non-stop]bus-service,You'll travel through the spectacular Guat.Highlands in route.In Panajachel my favorite lodging is at the Hotel Cristinita's,with it's own private gardens and brook running directly through the property,and only costing 50Quetzales[7 Dollars]per-person per-night.Enjoy!

For additional information on Monterrico go www.monterrico.com. If you're looking for a tropical place to spend a few days, you may want to consider the rio dulce area on the atlantic side. If you arrive at 5AM you could very well take the litegua deluxe service bus at 7AM or 9AM and get to rio dulce in the afternoon. But I am afraid you probably don't have enough time to check this area out because you're going to miss a beautiful place to spend some nice time. Go to www.mayaparadise.com or www.riodulce.com or www.riodulcechisme.com
In the rio dulce area you can visit Quirigua, an archeological mayan site.
To really explore guatemala you need at least three weeks. Good luck.

The best food I had in Guatemala were the chocolate macaroons at the Cenecienta bakery in Antigua. I kept going back.