Experience El Dia de los Muertos in the village of Sacatepéquez, Guatemala. Witness the festivities as giant brightly-colored kites are launched into the air. Your guide teaches you about the history of the Maya culture and how they honor their ancestors once a year through this celebration. Enjoy a guided tour of Lake Atitlan including visits to artisan cooperatives, market visits, and a tour of lovely colonial Antigua. Experience this festival and a main highlights Guatemala tour all in one vacation!
Highlights
Wander through a bustling market of crafts, crops, and artwork
Visit a women's textile cooperative and learn about the weaving process
Tour the city of Antigua and admire its gilded cathedrals
Celebrate Dia de los Muertos and watch the kite release
Involves minimal physical effort and is typically associated with leisurely activities. Activities are low-intensity or last less than a few hours each day.
Arrive to Guatemala and transfer to nearby colonial Antigua for the evening.
Day 2: Antigua City Tour
1 Breakfast
Volcan Fuego rises to the roof of the world above the streets of Antigua below. Once the capital of Guatemala and all Central America, Antigua resembles a living ruin. Mammoth churches and palaces tell the story of Antigua's past glory, and restored facades speak of a bright future. This morning you tour the city and admire Antigua's gilded cathedrals. The afternoon is yours to rent mountain bikes or explore the countryside, visit a coffee finca or macadamia nut plantation, or just people watch in the main plaza.
This morning rise and drive about an hour before arriving to San Juan de Comalapa. Enjoy the bustle of the lively market less-visited by tourists. Vendors set out their handicrafts, vegetables, and animals to sell. Explore the market and see the most noted display of art in the town, a collaborative mural painting by local artists on the cemetery wall depicting major events in Guatemala's history. Explore the town and try the bread in one of the local panaderias before you leave.
Next travel to the shores of beautiful Lake Atitlan, a deep caldera lake flanked by three majestic volcanoes. Settle into your hotel in lakeside Panajachel and wander the town to explore before dark.
This morning after admiring the placid waters of the lake, set out on a passenger boat across the azure-blue waters of the lake to local villages along the shores. Scholars tell us that the ancient Maya disappeared mysteriously a thousand years ago, but anyone who has intimately explored this fascinating region knows that the Maya continue to thrive in the highlands of Guatemala. Villagers in Santiago Atitlan still adhere to the traditional lifestyle of the Tz'utuhil Maya and you can see many people cloaked in brightly-colored, hand-woven clothing. Along Santiago's main street are art galleries filled with oil paintings depicting busy market scenes and typical life in the highlands. You may also visit Maximòn and leave an offering to this curious and revered deity.
Visit also San Juan La Laguna, home to a number of artisan cooperatives. Here you can visit the women's textile cooperative to see hand weaving and the natural dye process used to make their famous petates, woven mats made from lake reeds. Also you can visit the homes of some of their celebrated naif painters. Return to Panajachel at the end of your day.
Day 5: Panajachel | Chichicastenango | Antigua
1 Breakfast, 1 Lunch
Today rise early to visit the famous market of Chichicastenango. This beautiful town, surrounded by valleys and shadowed by mountains, has many shamanistic and ceremonial overtones. Its large market brings villagers from throughout the region, who often arrive the night before and sleep on blankets in the market square. Rising early, they set out their colorful fruits, vegetables, and handicrafts. The market disperses in the early afternoon and you return to Antigua for the evening.
Today the country celebrates Dia de los Muertos, or All Saints Day. Originally celebrated amongst indigenous cultures in Mexico, the holiday has since merged with the Catholic All Saints Day in many Latin American nations to become what it is today. Family and friends use this day to honor and pray for loved ones and remember their memory.
Today you visit the nearby town of Sacatepequez in the highlands which is well known for its brilliant kite displays. Watch as the locals put the last remaining touches on their hand-made kites. Observe the celebrations as you watch locals honor their ancestors this day in the cemetery and in town. Witness the final release of all the kites in the air and see which ones fly the longest. Awards are often given to noted kites, such as the most colorful and longest flying. Return in the evening to Antigua.
Day 7: Antigua | Guatemala Airport
1 Breakfast
Return to the Guatemala City airport for your international flight home.
Apologies for the inconvenience. Prices for not yet published. Below per person rate based on previous season. Contact us to confirm upcoming season pricing.
Prices for are estimated based on inflation. Contact us to confirm pricing and availability for your desired departure date.
$1,3912-3 travelers
Notes
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*The tour itinerary may need to be modified in order to visit each market.
Initial deposit is $400 plus cost of internal airfare, and most travelers will call our office and pay the deposit with a credit card.
Final payment is due 70 days (10 weeks) prior to departure by Bank transfer, check or credit card. All final payments by credit card may be subject to a surcharge and maximum of $20,000 charge
Our guide and driver were very good with their knowledge and were very helpful with our questions. It was a very pleasant visit that would have been impossible to do on our own. Hotels and restaurants were fantastic. The special places we got to go to, like the kitchens, were great. Enjoyed the entire trip!
Meyer Smolen
TrustScore 4.8 | 254 reviews
TrustScore 4.8 of 5
Based on 254 reviews on
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The holiday of a lifetime. The company is Alaksa-owned and thhat makes a big difference to the experineces you get i.e. meet genuine First Nations tribes people. The amount of wildlife was beyond my expectation, and seeing everything on sucha small, intimate boat made it even more spoecial and unique.
Liz O
1 day ago
Adventure Life covered all the details in planning our trip to Ireland. Any questions we had were answered immediately. Any trip glitches, which always happen when traveling, were resolved immediately. There were no worries, just fun!
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It was an outstanding, up-close, educational vacation of nature, culture, history, animals and geology! It was everything they promised! Binoculars were plentiful on the boat, but I'm glad I brought my own. Food was excellent. Rooms had black-out shades. Pack/wear multiple layers of clothing (I carried a small backpack when off the ship). Crew were delightful and very accommodating! Remember to jump FEET FIRST first when taking the optional polar plunge! Spend as much time outdoors as you are able and ENJOY!!!
Janet Dutton
6 days ago
Excellent travel advice and service
This is my second experience working with Adventure Life. I’m sold. Jess Heuermann is an experienced traveler and provides a lot of useful information when planning a trip. These are the questions I like to ask at the outset - What’s it like to go here, there, what would you suggest, what do people report, can we add any additional side trips? Jess took the time to answer my questions and seek additional information to share with me. Petchie Colina is outstanding in helping with travel logistics and final preparations. Adventure Life has excellent guides and offers private guides and small group adventures. We enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the guides and drivers to learn more about their countries, cultures and histories. A highlight was having the guides pick local restaurants where we could share meals together. Highly recommend.
Claire Cordon
1 week ago
Our six-day tour in Iceland went smoothly with one exception. We had asked for two rooms each night. Somehow we were booked with one room with three beds. It could not be fixed at the first hotel in Reykjavik because the hotel was fully booked. Once informed of the problem, however, Adventure Life rebooked for two rooms for the remainder of the trip. As an 85-year-old traveler, I appreciated that one could participate at different physical levels at many of the stops. Iceland is a great place to visit but on the expensive side.