The Ultimate 10 Day Guatemala Itinerary with Kids
Looking for a family-friendly Guatemala itinerary for 10 days? You're in the right place!
Our family of 6 just returned from an epic adventure in Guatemala this summer. We included 3 destinations: Lake Atitlán, Antigua, and Tikal National Park, with one overnight stay in Guatemala City before our flight home.
I had been drawn to Guatemala for years after seeing photos of the colorful markets and epic scenery, so I was excited to finally be making this trip a reality!
As a full-time travel content creator who plans multiple trips for my family each year, I want to be transparent about the realities of planning a trip to Guatemala. I actually found it a bit more difficult to plan due to a lack of tourism infrastructure.
Compared to other countries in Central America, like Costa Rica, Guatemala is a bit more under the radar, which is part of the appeal. It also means you'll have to do a little more research to book your dream trip. I'm hoping this blog post will be a good jumping-off point.
Despite the difficulties I had in planning our trip to Guatemala, the experience itself was truly magical. Everything went smoothly, no one got sick from the water, and we felt safe and welcome everywhere we went.
Guatemala is a beautiful country, so if you're considering taking a trip there, I would encourage you to make it a reality! It's a great place to explore with elementary-age kids and up!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click on a link and make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Planning Difficulties
Before we jump into the logistics of the trip, I want to share a few of the planning challenges I had. This is not to scare you off but to help you figure out how to navigate these situations.
Websites vs WhatsApp
Many businesses in Guatemala don't have a website, or if they do, it's rudimentary and not very user-friendly. They don't always respond to email, either, but prefer to use WhatsApp instead.
If you're not familiar with WhatsApp, it's a messaging app that uses the internet to send messages or files like pictures and videos. If you're planning a trip to Guatemala and you don't already have the app downloaded, I would suggest doing that first.
We booked both of our private tours over WhatsApp, which felt a little "risky" to me since I didn't have any confirmation email or number, or anything "official" to confirm that I had indeed booked a tour.
As I mentioned, everything worked out very well, but it took some getting used to!
Lack of Information
There is simply not as much information online and on social media about Guatemala travel, especially Guatemala travel with kids. Much of the information I was able to find was outdated.
Something that really helped me was joining a Guatemala travel Facebook group! I love that people share their personal experiences with tour guides, hotels, and private drivers.
It seems like Guatemala tourism really still operates on word-of-mouth marketing, so I chose people or service providers who seemed to have a number of glowing recommendations from the Facebook group and messaged them on WhatsApp.
Cash is King
While many stores and restaurants in Guatemala do accept credit cards - even many stalls in the marketplace accept credit cards - when it came to paying for tours and paying our drivers, they all asked for the payment to be in cash.
I know this isn't so much about planning as it is about the experience on the ground in Guatemala, but it did make things a little more difficult since we weren't able to pay in advance for tours, and we always had to worry about how much cash we had on us.
I think the planning part that comes into play here is that you need to make sure you have a way to withdraw money from ATMs in Guatemala. Make sure you bring a debit card, alert your bank to the fact that you'll be traveling and that you know your PIN. (I feel like I have to say this because I ONLY use credit cards or Apple Pay 99% of the time in the US and in my travels, so it took me a second to remember my debit card's PIN!
Guatemala 10-Day Itinerary with Kids: Lake Atitlán, Antigua, and Tikal
Ok, now that we've gotten the planning difficulties out of the way, let's jump into the fun part: what to do with kids in Guatemala.
First I'll share our itinerary overview, and then I'll break down the details of each day of the trip.
Itinerary Overview
Day 1: fly into Guatemala City and hire a private driver to take you to Lake Atitlan. It should take about 3.5 hours - bring motion sickness medication!
Day 2: Relax at Airbnb, take a lancha (speed boat) to Panajachel
Day 3: Take a lancha to San Juan La Laguna and San Marcos La Laguna
Day 4: Go back to Panajachel and visit the Reserva Natural Atitlan where you can go zip lining, hike, cross the hanging bridges, and visit a butterfly garden.
Day 5: Transfer from Lake Atitlan to Antigua.
Day 6: Hike Pacaya Volcano and roast marshmallows at the top!
Day 7: Explore Antigua, visit the markets, attend a chocolate-making class, and make your own chocolate bar.
Day 8: Transfer from Antigua to Guatemala City. Option 1: head home if you only want a week-long trip. Option 2: Fly to Flores. Relax at your hotel for the afternoon, or explore the town of Flores.
Day 9: Relax at your hotel in the morning, and take a sunset tour of Tikal National Park to see the ancient ruins of a Mayan City. Watch the sun sink below the horizon from the top of a Mayan pyramid.
Day 10: Relaxing breakfast at your hotel, then afternoon flight back to Guat City. You can catch a flight home from here, or spend the night and get your flight home in the morning.
Day 1: Arrival and Transfer to Lake Atitlan
We flew into Guatemala City via American Airlines for our 10-day Guatemala adventure.
Our flight landed in Guatemala around 2 p.m., and we had arranged for a private driver to pick us up from the airport and drive us to Lake Atitlan, which was the first stop on our itinerary. Lake Atitlan is over 3 hours away from the airport, and the journey involves winding roads. I would not recommend making this drive much later in the day than we did. We arrived in Panajachel, the largest town around Lake Atitlan, around sunset, and we still had to take a speedboat across the lake to get to our Airbnb (more on that later).
If your flight arrives later in the afternoon or evening, I would recommend flipping Antigua and Lake Atitlan on your itinerary and starting your trip in Antigua, which is much closer to the airport.
We arranged our driver through our Airbnb, but I will share the information here in case you want to book our driver! The company is called Relaxicab, and you can find all of their contact information here. There's a button to contact their WhatsApp, which is probably the best and fastest way to arrange transport. Our driver, Carlos, was professional, friendly, and SO accommodating. I had to ask to stop twice to get cash from the ATM because I realized after the first stop that I hadn't taken enough out. He knew the best and safest places to stop and didn't seem annoyed or put out at all. He had several suggestions for places to stop for dinner if we wanted and was overall a pleasure to work with.
One thing to note: we requested car seats but they did not end up bringing any, which happened to us in Costa Rica, too. Just note that if you would feel more comfortable with little kids in a car seat, you're probably better off bringing your own.
As I mentioned before, we arrived in Panajachel in Lake Atitlan around sunset. Our driver stopped at a grocery store so we could stock up on food for our Airbnb. We had arranged for a private boat transfer to take us to our Airbnb in San Marcos La Laguna, so after we finished up at the grocery store, we met up with our speedboat driver. (Here is a link to our Airbnb - one of the most unique places we've ever stayed!)
Day 2: Panajachel and San Marcos La Laguna
Our main goal on our first day in Lake Atitlan was to relax at our Airbnb and explore some of the towns along the shores of Lake Atitlan.
After a slow morning of coffee and breakfast enjoying the volcano views from Casa Paloma (the name of our Airbnb), we decided to figure out how the lancha speedboats work! A lancha is a water taxi that takes people from town to town along Lake Atitlan.
The public lanchas run from around 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. and require you to pay in cash. The cost is around Q25 (25 Guatemalan Quetzales is around $3.25 USD) per boat ride per person. So plan to have at least Q50 per person (for the boat ride there and back) in cash for each day in Lake Atitlan if you plan to use the lanchas - more if you plan to visit multiple towns!
There is also the option to arrange for a private lancha to take you to multiple towns around the lake in one day, which I feel would be a perfect option if you have a limited amount of time in Lake Atitlan.
We discovered that our Airbnb had a flag on our private dock that we could wave whenever we saw a lancha going in the direction we wanted to go! Lancahs come around every 15-20 minutes, so we found we were never waiting for too long.
On our first day, we spent the morning exploring the markets in Panajachel, looking for souvenirs for the kids before heading back to our home for lunch and an afternoon nap.
We were supposed to meet up with my in-laws at the airport in Guatemala City and drive from the airport to Lake Atitlan together, but their flights got delayed due to the weather in Dallas, so they missed their flight to Guatemala City. Due to this change of plans, we spent the first day without them, and they would arrive at our Airbnb that evening.
Since we wanted to be prepared for their arrival, we decided to walk from our Airbnb into the town of San Marcos. It was an easy 10-minute walk along a dirt road. We got ice cream, explored the markets, and picked up a few more grocery items for that night.
We decided to hire a tuk-tuk to drive us back to our Airbnb, where we made it back just in time to greet Grandma and Grandpa!
Day 3: San Juan La Laguna
We started our day with a slow breakfast and coffee since Grandma and Grandpa were recovering from a long and stressful travel day.
Mid-morning, our entire family took the lancha to the village of San Juan, one of the most charming, colorful, and artistic stops around Lake Atitlan.
Our first stop was a cafe called Cafe La Cabaña, a very Instagrammable spot along the water. We grabbed brunch and enjoyed the beautiful views before heading into town to do some shopping at the markets. We considered taking a hike up to El Mirador de San Juan, but we could tell the kids were getting crabby in the heat of the day, so we decided to head back instead.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing, walking into San Marcos again, taking a tuk tuk back to our Airbnb, and making dinner.
Day 4: Zip Lining in Panajachel
We had an early start on our 4th day because we scheduled a zip-lining tour at Reserva Natural Atitlan. This nature reserve is located in Panajachel, so we took a lancha back to the largest city on the lake for some adventure!
Reserva Natural Atitlan
Atitlan Nature Reserve is made up of a visitor center, a butterfly house, a playground, nature trails, natural forest, a zipline course, hanging bridges, and more. This is one fo the best things to do in Lake Atitlan with kids even if you don't want to zipline!
Kids can visit the butterfly house, play on the playground, hike the nature trails, see spider monkeys or coatis, walk across a hanging bridge, or eat at the restaurant.
Our kids are ages 4, 7, 9, and 11, and they were all old enough to participate in the zip line tour. We did the Cables X-Tremos which costs Q280 per person (that's around $36 USD). The price of the zipline tour also includes your entrance fee to the reserve.
Tours leave at 9:00 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, and 3:00 pm and take you across 8 zip lines, which last for about 90 minutes. You must be able to hike to the top of the zipline course, which in my opinion was the toughest part with kids. You're hiking 1478 feet with an ascent of 262 feet in the heat with your ziplining gear on.
Their policy is that kids ages 3 and up can participate and that if you can climb up, you can glide down. Our youngest two kids got to tandem zipline with guides since they weren't quite heavy enough to make it across the long zipline cable lengths.
My husband's parents could also participate, and the maximum age allowed is 85 years old. They are very active at home, cycling and hiking often, so while this was outside their comfort zone, they also were in great shape to do it.
There were some nerves leading up to the tour, but once we got started on the first zipline we were all smiles. We had such a good time, and our kid who was most nervous about the zipline (our 7-year-old) was begging us to go again at the end. The best part was watching my kids conquer their fears and feel the freedom of flying over the forest canopy.
You could easily spend the entire day exploring Reserva Natural Atitlan, but we felt a half day was the perfect amount of time for our group.
We spent the afternoon back at the Airbnb relaxing, swimming in the lake, and testing out the paddle boards provided by our Airbnb hosts. Jumping off our private dock into the lake with a view of active volcanoes in the distance is something I'll never forget!
Day 5: Transfer to Antigua
On Day 5 we said goodbye to Atitlan and hello to Antigua, a UNESCO World Heritage Site! We packed our bags and met up with the same private driver we had on our first day, Carlos. This time we did not take a boat to Panajachel, but instead had him pick us up right outside our Airbnb. I'm still not sure if that was the right choice because the drive around the lake from San Marcos was winding and a bit scary, but the views were spectacular.
We left Atitlan around 10 a.m. and arrived in Antigua just after 1 p.m. Our Airbnb in Antigua wasn't quite ready for us, but they allowed us to drop off our bags before heading into town to explore!
We stopped at ChocoMuseo to reserve a chocolate-making class for our last evening in Antigua since I had a tough time navigating the website, but we mostly just wandered the cobbled streets of this beautiful colonial city.
Once we were officially checked into our Airbnb, we let the kids go swimming in our private pool before heading out to dinner at a nearby restaurant. We ended up eating at a sourdough pizza place called La Familia Pizzeria y Panaderia and it was SO good. We also picked up a loaf of sourdough and some jam for breakfast the next morning since we had an early tour planned.
Day 6: Hiking Pacaya Volcano
On our first full day in Antigua Guatemala, we took a guided tour day trip to Pacaya Volcano where we hiked to the lava field (not quite the summit). This was such a unique experience because once we reached the lava field we got to roast marshmallows over the steam vents from the volcano!
We booked a private tour which included a private transfer to and from Antigua, an expert guide to take us to the lava field and back, and the marshmallow roasting experience. We booked our tour on WhatsApp with a certified tour guide, Diego Perez, whom I found in one of the aforementioned Facebook groups (you can find his information here).
He charged us $385 total for our group of 8 people, and that price included everything mentioned above.
The main reason I booked a private tour was that I had a hard time finding group tours that would accept kids. After completing this experience, I'm really glad we took a private tour because our group ended up moving pretty slowly up the volcano with young kids and grandparents. Even though we're all in good shape, the climb is difficult with a steep vertical ascent. It's not technically hard and there aren't really steep dropoffs, so kids in theory could do it on their own. However, with the heat and the steepness of the climb, our kids were losing their cool and whining quite a bit.
For that reason, we decided to pay for horses to take the kids to the lava fields. The guides allowed 2 kids on each horse (one big kid, and one younger kid), so we only had to pay for 2. Each horse cost around USD 50 for the trip up and down the volcano. Don't forget extra cash to tip tour guides and the horse guides!
I think our older kids could have completed the hike on their own if we pushed them (ages 9 and 11). I'm glad we decided to relent and get them a horse halfway up. It made the hike much more peaceful for the adults.
The travel time to Pacaya Volcano from Antigua is around an hour, and we started around 6:00 a.m., so we were back in Antigua by 1 p.m.
We had the rest of the day to relax, swim, and take a walk through the city.
Day 7: Arco de Santa Catalina and Chocolate Making Class
For our last day in Antigua, we got up early to take photos by the Santa Catalina Arch, which is the iconic yellow landmark located on 5th Avenue North in the historic city of Antigua. The area around the arch gets crowded by early afternoon, so we wanted to make sure we got a few pictures and videos without too many other people in it.
Afterward, we visited Parque Central, the plaza in the center of Antigua, and the artisan market located across from the plaza. For lunch, we had an authentic Guatemalan meal at La Fonda de la Calle Real, which was recommended to us by our tour guide the day before. Try the Pepian de Pollo! We found the food to be simple but good, and the prices were a little more expensive than you might be used to paying in Guatemala.
At the risk of being too cultured, we went to McDonald's for dessert! The McDonald's in Antigua is renowned for being one of the most beautiful in the world. It has a stunning courtyard with views of the volcano on a clear day and a few little play areas for kids. I would recommend stopping here once while you're in Antigua so you can compare the menu items with the McDonald's restaurants in the United States, and just to enjoy the atmosphere!
To finish our day, we attended a 1-hour chocolate-making class at ChocoMuseo. It was the perfect length of time for kids, and overall, it was a great experience. We got to make our own chocolate bars with toppings of our choice, and we learned about the chocolate-making process that is specific to Guatemala.
Day 8: Travel Day to Flores, Guatemala
We had the best time with my husband's parents in Lake Atitlan and Antigua! Unfortunately, we said goodbye to them on Day 8. We both had flights out of Guatemala City, so we shared a private transfer from Antigua to La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City. The grandparents were going back home to the United States while we took a short flight to Flores, Guatemala which would be our base for visiting Tikal National Park!
We stayed at Las Lagunas Boutique Hotel, a luxury property located in the heart of the jungle, and one of the best places to stay in Peten, Guatemala!
One of the services included in our stay at Las Lagunas was complimentary airport pickup and dropoff in an air-conditioned van. This is a true luxury since it gets quite hot in the jungle!
Once you arrive, both the adults and kids are greeted with refreshing welcome drinks and cold, essential oil-infused towels.
The employees take the time to learn each guest's name, as it is quite a small and intimate property. They then showed us to our rooms. We booked the only connecting rooms on the property, which thankfully could accommodate our family of 6. The rooms are standalone cabins, but ours were connected by an exterior walkway.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing, swimming, and enjoying a fantastic dinner at the Shultun restaurant on property. Shultun has delicious food including both local cuisine and kid-friendly comfort food.
Day 9: Tour of Tikal National Park
We booked the sunset tour of Tikal, so we spent a relaxing morning eating our complimentary breakfast (breakfast is included in your stay) and swimming in the pool. We booked the tour through the hotel, and since they knew exactly what time we had to leave, they took special care to make sure we had plenty of time to eat lunch before our departure.
There is a Pool Bar, so we ordered our lunch while the kids finished swimming, and then enjoyed our meal poolside. By 2 p.m. we met in the lobby of the hotel to start our tour.
We decided to splurge on a private tour, and I'm so glad we did! Our private guide personalized our tour to the kids' interests, spending tons of time viewing wildlife like howler monkeys, tarantulas, spider monkeys, toucans, and parrots in the lush jungles of Tikal.
He also told stories about the Mayans and what each archaeological site was used for in a way the kids could easily understand. The Mayan ruins were incredible to see in person, and we even got to watch the sunset from the top of a Mayan pyramid. We came face-to-face with a howler monkey swinging in a tree, and were mere feet from a pair of toucans! It was such a surreal and magical experience.
Day 10: Back to Guatemala City
As our time in Flores came to a close, we had one more exciting experience before we had to be at the airport. Our hotel offered free boat tours to Monkey Island where you can watch the employees feed the local monkeys that live on the island. One monkey named Margarita likes to join groups on the boat, so the kids loved sitting inches away from a monkey eating a piece of fruit. Such a wild and unique experience in the tropical rainforest!
We arranged our trip back to the airport for the early afternoon and took a direct flight back to Guatemala City.
The only hotel we could find in Guatemala City that could accommodate our family of 6 was the Adriatika Hotel. The suite we booked was more like an apartment with a full kitchen, 2 bedrooms, and a pullout couch in the living room.
They did offer a shuttle to and from the airport but for an extra fee. I believe it was around $35 each way for our family of 6.
Our flight was the next morning, so we just spent a quick night in Guatemala City before heading back to the United States.
Thoughts on Our Guatemala Family Vacation
Guatemala was one of the most unique and exciting family vacations we've taken so far!
While it did require some extra work upfront, I'm so glad we made this vacation a reality. It's a fun vacation for families that want to get off the beaten path, interact with local people, practice some Spanish, and enjoy outdoor activities.
This was one of our favorite family trips, and I would highly recommend this trip to other families.
You can certainly travel to Guatemala with babies and toddlers, but here are my thoughts as a mom of 4. Our youngest is 4 years old, and there were several times during the trip when I mentioned to my husband that the trip would have been SO much harder with a toddler. None of the destinations we visited were stroller-friendly, and things like getting on and off the lancha boats in Lake Atitlan would have been a little nerve-wracking for parents of toddlers.
If you have babies and toddlers, I would personally recommend Costa Rica as a great alternative before you plan a trip to Guatemala when they're slightly older!
Tips for Traveling with a Toddler
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Emily Krause is a Wisconsin-based travel content creator who writes about exploring the world with kids.
On A Mom Explores you’ll find the best family travel destinations, Disney World tips, and how to make travel with babies and toddlers a little easier.
Emily believes that exploring starts in our own backyards, and adventure can happen anywhere with the right mindset.
