Antigua is a top tourist destination when traveling to Guatemala, not only visited by backpackers and digital nomads, but also by tour groups and traveling families. Most travelers use the city as a hub to visit other places in the country.
Over the past few years, we visited Antigua again and again.
We really started feeling at home in this city. That’s one of the strengths of Antigua: it welcomes you and embraces you like a long lost child. Within days, it makes you feel at home!
Over time, we established a nice comprehensive list of the best things to do in Antigua Guatemala.
These are a few sights and activities to spice up your trip to Antigua.
Some activities are very well known and extremely popular, while others are more off the beaten path. We even included an Antigua activity that has been kept a secret for a very long time!
Some of our posts contain affiliate links. This means if you purchase something through one of these links, we get a small commission on the sale. You will never pay extra for an affiliate product. Thanks for your support!
Parque Central - Main City Square
The main city square of Antigua is a no brainer!
You have to walk through and sit down on one of the benches for a little while, just to watch local life unravel in front of you.
Watch the local women sell goods to tourists, accompanied by their children and grandchildren. You’ll also see children selling goods to tourists, which is a whole different story. I’d recommend you to not buy goods from children in order to help break the circle of child labour in countries like Guatemala.
Without any doubt, the Parque Central of Antigua is a nice place to relax.
The Santa Catalina Arch
This is without any doubt the most photographed spot in the entire city of Antigua!
The arch was built in the seventeenth century and it once served to help the Santa Catalina nuns to cross the street from the convent to the school across the street without being seen by anyone, since they had taken a vow of seclusion.
The arch has been restored over the years, but it has not been destructed by the many severe earthquakes that struck the area over the centuries.
That’s why the Santa Catalina arch is a symbol of resilience for Antigua. The former nunnery of Santa Catalina is now a hotel.
Park Tanque La Union
Tanque La Union is a small park, which is located a bit out of the city center.
It’s worth the short walk in order to see the former lavanderia from the old days. A few years ago, you could still find local women doing laundry in the bassins which are designed as a laundry station, but the last time we visited the washing bassin wasn’t being used by anyone.
Even if the place isn’t in use anymore, it is still a very nice sight! The park is located next to the Santa Clara convent.
Convents and nunneries
In Antigua, quite a few convents and nunneries, which date from colonial times, can be found.
Most of them are ruins and were abandoned after different major earthquakes in the area. The fact that they’re actually ruins makes them very authentic and awesome places to visit.
These 4 Convents are the most interesting ones to check out in Antigua:
Convento Capuchinas
The church and Convento Capuchinas is one of the most beautiful nunneries in the cities. It is the most visited and the most beautiful one.
If you choose only one Convento to visit, make it this one!
Entrance Fee: 40 Q for foreigners (locals and children pay a lot less)
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday from 9 to 16h (except on holidays)
Convento Santa Catalina
This convent is the second most viewed convent in Antigua, simply because it is located near the famous arch!
The convent is now a hotel, but the famous arch remains as a part of the convent. There’s also a small piece of the garden that remains. In this garden, they’ve put some religious statues you can see from the street.
Convento Santa Clara
The Convento Santa Clara can be found near Parque Tanque La Union.
Entrance Fee: 40 Q for foreigners (locals and children pay a lot less)
Opening hours: Every day from 9 to 17h (except on holidays)
Convento de San Jeronimo
San Jeronimo is located near the local market. You can look inside through the gate or pay a fee to enter the actual ruins. This convent was actually never fully built before it was destructed by an earthquake. The ruins mostly consist of a garden with walls around it.
Entrance Fee: 40 Q for foreigners (locals and children pay a lot less)
Opening hours: Every day from 9 – 17h (except on holidays)
La Merced Church
La Merced is also one of the main tourist attractions.
The recognisable yellow building dates back to the mid sixteenth century and has been destroyed and rebuilt several times after earthquakes hit the region. Iglesia La Merced is a famous landmark in Antigua and the main facade is built in a baroque style.
It’s possible to enter the church or just watch it from the outside. La Merced is also a main hub where the procession for Semana Santa walks by.
Entrance Fee: Entering the church costs 15 Q for foreigners
You can watch the outside of the Merced for free
Opening hours: Every day from 9 – 18h (except on holidays)
More Churches
Well, we’re not huge fans of churches anyway, but these churches are special!
It’s just the way they look from the outside, which makes them look like either ruins or works of art.
El Carmen Church
This church looks majestic!
After it was partly destroyed during an earthquake in the 18th century, people abandoned the place and the facade still looks exactly the same… partly destroyed.
You can’t enter this church.
San Francisco Church
The San Francisco Church is the largest church in Antigua.
It was first built in the 16th century and it was destroyed and abandoned after an earthquake. Now, you can visit the church and gardens.
Fun fact
The ruins of the San Francisco Church are used as a film set in the 1935 ‘New Adventures of Tarzan’. The church was in worse condition back then! It has been restored later. Check minute 54 in the movie!
Largest fountain in Central America
The fountain at La Merced is one of the less known sights in Antigua.
Guide books and travel guides don’t usually mention this highlight. When you visit this fountain, you might be there all by yourself. So don’t tell anyone and we can keep it a secret!
This fountain is the largest in Central America. It was built in the sixteenth century and has been partially destroyed by an earthquake and restored again. At some point in history, local monks used the fountain to breed fish.
You can climb the stairs of the surrounding building and walk around the fountain with great views from above. The fountain itself wasn’t operational when we visited and I’m not sure if it ever is, but it’s still an impressive view!
Entrance Fee: Visiting the fountain is included in the entrance fee for La Merced
Opening hours: Every day from 9 – 18h (except on holidays)
Handicraft markets
On quite a few different spots in Antigua, you can check out various handicrafts markets. Some are more expensive than others.
I’ll just name a few in this list. You will soon notice that Antigua is simply full of artisanal shops. The ones we mention here are larger and interesting.
Nim Pot’
Nim Pot’ is one of the largest and most popular souvenir shops in Antigua. In this store, you can find cheap souvenirs of all kinds. It’s actually more of a warehouse.
This shop is located near the Catalina Arch.
Opening hours: Every day from 9 to 21h (except on holidays)
Where: 5a Avenida Norte, not too far from the Arch.
Mercado Artesanias
Next to the local market, there’s also an artisanal market. You might need to check the address in your GPS, because e thought it was kind of hidden at first.
This place offers better quality products at higher prices. Definitely worth to check out if you’re look for high quality textile and other beautiful souvenirs.
Opening hours: Every day from 8 to 18h
Where: Calle Poniente – Behind the Pollo Campero
Mercado de Artesanias El Carmen
This handicraft market is located next to the El Carmen Church.
It’s an open air market where locals sell their goods from a blanket on the street.
Open: Every day from 8 – 20h (not always equally busy)
Where: In front of the El Carmen church
Local Market
The local market is a sight that is skipped by many visitors, but we do recommend walking through the mercado at least once. It’s not really much of a handicrafts market and more a place where locals do their usual shopping.
Here, you can find fresh vegetables, spices, and other food, but also shoes, clothing, kitchenware, … Really anything!
It feels as if you would get lost in this maze of small corridors with hundreds of stalls selling different goods. But even if you get lost, it won’t take you long to find the main road again. I always think that the main attraction of places like these, is to get lost for a while before returning to the touristy streets of Antigua.
Free Walking tour Antigua
Antigua is a cute colonial town that lends itself perfectly for walking around on your own. You can just walk around and hope to find some cool sights, which you probably will, or you can download an app to show you the best walking tours in town.
For the best self-guided walking tours on your phone, check the GPS My City app, which allows you to download the different walks for offline use.
Take some classes
Antigua offers an abundance in different types of classes. You can learn Spanish, take cooking classes, salsa classes, yoga classes, … and many other options!
Cooking classes
Some cooking classes show you the entire process of making food in Antigua. They take you to the local market and then teach you how to make delicious local dishes. Check out the best cooking class in Antigua!
Or check out this food tour in Antigua.
Salsa Classes
Antigua has a few salsa schools in the city. We didn’t try any of them, since we only discovered that it was possible right before we left.
If you want to learn salsa, check out the New Sensation Salsa Studio, Salsa Dreams, or Salsa y Mas dance studios. The Salsa y Mas studio offers a free try out!
Spanish Classes
Antigua is the walhalla for backpackers who want to study Spanish before they continue their travels into Latin America.
It’s a nice place to stay for a while and learn the language meanwhile!
We took Spanish classes in Antigua a few years ago and loved the experience. For us too, it was an awesome reason to stay longer, much longer!
You could also learn a little bit of Spanish before you leave home with an online language course!
Chocolate museum and chocolate workshops
Guatemala as well as Mexico are great locations for cacao to grow, so both countries offer some options for chocolate making.
In Antigua alone, two chocolate museums can be found and both offer a diversity of activities for travelers.
You can either learn to make chocolate, visit the chocolate museum, or even take a tour to the plantations.
Check the ChocoMuseo website to learn more about the different options.
Hike up to the Cerro de la Cruz
For amazing views over the city, the Cerro de la Cruz would probably the best place to go!
The Cerro de la Cruz is a hill you can hike near Antigua. The hike is only 30 to 45 minutes before you reach the cross and the view point.
We never hiked this trail. Keep reading to find out why!
This activity comes with a great warning!
I know that most travel guides recommend this activity and nobody ever talks about safety. We want to talk about safety regarding this hike.
Each time we visited Antigua, we tried to do the hike. But each time, we were discouraged by locals who told us that it wasn’t safe. An elderly couple stopped us on the street on our way to the Cerro. They advised us not to go there.
Tourists get mugged or robbed on this trail constantly.
If you really want to do this hike, ask about it in your hostel. They will be able to give you recent and updated information about safety.
Seasonal activities in Antigua
Some Antigua activities can only be done during some seasons or particular days during the year.
Semana Santa
Semana Santa takes place during the week before Easter, with the highlights of the celebration on Easter. This day, a huge parade walks through the entire city.
People are dressed up for the occasion and the procession is a delight to watch. Floats are being carried through the colonial streets in order to re-enact the crucification of Christ.
These floats can weight up to a few thousand kg and are carried by a dozen to hundred men.
All over town, you see men wearing purple robes, which symbolise the mourning process.
If you are in the neighbourhood of Antigua during this period, we definitely recommend planning your visit on the right dates in order to witness those special days.
When:
The events take place before Easter. Dates vary, but usually this is between the end of March and the end of April.
On Palm Sunday, the actual procession takes place.
Flowers Carpets during Holy Week
Also during the Semana Santa Week, locals from surrounding villages create beautiful flower carpets or ‘Alfombras’ to celebrate the Holy Week or Easter.
Preparations for the flower carpets start weeks or months before the actual event. These works of art consist of flowers and coloured sand, forming beautiful and colourful scenes, biblical symbols, and traditional Mayan symbols.
You can either watch the flower carpets in Antigua or in some of the surrounding villages.
The colourful carpets get trampled by the processions, so if you want to see them, arrive before the procession!
When to visit:
To see the flower carpets at their best, walk the procession route in the early morning of Good Friday.
Activities outside of Antigua
Aside from all the cool things you can do in the city itself, there are also quite a few things to do in the area surrounding Antigua!
Hike up a volcano
The three most popular volcanoes to hike in the Antigua region are Acatenango, Pacaya, and Fuego. Each have their individual charm and level of difficulty.
Acatenango volcano hike requires a multiple day hike in order to reach to top at sunrise on the second day. Even though this hike could be done in one day. We recommend doing the 2 day hike. This way, you get to see the top of nearby volcanoes glow during the night and the sunrise view of the surrounding volcanoes is just amazing.
Volcan Pacaya and Volcan Fuego are 2 different volcanoes, which aren’t completely dormant. So you’re not always allowed to hike them, since they have a tendency to erupt. Check with your hostel what the current option for volcano hiking and marshmallow roasting are! Read more about hiking Pacaya.
Chichicastenango
The handicrafts market of Chichicastenango is something else. This market can not be compared to the other handicraft markets in this list!
As the largest handicraft market in Guatemala, Chichi is more than worthy of a complete day to spend there. It takes some time to get there and you can walk around the market for hours!
This market is an excellent place to practice your bargaining skills, because prices can drop very quickly once you try and test your skills!
Chichicastenango is a village, not too far from Lake Atitlan. You can visit the market from Antigua, but if Atitlan is also in your itinerary, than you can also visit it from there!
Visit a coffee farm
Guatemala has a world famous coffee industry and Antigua is the perfect place to book a coffee tour!
You can discover the entire process from farm to cup during these all-inclusive and interesting tours.
Submerge into the Guatemalan coffee culture for one entire day during this excellent coffee tour.
Map of top things to do in Antigua Guatemala
Found any things to do in Antigua Guatemala?
As you can see, Antigua has a lot to offer for all types of travelers and it should be included in every Guatemala itinerary!
Are you still looking for reasons to visit the country? Check out our complete backpacking guide for Guatemala.
From Antigua, you can easily take day trips all over the country of Guatemala or you can cross the border into Mexico or El Salvador.
Have you been to Antigua? Maybe you found more interesting sights and activities!
Let us know in the comments below!
Pin it!
