Assumption Festival in the highlands

Meals included: Breakfast at the hotel and lunch with a Maya family
Accommodation: Hotel (Panajachel – 2nd night)     

Lake Atitlán is considered one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, as writer Aldous Huxley once said. Set at 1 500 m (4 900 ft) in the tropical zone, it lies within an ancient caldera surrounded by three towering volcanoes of over 3 000 m (9 840 ft).
A scenic boat crossing from north to south takes you between these majestic volcanic peaks to a quiet bay where, early in the morning, fishermen glide across the water in their traditional wooden boats.
In Santiago Atitlán, you’ll admire the intricate, colorful clothing of the Tz’utujil Maya. Women wear richly embroidered huipiles and long red headwraps known as tocoyales, while men sport white embroidered pants decorated with colorful birds. You’ll also visit Maximón, a contemporary Maya deity venerated in a small chapel maintained by his brotherhood. The rituals—filled with flowers, incense, candles, and offerings of alcohol—are a striking mix of ancient and modern devotion.
Continuing by boat, you’ll sail beneath the imposing slopes of San Pedro Volcano toward San Juan La Laguna, one of the loveliest villages on the lake. Here, women’s cooperatives preserve ancestral textile and dyeing traditions using local plants. You’ll share a traditional lunch with a Maya family, organized by a local ecotourism association.

Boat ride back to Panajachel on the northern shore.
Second overnight stay in Panajachel.

Included meals: Breakfast at the hotel and dinner with a Maya host family.
Accommodation: Homestay.

Drive to the village of Chichicastenango, rich in living traditions. One of the few surviving pre-Columbian texts, the Popol Vuh—considered the sacred book of the K’iche’ Maya—was discovered here.

Today, the town is best known for its incredibly colorful markets and fascinating scenes of religious syncretism that unfold daily in and around its 16th-century colonial church. The church was built on the foundations of an ancient Maya temple; its stairway has 18 steps, one for each month of the Maya solar calendar.

As you wander through the narrow streets, you’ll discover one of the most famous handicraft markets in the region — a true explosion of colors! You’ll find wooden carvings, silver jewelry, textiles, fruits, and the traditional incense known as copal. Among the finest local crafts are the embroidered huipils (blouses worn by Maya women) and the beautifully carved masks used in traditional dances.

Just a ten-minute walk from the center lies the town’s colorful cemetery, where you may witness Maya families performing ancestral ceremonies to honor their ancestors. Nearby, the Pascual Abaj hill serves as a sacred site for rituals that blend ancient Maya beliefs with Catholic elements.

In the middle of the afternoon, drive across the highlands and their volcanoes along the Pan-American Highway to reach Totonicapán.

Dinner and overnight with a Maya host family—a warm opportunity to share a moment of everyday life in the Highlands and experience true Maya hospitality.

Included meals: Breakfast with your host family.
Accommodation: Hotel (Huehuetenango)

Follow the Pan-American Highway across the highlands to the village of San Francisco El Alto, located at 2,630 m (8,630 ft). Take a walk through one of the largest indigenous markets in the region—featuring livestock, brightly embroidered textiles, pinewood furniture, and fruits and spices from all over the country. Near the market, you may also observe Maya ceremonies performed against a spectacular mountain backdrop. After exploring this immense market, continue with a visit to several Maya villages in the area: Zunil, with its beautiful traditional cemetery dominated by the Santa María Volcano (3,770 m / 12,370 ft); San Andrés Xecul, whose church has an incredibly colorful façade; and Salcajá, home to the oldest church in Central America, founded in 1524.

Then travel along a scenic road winding through patchwork fields cultivated by hand to reach the Fuentes Georginas hot springs. Here you can relax in large natural pools of steaming thermal water on the slopes of the Zunil Volcano, surrounded by a lush mountain jungle filled with giant tree ferns. Little visited by travelers because it lies off the main tourist routes, the Quetzaltenango region offers beautiful natural sites and traditional Maya villages rich in heritage.

In the late afternoon, drive to the town of Huehuetenango (1,900 m / 6,230 ft), at the foot of the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes.
Overnight in Huehuetenango.

Meals included: Breakfast
Accommodation : Hotel (Quetzaltenango).

Transfer to the Cuchumatanes high plateau. At the summit viewpoint (3,300 m / 10,830 ft), on a clear day you can see the volcanoes of the volcanic range: Tacaná, Tajumulco (the highest in Central America at 4,222 m / 13,852 ft), Santa María, and Atitlán. This mountain chain, formed by tectonic uplift, rises between 1,800 m and 3,900 m (5,900–12,800 ft) and features remarkably diverse vegetation. It is the highest non-volcanic mountain range in all of Central America. According to some historians, the Maya language family originated in this very region about 4,600 years ago. The Sierra de los Cuchumatanes presents landscapes unlike any other in Guatemala: vast plateaus covered with giant agaves and pine forests.

The Guatemalan writer Miguel Ángel Asturias (Nobel Prize in Literature) wrote in his book Maladrón:

 “It is the first land seen by the navigator from the southern sea. He gazes upon it dazzled. It is the earthly cloud where corn was born—the first grain of corn that ever existed. The pink puma hides in its hills before time descends from the sky. The freedom of the first pine, the night’s dark green, moonlit... Pines and cypresses climb together, helping one another to leap ravines and gather on the ridges, spreading across the plateaus, clustering in hollows, parting in the gorges, climbing in single file toward the summits where they pause to gaze, from the heights of the Green Andes, beneath an indigo sky, at the smoke-crowned volcanoes, the silvery rivers, and the nickel-bright lakes.”
Miguel Angel Asturias : Maladrón

Continue across the plateau, then descend into the valley to reach the village of Todos Santos (2,500 m / 8,200 ft) along a route offering magnificent panoramas. The Mam Maya people who inhabit this region have preserved their beautiful hand-woven traditional clothing: for men, richly embroidered shirts and red-and-white striped pants; for women, purple and red blouses and dark blue skirts. (Market day in Todos Santos: Saturdays.) The main activities in the region include agriculture (coffee, potatoes, corn) and sheep farming.
Drive down from the mountains and continue to Quetzaltenango.
Overnight in the historic center of the city.

Meals included: Breakfast
Accommodation: Hotel (Guatemala City)

Depart from Quetzaltenango early in the morning and drive along the Pan-American Highway to the village of Sololá. The patron saint of this village, Our Lady of the Assumption, is honored with great enthusiasm around August 15. For an entire week, villagers and people from the surrounding region pay tribute to her through a series of lively festivities and a colorful fair. The highlight of the celebration is the mass on August 15, followed by magnificent religious processions and traditional dances—considered among the most authentic in the Highlands. The most famous are the Dance of the Deer and the Dance of the Mexicans. The dancers’ costumes and masks are richly decorated and embroidered in dazzling colors, while the ceremonial garments worn by members of the brotherhoods are hand-embroidered masterpieces, true works of art. Very few travelers ever witness these celebrations, making it a rare opportunity to immerse yourself in a deeply authentic cultural event and experience a moment of great significance for the people of the region.

In the afternoon, continue on to Guatemala City.

Overnight in a hotel located in Zone 10 of Guatemala City.     

Meals included: Breakfast
Accomodation: Hotel (Copán)
Guided visit in English included: Copán archaeological site and museum

Travel to Honduras via the Atlantic Highway, crossing through a variety of landscapes—from the forested mountains of the Sierra de las Minas to the Motagua Valley and its cactus-studded plains and fruit plantations of melon and pineapple. After crossing the border (with the same vehicle and driver), visit the Copán archaeological site with a English-speaking specialist guide..  

Renowned for its magnificent carved stelae—true masterpieces of Maya art—and its extraordinary hieroglyphic stairway, Copán is considered the Athens of the Maya world and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site’s impressive museum houses numerous reliefs, sculptures, and temple decorations. Nestled in a tropical valley at around 2,000 ft (600 m), the archaeological park remains surrounded by lush forest, where you may spot scarlet macaws, the national bird of Honduras, soaring above the temples.

After your visit, don’t miss the chance to sample the region’s excellent coffee.

Just steps from the village square, two small museums provide fascinating additional insights into the site’s history.

Overnight in the charming colonial village of Copán Ruinas.

Meals included: Breakfast
Accommodation: Hotel (Livingston)
Self-guided visit

Return to Guatemala as you make your way toward the Caribbean coast! You’ll travel through regions filled with towering cactus trees and calabash trees.     

Stop to explore the archaeological site of Quiriguá, home to the tallest stelae ever found in the Maya world. Set within a pocket of tropical forest surrounded by vast banana plantations, this UNESCO World Heritage site is also rich in wildlife—you may spot toucans, parrots, and tropical trees draped in vines. During your visit, you’ll also get a glimpse of the banana cultivation systems that once shaped much of Guatemala’s 20th-century history. In the afternoon, continue to Puerto Barrios, the country’s former Atlantic port, where a local boatman will take you along the coast to the remote Caribbean village of Livingston. Isolated from the rest of the country, Livingston is home to the Garifuna, a people of Afro-Caribbean and indigenous descent who live along the coasts of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Their culture—rich in music, dance, and language—was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2001.     

Overnight stay in the village of Livingston.

Suggestion: Enjoy a coco loco (fresh coconut with rum) on a seaside terrace, or try the local specialty, tapado—a delicious coconut milk and seafood stew typical of the Caribbean coast.

Meals included: Breakfast
Accommodation: Hotel (Flores)

After breakfast, take a motorboat excursion along the calm waters of the Río Dulce, surrounded by lush tropical vegetation. With its impressive cliffs and dense jungle, the riverbanks are home to several protected natural areas: bird islands, mangroves, and secluded coves where pirates once hid to ambush Spanish ships loaded with treasures. The region teems with wildlife—monkeys, anteaters, toucans, coatis, iguanas, manatees, pelicans, egrets, and herons all inhabit this unique ecosystem. Midway through the journey, stop at the Maya village association of Ak’ Tenamit to learn about Kekchi Maya handicrafts and community-led conservation of the tropical forest. The Río Dulce, gateway to the Caribbean Sea, is Guatemala’s largest river, connecting the ocean to Lake Izabal, the country’s largest lake (590 km² / 228 sq mi).      ²  

In the afternoon, travel north across the Petén region to reach the small island of Flores, located on Lake Petén Itzá. Along the way, you’ll pass many ceiba trees (kapok trees), Guatemala’s national and sacred Maya tree. As one of the last areas to be resettled, Petén was a major center of ancient Maya civilization—recent lidar studies have revealed that millions of Maya once lived here for more than 18 centuries!

Overnight on the charming island of Flores, nestled on Lake Petén Itzá (the third-largest lake in the country, at 35 sq mi / 90 km²). With its cobblestone streets, colorful houses, and lakefront cafés, Flores has the feel of a cheerful holiday village. The sunsets over the lake are often spectacular.     ^2 2  

Meals included: Breakfast
Accommodation: Hotel (Guatemala City)
Included: Guided tour in English— Tikal archaeological site and National Park
Flight Flores – Guatemala City included

Suggestion: Before leaving Flores, take a short walk around the island along the lower inner street, rather than the one by the lake. You’ll admire the elegant architecture of the old houses—arched door and window frames shaped like scallop shells, raised entrances to prevent flooding during the lake’s 50-year rise cycles, and beautifully colored façades. You might even spot some traditional Maya houses built with adobe brick walls, white stucco, and thatched roofs.

Transfer to Tikal National Park. As you approach the site, you’ll travel through the southern part of the park—a wonderful opportunity to observe the tropical forest and perhaps catch a glimpse of its wildlife. Your specialist English-speaking guide will lead you through the extraordinary archaeological and natural site of Tikal, one of the few UNESCO World Heritage properties listed for both cultural and natural criteria. This ancient ceremonial center, occupied from the 9th century BCE to the 9th century CE, lies in the heart of a vast tropical forest reserve of over 576 km² (222 sq mi).
in Guatemala, and arguably in the entire Maya world. During the pre-Columbian era, this immense metropolis exerted political, economic, and cultural influence as far as the Mexican highlands. Your guide will help you discover the site’s remarkable flora and fauna: several monkey species, anteaters, over 300 species of birds, as well as deer and coatis. The reserve’s vegetation is equally diverse, with more than 200 tree species.

In the late afternoon, transfer to Flores Airport for the short 50-minute flight to Guatemala City.

Overnight in a hotel located in Zone 10 of Guatemala City.

Meals included: Breakfast

Short transfer to Guatemala City Airport for your international departure (check-in three hours before the flight). Depending on your flight schedule, you may visit the city’s main museums (upon request). In that case, we recommend choosing flights departing in the mid- or late afternoon.