11 days prime trip that will take you through the highlands and lowlands of Guatemala, including creative and exclusive activities, staying in hand-picked properties located in the most inspiring destinations.
The best guides and scholars are leading our trips, providing a high-level standard of services. Everyone possesses a long background in fieldwork and the best training. The country’s culture and nature are part of their daily life, so they are the ideal people to make you live the best prime trip in Guatemala.
La Aurora International Airport
Trip may include activities like walks, flights and boat rides
Prices based in double occupancy, and not valid for peak season like Christmas, New Year, Holy Week, Thanksgiving. Please inquire for more information.
Meet & greet by Martsam Travel’s team at La Aurora Internationa Airport, and transfer to La Antigua Guatemala.
Three nights lodging in a boutique Hotel in Antigua Guatemala
After your morning meal, we are going to visit fine art galleries that represent works by Latin American recognized and rising artists, located in Antigua Guatemala.
After the art tour, we will visit a famous local restaurant to taste our local cuisine, excellent dishes, and recipes that come from Mayan roots.
Then we continue our cultural adventure through the cobblestone avenues discovering churches, plazas, markets, and famous buildings created with the influence of European and local architecture and art influence, that flourished during the colonial times.
Time to return to your hotel in Antigua Guatemala
Today you can enjoy on your own this beautiful city. Also, you will receive advice from our specialist that will help to fulfil your wishes and expectations.
This Mesoamerican Maya site, during the late postclassic period it was the capital of the Kaqchiquel Maya Kingdom. The architecture of the site included a several pyramid-temples, palaces, plazas and also two ballcourts.
The ceremonial plaza of this sacred place is used by current Maya to celebrate rituals and ceremonies, and we will have the opportunity to participate and discover an essential part of the Maya cosmovision.
After this unique experience, we will continue towards Lake Atitlan, enjoying a countryside scenery and the first view of this beautiful lake surrounded by imponent volcanoes.
Arrival to our hotel located on the eastern slopes of Lake Atitlan, this prime property constructed around the hillsides bordering Santa Catarina Palopó village it has a privileged view of the lake and the magnificent volcanoes.
Today we are going to visit some villages around the lake, starting with a boat ride towards Tzununa village from where we will be provided with helmet, gloves and a mountain bike to begin a biking ride through a trail inside the corn, tomatoes, onions, and coffee plantation.
During the biking adventure, we will discover the villages of San Marcos and San Pablo La Laguna, and also have opportunities to enjoy a fantastic scenery and time for memories, this tour arrive and end at San Juan la Laguna.
Here we are ready to discover the traditional method of textile creation. The Tzutujil women are employing the technique of backstrap weaving and combine natural dyes, made from plants and insects, producing unique textile designs and colors.
After the visit to the cooperative, we are going to take a short walk to board our boat towards Santiago Atitlan for lunch.
After a lunch break, we are ready to uncover the village, learning about the beliefs and history of this region that suffered decades of war.
During our walk, we will visit Saint James Church, the altar of Maximon a kind of god, protector of the creation and the people; then we return through the artisan street, an excellent place to buy some souvenirs.
Then we get back to our hotel enjoying the fantastic landscape that lake Atitlan offers.
Today we will be ready to visit one of the most significant and well-known markets throughout Central America, hidden within the western highlands of Guatemala, inside a native Mayan community of Santo Tomas Chichicastenango, where during the markets days come to life with vibrant colors and incense scents.
The experience of traveling just 45 kilometers from our hotel through small villages and find local people in their daily life is lovely, the landscapes are merely spectacular, with beautiful vegetation all-around.
The marketplace takes place every Thursday and Sunday and is when local people make a trip from different communities over the countryside and gather around this market to sell their beautiful handicrafts, vibrant textiles, fresh produce, traditional clothes and much more at this busy and radiant native market.
At our arrival, we will visit the Cathedral of Santo Tomas, a place where Catholic religion and Mayan believes merge in a perfect syncretism, on the stairs in front of the leading entrance villagers and shamans celebrate rituals with flowers and incense.
We continue our tour through the market, here is the right place to obtain some souvenirs to bring home. Also, we will visit the vegetable market, from the second floor we will have a colorful spectacle of natives trading their products, a perfect place to freeze a postal for the memories of this fantastic culture.
Afterwards, we are going to visit the hotel museum Mayan Inn for lunch. Then we continue to visit the cemetery, another colorful and mystic experience in a place recently declared by National Geographic as the most colorful cemetery on the planet.
To finish this cultural adventure, we are going to visit Pascual Abaj a sacred hill, which is used to celebrate Mayan rituals, implore the dead and also the land. The Quiche people come here with offerings and for praying to Pascual Abaj a kind of Mayan God.
Time to return to our hotel in Lake Atitlan.
Today you have the whole day on your own to enjoy the hotel facilities, to take a morning kayaking trip, to receive cooking lessons on your villa, visit Panajachel village, or just relax enjoying the breathtaking views of Lake Atitlan with your favorite cocktail.
Today we will enjoy a helicopter adventure from Lake Atitlan to your next hotel, a exclusive property located at the shore of Lake Peten Itza. La Lancha village that is part of The Family Coppola Hideaways.
Form the takeoff you will start enjoying the aerial landscape of Lake Atitlan; then we head to Guatemala city for a technical stop before to continue a 2 hours flight towards the Maya Lowlands.
Check-in and time to enjoy the hotel facilities, or take transport to visit the island of Flores, the capital of the province of Peten located just 45 minutes from your hotel.
Take a trip to Yaxha archaeological site to enjoy a sunset experience on top of a millenarian Maya pyramid, from where you will spot the neotropical wildlife that inhabits the lush forest that surrounds the site.
9:00 AM, time to board our helicopter to take a short flight over the tropical rainforest in the quest of the hidden Maya site of El Mirador, this is a 45 minutes flight.
At our arrival, we start the jungle hike in one of the most powerful Maya cities from the pre-classic period; here we will climb some pyramids and learn with our specialist tour guide about the Maya civilization.
After this archaeological adventure, we will take a flight back to our hotel.
Tikal was one of the most significant Maya cities of the Classic period, the structures of the ancient metropolis were made from limestone and included the remains of temples that tower over 230 ft high, palaces, residences, administrative complexes, stelae and two great temple-pyramids.
Arriving at Tikal, we will start our guided nature and archaeological tour, through causeways and trails under a millennial forest.
Tikal is a fantastic natural paradise that provides the opportunity for encounters with the neotropical fauna, such as agoutis, howler and spider monkies, colorful birds, butterflies, insects, and reptiles.
We will visit the central plaza, the heart of the site which includes the Great Jaguar and Masks temples, North and South Acropolis, also the Lost World and Seven Temples Complex, the Temple of Jaguar Priest, and the monumental temple four known as The Double Head Serpent.
We will climb some of the temples to have breathtaking views of the green mantle that surround this magnificent Maya site.
Archaeological tours in Tikal, are a journey through the time and history, discovering this civilization that creates a unique architecture, a perfect calendar, astronomic discoveries and the first use of zero as the absence of value.
After the archaeological and nature tour, we are going to head to the particular area to enjoy lunch; then we will have a 1-hour transfer to Mundo Maya airport to take a 45 minutes flight back to Guatemala City.
At your arrival, you will be transferred to your hotel in Guatemala city for one-night lodging.
