Private Guatemala and El Salvador Holiday, Daily Start & Exclusive Car

After breakfast, your driver guide will pick you up to explore Antigua. The No.1 landmark is the Santa Catalina Arch that once connected a monastery and a school. The arch frames the Agua Volcano and you’ll make a stunning postcard picture out of it. In 1979, the city was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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In the afternoon, we are heading for the valley town San Antonio Aguas Calientes, one of the places to find the best hand weavers and woven fabrics in Guatemala. The Kaqchikel Mayan women here live by weaving double-faced fabrics and would start their career as early as 7. After visit, we'll drive back to the hotel in Antigua.

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Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation: Camino Real Antigua (4 stars) or similar

This morning, let’s explore Mayan culture at Iximche. It takes 1 hour to drive there from Antigua. At the site, we’ll explore some plazas, pyramid-temples, palaces, and a ball court. 

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Later, hop on a ride for 1.5 hours to Chichicastenango Market. This market with a history of more than 100 years is the largest in Central America and opens every Thursday and Sunday. We’ll climb a flowers-lined staircase to reach Church of Santo Tomas, where the Mayan Bible was found and which the market centers around. 

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Continue onwards to a 1.5-hour drive to Panajachel, the gateway to the Lake Atitlan embraced by three volcanoes. We’ve carefully selected for you a hotel by the lake. 

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Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation: Hotel Atitlan (4 stars) or similar, Panajachel

Start today with an immersive boating on the Lake Atitlan. We’ll then disembark to visit two of many Tz'utujil Mayan villages around the lake. We’ll visit a textile cooperative and admire the hand-knitting articles and fabrics. Next to visit is the village of Santiago Atitlan, where the traditional Tz'utuhil lifestyle also prevails. We’ll wander through galleries of oil paintings which depict the busy market scenes and the life of the highlands. There’s also another typical Mayan-Catholic church. It’ll be noontime as we boat back to Panajachel, where you may have your lunch at your own cost. Afterwards, we will drive 2.5 hours back to Guatemala City.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation: Wyndham Garden Guatemala City (4 stars) or similar

Today we’ll cross the border to Ataco, El Salvador. The whole journey is around 3 hours. Take a nice break. In the afternoon, you’ll explore the Flower Route or Ruta de Las Flores. The route takes the name because flowers on both sides bloom each spring. We’ll start from Concepcion de Ataco, and visit the towns of Apaneca, Juayua, and Nahuizalco along the way one by one. Ataco will impress you most with its fancy street murals everywhere. Other towns beckon with expansive coffee plantations or traditional handicrafts. While in Nahuizalco, you’ll experience the indigenous culture of the Pipil people. At the end, drive back to Ataco.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation: Casa 1800 Ataco Hotel Boutique (3 stars) or similar

In the morning, drive 1 hour and a half to Cerro Verde National Park, in which we’ll hike up to the Santa Ana Volcano. We’ll start hiking before 11 am. The path, pleasantly challenging, includes a jungle walk and then a climb over the barren volcanic terrain to the top. The hike lasts 3 to 4 hours.

In the afternoon, head to the Joya de Ceren Archaeological Park to discover a pre-Columbian Mayan farming village and delve into the nitty-gritties of Mayan daily life. Archeologists have unearthed all kinds of daily-used articles, like pots, spindle whorls, sleeping mats, and iconic obsidian tools, and we’ll witness all these in a nearby museum. After the tour, we’ll drive back to San Salvador.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation: Barcelo San Salvador (4 stars) or similar

This morning sees us exploring the capital city of El Salvador. San Salvador started from no other than Plaza Libertad, where our architectural highlight, the Iglesia El Rosario with a brutalist exterior, is in the east. At Plaza Barrios, you will admire central statue. The National Palace and the super-modern National Library sit here. Plaza Morazan is the most northeastern one, where the neo-classical National Theater stands. 

Then we’ll drive around 1 hour and a half to Suchitoto. Upon arrival, we’ll visit the Iglesia Santa Lucia, Suchitoto’s first church. Afterwards, let’s visit the house of Alejandro Coto, the trailblazer in the country’s film industry. Later, we’ll drive back to your hotel in San Salvador.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation: Barcelo San Salvador (4 stars) or similar

Today is the last day of your Guatemala and El Salvador holiday package. It’s suggested that you ask the hotel staff to keep your luggage after check-out and seize the chance to see more of San Salvador, before we pick you up at the lobby and escort you on a 40-minute ride to the international airport for your flight home.

Meals: Breakfast