Guatemala City Sights

Shopping Nightlife Performing Arts

There's plenty in Guatemala City to occupy you for a couple of days. A textile and an anthropological museum will enhance your appreciation of ancient and indigenous cultures and get you ready to head into the highlands or El Petén. A pair of art museums display paintings and sculpture by Guatemalan masters; one focuses on the 20th century while the other goes back to colonial days. For families traveling with kids, there's a zoo and a children's museum. And if you're in town on a Sunday, you can stop by the Plaza Mayor, which explodes in a riot of music and color, with vendors selling handmade textiles and indigenous people wearing traditional dress. If you're lucky, you may even see one of Guatemala City's goatherds guiding his flock through the streets of the Old City and charging Q5 for a glass of fresh-squeezed milk.