123 Best Sights in Guatemala

The small but lovely Botanical Garden at the northern end of Zona 10 contains an impressive collection of plants managed by the Universidad de San Carlos. Your ticket price also includes admission to a small, adjoining natural-history museum.

North of town is K'umarcaaj, the ancient capital of the Quiché kingdom. This once-magnificent site was destroyed by Spanish conquistadors in 1524. The ruins haven't been restored, but they are frequently used for Mayan rituals. A taxi to and from the ruins should cost less than Q60. You can also walk the pleasant 3-km (2-mi) route without much difficulty. Follow 10 Calle out of town, where it becomes a dirt road. A tight S curve is the halfway point. The road forks at the bottom of a hill; take the road to the right.

Take a 10-minute boat ride across the lake to the wonderful exhibit Kinkajou Kingdom, featuring the big-eyed honey-bear cuties, as well as spider monkeys, margays, and other nonreleasable animals. This education service of the conservation NGO ARCAS is seldom taken advantage of by visitors but you should try to make time for it. Though you can drop in, reservations are recommended.

It's small, but the capital's zoo is well arranged and well maintained. The facility contains several exhibit areas, including the African savanna, the Asian subcontinent, the Mesoamerican tropics, and a down-home farm. You'll see everything from giraffes and elephants to cows and ducks.

The zoo's proximity to the nearby Children's Museum makes a convenient outing for families with kids.

This very pleasant balneario, or "resort," is located in the town of San Pedro Carchá, 6 km (4 mi) east of Cobán. On a clear-running river, Las Islas ("the islands") tempts bathers with a variety of natural and man-made falls and pools, as well as a water slide. The grounds are spacious and well maintained, with picnic tables, changing rooms, and a restaurant that opens on weekends. On Sundays there's also a small handicrafts market with half a dozen vendors.

Atitlán is known for its fair-trade coffee, and a local 140-member cooperative, La Voz que Clama en el Desierto —that translates as "The voice that cries in the desert"—offers tours of its coffee-processing facilities and artisan shop. Call to arrange a visit.

Lema is an association of local weavers who use environmentally friendly dyes in their work.

If you want to get the lay of the land before you head out to the country, this unusual relief map depicts Guatemala's precipitous topography. The layout is so immense—1,800 square meters, or 19,500 square feet—that your best view is from an observation tower. What makes it even more amazing is that it was completed in 1905, before satellite and aerial topography, and long before Google Earth. The flashy Spanish-language Web site focuses on the late-19th- and early-20th-century development and construction of the map, a labor of love of engineer (and amateur geographer) Francisco Vela (1859–1909). Altitudes are greatly exaggerated: horizontally, the map uses a 1:10,000 scale, but vertically, it's 1:2,000. The map lies several blocks north of the Old City, not far from the Cervecería Centroamericana and its brewery tour; a taxi is your best bet for getting here.

The smell of fresh fruits and vegetables will lead you to this unassuming market, the place where local residents come to shop for all manner of day-to-day goods. Women in colorful skirts sell huge piles of produce culled from their own gardens. Their husbands are usually nearby, chatting with friends or watching a soccer match.

A seemingly endless maze of underground passages is home to the Mercado Central, where handicrafts from the highlands are hawked from overstocked stalls. It's not as appealing as the open-air markets in Antigua or Chichicastenango, but the leather goods, wooden masks, and woolen blankets found here are often cheaper. There are skilled pickpockets in the market, so keep an eye on your belongings.

North of Guatemala City lie the 12th-century Mayan ruins of Mixco Viejo. The mountaintop site, thought to be largely ceremonial, was one of the last Mayan places to fall to Pedro de Alvarado and the conquistadors in 1525. Excavation began on the site's 120 structures in 1954.

Temples and palaces make up Mixco Viejo, but most notably it contains several ball courts used in the ballgame of pitziil, a game with many variations seen throughout pre-Columbian indigenous civilizations. (Historians today group the games under the general heading ulama, a Nahuatl word meaning simply "ballgame.") Objectively, it resembled a mix of soccer and volleyball, but for the Maya, pitziil transcended mere sport, providing a cosmic link between mortals and gods, between past and future.

Mixco Viejo is no Tikal or Quiriguá, but it's a favored destination for weekend visitors from the capital, who come for the splendid views of the surrounding countryside. A small museum documents the history of the site.

Guatemala points with pride and reverence to its very own saint, Pedro de San José Betancur (1626–67), a native of the Canary Islands who came to Central America at age 31. Hermano Pedro (Brother Pedrof), as he was known, became a familiar sight on the streets of Antigua, ringing a bell and collecting alms for the poor and homeless long before the Salvation Army came up with the idea. He wasn't actually a priest—try as he might, he couldn't master the studies necessary for ordination—but Rome conferred the title of a new religious order, the Bethlehemites, on Pedro and his associates in recognition of their charity. His good works led many to dub him the "St. Francis of the Americas."

Pedro is often credited with originating the custom of the posada, the pre-Christmas procession seen throughout Latin America, in which townspeople reenact Mary and Joseph's search for a room at the inn.

Pope John Paul II canonized Pedro in 2002, and his tomb here at the San Francisco Monastery is an important landmark. Many miracles are ascribed to Hermano Pedro; according to tradition, a prayer and a gentle tap on his casket will send you help. His remains have since been moved to a more finely rendered receptacle to the left of the main altar. The remainder of the ruins, dating from 1579, house a small museum dedicated to Pedro's legacy. You can see his simple clothes and the knotted ropes he used for flagellation. The upper floor is worth a visit for the incredible views of the surrounding hinterland and volcanoes. Enter the ruins through a small path near the rear corner of the church.

Antigua's Museum of Colonial Art sits on the former site of the University of San Carlos, with its cloisters left largely intact through the shakier centuries. The museum holds a collection of mostly 17th-century religious paintings and statues commissioned by the Spanish. There's also a display of photographs of Semana Santa celebrations.

For a far better grounding in the Mayan history of the region than you can get at El Baúl, head to the Finca Las Ilusiones, also a one-time sugarcane plantation. The site is officially known as the Museo de Cultura Cotzumalguapa, and takes in a collection of stelae and stones gathered from nearby archaeological sites. Most of these come from Bilbao, on the northern edge of Santa Lucía, which housed a collection of carved stones. The 80-ton, so-called Monument 21 remains at the Bilbao site, and has been copied in fiberglass for display at this museum. The remainder of the Bilbao stones here are authentic.

In the Casa de la Cultura on the south side of Parque Centro América, the Museum of Natural History is interesting mainly for its neoclassical flourishes. Inside are some examples of pre-Columbian pottery. Your ticket also includes admission to the so-called Museo de la Marimba, which, despite its name, has little to do with marimbas, and is more a hodgepodge collection of Quetzaltenango artifacts. It's a must only if you're a true aficionado of regional history.

Off a courtyard on the cathedral's south side—enter through the church—stands the Museo de la Arquidiócesis de Santiago Guatemala, the archdiocesan museum with a small collection of colonial religious art and artifacts.

Via interactive exhibits, the capital's splendid Children's Museum takes the young and young-at-heart on a journey through space, the human body, a coffee plantation, and a giant Lego exhibit. Multiple tickets are available at a slight discount Friday afternoon and weekends. We recommend making a kids' day out by combining this museum with a visit to the nearby zoo.

For a brief history of the lake and its people, head to the Museo Lacustre de Atitlán. Here you'll find a handful of informative displays tracing the history of the region back to precolonial times.

Dedicated to the history of the Maya, the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology has a large and excellent collection of Mayan pottery, jewelry, masks, and costumes, as well as models of the ancient cities. The jade exhibit, in particular, is stunning. The museum is a must for understanding the link between ancient and modern Mayan cultures, but the exhibits are labeled in Spanish only.

Surrealism and multimedia works are among the wide range of styles represented at the National Museum of Modern Art. Some of the collection does go back to the early-19th-century independence period. Many of Guatemala's most distinguished 20th-century artists are represented here, including Efraín Recinos and Zipacna de León. Exhibits include works by other Latin American artists from similar periods.

Religious figures, animals, and mythological half-animal–half-man creatures with stolid eyes, hawkish noses, and fierce poses inhabit this museum. Though much smaller than the city's other museums, Popol Vuh has an interesting display of well-preserved stone carvings from the Preclassic period, with the earliest pieces dating from 1500 BC. Some statues are quite large, all the more impressive given that they were each cut from a single stone. Also look for the "painted books," which were historical records kept by the Maya. The most famous is the museum's namesake, the Popol Vuh, otherwise known as the Mayan Bible, which was lost (and later recovered) after it was translated into Spanish. An ample collection of colonial artifacts and rotating special exhibits round out the museum's offerings. Monthly evening public lectures, in Spanish, deal with topics related to the institution's holdings.

A 10-minute walk from the plaza, this museum has a private collection of ancient Mayan artifacts recovered from El Petén, Alta Verapaz, and Quiché. Though the exhibit is relatively small, the variety of pieces is impressive. Known for its miniature Olmec quartz figurines, the museum also has fearsome masks, giant sacrificial pots, a reconstructed tomb, jade jewelry, and weapons.

If you want to learn more about the history of Chichicastenango, check out this little colonial-era building, which displays pre-Columbian artifacts that came from the private collection of a local priest. Painted scenes depicting Mayan history adorn the front of the building.

The late Classic ceremonial center of Nakúm lies deep within the forest, connected to Yaxhá via 10 miles (17 km) of jungle trails that are used for dry-season horseback expeditions, SUV trips, or hikes. A number of structures here have been excavated. You can't visit during the rainy season, as you'll sink into mud up to your ankles. Even during the dry season, a four-wheel-drive vehicle with high clearance is a good idea. Explorer Alfred Tozzer rediscovered Nakúm in 1909 and began to assign certain structures descriptive names, some of which may not be accurate.

Nakúm is best traveled with a reputable guide.

A multiyear restoration project (primarily reinforcement of the walls) is currently underway at the Palace of the Captains General, easily recognized by its 27 stately archways, and once the hub of Spanish colonial power in Central America. It now houses police and governmental agencies.

As in colonial times, the City Hall continues to serve as the seat of government. Today it also houses two museums, the Museo de Santiago (Museum of St. James) and Museo del Libro Antiguo (Museum of Antique Books). The former, which is housed in what was once the city jail, displays colonial art and artifacts; Central America's first printing press, dating from the late 17th century, is displayed in the latter, along with a collection of ancient manuscripts. Given the delicate nature of the collections in both museums, photography is forbidden.

The grandiose National Palace was built between 1937 and 1943 to satisfy the monumental ego of President Jorge Ubico Castañeda. It once held the offices of the president and his ministers, but now many of its 320 rooms house a collection of paintings and sculptures by well-known Guatemalan artists from the colonial period to the present. Look for Alfredo Gálvez Suárez's murals illustrating the history of the city above the entry. The palace's ornate stairways and stained-glass windows are a pleasant contrast to the gritty city outside its walls.

You must visit with a guide, who will take you on a 30-minute highlights tour, which leaves every half hour throughout the day.

Your visit includes a stop at the presidential balcony off the banquet room. If the palace is a must on your itinerary, call ahead to confirm that it is open; the building occasionally closes for presidential functions.