Costs Guatemala – What budget do you need?

Guatemala is a fairly pricey travel destination. However, it very much depends on where you stay. For example, a city like Antigua can be pretty expensive. But at the same time around Lake Atitlan you can eat and sleep for a nice price. Are you curious about what budget you need for Guatemala? Read all about the costs in Guatemala here.

Currency Guatemala

In Guatemala they pay with the Guatemalan Quetzal. One euro is approximately equal to 8 Quetzals. This rate sometimes changes from 9 Quetzal to 7.5 Quetzal for one euro, but on average it will be around 8. Despite the fact that the currency is worth less than one euro, the prices in some places in Guatemala are fairly similar to the prices in Europe.

Costs for hotels in Guatemala

Hotels in Guatemala are quite expensive. You can find cheaper options, but then you should not expect too much from your hotel. Unless of course you sleep in a hostel, then you can sleep in a dorm for less money. For a good hotel with a swimming pool, you can easily pay almost €50 per night. For an okay hotel you usually pay around €30 per night. Unfortunately, in some places you don't have that much choice. For example, we paid € 27.50 per night for a very bad hotel in Lanquin, near Semuc Champey. On average we paid €36.50 per night for hotels in Guatemala.

Restaurants in Guatemala

Besides hotels, especially the food is also on the expensive side in some places. For lunch or dinner in Antigua you easily pay between €25 and €35. Of course this can also be cheaper, for example if you have lunch at the Subway. Then it will cost you about € 15 for 2 sandwiches with a drink and a cookie. Here and there you can also find good restaurants in the streets just outside the square where you can get pizzas for € 15, for example. Flores is also one of the more expensive cities when it comes to restaurants. 

On the other hand, you can dine at Lake Atitlan, especially in San Pedro, for a nice price. At Sababa, for example, you can eat a plate of pasta for only €6. And you can also score a pita here for a cheap price. So it very much depends on where you are, whether there are many affordable restaurants.

Costs for transportation in Guatemala

Transport is quickly a bit more expensive in Guatemala because you actually have to do everything with the shuttle. A local bus in Central America will usually only cost you a few dollars. A shuttle in Guatemala will cost you an average of €23. As a result, the costs for transport quickly add up. But as you can read in this blog , taking the local bus is not really an option in Guatemala.

Local means of transport on the water and from the city to a park are often a lot cheaper. A water taxi in Lake Atitlan will only cost you about $3. Just like a 'collectivo' at Semuc Champey. 

Activities and tours

There are many fun activities and tours in Guatemala. Depending on what you are going to do, the price will of course differ. Tours are often a bit on the more expensive side. For example, for climbing the Acatenango you pay about €110 per person for a private cabin and €90 per person for a shared cabin. But the experience and memories you will have from this are 100% worth it. 

Of course, there are also cheaper activities such as visiting Hobbitenango or historical buildings in Antigua. For these, you often pay only around €5 to €8 per person. There are also parks and viewpoints where you pay just €1 to €2.5. Visiting Tikal, the famous Maya temples of Guatemala, is quite a bit pricier, costing around €19 per person. But we found this more than worth it too, and wouldn't have wanted to miss it. Because of this mix of pricier and cheaper activities, we ended up spending an average of about €7.50 per day on activities and tours.

Our costs and budget in Guatemala

In the end, the two of us spend a total of € 2,593.5 for 21 days. Below you will find an overview of our average costs per day in Guatemala per person. Only the price for a private room is per room and not per person, so it remains the same for two.