I have compared quite a few places in this article, but Guatemala always stands out. It is a wonderful place of culture, great food, and cheap thrills. That makes it a travelers dream, with great views of nature, hiking paths, wide lakes and lots to explore. But how much does it cost to travel Guatemala? What’s an appropriate travel budget for visiting those idyllic lakes and beaches?

Let’s take a quick and concise look at what it costs to travel Guatemala and how you can budget for a trip there! This article, as usual, excludes flight costs.

Cost of Living

Let’s start with the cost of accommodation – this is likely the first thing you want to be looking at if you’re planning a trip. In one of my comparison articles, I said that a decent hotel in Lake Atitlan will cost you $60. If you have a bigger budget, you can easily go for a super nice room at $280. For most travelers, that is a bit excessive, considering you can get a really basic private room starting from as little as $25. A hostel can even cost as little as $6 (the real question is how you’ll fit in a room with 22 others)! That means you can pay anywhere from $42 – $1,960 a week. Quite the range! If you aim for $60 a night, it comes to $420 a week.

Now when it comes to food, the same range applies to prices. You can find fine dining for astronomical prices, or eat under the table for next-to-nothing. But, in Guatemala, you can actually also eat really good food for next-to-nothing! You can enjoy a nice sit-down meal for two people at around $25. This might come to a little more in a tourist area like Lake Atitlan, plus you might want to have some drinks. So let’s say dinner costs you $35 for two, plus a drink each ($4pp). That comes to $301 dollars for two people in a week. Add a street food lunch for two ($15 total), and you’ll be at $406 for food. To be fair, that’s a pretty generous budget in a cheap country like Guatemala.

This brings your basic cost of living to $826 a week.

Cost of Entertainment

Of course, you’re on a holiday and you want to get out there! And Guatemala is a great place for activities. When considering how much it costs to travel to Guatemala, definitely calculate for lots of trips because there will be so much to do. At Lake Atitlan, it costs only around $17pp to go diving. You might want to consider doing a course if you’ve never been diving before, which costs $200 with a reputable diving school. You can hire a private boat for a couple hours for $40 to explore the lake. The entry fee for the nature reserve is only $7. You could even go horseback riding by the Lake for $15pp for three hours. Consider, however, that a lot of the time it is cheaper to book these experience once your there, as the online prices can be much more expensive. If you do all of these things with two people in a week, you’d end up at $518 for a week full of activities. Ditch the diving course and it will only be $118. Add $25 Tuk Tuk fares for good measure.

That’s it! A super quick and simple breakdown of how much it costs to travel Guatemala. Of course, you can always spend more or pinch pennies and spend less – but that’s totally up to you. Hopefull this quick overview showed you how much you can expect tot pay.

Have you traveled to Central America lately? Let me know how much it cost you to travel Guatemala!