Activities at lake atitlán
Activities at Lake Atitlán
Published on 26/11/2025
While I was taking Spanish lessons at Lake Atítlan for six weeks, a lot of people asked me if it wasn’t boring, staying in the same place for such a long time. This wasn’t true for so many reasons (the people, getting to know the culture in a more profound way, learning Spanish), but above all because there were always more activities to do and places to explore around the lake! If you’re worried about being bored or if you’re there and looking for things to do, just take a look at everything I did and you’ll be scrambling to fit it all in.
While I took Spanish lessons in the morning (check out this article to learn more about learning Spanish in San Pedro), I had the afternoons and weekends off to go exploring. Something I loved about the lake was that while there was never a lack of options, there’s not a lot of MUST DO activities. This means that you can do exactly as you like, without feeling as if you’re missing something important. I’ll tell you everything that I did, you can pick and choose what you like the best!
Getting around the lake
There’s boats going around the lake everyday, especially to the most popular villages for tourists. You just show up at the dock, pay the men sitting there and they’ll give you a ticket and point you to the right boat. The boat will leave when it’s full, so it depends on the popularity of your destination how fast you will get there. There’s no set time schedule, so if you have to be somewhere on time, be sure to show up early. That said, going on one of the boats is like an activity in itself! Be ready for a bumpy ride…
Different villages
San Pedro
First there’s San Pedro. This is known as the backpackers village among tourists; most backpackers will choose to stay here. It’s also got the famous party hostel, Mister Mullets. You can party here everyday or you can choose to avoid it and you’ll never know it’s there (except when you see the party boat on the lake on Thursday mornings). This is also the town that has the most Spanish Schools. Definitely a great place to stay, since it is also a good base from which to visit all the other towns since it’s easily reachable.
San Juan
Next up is San Juan, which is only a half-hour walk (or a 10 minute tuktuk ride) from San Pedro. This town is known for its many colours and has some really beautiful streets. There’s also some workshops or short tours you can do, like a honey or a chocolate tour, and there is a small museum. If you know a little bit of Spanish, the people there are more than happy to tell you everything you want to know about the history and culture of the village! These are short tours, but really fun if you have a little while to spend. The town is also known for its weaving, so if you’re looking for a longer term activity you could invest time in learning this art.
San Marcos
San Marcos is one of the most popular villages to visit, especially for people interested in yoga retreats. There’s chill vibes, a lot of restaurants and a LOT of yoga places. Be warned though: this place has been taken over by western hippies. A lot of the places are run by Americans or Europeans and the prices also reflect that. This doesn’t have great consequences for the local population, who can’t even afford these services that came to their town. So if you’re looking for an authentic experience of the local culture, this isn’t the way to go. That doesn’t mean there’s not good things to experience there. My best recommendation here is the nature reserve Cerro Tzankujil. You pay a small entrance fee for the upkeep of the nature reserve and then you find a really nice spot where you can chill on the rocks, swim and do some small hikes. Here is also the point where you can jump into the water from 12 meters high (which is also entertaining to watch if you don’t want to jump).
Panajachel
Panajachel is the biggest village, also the village from where most people arrive. This does mean it’s a bit more focussed on getting people to the right placing than on looking around and looking cute, but there’s a market you can visit!
Workshops
I already said something about the different things you can make, but there’s so many different workshops that you could easily spend days making all the crafts. I already named the tours and the weaving workshop, but there’s many more. Just walking around San Pedro, you can see a workshop on every street. Especially bracelet making and painting are very popular, most of the time you can just walk in and spend some time crafting, walking out with your own creation. These are the most common, but nothing is too crazy. I’ve seen a workshop where you could drink coffee and paint with the leftover grounds. Just walk around and go crazy! Cooking workshops are also possible, but they usually have to be booked beforehand and cost a bit more.
Dated activities
Ask around among the locals, you might get lucky and be there in time for important festivities! Around Easter there’s the Semana Santa, which has festivities all around. This also includes a lot of processions, a parade around the center carrying a statue of Jesus. If you’re not there during Easter, you can also witness them every Friday night. Every town also has their own yearly festivities, which means there’s a sort of festival taking place at the town to celebrate. You’ll get live music, dancing and a lot of food stands. Next to these festivities, there’s also something for the fans of sports: football matches! San Pedro has not one, but two teams. If you’re lucky, they’ll be playing and you get to cheer them on.
Museums
While there’s not a big museum with tons to look at, it’s really worth it to visit a museum while at the lake! Especially if you know a bit of Spanish or are willing to work with them, the people working there will be more than happy to teach you about their culture! I visited Casa Cultural Kojajaay Museum in San Juan. While it only consisted of one room and a little garden, we still learned tons because the lady working there took the time to answer all our questions. She also taught us about our sign according to the Mayan calendar!
In San Pedro you have the museum Tzunun’ Ya’, which is the name for San Pedro in Tz’utujil, the Mayan language spoken there. It means that it’s the lake of hummingbirds. Here you have a movie about the history of San Pedro and then a few rooms, where you can also have a personal tour. I had one in Spanish, she was sure to speak slowly for me. It’s a great way to learn some more about the culture and geology of the region!
Indian nose
The main tour to do here is the Rostro Maya, or Indian Nose. There’s a hill next to San Pedro, which looks like a face with a big nose, hence the name. You can always see it while in the village. A lot of people take an early tour to see the sunrise over the lake. It’s only a short hike, about 40 minutes of walking upwards and a lot less down, but it’s a very popular one. For us, it wasn’t even close to being the best activity there: our tour guide kept hurrying us up the hill, so we arrived tired and 45 minutes early to the top, where we proceeded to sit in the dark until the sun arrived, which we couldn’t see because it was so cloudy. Nevertheless, we’ve heard some amazing stories from other people, so if you get lucky the view is supposed to be incredible!
Bird watching
An activity I only came in contact with because my housemate was obsessed with birds: there’s a tour to spot Quetzales in Santiago! While there’s a lot of birds all around the lake and a lot of humming birds in San Pedro, close to Santiago is a great place to spot Guatemala’s national bird. The valuta was actually named after these birds, because the males have incredible tails from which the feathers were used as money. After waking up early and sitting in the mud for an hour, we were lucky enough to spot two of them! Other than that, you’ll also see some other colourful birds. It’s a bit more expensive for a tour in Guatemala, but seeing the Quetzales was worth it!
Chichi market
In Chichicastenango you have one of the biggest markets in Central America. It’s every sunday and only around an hour and a half from San Pedro, which makes it a great daytrip (this is when booking a tour/car, if going by public bus this will take a lot longer). While a lot of the vendors sell the same things, it’s still easy to get lost in the maze of colourful goods and spend a lot of time looking at different stands. If you have some extra time, the graveyard here is also worth checking out, since this as well is very colourful.
Hikes
For the hikers there’s also enough to do here. Apart from the Indian Nose, which hardly counts as a hike, I did three big ones.
The first one, and the easiest to do from San Pedro, is the San Pedro Vulcano. You can go up to the tourist centre, where you have to pay about 100 Quetzales. Then it takes about 3 hours to walk to the top, a mostly upwards walk. Most people go early in the morning, because there’s a better chance at a clear sky in the morning. We, of course, went in the afternoon and literally only saw clouds, we couldn’t even see more than 50 metres in front of us. But the hike was fun, you take what you can get.
Another fun hike you can do is the path between Santa Cruz and San Marcos. It’s a very hilly path, going up and down all the time, from which you can see the lake most of the time. It’s a really nice way to see the lake and its volcanos from some different angles. It takes a few hours, and when you get to San Marcos you can have a nice dip in the lake!
We also took a trip to Santa Maria, but that’s a whole different story… Read about it here!
Chillspots
After all that exploring, hiking and learning, you will need a place to relax. There’s plenty! You have several beaches, like the Playa Pública and Playa Linda. It’s not a white sand beach like the Caribbean, but it’ll do! If you walk through the bar Sublime, you’ll also find a nice dock where you can sit and hang out. If you want a more aesthetic tanspot, you can always take the boat to the nature reserve in San Marcos. And if you want to take it up a notch further, Casa del Mundo is the place to go. While I haven’t heard good stories about staying at the hotel itself, you can get a daypass and spend the day in the many seating areas, hammocks or viewspots. What better place to spend a sunny day? The lake is safe to swim in from all these places. Just don’t swallow too much water, since it’s not exactly clean either. Some people have said that they got sick after swimming in there, but I have not had that problem at all and I swam from all these places multiple times.
Cafes
Nothing more cosy for students studying Spanish than doing their homework in a cosy cafe. The most popular ones were Tornados, Sababa and Panorama. If you want something authentic though, you’re going to have to walk around and find something for yourself. These are often loaded with tourists. And fair warning: while the view from Panorama is nice, the walk up there is insane. Spare yourself the suffering and get a tuk-tuk. Or just go to the upper floor of Icafe, since you don’t have to walk far but still have a pretty high viewpoint. Other than that, Pita Sabij has amazing pita’s with falafel. Again, these are definitely not local places. If you want to go to those, you’ll have to ask the actual locals. If I would put them here, everyone would go there and then they wouldn’t be authentic anymore either, would they?
Honourable mention: Quesadilla stand
Easily my very best recommendation, the thing I recommended to everyone I met and everyone came back super enthusiastically, the place I kept coming back to….. THE MIDNIGHT QUESADILLA FOOD STAND. Most nights (you never know, it’s a surprise) this stand appears on the main tourist street. Psy midnight snacks has got quesadillas and crepes, and the best part is they got vegetarian ones! First time we got them, we were drunk and not expecting much, but they were incredible!! The second time I thought, I was drunk, it can’t have been that good, and then IT WAS THAT GOOD AGAIN. Literally best quesadillas I’ve had the whole trip, maybe my whole life. If the people from Psy read this, I love you.
I hope you have a great time in San Pedro with these tips!