climbing and camping volcán Santa María
Climbing and camping on Volcán Santa María
Published on 11/02/2026
Hiking to the top of the Santa María volcano is a popular hike to do from Xela (Quetzaltenango). From the top of Santa María, you have an amazing view of the volcano Santaiguito, which is actually still active. Every once in a while you can hear it grumbling and you can see smoke rising from the top. Needless to say, that is what a lot of people come there to see. A popular way to see it, is to take a tour that starts at around 2AM and make the track during the night, in order to see the sunrise at the top. From around 10AM clouds come in that obscure the view, so people tend to go back down then. This way, you get the best views and then have the rest of the day to rest.
We, of course, followed a completely different plan. We were staying at Lake Atitlán and decided to, instead of hiking during the night, hike during the first day, stay overnight on the top and then go back down the next day. We took a taxi very early in the morning from Lake Atitlán to the start of the hike, so we could have plenty of time to make the trek. If you are already staying in Xela, you can also take the bus to Llano de pinal. This is of course when you are hiking without a guide. While the path is not super difficult to find, I would not recommend hiking without a guide if you’re not experienced. I was lucky that the person I was hiking with had experience and GPS skills, so that I could depend on her to find the way. If you have never done an overnight hike or do not possess a good sense of navigation, I would recommend booking a tour. It is a pretty straightforward route, but there are no signs at all so you would not realize it quickly if you took the wrong path. A tour can also help with safety, as a few years ago there was some trouble with robberies on volcano hikes in Guatemala. Now it’s much safer than in the past and we luckily didn’t encounter anyone with malicious intent, but if you’re worried about this it’s better to be safe than sorry.
The Hike
My Strava stats say we conquered 1326 meters of elevation gain over 5,34 kilometers, in 2,5 hours. This is an obvious lie, as Strava only takes into account the time that you are moving. In reality, all breaks included, it took us six hours to reach the top. Do not trust all the superfit people that say you can hike up easily, we were broken. There are definitely some nice spots. In the beginning there are some grassy areas that people chill at, we saw some cows grazing. But the further you get, the steeper the path and the rougher the terrain. There is lots of volcano dust spraying everywhere, especially if there are others going down while you are going up. Everyone keeps slipping away causing the dust to fill the air, your lungs, and every crevice of your body. There is also a lot of climbing over rocks, which can have slippery parts because of the dust. All in all this does not make it an easy hike, but if you’re not afraid to get dirty it is still very fun. Luckily it did end at some point, because we were absolutely broken when we reached the top after six hours. It’s a high intensity hike, you feel gross and the altitude was crushing us with headaches. It was especially hard because we had to carry huge backpacks with all of our equipment. So definitely make sure you calculate enough time for the hike so you can keep it fun with breaks!
Camping
It is possible to camp freely on the top. Just make sure you take everything that you took up back down with you, as there was a lot of trash along the path and especially on the top. Do not add to this, maybe even take a back to fill up along the path when you’re going down!
When you reach the top and you walk a little further, you reach a flatter plateau where you have the best view of Santiaguito. Since we arrived late in the day, it was already super clouded. We were also so tired, so we set up our tents in the dip between the two higher points to protect ourselves against heavy weather and went to sleep. The next day, the clouds cleared up and we had an incredible view of Santiaguito smoking. During this time, the people that started the hike at night were also arriving. We had breakfast, packed up our things and started the hike back down. This only took about 2-3 hours, way quicker than going up.
So if you are planning to hike up Santa María, I would definitely recommend it! The main tip is to be there early in the morning in order to catch the clearest skies, but it is up to you if you do this by camping, hiking at night, or taking a tour. We met several people along the trail doing all of these options and they all hold their own value. Especially if you go from Xela it is easy to do it as a daytrip. However, it was not all as rosy as pictured here. While I give a general description so you get an idea of what the trip can be like for you, we encountered a whole lot of problems along the way…. Read all about it here! Were the locals right about bad luck? I now know to always listen to the locals.
Pro tips:
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Bring warm clothes/layers, it will be colder than you expect at the top.
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Use good hiking boots.
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Make sure to be at the top before 10AM.
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Listen to the locals and DO NOT hike up a mountain during Easter…..