Real talk here. Why? Because it's hard to plan trips like this and accurately estimate how much you'll spend, so I always appreciate seeing details about how much it cost other people. Maybe this info will do the same for someone else. Costs of course will vary based on what you value. We wanted to try a lot of local food and experiences so weren't trying to skimp on those, but weren't throwing money around lavishly either.
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| Volcano Pacaya |
We were gone for 30 days. I won't make you scroll: our total net cost for this trip for our family of 4 was ~$3,050. That's cheaper than our typical 7-10 day trips, including our prior trips to Germany, Costa Rica, Los Angeles, and Boston/Maine. I'm specifically looking at our net costs to understand how much we spent over a typical month at home, so am subtracting out any normal monthly costs not incurred to more accurately reflect the true additional cost of being somewhere else for the month. Let's break it down:
Travel Costs = net ~$2,355
- Flights = $344
We booked our flights through credit card reward points but didn't have quite enough to cover them. Full price for these flights was $471 each, not bad. One of the reasons we chose Guatemala is because the flight prices were reasonable. - Lodging = net $1,845
This was our biggest single expense category, and covered 3 different places: - AirBnB in Antigua = $1,690
Our 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom townhouse had laundry, water delivery (tap water is unsafe to drink there), weekly cleaning service, and a shared area with two pools and a trampoline. Many AirBnBs offer large discounts (up to 40-50%) for long-term stays, including this one. There are 2 bedrooms available on AirBnB here for $1,200-1,300/month, but we spent more to have the pool and separate rooms for the girls. Furnished apartments are available for short-term rental in Antigua for much cheaper at short notice, but we were comfortable with this price and wanted to have everything lined up ahead of time and with AirBnB terms. We probably could've spent half this much if we went outside AirBnB.
- Miami airport hotels = $0
We needed hotels both on the way there and back since we had overnight stays with the flights, but booked them for free using credit card reward points. They included free breakfast and airport shuttles, though we only ended up using the shuttles once due to the timing. These stays would have cost ~$105 each. - Hotel for 2 nights at Lake Atitlan = $280
This hotel was one of the more expensive places in the small town where we stayed (San Marcos), but we wanted to be right in town by the lake with a pool and hot tub. We had two rooms, two baths, and a small kitchenette here. Definitely cheaper options available. - We saved ~$125 on our electric bill at home (!!). Never realized how much our summer A/C cost.
- Transportation = net $165
- Getting Around Town = $34
We did not need to rent a car because Antigua is so small that you can walk across it from north to south or east to west in 15-20 mins. We spent $34 on 8 Uber rides to places outside of walking distance downtown. (Side note, one of your Uber choices in Guatemala is on the back of a motorcycle. We did not pick that option. 😄) There are tuk-tuks everywhere too which looked pretty fun, but we never ended up needing one. We also never ended up needing to ride on a brightly colored "chicken bus." - Airport Transfers = $100
- The ride from the Guatemala City airport to Antigua was about 1 hr 15 mins. We spent $60 total to Uber to Antigua and back. (!! Cheap.)
- We spent $40 on 3 Ubers in Miami getting between the airport and our hotel, a 10 min ride.
- We spent $0 on getting between our house and the airport thanks to my mother-in-law. We owe you one, thanks so much!!
- Shuttles to Lake Atitlan = $136
Traveling to and from the lake cost $136 in shared shuttle services. I overpaid for one of those trips by booking through Viator instead of a local travel service. The shuttle ride was 2.5-3 hrs each way. - Boat taxis = $25
By far the most fun transportation expense, this covered two beautiful boat taxi (lancha) rides across Lake Atitlan to get from the city where the shuttle dropped us off (Panachel) to the small town where we stayed (San Marcos). - We saved the $130 we typically spend on gas each month.
Food = net $445
In a typical month at home, we spend about $1,100 on food including all groceries, restaurants, and alcohol. I was anticipating that we'd spend about as much as home, but we ended up blowing past that because there were so many places we wanted to try. We prioritized that over caring too much about cost. At home, we don't eat out too often (pandemic changed our habits), but we ate out at least once a day on this trip, with a second coffee or dessert stop almost every day. Worth it! Average here was ~$50/day for our family. Breakdown:
- Groceries = $460
We mostly shopped at the supermercado, but also picked up fruits and veggies several times from the market. Produce was cheaper at the market even without bargaining (we couldn't bring ourselves to haggle as expected over what were small amounts to us), but more of a hassle to visit. This category also covered stops at bakeries and purchases from the women selling bananas and tortillas near our place. I will so miss the fresh sourdough toast with perfectly ripe avocados for breakfast, and hot fresh tortillas with refried beans for lunch. - Restaurants = $925
All prices include tips, which are a standard 10% and usually included automatically on your bill. - Traditional restaurants = $325
We spent an average of $20/meal at the 16 places we visited, but several of those were for only 3 of us. Our cheapest meals ran $7-11 total for the four of us, esp. when we didn't order drinks or drinks were included in our meal. - Tourist restaurants = $445
We visited 10 places I'd categorize as tourist-focused places with higher prices. This includes the breweries, the macadamia nut farm restaurant, and some restaurants owned by Americans (like the Texas BBQ place we went on the 4th of July - 'Merica! - great black bean burgers there 😄). If you wanted to spend less, you could easily stick to the cheaper places and still eat out every day and enjoy great food. - Coffee shops = $80
Great coffee in Guatemala. Our favorite shops were Circles Cafe in San Marcos at the lake, and Artista de Cafe in Antigua. We also visited Starbucks once to compare it to home - US prices but incredibly beautiful location. - Desserts = $75
This covers many stops for helado (ice cream, $2-2.50/each) and other desserts such as slices of pie or cake from a bakery. Lots of our restaurant trips included dessert too, though we usually shared one or two things. - Airports = $160
I broke this out separately to see how much of our total was spent on just a few meals and snacks while traveling to/from Guatemala. One of the most expensive meals of our entire trip was mediocre grab-and-go sandwiches (no drinks or sides) in the RDU airport. Sigh.
Entertainment & Shopping = net ~$250
Like with food, the "net" part is doing a lot of the work here. We typically spend ~$550/month between shopping and entertainment/activities at home. Amazon and Target stops add up, y'all. I sure as hell don't remember what I bought on Amazon two months ago, but I'm pretty sure I'll remember our activities in Guatemala. Breakdown:
- Volcanos! = ~$240
- Pacaya = $140
For the four of us to shuttle to/from the volcano, entrance fees, a few horse "taxis", and renting walking sticks from local kids at the entrance. The guides provided us with marshmallows to roast in the heat vents at the top. - Acatenango/Fuego = $100
This was a great deal. Base price for my overnight tour was $75, which included the shuttle there/back, guides, 4 meals plus snacks, and most of the gear, including lots of warm clothes. The extra $25 covered park entrance fees, renting hiking poles, and tips for all the guides. - Zip Line Tour = $150
We even lucked out that no one else signed up for the time slot, so we had our own private group zip line adventure. This was 8 zip lines plus some bridges, about an hour long. - Other Activities = $133
This covers everything else we did that had a fee, including the nature preserve, historic sites/ruins, and the chocolate making class. Many sightseeing activities were free, like the macadamia nut farm tour, hiking up to the big cross on the hill, the art museum/sculpture garden, and Zadie's favorite, chasing pigeons around the central square. The girls swam nearly every day at our AirBnB as well, definitely glad we picked a place with a pool. - Shopping = $140
- SIM cards = $50
For me, Bill, and Ruth to get local SIM cards with 13GB data each for 30 days. - Souvenirs = $60
- Activities for the house = $30
For some games, puzzles, coloring books, and colored pencils to have around the house for rainy days. We'd also brought some cards and yada, yada, now Zadie's favorite game is Blackjack. - Lawn Service = $140
To get our lawn mowed while we were gone, an extra expense because Bill usually mows.
For just over $3K total, this trip was well worth it to us and we're definitely interested in repeating the adventure in another country in the future. The temperature was much better than home, and Bill was able to work remotely without issue once his company changed security settings for him to connect internationally. We were in the equivalent of US Mountain Time and he could join all his meetings normally. Our internet was reliable until the very end, when the internet was out for a day in the entire complex. Everything worked out as well as we had hoped.
If you have the option to work remotely, would you be interested in doing a month outside the U.S.? Where would you want to go?