Travel guides
We had 3 guidebooks with us, so I can pretty well compare the 3 biggies: LP, Rough Guide and Footprint.
Lonely Planet Guatemala
Since 2/2001, the LP series now has a separate book on Guatemala. I suppose they had to follow the competition of the Rough guide (see below)
Order the Lonely Planet Guatemala now for only 13.59 US$!
If you are doing the typical Ruta Maya (Guatemala -Belize -Yucatan /Chiapas), then this book will give you good info in 1 book. However, it was clear to us that the LP guide came on the 3rd place. The prices where outdated, but this is inevitable. Also the info was clearly not as detailed as the Rough guide f.i (this review was based on the '98 book). New edition since 3/2001).
Order the Lonely Planet Belize, Guatemala, Yucatan now for only 15.96 US$!
Or maybe you prefer their Central America Book
Order the Lonely Planet Central America on a shoestring for 15.96 US$!
Footprint Handbook Central America-Mexico
This book had a lot of practical info and was definitely the best on accommodation and restaurant info. Their info seemed also more up to date. I recommend it especially if you need middle class accomodation. It's definitely a much better choice the the LP Central America. Latest edition is from 11/2000, new edition each year in December.
Order the Footprint Central America Handbook for 20.75 US$!
Rough Guide to Guatemala
Edition november 1998 This was my personal favourite. The info was very detailed, it was f.i. the only one which had a good description of the region around Sayaxche, but the LP will be updated on that by now I guess. Simply compare the number of pages with the LP, and you'll see you'll get much more info.
Order the Rough Guide Guatemala now for only 13.56 US$!
The Rough Guide series have a competitor of LP's Ruta Maya (June 1999), called "Maya World". They have here info on Guatemala, Belize and Yucatan, but also El Salvador and Honduras.
Order the Rough Guide Maya World now for only 15.96 US$!
Let's Go guides
Different options and yearly updated.
Order the Let's Go Central America now for only 15.99 US$!
Other books
If you can't make up your mind, click on the Amazon.com logo and search for more books
Hotels
You can find hotels for any budget in Guatemala, although the more expensive hotels are confined to the more touristic places.
Guatemala City tends to be more expensive as are the hotels near Tikal and on Flores island. You should be able to get a basic double room for 25 to 60 Q with or without bathroom.
Breakfast is most of the time not included in the price of the room.
You can find an exhaustive list of hotels on the Guatemala Web http://www.guatemalaweb.com/enhotelslista.htm, they have adresses, telephones and
sometimes e-mails and websites. No description of the hotels though.
Sightseeing
Tikal is a sight you shouldn't miss. Entrance is 50 Q, which is reasonable for this sight (12/99). Copan is a long way and also quite expensive to get in (10 US$) and to get there (40 US$ one way on a tourist bus) not including border taxes etc...I would spend my money and time on a plane to Flores instead, but that's a personnal opinion which you can only judge when you did it yourself. There are some nice museums in Guatemala City, but I didn't visit them. It's very important to schedule your trip so that you can see a village on a market day, it will be so much more pleasant and colourful. Market days of Solola are Tuesday and Friday. There an extensive list of all marketdays in all villages at http://www.guatemalaweb.com/marketdays.html though you need to be patient to download it all.
Safety
There have been reports of robberies of buses with rapings of foreign women. Areas to be avoided are the Peten area, especially the night bus. My contact in Antigua said there were no more reports of this since 12 months (10/98), however the LP site says there was 1 report in 8/97 of a bus being robbed between Xela and Coatepeque during the day with foreign women being raped, and there was also a tourist bus full of American schoolgirls robbed near Sta. Lucia Cotzumalguapa and 5 of them were raped. There are also reports of tourist buses from Flores to Tikal being robbed, especially the ones leaving very early.
Apart from that, there's the usual pickpocketing and cutting of packs in Antigua (especially at night in the outskirts of Antigua) and Guate of course.
Medical matters
Malaria
Where to take what Guatemala is considered by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to be in an A-zone, meaning Chloroquine is the first choice prophylactic drug here, take 300 mg once a week.
However, risk for malaria is not everywhere the same in Guatemala:
There's no risk of malaria in the capital and in regions above 1500 metres altitude.
In regions under 1500 metres, there's a malaria risk. Risk is especially high in Peten, Alta Verapaz, Escuintla, Huehuetenango and Quiché.
Hepatitis A
If you travel with a backpack and don't mind eating in cheap restaurants, it's easy to catch Hepatitis A. Chances of getting infected range from 1/300 to 1/50 per month depending on your standard of travelling. It's not dangerous, but you will be sick for some weeks.
There is a good vaccination for Hepatitis A nowadays, so ask your doctor. You need 2 shots (used to be 3 shots) at 0 and 6 months, although if you can it's even better to postpone the second shot till after 12 months. They are expensive, but they protect you for 10 years.
Hepatitis B
You can only get this through sex and blood transfusion. Since prevalence of Hepatitis B is much higher in SE Asia then in the Western world, it might be wise to get vaccinated. Get your shots at 0, 1 and 6 months. They are equally expensive as hepatitis A.
Typhoid fever
There is also a good vaccination consisting of 3 pills to be taken every 2 days. Take them early enough before you leave since it's better not to combine them with malaria pills, although these guidelines have recently changed (meaning you can combine them). The vaccination works for 3 years.
Travellers diarrhea
We always have antibiotics at hand in case of diarrhea. We take Ciproxine 250 mg two tablets at once and then another 3 tablets, one tablet every 12 hours.
Weather
Best time to visit is the dry season from mid-december till end of march. We visited in march, and didn't have any rain, also in the end of november we saw no rain, but it was sometimes cloudy. I got 2 reports from people going there in July-August (rainy season), and they said it was OK to travel. You will usually have 1 shower a day, mostly at the end of the afternoon. Try to adapt to the local rythm by getting up early.
Climbing volcanoes
It's possible to climb some volcanoes. I did the Pacaya, but it was only after I'd finished the trip that I heard horrorstories about people being robbed and raped. So make some inquiries about the safety situation before you go. Look under "Antigua" for more info.
There are some volcanoes around the Atitlan lake which can be climbed, but they require a longer treck, as well as volcanoes around Quetzaltenango. Have a look at these chapters for more details.
Go to Guatemala City
