4 travel tips for Antigua to Lake Atitlan - share your tips below!
Ina
I’ve done this route today, 23rd Jan 2025, much easier version. Take a chicken bus from the terminal in Antigua for 10Q to Chimaltenango. It takes around 40min. In Chimaltenango don’t go out before the terminal (maps.me) because you’ll end up in a wrong bus, the drivers coorperate and they will take you in a bus that goes only to Los Encuentros. This is what happened but I didn’t want to go out of bus before the real bus station (just a bus stop on a highway). There I asked locals to point me a bus that goes direct to Panajachel which arrived in 5 min and costs 40Q. Once inside I again asked locals what they pay and if it is direct. And it was. We arrived in 2.20 hours to Panajachel. Lancha to any of the villages is 30Q one way, 25Q return ticket.
Good luck
I just talked to the driver. The buses from San Pedro la Laguna that go directly to Xela leave only on Fridays, Saturdays at 1.30pm and Sundays at 2pm. It takes approx 3 hours.
To get to San Juan la Laguna, you can take theses buses :
Antigua – Chimaltenango (10Q)
Chimaltenango – Kilometro 148 (30Q)
Kilometro 148 – San Juan la Laguna (20Q)
You can get there with 4 different chicken busses:
Antigua – Chimaltenango (10 Q)
Chimaltenango – Los encuentros (20Q)
Los encuentros – Sololá (3,5Q)
Sololá – Panajachel (5Q)
From here you can take a lancha to any town on the atitlan lake
The trip takes aroun 4 hours.
I’ve done this route today, 23rd Jan 2025, much easier version. Take a chicken bus from the terminal in Antigua for 10Q to Chimaltenango. It takes around 40min. In Chimaltenango don’t go out before the terminal (maps.me) because you’ll end up in a wrong bus, the drivers coorperate and they will take you in a bus that goes only to Los Encuentros. This is what happened but I didn’t want to go out of bus before the real bus station (just a bus stop on a highway). There I asked locals to point me a bus that goes direct to Panajachel which arrived in 5 min and costs 40Q. Once inside I again asked locals what they pay and if it is direct. And it was. We arrived in 2.20 hours to Panajachel. Lancha to any of the villages is 30Q one way, 25Q return ticket.
Good luck
I just talked to the driver. The buses from San Pedro la Laguna that go directly to Xela leave only on Fridays, Saturdays at 1.30pm and Sundays at 2pm. It takes approx 3 hours.
To get to San Juan la Laguna, you can take theses buses :
Antigua – Chimaltenango (10Q)
Chimaltenango – Kilometro 148 (30Q)
Kilometro 148 – San Juan la Laguna (20Q)
You can get there with 4 different chicken busses:
Antigua – Chimaltenango (10 Q)
Chimaltenango – Los encuentros (20Q)
Los encuentros – Sololá (3,5Q)
Sololá – Panajachel (5Q)
From here you can take a lancha to any town on the atitlan lake
The trip takes aroun 4 hours.