Located just 30 mi (45 km) west of Guatemala City, you can arrive in 45-60 min from La Aurora Airport.
You can catch a crowded chicken bus (reused U.S. school bus) from Guatemala City for Q8. More than 100 bus drivers have been murdered as a result of gang conflict. Drivers who refused to pay exorbitant protection fees were murdered. Despite the violence, many still consider the chicken buses and local city bus in Antigua safer than taking the taxis or Tuk-tuks (small three wheelers with cloth side doors). Tuk-tuks have been blamed for taking tourist to an obscure area for robbery - so knowing a local tuk tuk driver might be safer than procuring one on the street. When safety is of utmost concern, it is best to call a cab company or prearrange your rides through a shuttle company.
There are regular shuttle vans directly from the airport to Antigua costing around Q80 and leave regularly all day until 8PM. You don't need to prearrange, but demand can be high depending on the number of flights arriving at the same time, so pre-purchasing a ticket from a local travel agent is best. A taxi from the airport to Antigua is around Q350, and can be split among 2 or 3 riders to make it comparable with privately arranged shuttles. There are numerous travel agencies in the central park of Antigua to purchase rides back to the airport. The usual cost is from Q55-80. To take the chicken bus from the airport to antigua, one can walk to a bus stop just outside of the parking lot. However, it is unclear at times if buses are allowed that close. If the government prevent buses from stopping there, one need to be ready to walk about 1/4 mi to another bus stop just outside of the airport. However, a tourist pulling luggage might make easy target for a local robber. The second problem with taking buses is that they are often very filled, and it is your responsibility to secure and lift your luggage to the top of the bus (unless you can negotiate the bus attendant to help you). The cost to take the local bus to the chicken bus station is about Q1, then one has to procure a chicken bus (leaving at every 5 min or so) to Antigua. So the total cost of taking the bus is less than Q20, but you might be required to walk a short distance to the nearest corner outside of the airport proper.
A chicken bus in Antigua
There is a direct shuttle bus from Copán, Honduras, which departs twice a day at 5:30AM and midday.
A charter tourist van costs about Q250-350. The driver will meet you at the airport with your name on a sign. For first-time visitors, the convenience and security of arranging a van like this might be worth the cost.
Transportation by bus is cheap compared to taxis or shuttles, but would be less convenient and take a longer time. For Antigua, you would need to take a cab to the second class bus station that does this route and get on a chicken bus.
There is no commercial air or train service for this town.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Antigua Guatemala
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Antigua Guatemala - updated Apr 2024
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Antigua Guatemala Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
