San Salvador Private 8-Day Car Tour

What's Included

Meeting and pickup

Itinerary

Day 1
Guatemala City Arrival, Airport Pick-up, Transfer to Antigua
2 stops
1
Guatemala City
When you arrive at La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, meet your driver guide who’s been waiting for you.
1 hour • Admission ticket free
2
Antigua
Then, enjoy a comfortable 50-minute private car ride to the hotel in Antigua, a famous historical town.
1 hour • Admission ticket free
Day 2
Antigua - San Antonio Aguas Calientes - Antigua
2 stops
3
Antigua
After breakfast, your driver guide will pick you up to visit Antigua. The No.1 landmark is the Santa Catalina Arch that once connected a monastery and a school. The arch frames the Agua Volcano and you’ll make a stunning postcard picture out of it.
1 hour 30 minutes • Admission ticket free
4
In the afternoon, we are heading for the valley town San Antonio Aguas Calientes, one of the places to find the best hand weavers and woven fabrics in Guatemala. The local market offers the best chance to witness ‘huipil’, the iconic traditional Mayan cape with heavy embroidery. Sometimes you can also spot women working with backstrap loom. Finally, we'll drive back to the hotel in Antigua.
3 hours • Admission ticket free
Day 3
Antigua - Iximche Archaeological Site - Chichicastenango Market - Panajachel
4 stops
5
Sitio Arqueológico Iximche
This morning, let’s explore for some revelations of Mayan culture at Iximche, an archaeological site called the ‘Land of Corn’. It takes 1 hour to drive there from Antigua. At the site, we’ll explore some plazas, pyramid-temples, palaces, and a ball court. An altar is still in use and occasionally you’d see people worship.
2 hours • Admission ticket included
6
Later, hop on a ride for 1.5 hours to Chichicastenango Market.
30 minutes • Admission ticket free
7
Amid mixed Mayan languages and Spanish in the background, we’ll then climb a flowers-lined staircase to reach Church of Santo Tomas, where the Mayan Bible was found and which the market centers around.
30 minutes • Admission ticket included
8
Panajachel
Continue onwards to a 1.5-hour drive to Panajachel, the gateway to the Lake Atitlan embraced by three volcanoes.
1 hour 30 minutes • Admission ticket free
Day 4
Explore San Juan & Santiago Villages by Lake Atitlan, Drive Back to Guatemala City
2 stops
9
Start today with an immersive boating on the Lake Atitlan. We’ll then disembark to visit two of many Tz'utujil Mayan villages around the lake. In San Juan La Laguna, women also weave to live. We’ll visit a textile cooperative and admire the hand-knitting articles and fabrics, as well as woven mats made from lake reeds. Next to visit is the village of Santiago Atitlan, where the traditional Tz'utuhil lifestyle also prevails.
2 hours 30 minutes • Admission ticket included
10
Guatemala City
It’ll be noontime as we boat back to Panajachel. Then, we will drive 2.5 hours back to Guatemala City.
2 hours 30 minutes • Admission ticket free
Day 5
Leave Guatemala City for El Salvador, Tour the Flower Route, Stay in Ataco
2 stops
11
Concepcion de Ataco
Today we’ll cross the border to Ataco, El Salvador. The whole journey is around 3 hours.
3 hours • Admission ticket free
12
In the afternoon, you’ll explore the Flower Route or Ruta de Las Flores. The route takes the name because flowers on both sides bloom each spring and this is where El Salvador’s most beautiful cultural landscape unfolds. We’ll start from Concepcion de Ataco, one of the ends, and visit the towns of Apaneca, Juayua, and Nahuizalco along the way one by one. At the end, drive back to Ataco.
3 hours • Admission ticket included
Day 6
Ataco - Cerro Verde National Park - Joya de Ceren Archaeological Park - San Salvador
3 stops
13
In the morning, drive 1 hour and a half to Cerro Verde National Park, in which we’ll hike up to the Santa Ana Volcano, the highest of its kind in El Salvador. A small land holding over 20 volcanoes, the country deserves its moniker ‘the land of volcanoes’. We’ll start hiking before 11 am. The hike lasts 3 to 4 hours.
3 hours 30 minutes • Admission ticket free
14
Joya de Ceren Archaeological Park
In the afternoon, head to the Joya de Ceren Archaeological Park to discover a pre-Columbian Mayan farming village and delve into the nitty-gritties of Mayan daily life.
2 hours • Admission ticket included
15
San Salvador
After the tour, we’ll drive back to San Salvador.
40 minutes • Admission ticket free
Day 7
San Salvador - Suchitoto - San Salvador
7 stops
16
Iglesia El Rosario
This morning sees us exploring the capital city of El Salvador, and, by extension, the history of it and even the whole country. We’ll walk main streets and the old plazas to visit some monumental historical sites. San Salvador started from no other than Plaza Libertad, where our architectural highlight, the Iglesia El Rosario with a brutalist exterior sheltering the rainbow-colored holy world inside, is in the east.
1 hour • Admission ticket included
17
Plaza Barrios
Then, at Plaza Barrios, your guide will recall the stories of a national hero who fought for peasants before the central statue, as well as the loved yet assassinated archbishop in the splendid Metropolitan Cathedral. The National Palace and the super-modern National Library sit here.
1 hour • Admission ticket free
18
Plaza Morazan is the most northeastern one, where the neo-classical National Theater stands. Surrounding these plazas are cafes, restaurants, handicraft stores, etc., which make this area also a life center for you to experience.
1 hour • Admission ticket free
19
Suchitoto
Then we’ll drive around 1 hour and a half to Suchitoto.
1 hour • Admission ticket free
20
Upon arrival, we’ll move through the central plaza to visit the white-all-over Iglesia Santa Lucia, Suchitoto’s first church, looking like the subject in an oil painting against the blue sky and surrounding low-rises. You’ll next have some time to stroll around the plaza to discover the life scene.
1 hour • Admission ticket free
21
Afterwards, let’s visit the house of Alejandro Coto, the trailblazer in the country’s film industry and who brought art to Suchitoto. It’s Coto who inaugurated the International Art and Culture Festival, which is held every February. From here you can gaze towards the largest lake in El Salvador.
30 minutes • Admission ticket included
22
San Salvador
In the late afternoon, we’ll drive back to your hotel in San Salvador.
1 hour • Admission ticket free
Day 8
Departure from San Salvador, Airport See-off
1 stop
23
San Salvador
Today is the last day of your Guatemala and El Salvador holiday package. It’s suggested that you ask the hotel staff to keep your luggage after check-out and seize the chance to see more of San Salvador, before we pick you up at the lobby and escort you on a 40-minute ride to the international airport for your flight home.
1 hour • Admission ticket free

Additional info

• Suitable for all physical fitness levels

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