Chicken bus and local walking tour!  - We took a half day bus tour and a half day walking tour and found it extremely informative and entertaining. We covered a lot of ground and learned history we... read more hadn't gotten on our own just walking around. JJ and ET are local Antiguains and had great energy and pride for their home and country. I highly recommend this company and experience!!!

  Ask for JJ. He is super knowledgeable and has so many fun facts about the city. It's a long tour, but doesn't feel like it when you're on it. 10/10... read more experience; I highly recommend this walking like a local tour with JJ.

  Villages Tour in the Highlands. - This was a great tour. The guide spent extra time because the chocolate factory stop was crowded. Each stop was unique. I highly recommend this tour.

  Best Tour Guides Ever - Columbus Guatemala Tours is hands down the best travel tour operator I have ever worked with. I’ve booked through tour groups in countries like Brazil, India, Italy, Germany, and the... read more UK, but have never worked with such an organized group of individuals who truly care about crafting an all around experience for you.

Catherina was responsive, thoughtful, and dedicated to crafting a full trip itinerary that met our travel needs, and did so in a short timeline. She made sure we felt like our needs and ideas were incorporated into the plan, but ultimately, we learned to trust her expert local opinion on what to do and where to eat, and it worked out better than we could have imagined. Not only did she handle the itinerary, she also took care of all of our bookings, making trip planning simple.

JJ, our tour guide for the entirety of the trip, is one of the most friendly guides I’ve ever met. He was extremely thorough about making sure we knew what the plan was, where we were going, and translating all things shared by local guides or merchants - he never made us feel like the language barrier was a limiting factor in our experience. JJ was generous with his time and energy, allowing us to make adjustments to schedule and make detours as needed - he was always on time and never missed a beat. He even came on all of our hikes to make sure we felt safe and taken care of, and brought us a lot of laughs on the way. One thing that also stood out was how generous he was to all of their suppliers and local guides, the folks that drove the tuk tuks, the boats, and even showed us around the volcano. He treated everyone with the utmost respect, and made them feel included and welcome to experience the journey with us.

Overall Guatemala is a wonderful country, full of rich cultural experiences and tremendous nature. We hiked to watch the sunrise at Tikal, the volcano of San Pedro, and Acatenango to see Volcan de Fuego erupt. Each of these activities were magnificent in their own way, and were awe inspiring views to say the least. We also had the luxury to stay at Casa Palopo in Lake Atitlan, which was the perfect hotel to soak in the majesty of Lake Atitlan. In Antigua, we were lucky enough to spend time with the extended Columbus Guatemala tour team, and they made the city feel like home. They hosted a surprise birthday party for my dad and I during a cooking class, and we got to celebrate as if we had been family forever. I will forever cherish the experiences and memories I created in Guatemala, and I’m grateful for the Columbus Guatemala team for making it happen!

  I had such an amazing tour with Esteban! It was just him and I for the four-ish hours and it flew by. He spoke great English and he is very... read more funny and personable. Actually, everyone in the office is incredibly friendly and easy going when you first meet for the tour. The tour is culture, history, and we even discussed a bit of politics. It was so interesting, I didn't want the tour to end. Thank you Esteban!!

  street food tour - We did a street food tour, 55$ seems first like a lot but the whole day you pay anything, food/drinks/chickenbus-transfer etc. is included. Our guide Esteban was really nice and... read more very informative. Not only trying some street food (which was delicous) but also you will get a lot of culture and history information, we went to the local market aswell. We would highly recommend it 10/10.

  I really enjoyed the walking tour with JJ. He was very knowledgeable and gave lots of small details to make it entertaining. I would not have discovered many of the... read more places and stories if I was by myself. Highly recommended.

  Guatemala Experience - I had the pleasure to work with Columbus - Guatemala on my entire 2 week trip. Everything went as smooth as possible and Katherine was always available to help... read more and adjust anything I needed. My Antigua walk (along with rides around Guatemala) was provided by Esteban. That guys sure knows Guatemala - what a wealth of information along with being an all around good person. He showed me around Antigua, took me to a great place for a local lunch, drove me to a few small towns (which were amazing), and helped me practice my Spanish. I would highly recommend using Katherine and her crew to set up a vacation. Mine also included Semuc Champay, Tikal, Lake Atitlan and an overnight hike to the Volcano Acatenango. All were done through Katherine and Columbus, Guatemala - and all were a major success. I look forward to working with them again. Such a beautiful country with kind and generous people.

  This travel agency is a hidden gem!!!

Katy and stefano were one of the most helpful and understanding travel experts i have seen in the past 3 months. They... read more helped me sort out an amazing experience with full of local hidden pearls that you will not find with standard agencies. They have such a long history with travelling and guatamala that they recommend places only that are of extraordinary. Just hop in their office and youll ubderstand what i mean.

Thanks for all the great tips throughout my travel in guatamala!!

  This was one of our favourite tours, we had so much fun, JJ and our driver Alex were top notch, very knowledgeable and personable. We saw many beautiful smaller... read more communities around Antigua giving us a glimpse of Guatemala outside of Antigua. We visited a local wine producer, a local chocolate producer and an organic macadamia farm and tasted all the yummy goodies. We also learned about Guatemalan jade and saw all the beautiful pieces they created. Such a great day, don’t miss this tour!

  Great time! JJ was an awesome guide. We live here and got to see a lot of hidden treasures. A lot of nice villages.

  JJ was great!! He went into great detail of the history of Guatemalan culture and made some great recommendations for places to eat/visit.

  I cannot imagine a better tour guide for our day in San Juan Comalapa. We wanted to see this village known for it's local artists and the for the market... read more that was happening on that day. The drive from Antigua to Comapala was great because Esteban explained oh so many things about not only this region - but about the entire country of Guatemala. His vast knowledge of history, agriculture, traditions and the Mayan culture is wonderful. We had been in Guatemala for nearly a week - we had so many questions...he certainly filled us in on the chicken buses and the beautiful clothing we had seen. The mural was wonderful: each panel showed village life from traditions to their history including the horror of the civil war. The market was vibrant...the merchants were wonderful.
Esteban arranged for us to meet Oscar Peren in his Gallery. This was certainly a highlight for us. Esteban translated as Senor Peren spoke of his art.It was a personable experience I will never forget. I am thrilled to own one of his paintings. But I did not feel pressured to buy.
We felt safe in the comfortable SUV . Esteban is an excellent driver. He even provided water and snacks for the drive.

  Amazing Guide of Antigua  - One of the best tour experiences I’ve had. Our guide took us over all of Antigua and he was so truly knowledgeable that it really enhanced every story he told.... read more I highly recommend this guide

  This was a great tour to see more of the surrounding towns of antigua! I especially loved how much explanation and history our tour guide gave us. He was very... read more friendly and helpful with our questions- I highly recommend!

  Unique trip, really delivered. Had a fun half day travelling around the surrounding villages with Stephano (who created the tour) and JJ in the Chicken Bus. Learnt a lot... read more about the area and visited some genuine local enterprises, each with a good sustainability credentials. Thoroughly recommend, it's got to one of the best short trips in Antigua. Columbus staff all really friendly and helpful.

  The Chicken Bus tour is my all time favorite tour in Antigua! From the moment we were picked up by the chicken bus to the last stop having an amazing... read more lunch of pepian with an indigenous family, each stop was filled with discovery, culture, locals, and amazing views of the volcanoes. We were treated to a cacao demonstration and sampled the chocolates, then the nispero honey and onto Fredy’s café for some fabulous dark roasted coffee grown locally by his family and served in his home. Onto the macadamia farm, the only one in Central America, where we experienced a relaxing macadamia facial! We were all smiles for our lunch with a local indigenous family who spent most of the morning preparing the Papillion. We are also treated to a weaving demonstration by the ladies of the house. All in all it was a fun filled day with smiles all around. Our guide Estephen. was knowledgeable and personable, we learned so much from him. Our driver Antonio and his son Fernando managed to get us in and out of some of the small villages on the chicken bus. A skilled driver indeed! I live part time in Antigua and this is the third time I have taken my visitors on the chicken bus tour and I highly recommend it for everyone of all ages!

  Wow what a wonderful way to spend the day exploring Antigua’s surrounding villages/towns!! My partner and I decided to book this tour instead of climbing the volcano and we were... read more worried we would regret it, but we honestly could not be happier! Our tour guide JJ was absolutely incredible - so warm, friendly and easy to talk to (also spoke perfect English which was bonus). He shared openly so much wonderful knowledge and history about his local area, the people and surrounding villages, culture and their way of life. JJ’s passion and love for his country and community truly shone and he was also so kind, patient and giving with his time and knowledge. If you are looking for an authentic experience in which you want to learn more about the locals and their everyday life whilst visiting some amazing family run businesses (with great wine and chocolate) then do not hesitate to book this tour! Thank you so much JJ and Columbus Guatemala Travel for the amazing experience!!!

  Nice to have a change of scenery - Nice to get out of the main bit of Antigua and see some different things. Estephan our guide was friendly and knowledgable. The driver (sorry I forgot his name) was... read more super friendly and knowledgable too! A lot of the tour was focussed around visiting family run places that sell things more than seeing what Guatemalan village life is like. The macadamia farm was good and they gave a lovely face massage. Overall it was enjoyable.

  Our guide Joel was very knowledgable about the city and showed us a lot of interesting places. He gave a very good overview of the architecture, history and culture... read more of the city.