Pacaya Volcano Tour and Hot Springs from Antigua

It was a fun day overall, but this is more of a shuttle service than a tour. The driver (non english speaking) dropped us off at the national park where an employee took us on the tour. The same that you'd get if you arrived on your own. Then the driver took us to the hot springs and dropped us off. There were no instructions on where to go or what to do. Would be a difficult day if you don't speak any Spanish. I'd check the price of a private driver for the day- it would have the same experience, but you'd be more in control of timing, etc. **Also to note, we left from Antigua, but the other couple came from Guatemala City and had to go out of their way to pick us up = LOTS OF TIME IN THE CAR for them.

We had Claudio for our guide and he was fantastic. We had just the 2 of us so we could hike up as fast as we wanted. The clouds literally parted for us to get great views and pictures. It’s steep up but short so overall pretty easy. The drive from Antigua was super interesting. Our driver was William who gets a 10/10 for stopping so I could grab coffee in the morning. The food at the hot springs was so so but we had so much fun! The ladies that direct you from pool to pool (hot to cold to warm to cold to hot to cold) were super fun and so was everyone there. I hate cold water and they all cheered me on when I got in every time. The mango slushy was so yummy. Then we laid out and relaxed. It was a perfect break after the hike and we made it back to Antigua with plenty of time to still wander around and make dinner reservations.

We walked, rode horse, switched back to walking, carried babies on horseback, and everything in between! The horse guides were convenient and flexible. Marshmellows roasted on hot lava rock awaited us on top! And the picnic lunch was unexpectedly delicious and a beautiful way to chill out on top of the volcano with our family on New years Eve. Our tour guide, Juan Jesus or “JJ” as we fondly called him, was the most phenomenal guide we could’ve asked for. We had a group of 24 relatives ranging from age 8 months old to 74 years old. JJ seamlessly coordinated all of us with patience, grace, humor and kindness. He was always available by text or phone call. Never rushed us or refused to help. He was thoughtful and always attended to our needs. More than anything, he became like a friend or a part of our family. I highly recommend JJ and Kim Kim travel for making our Guatemalan get away a perfect experience!

The tour was wonderful, our family had an amazing time. The tour operator is not very forthcoming with the details beforehand so here are some tips: Bring a sweater/jacket and water. Bring cash to pay for the Pacaya park entrance. Rent the walking sticks. The terrain is composed of loose pebbles so you will need the walking sticks the children have for rent at the entrance to the park. I slipped to many times to count and the stick literally saved my butt. That being said, the difficulty level of the hike is about medium. After the hike, when you go to the hot springs you are on your own. The guides drop you off at the restaurant and you have to figure things out for yourself. Turns out we were supposed to guess that the tour bus would leave at 4.30 pm. Other than these details, the tour was great. The bus was clean and comfortable, the guide was kind and knowledgeable.

Do not use this company. Look at their reviews on Google maps under Gray Line Antigua. Firstly, their Viator booking flow is set up incorrectly. There is no hotel pick up. You must meet at the office. This in and of itself is not a big deal, but you have to figure it out on your own. The company does not respond to messages on Viator. Their confirmation said to contact them via a phone number or an email address. I tried both repeatedly and never got a hold of anyone. If you do book this experience here’s what you need to know. - 7:15 meet at the office in Antigua - 7:30 departure - 9 arrive volcano - 9:30 hike start - 11 reach summit and explore petrified lava - 11:30 begin decent - 1 drive to lunch/hot springs at Santa Teresita Hotel y Spa Termal - 1:30 lunch - 2 water park - 4:30 depart - 5:30 arrive back in Antigua The tour guide will provide no value. They will literally not guide you at any point. There was no information setting off for the day or provided by the company before the hike starts. There is an hour and a half drive to the volcano park. The bus stays there so if you’re wondering if you need to carry everything with you, you don’t, but they won’t bother telling you that. You can buy snacks and water at two different points on the hike. The hike itself is a moderate hike, but easy for anyone remotely fit. If you are fit, you will probably find the pace of the hike excruciatingly slow. The group stops about every 15 minutes making the hike to the summit about 1h 30min. The hike up is a dirt and rock trail covered with greenery. There is only one view point. You are not hiking to the peak of Pacaya, you are hiking a separate peak that will give you a good view of the main peak. You will not see any active lava. The pictures attached to this experience are what you see for about 15 minutes after you hike up. Then you hike down again through a covered forest path. After you go to lunch and the hot spring pools at Santa Teresita Hotel y Spa Termal 30 minutes away. Guide lets you off the bus and says noting then disappears. Lunch was chaos (and terrible, you can choose from pepperoni pizza, club sandwich, hamburger, barbecue chicken). Some in our group ordered beers which they thought were included and then there was chaos after. Guide never came back. After a while of us sitting there people in our group just decided to get up. We wandered into the water park area and no one knew what was going on: whether towels and lockers were included, where to go, what time we were leaving, etc. The water park area is split in two sections, one which was not visible and I discovered after wandering around. I let others in the group know after we had all spent an hour hanging out in this tiny area. At this point, we found towels and a much nicer area. We later found out from staff that our wristband included a free smoothie. The whole group was laughing at how absurd it was that the guide literally gave no information and we didn’t know what our access included. None of us knew what time we were leaving, but managed to all get together about 4:30. We went to go leave and we were locked in the park. Again absurd. All this confusion could have been avoided if our guide bothered to give us a 2 minute speech with some guidance once we arrived.