Pedal along gravel tracks, roll down dirt roads and glide through forest trails as you traverse Guatemala's backcountry
Soak up colourful Antigua, visit Mayan ruins and glide through rural pueblos against the ever-present backdrop of volcanoes
Ride to Lake Atitlán and settle into your lakeside launchpad for hiking, kayaking and some well-earned downtime
Bed down in 5-star hotels with volcano views, boutique casas nestled in a nature reserve, and chill in a lakeside hot tub
Day 1
Meet your host at the airport in Guatemala City and get whisked to the colourful town of Antigua, located an hour down the road and nestled beneath the towering Acatenango volcano. Settle into your hotel before meeting up with your group and guide to chat through the adventure to come. The evening is free to rest up at the hotel or check out Antigua's many bars, cafes and restaurants.
Day 2
Set off for your first taste of pedalling in the Guatemalan highlands with a ride through the valleys outside of Antigua. The Almolonga Valley just west of Antigua was home to the second capital of Guatemala - Ciudad Vieja. The old city met a fateful doom in 1541 as a result of a terrible mudslide released from the crater of the Agua volcano. You'll ride through several small towns, each with their unique flavour, as you loop back into Antigua for a well-earned dinner and drinks.
Day 3
Head out of Antigua first thing to start your two-day ride across to Lake Atitlán on a backcountry route of dirt roads, trails, and gravel tracks. Head uphill on a jeep track traversing through Mayan cornfields to the town of San Andreas Itzapa, stopping at the Mayan shrine of San Simon. Continue on mix of varied trails across the highlands, crossing the Pan-American Highway on footbridges and pedalling through the town of Zaragoza. Pedal on to Tecpán through small agrarian villages, ending with a beautiful stretch of trail down through a forest to your riverside accommodation in a converted flour mill from the 1900s.
Today is a chunky day, but you'll have all day to make the distance and there is no rush. A support vehicle is on hand and there are several spots along the way where you can hop in if needed.
Day 4
An epic day in the saddle awaits with a little bit of everything. Start with a nice gradual dirt road climb out of Tecpán, quickly turning into a narrower trail as you wind your way through the pine-clad hills. There are some downhill sections and a couple of tough steep climbs. The ride takes you through a Mayan settlement before flowing downhill on the famous Sendero de las Vacas ('Trail of the Cows'). A 4km climb follows, up to a viewpoint above Lake Atitlán - your efforts are rewarded with amazing views as you tuck into lunch here. After lunch, hit the amazing, contouring 'Santa Cat' trail. Finish off the day as you roll into Panajachel, and take the boat to your lakeside hotel on Lake Atitlán.
Day 5
Enjoy breakfast overlooking the lake before heading out to explore without your bike today. Hop in a kayak on the private beach at your hotel, paddling westward along the north shore of Atitlán, passing by tiny villages perched on the sides of the sheer ridges that rise up from the azure waters of the lake. If the weather is kind you'll stop for a dip and a cliff jump before cruising into the bay between Tzununá and San Marcos La Laguna. Swap your kayak for hiking boots and climb out of town on the lake trail which connects village to village, treating you to spectacular vistas of volcanoes San Pedro, Tolimán and Atitlán. Pass through villages and agricultural areas as you follow the shoreline for 1½ hours, eventually returning back to the hotel. Enjoy a well-earned late lunch and then you’ll have the rest of the afternoon free to swim and relax in a hammock or hot tub, while taking in the beautiful views.
Day 6
Lake Atitlán is such a beautiful spot - so kick back and fully soak in this special place. Enjoy a relaxed breakfast at the hotel and then do as you please with the rest of the day. You can head out to explore the area, which includes some of the picturesque villages specialising in traditional Mayan crafts and regional cuisine. You can take a public boat taxi to other parts of the lake, or head out on a hike to nearby towns. You can rent kayaks or paddleboards for more time on the water, or go swimming from the private beach at the hotel.
Day 7
Take in the views from Casa del Mundo one final time, before taking the boat back to Panajachel and the van to the trailhead for today’s ride. Hop back in the saddle near the town of San José Poaquil and pedal east along the northern side of the Pan-American corridor. Roll through rural areas and small pueblos as you make your way through San Martín Jilotepeque and then onto the Mixco Viejo Mayan ruins. Also known as Jilotepeque Viejo, this Mayan ruin is surrounded by ravines with stone platforms protected by stepped stone walls. Leaving the ruins, head to your hotel for the night to rest up before the final ride tomorrow.
Day 8
Fuel up on breakfast in the hotel before the final ride of the trip, following a now familiar mix of terrain and stunning volcanic backdrop to the town of Sumpango. Carry on with a gradual downhill towards Pastores, Jocotenango and finally rolling back into the cobblestoned streets of Antigua. The town is at your disposal this evening to toast a successful adventure with dinner and drinks in the lively parts of Antigua.
Day 9
Your trip comes to an end today after breakfast as your host drops you back off at the airport in Guatemala City in time for your onward flight.
Expert, English-speaking local guides
Think high quality, historic spa hotels and family-run, boutique guesthouses
To and from the airport, and everything in between
8 breakfasts, 5 lunches, and 2 dinners
Kona front suspension 'hardtail' mountain bikes
To hop into if your legs need a rest and to carry your luggage
You know your own spending habits best, so please budget an appropriate amount for things like optional meals and drinks, shopping, optional activities, and laundry.
Traditional Guatemalan food is based on Maya cuisine with Spanish influences. Classic meals usually include corn, beans, chillies, rice, pork, beef, chicken, cheese and tortillas as staple ingredients. Breakfasts in the hotels will be either a tradit…
We're still waiting to collect any reviews from other travellers on this trip. However, all our hosts go through an extensive vetting process to ensure that your adventure is awesome.
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For solo travellers looking for their own space, an optional private room can be booked for an extra charge, see Optional Extras for the price. Please request this at the time of booking (this is subject to availability).
To request any extras, message your host via your Much Better Adventures account once you have booked your trip.
All extras must be paid before your trip starts.
It's no secret that we love cycling and many of us at HQ think it's the best way to see a country, however, we realise that organising your own trip can be a total faff. On our cycling trips, we've found a local guide who has put together a perfect route and will navigate for you all the way. We even send a van that transports your overnight luggage and provide high-quality bikes and delicious snacks to keep you going. Faff eliminated! All you have to do is turn up, pedal and take in the landscape with your fellow tourers. You don't need to be a lycra-clad 'roadie' although they're welcome too!
Have a read of our article on cycling difficulty levels for further information on selecting the right level of bike adventure for you.
You'll ride a 'hardtail' - front suspension mountain bike which is perfectly suited to the gravel and dirt roads you'll be rolling along on this trip. Your host uses Kona bikes with a variety of models available, including Honzo, Process, Precept and Kahuna. The suspension can be locked for a speedier ride when on the flatter road sections.
Tips are not included in the trip cost. These are entirely at your discretion. Your guide will help with advice however, we suggest the amount below as a guideline per person:
Guide: $3-5 US dollars per day
Of course, you are free to tip more or less and the amount should be reflective of your perception of service and quality - a tip is not compulsory and should only be given when you receive excellent service.
Tap water in Guatemala is not safe to drink, so you'll need to stick to bottled or filtered water. Each hotel you'll stay in will have filtered water where you can fill up your bottles before each ride. Your host is passionate about reducing single-use plastic waste in Guatemala, so they won't provide plastic bottles of drinking water at any stage.
Yes you can leave your excess luggage in Antigua if you need to. Be aware that after Day 3 you won't be returning to Antigua until the end of the trip, so you'll need to take everything you need with you for the ride.
Sure can! Over 70% of our travellers travel solo, it’s a great way to meet like-minded people.
Our team of Adventure Hunters co-create exclusive adventures which are run by highly vetted, specialist hosts. The trip is run by our trusted host partner in the destination. We only work with independent, local, in-destination experts who know the very best places to explore and how to stay safe. Read more information about the local teams we partner with. You’ll be introduced to the host straight after making a booking via the Much Better Adventures platform.
Much Better Adventures refer to the UK Government’s official travel advice when designing trips and monitoring trip operations. We recommend that all customers are familiar with the practical information provided on the Government’s FCDO website, where current travel advice can be found by searching for the applicable destination(s).
For customers joining this trip from other international destinations – please also read the official travel advice applicable to your country of residence/origin, as this may differ.
We recommend checking out the country-specific information and also talking to a travel nurse.
We automatically convert prices from the local currency that a host receives to your chosen currency. We update our exchange rates on a daily basis so this does mean that prices displayed on the site are subject to currency fluctuations, which is why you may see them change over time.
If you wish to change the currency you pay in, head to the bottom of the page.
All of our group adventures are specially designed for adults to enjoy as we want these adventures to bring together outdoorsy people who are truly like-minded. You must be over 18 to join one of our trips.
You're always in good company on one of our adventures.
Our trips are typically made up of a mixture of solo travellers and small groups of 2 or 3 friends, with most in their 30s-50s.
Our sociable adventures are solo-friendly by design and naturally attract outdoorsy people with a shared mindset; a love for adventure, a desire to push themselves and meet awesome, like-minded people along the way. Check out our Community Values – a shared code to make sure that everyone's experience is safe, inclusive and brilliantly unforgettable.
It’s this camaraderie that has so often turned a great adventure into a life-changing one.
Don't just take our word for it:
See here for more info about the Much Better Adventures tribe.
We partner with the World Land Trust to ensure this trip achieves Net-Zero emissions. We also support their Buy an Acre programme, helping local communities to buy and protect natural habitats in perpetuity.
What's the number?
It works out on average at 443kg of CO2 emissions per person, including all local transport, accommodation, food, activities, guides, staff and office operations.
The only thing it doesn’t include right now is flights and travel to the destination. We do make an overall estimate across all our customers separately, but as we don’t book flights, have customers from all corners of the world, and no way of reliably knowing their travel plans, we simply can’t include an individual number in the figure on display here. We’ve got a goal to fix that, so that when you book, there is a way to measure and mitigate the carbon emitted by your flight too.
But what does the number mean?
Yep, hard to picture eh? To give you an idea:
What are we doing about it?
Our trips are relatively low-carbon by design, and we're working with all our hosts to develop long term carbon reduction plans. We partner with the World Land Trust to ensure this trip achieves Net-Zero emissions. We also support their Buy an Acre programme, helping local communities to buy and protect natural habitats in perpetuity, ensuring the protection of the reserve and its wildlife.
Want to know more?
Amazingly, no international travel company has ever publicly published their carbon measurements before, as far as we know. We believe that must change, quickly. So we’re openly sharing the method we used in the hope that other companies will be able to more easily follow suit and build on what we've done so far. You'll find it all here.
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Choose from 250+ award-winning active outdoor adventures in wild places, whatever your mood.
75% join our trips as solo travellers, with most in their 30s-50s. 95% give our group dynamic 5 stars.
We've sorted the logistics, so you can just rock up and have a blast in the wild.
To protect our world's wild places, one adventure at a time.
