Antigua

Very expat-friendly with good access to healthy and international foods and brands. I (a single female) felt very safe walking around day or night. The Antiguan architecture and popularity of the city make it extremely loud and congested with traffic. There’s also a lot of people trying to navigate the roads, sidewalks and bike lanes at the same time. There’s lots of good options for sports (CrossFit, swimming, pickleball) and a good fitness culture in the city. I didn’t find the prices cheap but got good value for everything I bought.

It's a great town, it reminds me of Oaxaca/San Cristobal De Las Casas but better: cleaner, quieter, greener, and the skyline is amazing.

We've been living in Antigua with our three children for 8 months now. The city and surrounding volcanos are absolutely beautiful! Food options are fairly decent if you're willing to pay extra for the occasional Indian, Mediterranean, Japanese fix. There is a worldschooling hub for the kids that runs about 650/child per month that is held at EcoFarms. The hosts are great. While the cobble stone streets are beautiful, the slow, bumpy rides everywhere does get old after a month. And the mosquitos! We get eaten alive at night if we don't sweep the house with an electric mosquitos racket. The locals are friendly, but like many tourist destinations doesn't always seem genuine, which is understandable. There are a decent mix if expats, young and old, and making friends has been very easy. Plenry of ourdoor activities and restaurants with play areas for the kids. Overall, we'd give it a 7/10 for families.

Lived in Antigua for over a year and I absolutely loved it! It´s called the city of eternal spring because the weather is like a perfect spring day all year round. There are two seasons, rainy and non-rainy but in rainy season (May-Oct) it only rains for 3-4 hours in the afternoon then stops. It makes everything lush and green which is another reason they call it the city of perpetual roses and eternal spring. It´s a small city so very easily to walk and see everything. If you escape the center of Antigua, you have to go see the little Aldeas around like San Juan del Obispo, Santa Maria de Jesus, Ciudad Vieja and San Pedro de las Huertas for a more local experience. In the surrounding areas there´s Hobbitenagno, Santa Catarina Barahona and the Mayan/catholic diety San Simon in San Andres Itzapa. There´s Iximche nearby which are Maya ruins and Antigua is centrally located to go see other breathtaking spots in Guatemala like Lake Atitlan and Monterrico. The local people are incredibly nice in general and especially to tourists. Antigua itself is very safe with it´s own division of tourist police, among local, state and federal police. Internet can be a challenge sometimes but when I was there in 2022 they started installing Fiber Optic Internet by a company called Innova so it was getting a lot better. There are a few co-working places like Selina and others that cater to digital nomads so if the internet isn´t super fast where you are staying there are a handful of places that have you covered and hopefully more soon with fiber optic internet. If you´re looking for history, beauty, nature and a more peaceful way of life, Antigua is your place! But venture out from the city square because the valley Antigua is in has so much to offer.

Antigua is amazing, very safe and lots of amazing food to eat out at. Internet at the Airbnb was laggy at times, but some places might have better connections.

Antigua is a fun, historic and compact city with enough international visitors to make it comfortable for any expat for digital nomad. In recent decades the city has evolved into an international Spanish-learning destination, for the high quality of life, tourism amenities, access to nature, and low cost. It's also a few hour drive from one of the most beautiful lakes I've ever seen: Lake Atitlan.