3.45/5
419 reviews
Photo by Clovis Castaneda via Unsplash

Cost of Living in Antigua

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internet

safe

good

san

food

international

amazing

beautiful

spring

nice

expat

access

day

night

options

great

las

surrounding

absolutely

Antigua is widely praised as a safe place, even for solo female travelers, with several layers of policing including tourist-specific oversight. The weather is consistently mild, often described as spring-like year-round, making it comfortable for extended stays. It’s also walkable, with a charming small-city layout and cobblestone streets, though those can become tiring over time, especially when traveling by car. Many reviewers highlight the friendliness of both locals and expatriates, with an easy-to-navigate expat community and Spanish schools available. The food scene is broad and international, especially for those willing to pay extra. Restaurants also accommodate families with kids’ play areas. Outdoor and fitness activities like hiking, swimming, and pickleball are easy to access. The surrounding highlands offer a lot of beauty and day-trip potential including Maya ruins and nature-rich villages.

Some downsides noted include unreliable internet in certain locations, though fiber optic is being implemented in some areas and co-working spaces can help bridge the gap. Mosquitos are also a nuisance, especially at night. Traffic congestion in the city center and noise due to architecture and tourism density can also be issues. While not “cheap” for some, many found prices fair for the value received.

AI-generated summary of reviews
7 months ago

very nice. Safe, pretty, walkable.
Plenty of food, restaurant, lots of expat and spanish schools
I stayed 3 weeks

7 months ago

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.

11 months ago

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.

2 years ago

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.

2 years ago

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.

3 years ago

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.

4 years ago

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.

7 years ago

✅ Very safe

✅ Warm all year

✅ Friendly people

✅ Walkable

✅ Plenty of food options

✅ Good for expats

✅ Beautiful natural surroundings

✅ Lots of fun stuff to do

✅ Warm now

✅ Good air quality on average

✅ Nomads.com members liked going here a lot

✅ Many Nomads.com members have been

✅ Spacious and not crowded

✅ Roads are very safe

✅ Family friendly

✅ Not many people smoke tobacco

✅ Not a lot of alcohol abuse

❌ Unreliable internet

❌ Mosquitos

❌ Traffic congestion

❌ Freedom of speech is weak

❌ Not very democratic

❌ Not very safe

❌ Pretty slow internet

❌ Not many Nomads.com members right now

❌ Difficult to do business

❌ Quality of education is low

❌ Hospitals are bad

❌ People don't speak English well

❌ Not safe for women

❌ Hostile towards LGBTQ+

❌ Marijuana is illegal

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Feels (median)

2272°
mild

2373°
mild

2475°
warm

2272°
mild

2170°
mild

2272°
mild

2373°
mild

2272°
mild

Real (median)

2272°
mild

2373°
mild

2474°
warm

2272°
mild

2170°
mild

2272°
mild

2373°
mild

2272°
mild

Humidity

nice
73%

nice
68%

nice
66%

nice
72%

nice
85%

nice
91%

nice
86%

nice
90%

nice
91%

nice
88%

nice
80%

nice
76%

Most common

☀️ Clear

☔️ Rain

☀️ Clear

Rain

dry
5mm

dry
7mm

dry
36mm

dry
46mm

rainy
248mm

rainy
310mm

rainy
168mm

rainy
115mm

rainy
328mm

rainy
235mm

rainy
52mm

dry
6mm

Cloud

pockets
32%

pockets
37%

pockets
38%

pockets
49%

cloudy
79%

cloudy
85%

cloudy
74%

cloudy
79%

cloudy
82%

cloudy
71%

pockets
46%

pockets
33%

Air quality

clean
36 US AQI

clean
36** US AQI

clean
44 US AQI

Sun

avoid sun
8 UVI

avoid sun
9 UVI

avoid sun
10 UVI

avoid sun
9 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

avoid sun
9 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

Remote workers

2,486 people

2,446 people

2,486 people

2,631 people

2,300 people

1,800 people

2,040 people

1,586 people

3,120 people

1,260 people

1,292 people

1,840 people

Green is good. Red is bad. Values shown are the medians of all daily highs in a month based on past few years, not necessarily current numbers. Remote worker count is estimated based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members.

If you'd like to filter destinations based on their climate, try Nomads.com's Climate Finder

Current weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0)

Based on Antigua's cost of living, here's selected remote jobs that would cover your costs:

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⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😳 Extremely expensive

📡 InternetWiFi 🙂 Good

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety mediocre

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 19° 66° 19° 66° AQI 13

✈️12h

$7,843 / mo

🌇 Also went here143 people

Thailand

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 InternetWiFi 🙂 Good

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety mediocre

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 41° 106° 31° 88° 🥵 AQI 55 😷

✈️22h

$1,547 / mo

🌇 Also went here155 people

600 remote workers in Antigua now, of which 1+ members checked in (some members are set to private)

Members who will be here soon

Members who have been here

Values shown are estimated visits by traveling remote workers based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members. Visits to a place are only counted once per year per user, even if they visit more in that year. Visits are also normalized by overall trips added per month on the site, so if site usage goes up or down it does not affect trends. Not all digital nomads are on Nomads.com, and not all Nomads.com members log their trips. So the data is only indicative.

The chart below shows visitors by nationality normalized for population size. This means we take all trips logged on Nomads.com, check which country of origin the user is from, then divide that total visit count by the country of origin's population. If we didn't, it'd just show the big countries like US, Brazil and India always on top. Instead, this shows which nationalities worldwide proportionally visit more or less, which is more useful.

🎒 Nomad Score™	3.45/5 (Rank #80) 419 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍10 liked it 👎0 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Good
👶 Family score	Okay
🎒 Community score	Okay
🤯 Overcrowding score	1% is nomad here
💵 Cost	😙 Affordable: $2,317 / mo
📡 Internet	😡 Slow: 7 Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Great
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🌞 Perfect: 25°C77°F (feels 25°C77°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	😊 Comfy: 69%
💨 Air quality (now)	🌱 Good: 36 US AQI
👌 Safety	Bad
👩 Safe for women	Bad
🌈 Safe for LGBTQ+	Bad
🤮 Food safety*	Okay
👮‍♀️ Lack of crime*	Bad
🤝 Lack of racism*	Okay
🎓 Education level*	Low
⚡️ Power grid	Great
🌊 Vulnerability to climate change	Good
💰 Income level*	Very low: $346 / mo
🙊 English speaking*	Bad
🚶 Walkability	Great
🚦 Traffic safety*	Okay
✈️ Airline scores*	Great
🧳 Lost luggage*	Great
😄 Happiness*	Bad
🍸 Nightlife	Okay
📶 Free WiFi in city	Okay
🖥 Places to work from	Great
❄️ A/C or heating	Bad
😁 Friendly to foreigners	Great
🗯 Freedom of speech*	Okay
🎅 Startup Score	Bad

🌍 Continent	Latin America
🚩 Country	Guatemala
🗓️ Average trip length	11 days
📡 Internet speed (avg)	7 Mbps
⛅️ Weather (now)	🌥 25°C 77°F + 😊 Comfy (69%) = feels 25°C 77°F
💨 Air quality (now)	👍 36 US AQI 🍃 OK
🔌 Power	115V 60Hz
🚑 Travel medical insurance	Safetywing
💸 10 GTQ in USD	USD 1.31
🏧 Suggested ATM take out:	GTQ 1,000 = USD 131
💸 Tipping	No
💻 Best coworking space	Impact Hub
🚰 Tap water	🚫 No, not drinkable
♻️ Return rate	9% of visitors return
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Population	80,000 people
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 GDP per capita*	$4,147 / year
👫 Gender ratio (nomads)	👨 71% 👱‍♀️ 29%
🏞 Foreign land ownership allowed	Yes
⛪️ Religious government	Non-religious
🏠 Apartment listings	Airbnb
✈️ Best short-haul air carrier	Avianca
✈️ Best int'l air carrier	United

💵 Cost of living for nomad	$2,317 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$1,158 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$1,376 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$393 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$2,944 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$2,940 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$328 / month
🏠 Median home price	$39,365
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$138 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$96 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$105 / month
🍛 Dinner	$3
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$0
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$1
☕️ Coffee in cafe	$1

Cost of Living in Antigua

600 remote workers in Antigua now, of which 1+ members checked in (some members are set to private)

Members who will be here soon

Members who have been here

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