2.91/5
387 reviews
Photo by Clovis Castaneda via Unsplash

Cost of Living in Antigua

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internet

good

san

international

safe

amazing

beautiful

spring

access

day

night

options

great

las

surrounding

absolutely

food

decent

kids

Antigua is widely praised for its safety, with many reviewers noting they felt comfortable walking even at night. The weather is consistently spring-like throughout the year, earning the nickname "City of Eternal Spring." Locals are generally welcoming, though some travelers felt interactions could occasionally feel transactional due to tourism. The city is favored by expats and digital nomads, with infrastructure gradually improving, especially regarding internet connectivity, though unreliable internet remains an intermittent issue for some.

Families and singles both find the area livable, with good access to international food options, outdoor activities, and a worldschooling hub for kids. There’s a variety of restaurants, co-working spaces, and fitness offerings. The compact size makes it walkable, and many nearby villages offer rich cultural experiences just outside the city. However, mosquito issues were noted, particularly at night indoors without prevention.

Though the cobblestone streets add charm, they make for bumpy rides and contribute to the city’s traffic congestion. Noise and heavy pedestrian and vehicle traffic can be a downside, especially in more tourist-heavy areas. Overall, Antigua is considered a great, family-friendly base with scenic beauty and a peaceful lifestyle, provided you're prepared for a few urban inconveniences.

AI-generated summary of reviews
1 month 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.

1 month 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.

1 year 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.

1 year 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.

2 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.

3 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.

6 years ago

✅ Very safe

✅ Warm all year

✅ Friendly people

✅ Clean

✅ Lots of food options

✅ Expat-friendly

✅ Outdoor activities

✅ Affordable to live

✅ 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

✅ Not many people smoke tobacco

✅ Not a lot of alcohol abuse

❌ Unreliable internet

❌ Mosquito problems

❌ 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

❌ Not family friendly

❌ Hostile towards LGBTQ+

❌ Marijuana is illegal

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Feels (median)

22°C / 72°F mild

23°C / 73°F mild

24°C / 75°F warm

22°C / 72°F mild

21°C / 70°F mild

22°C / 72°F mild

23°C / 73°F mild

22°C / 72°F mild

Real (median)

22°C / 72°F
mild

23°C / 73°F
mild

24°C / 74°F
warm

22°C / 72°F
mild

21°C / 70°F
mild

22°C / 72°F
mild

23°C / 73°F
mild

22°C / 72°F
mild

Humidity

nice
74%

nice
70%

nice
69%

nice
78%

nice
93%

nice
97%

nice
88%

nice
95%

nice
89%

nice
77%

nice
72%

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
31%

pockets
24%

pockets
30%

pockets
45%

cloudy
51%

cloudy
56%

pockets
45%

cloudy
51%

pockets
43%

pockets
40%

pockets
27%

Air quality

clean
36 US AQI

clean
0** US AQI

clean
44 US AQI

Sun

avoid sun
8 UVI

avoid sun
11 UVI

avoid sun
9 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

Remote workers

738 people

817 people

917 people

933 people

764 people

617 people

711 people

550 people

1,040 people

400 people

600 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

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

Help pick the best photos for Antigua and improve this page's look by tappingclicking on them and the site saves your feedback Vote photos

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⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😳 Extremely expensive

📡 InternetWiFi 🙂 Good

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌦 Feels 14° 57° 14° 57° AQI 19

✈️12h

$5,533 / mo

🌇 Also went here134 people

Thailand

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 InternetWiFi 🙂 Good

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌦 Feels 41° 106° 31° 87° 🥵 AQI 55 😷

✈️22h

$1,562 / mo

🌇 Also went here146 people

200 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.

⭐️ Total score	2.91/5 (Rank #74) 387 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍9 liked it 👎0 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Okay
👶 Family score	Okay
🎒 Community score	Okay
💵 Cost	😙 Affordable: $1,892 / mo
📡 Internet	😡 Slow: 7 Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Great
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🌞 Nice: 19°C67°F (feels 20°C68°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	😊 Comfy: 94%
👌 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)	🌧 19°C 67°F + 😊 Comfy (94%) = feels 20°C 68°F
🔌 Power	115V 60Hz
🚑 Travel medical insurance	Safetywing
💸 10 GTQ in USD	USD 1.30
🏧 Suggested ATM take out:	GTQ 1,000 = USD 130
💸 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)	👨 72% 👱‍♀️ 28%
🏞 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	$1,892 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$1,161 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$1,908 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$545 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$1,254 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$1,934 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$427 / month
🏠 Median home price	$39,148
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$59 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$63 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$173 / month
🍛 Dinner	$6
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$1
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$2
☕️ Coffee in cafe	$1