2.79/5
375 reviews
Photo by Clovis Castaneda via Unsplash

Antigua

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internet

san

amazing

beautiful

spring

great

las

surrounding

absolutely

food

decent

kids

mosquitos

tourist

areas

year

called

eternal

rainy

Antigua is a historic and compact city with a strong expat and digital nomad community. It is a safe place with friendly locals and a high quality of life. The weather is pleasant year-round, with a rainy season that brings short but intense afternoon showers. The food scene is diverse, though international cuisine tends to be pricier. Internet can be inconsistent, but fiber optic is being installed, and coworking spaces offer reliable connections.

There are plenty of outdoor activities, including nearby ruins, volcanoes, and the stunning Lake Atitlan. The city is very walkable, though the cobblestone streets can make transportation bumpy. While Antigua is generally clean and peaceful, mosquitos can be a nuisance, especially at night. The city has a significant expat presence and making friends is easy.

For families, there are decent options, including a worldschooling hub, but costs for schooling can add up. Antigua offers a balanced mix of history, nature, and a slower pace of life, making it an attractive destination for long-term stays or visits. However, those who need highly reliable internet should check in advance or use coworking spaces. Overall, an excellent place for those looking for affordability, safety, and cultural charm.

AI-generated summary of reviews

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.

7 months 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.

7 months 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

✅ Friendly people

✅ Fast internet (improving with fiber optic)

✅ Warm all year

✅ Affordable

✅ Very clean

✅ Great food scene

✅ Lots of outdoor activities

✅ 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

❌ Internet can be unreliable

❌ Cobblestone streets can be uncomfortable

❌ Mosquitos can be a problem

❌ Freedom of speech is weak

❌ Not very democratic

❌ Expensive

❌ Not safe at all

❌ 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

72 22°
mild

73 23°
mild

75 24°
warm

72 22°
mild

70 21°
mild

72 22°
mild

73 23°
mild

72 22°
mild

Real

72 22°
mild

73 23°
mild

74 24°
warm

72 22°
mild

70 21°
mild

72 22°
mild

73 23°
mild

72 22°
mild

Humidity

nice
37%

nice
35%

nice
39%

nice
47%

nice
49%

nice
44%

nice
48%

nice
45%

nice
39%

nice
36%

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

833 people

917 people

945 people

800 people

700 people

711 people

564 people

1,040 people

422 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. Not all nomads are on Nomads.com, and not all Nomads.com members log their trips. So the data is only indicative.

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:

	Senior Backend Engineer @ Rarible
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	Front End Developer 1 year contract @ Smile Digital Health
	Data Engineer @ HighLevel
	Senior Software Engineer @ Kota
	Full Stack TypeScript + Golang 2D 3... @ Visuary
	Senior Site Reliability Engineer @ Ledger
	Senior Security Engineer EMEA @ Aircall
	Python Developer @ Eqvilent
	Senior PHP Developer @ Lodgify
	Staff Developer @ Rocket Communications

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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✈️22h

$1,461 / mo

🌇 Also went here136 people

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

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. Not all 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	2.79/5 (Rank #140) 375 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍8 liked it 👎0 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Okay
👶 Family score	Okay
🎒 Community score	Okay
💵 Cost	🙂 Okay: $2,494 / mo
📡 Internet	😡 Slow: 6Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Great
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🌞 Perfect: 24°C75°F (feels 24°C75°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	😊 Comfy: 78%
👌 Safety	Bad
🤮 Food safety*	Okay
👮‍♀️ Lack of crime*	Very 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
👩 Female friendly	Bad
🌈 LGBTQ+ friendly	Bad
🎅 Startup Score	Bad

🌍 Continent	Latin America
🚩 Country	Guatemala
🗓️ Average trip length	11 days
📡 Internet speed (avg)	6 Mbps
⛅️ Weather (now)	🌦 24°C 75°F + 😊 Comfy (78%) = feels 24°C 75°F
🔌 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)	👨 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	$2,494 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$1,131 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$1,908 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$545 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$3,027 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$1,812 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$427 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$142 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$59 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$173 / month
🍛 Dinner	$6
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$1
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$2
☕️ Coffee in cafe	$1