How Safe is Guatemala For U.S. Citizens to Travel?

So how safe is Guatemala? If you research the safety of the country (which, if you are looking to take a trip there, you most likely have) you’ll probably read all sorts of cautionary things mentioning the lack of safety in the country.

However, after reading the many warnings about the country’s sketchiness, I indeed proceeded to take a trip there.

After the fact, I can inform you that I encountered none of the extreme warnings you’ll read about on the internet. Instead, I experienced a warm culture, Lake Atitlan’s spiritual nature, and Mount Fuego’s lava lighting up the sky.

Pre-Trip Knowledge: The Panicky Internet Facts

According to smarttraveller.gov, which can do a great job of scaring you out of traveling somewhere, here is a summary of crime in the country, and what you should be avoiding to stay as safe as possible (again, per smarttraveller.gov)

- Violent crimes, including murder, carjacking, and kidnappings are common in Guatemala

- Avoid any traveling or ATM usage. If crossing between border countries, do it during the day

- Be wary of street taxis and scams involving tourist vehicles. Try to only take rebooked rides

- The highly unsafe zones in the country are Guatemala City, Zones 10, 14 and 15. Additionally, border crossing areas between El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico.

Actual Trip Experience: What to Do For Utmost Safety In Guatemala

- Try to get out of Guatemala City pretty quickly. The city doesn’t have a great reputation for safety and there are frankly better places to spend your time in Guatemala. I planned our flights to land in the AM so we’d have ample time to get out of the city and head to Antigua and Lake Atitlan as soon as we landed (about a 5-hour journey.)

- Always travel between locations and towns during the day.

- Prebook your shuttle transportation from a reputable source. Your hostel or hotel is a great place to start before having been there. From there, you can search about town (wherever you’re staying) to gauge other cheap and safe options. But for your initial shuttle, I would definitely book through the hotel.

- Do NOT mess around with drugs. We met a number of people on the street there that were readily offering up literally every drug you could imagine. Just politely say no and walk away. Even if something seems interesting to try, you do not want to get into a bidding war or be at all associated with the cartel (or buy from an enemy of the cartel.) Not only could something be laced, but with the language barrier you don’t want to get into a situation where someone thinks you owe them money. Also, drugs are totally illegal in Guatemala, and you don’t want any reason to attract the attention of the police. In my view, drug tourism leads to a lot of the scary stories you can read about online. Just better to not even mess with it.

- Nighttime I felt got sketchy in a lot of places, and there are a lot of dimly lit roads and alleyways in Guatemala. We definitely passed some unsavory characters, but thankfully I was walking around with two large boys. However, if you’re a solo female, I would actively avoid going down any unlit, untraveled areas. I had a feeling if I had been alone, I would be at much greater risk of an unsafe incident. While this is standard safety practice anywhere, I did feel more uneasy in these situations in Guatemala than I did in both Costa Rica and where I was in Mexico.

- Uber is legal in Guatemala, and for the most part pretty safe (from what other travelers I spoke with expressed, although I never took one myself). I would avoid taking taxis in Guatemala though, as those have a reputation to be both scammy and sketchy.

- Chicken Buses! The most iconic form of public transport in Guatemala. These are massive converted school buses that you’ll see everywhere, which the locals take to get about the country. I’ll have more on these in another post, but unless you are almost fluent in Spanish I might avoid taking these if you’re worried about safety… from my experience, the drivers run the roads like madmen and they didn’t have the best markers for safety.
- Regarding ATM usage, despite the warning, I remember it being ok to use the ATMs. However, I did get most of my cash out at the airport when we landed. But when using it elsewhere, just ask your hotel about where a reliable ATM would be and they should be able to help you.

Other Things to Keep In Mind When Traveling To Guatemala

- Don’t drink tap water. I will totally admit, we didn’t always follow this rule with the ice. While we never got sick from ice, just know that the water is not technically safe to drink. Always drink bottled water in Guatemala.

- When taking direct photos of women and children, you should ask permission. I actually got in trouble with this one by accident and was taking a photo of a building with a single woman in it, and she got very upset and asked me for payment. If it’s of a scene and multiple people, you should be fine. But just be aware of this cultural expectation.

- On Sundays, if you are visiting any religious ceremonies, of which there will be many and you should absolutely see them, you cannot take pictures. This is another occasion where I again got yelled at lol. Luckily I did not get kicked out, but just so you know about this show of respect during religious rituals in the country.

I fully admit I was nervous to go to Guatemala. I mean, you see the notice to ‘exercise a high degree of caution’ due to the high level of crime and it definitely makes you rethink your trip. But frankly, bad things can happen anywhere, and am so glad I made the choice to go. Guatemala was INCREDIBLE, truly, from the food to the people to the scenery… it was captivating.