Porta Hotel Antigua · 8a Calle Poniente 1 · Conf #120284
Ranjit & Varnita
Built around one hard constraint, the three-hour work block. Varnita's yoga sits inside it, so nobody is waiting on anybody. Drums and the massage are both indoors and cover the wet window.
Caoba Farms, El Alquimista, La Nueva Fábrica, Nanik, Barriga Llena lunch service.
You're handling the booking. This is what you'll want on the day.
The pick if you're still in San Juan. Ask for the upper deck. Fried mojarra and ceviche are what people come back for, good Antigua Cervecería beers on tap, fast service, souvenir shop downstairs.
Middle Eastern. Hummus, falafel, pita out of the oven, tables over the lake. Best-rated food of the three villages. Alma nearby is the same idea a notch more refined.
The standard lunch stop for this run. Local fish done properly, homemade bread, second-storey deck over the water. El Maná on the public beach has the better view and a slower kitchen.
The Xocomil wind picks up around midday and chops the lake, and most itineraries have you crossing well into the afternoon. Routine, the lanchas run it every day. But if either of you is prone to motion sickness, take something before the morning boat rather than after.
Recovery day after the lake. Nothing is booked. Pull the anchor off the open list below and everything else is indoors or covered.
La Tortilla Cooking School. 6a Avenida Norte 21, 8 min, daily 9–5, 4.8. Teaching chef, English-speaking assistants, several traditional dishes, then everyone sits down and eats what they made with a lot of wine. Bring cash, the card fee is unreliable. Ask for a smaller session if they offer one, the packed classes get tight.
Family-run out of their own workshop, María and Ana teaching. Corn and its place in Mayan culture, tamales de chipilín, pepián, three-colour tortillas. Funds school scholarships. The one Varnita would like most.
One chef, hands on, deep on Mayan and Guatemalan technique, beautiful space. The most personal of the group classes.
Chef André, fluent English, patient with beginners, strong on vegetarian and vegan pepián. Master class option does five dishes.
Rooftop kitchen with mountain views, pepián from scratch, optional market tour. Pricier, and people who've done several classes around town say it was the best of them.
Free group class at Las Palmas, 5–6 PM every night, 8 min walk, no booking, then stay for the band at 7. Book a private hour later in the week only if you enjoy it.
Antigua is small, flat and signposted by its own grid, so you don't need a guide to enjoy it. What a guide adds is the why: why every building is one storey, why the plaza is arranged the way it is, why one church is intact and the next has no roof. Use the separate self-paced file, ten stops, ninety minutes, starts and ends at the Porta, with a forty-five minute short version and audio narration. Guided alternative is Elizabeth Bell on Friday morning.
El Gran Café, 5a Calle Poniente 3B, 5 min, daily 8–6. Beans from their own Finca La Esperanza just outside town. The Esperanza lot scored 93 points and runs about Q185 for 340g, hazelnut and apricot and orange in the cup. Best single bag in Antigua, and it's on your Friday breakfast route.
An actual roastery. They'll pour several roasts side by side for free before you commit. Bags Q100–150. Go here if you'd rather taste than trust a score.
Roastery with a rooftop, closest to the hotel, and the best work-from-café room in town if you need out of the room in the morning.
Maya Cacao Chocolatería, 6a Avenida Norte 2, 6 min, daily 10–7 and to 8 at weekends. 4.9 across 1,000+, the best-rated chocolate in Antigua and the one everything else gets compared to. Bars around Q55, plus chocolate tea and a small café side if you want to sit.
Serious chocolate house. They hand you samples on arrival and explain the process without selling you a class. Best gift boxes in town.
Fine for bars, liqueurs and ice cream if you're already at the plaza. Skip the workshop.
Swiss-French chef, colonial rooms, candlelight, live music in La Cueva on select nights. Tonight.
Modern Guatemalan and Mayan cooking. Duck tamal, oxtail terrine, mushroom risotto. Seasonal menu, high-end without being stiff. The most interesting food in town right now.
Garden courtyard, filet in pepper sauce, the most reliably romantic room after Panza Verde. Mosquitoes in the yard at dusk, sit inside if that bothers you.
Ten to twelve vegetable-forward courses over about four hours, Mayan flavours. Divisive: people who eat a lot of tasting menus rate it very highly, people expecting a normal dinner do not. Closest thing to a destination restaurant here and it's a four minute walk.
Small, seasonal, everything made in house down to the sauerkraut. Fried chicken, dumplings, daily fish, open kitchen. People go three times in a week.
French-leaning, across from La Merced, bigger inside than it looks. The safe good dinner.
Small pizzas people call the best in town, real carbonara, steak burger, strong breakfast. Easy to get in and out of.
Guatemalan. Tortillas made at the entrance, tacos de lomito, caldo de pollo, sopa Madre Tierra. Busy with locals, which is the tell. Open latest of anything decent.
Guatemalan flavours rebuilt as bistro food: pumpkin ravioli in kak'ik sauce, adobado pizza, sandwiches built on pepián and jocón. Black bean hummus to start.
All three volcanoes from the terrace. Sandwiches, avocado toast, good coffee, slow kitchen. The place to take a laptop for an hour.
Classic Guatemalan near the park. Pepián, pipián, rellenitos. Friday lunch.
Dry sunny mornings in the low-to-mid 70s, cloud after lunch, hard rain for an hour or two between 1 and 4 PM, clearing by evening.