Volcán Acatenango & Fuego🌋
The main activity in Guatemala, and one you should 100% do, is hike Volcán Acatenango and Fuego in Antigua. These volcanoes are two of thirty seven, which surround the area, and are the two most popular to hike.
The hike
The hike is two days, with a nights stay on the top of Volcán Acatenango. You will then get the opportunity to hike up Volcán de Fuego, to see the famous lava flows erupt, standing only 600 meters away from the caldera.
The hike overall, in our opinion wasn’t that hard. We have done plenty of harder hikes, which helped us prepare for this one, however, if you are unfit or don’t hike a lot, this one can definitely be very challenging. The hike to Acatenango is around 13km and can take around four hours depending on what base camp you are staying in. You will then get the option to hike up to Fuego, which is an additional five hours and costs an extra 250 Quetzals. On the first day, you will be hiking for an overall ten hours, so it is very tiring, but completely worth the time and pain!
To help you prepare, you will need to spend a couple of days in Antigua first, which will help you to acclimatise. Volcán Acatenango base camp is roughly 3,700 meters above sea level, meaning the elevation gain is around 1,300 meters from the start to the base. So it is definitely worth acclimatising beforehand to avoid altitude sickness. Details going into the tour we went with, will be explained in the section below!
Tour
There are so many tour companies to go with, so here are two that I recommend and why. Firstly, Soy Tours was a company our friend went with, and he said overall were really good and he couldn’t fault them. However, this company is known for big groups and he had around 50 people in his, which for me personally, would be way too hectic.
We went with Blue Sky, who are known as a company who only does small groups! With them, you only need a minimum of three people for the hike to go ahead, and a maximum of twenty people. We met a couple who only had three of them in their group. The benefits to this, is you don’t have to wait for people when hiking, meaning you can go as quick or slow as you want without having to stress or push yourself. If you are keen hikers, you most likely won’t want to go with 50 people because of this, as you tend to go a lot slower and have to wait around for everyone. The only downside, is you might not meet a lot of people, and if you are looking to meet other backpackers and be social, potentially having a small group might not be what you want. Bear in mind that you are hiking quite intensely for two days, so you won’t necessarily be having a late night partying, but it is nice to meet new people nonetheless, especially if you all end up staying in Antigua for a few nights after. We had nineteen people in our group, which was really nice as we met a lot of people, but also did slow us down in some aspects because of the variety of hiking abilities.
Soy Tours also have a slight difference in their itinerary. With them, you will stay up at Fuego until it is completely dark to hopefully watch Fuego erupt at night. Whereas Blue Sky leaves just before dark, giving you a head start on the hike back to base camp. For us personally, even though it was really unlucky that we didn’t get to see the eruption up close, doing it the way we did, was a lot nicer because we weren’t hiking back down Fuego in complete darkness. If you go with Soy Tours the hike back might not be as enjoyable, as it will take a long time with such a big group, meaning you will get back to base camp very late. When we got back, we could see the other groups beginning their hike down Fuego to Acatenango, meaning some groups didn’t get back to their camp till midnight. Take this into account, as it can be very tough as you get up at 3am the next morning to hike to the top of Acatenango for sunrise, so you will hardly get any sleep!
These are just two companies that I recommend looking into, but do your own research and see if there are any others that you might prefer!
Costs
The tour overall cost us $90 USD each, which included the guides, accommodation, water and three meals (lunch, dinner and breakfast). You then can hire any equipment from the tour company, like a big jacket, gloves, beanie, walking poles, backpacks etc. We ended up hiring a medium backpack from them and sharing it between us, which cost us $20 USD for two days. We originally were only going to use Ned’s small Osprey backpack and my Patagonia sling bag, but the tour gives you 4 litres of water each, which are for the hike and for cooking the meals, so we couldn’t fit it all into one backpack with our clothes.
If you decide that you don’t want to carry your backpack, you can also hire a porter. They will carry it up Acatenango to base camp for you, but at an additional price and then you will have to carry it back down yourself the next day. Other costs also include any snacks or drinks you want to bring yourself and tipping to the guides. Tipping, again is optional, so it is completely up to you if you want to and how much you want to tip!
What to pack
You can bring whatever you want, especially if you hire a porter to carry your backpack. Just make sure it isn’t over the weight limit, otherwise you will have to pay an additional price for the extra weight. Ned and I packed very little and even for us it was overpacking!
- clothes: hiking top, thermal x2, down jacket, waterproof, thick jacket (hire if need), socks x2, beanie, gloves, snood, hiking shoes, sunglasses.
- electronics: phone, camera, portable chargers, AirPods.
- snacks: protein cereal bars, sweets, chocolate, trail mix, biscuits, hydralytes tablets, Gatorade/Powerrade.
Day Itinerary
Below will include our day to day itinerary of what our tour included.
Day before
The day before your hike, you will have an induction with Blue Sky at 4pm. This induction will include details of the hike, what to expect, prepare and bring. You can also hire any equipment or porter, which you pay for then along with the remaining cost of the tour!
Day 1
Day 1 includes meeting at 7am at the office before a departure time at 7:45am latest, giving you time to get your bags organised and have some breakfast. You can also leave your big backpacks in a locked storage room at their office. Once everyone is ready, you then drive an hour or so to the base starting point, where you are given your head torches and the porters get the bags ready for them to carry.
The hike starts pretty gradually, is a little steep at some points, and the path is very gravelly and slippery. However, within thirty minutes you will get to the main hub (third picture), where you can buy some more snacks or drinks, and is the last place where you can use a proper toilet. You have about ten minutes here, before starting again.
During the hike up, you will stop quite a few times in your group, so if you’re worried about going too fast or being too slow don’t be. We had 2 guides for the nineteen of us so you can go as slow as you want. You will have two other big breaks, the first one was about an hour into the hike, where you will get your wristbands to the National Park (middle picture), and the second break was for lunch. After lunch you will hike for another two hours to base camp, which I think is the furthest camp out of all the tour companies, meaning you have an additional fifteen minutes to camp!
We got to base camp around 2:30pm giving us an hour to relax, warm up and get ready for our second hike up to Fuego. However, the time you arrive can depend on how fast your group goes. Hiking to Fuego is completely optional and is an additional five hour hike return back to base camp. It also costs an additional 250 Quezals to go, which you can pay at the office once you have returned to Antigua. If you go, make sure to wear and bring as many layers as you can, because the weather is freezing, and so temperamental at the top! If you decide that you don’t want to do Fuego, you can stay at base camp, where sometimes the views of Fuego are even better from a distance.
The hike to Fuego includes going down from base camp, on Acatenango and then up the opposite volcano, which is Fuego. As we started our descent, our surrounding views were completely covered with clouds and we couldn’t see anything further than a few meters ahead of us. However, we were all determined to still go, with hopes that the weather would change! As we got to the middle section at the base of Acatenango before we started our ascent up Fuego, the clouds suddenly started shifting and we were graced with views of Acatenango (middle picture). We were even able to briefly see our base camp (third picture).
As we continued up Fuego, the views became a lot clearer and we could see views of Antigua below and the mountains in the distance. It was mostly full of clouds, but it was still pretty incredible hiking above them and seeing the surrounding views. The overall hike to Fuego took around two and a half hours, with us rushing to the top with hopes the weather would stay clear.
Sadly, as we reached the summit, the clouds rolled back in and the winds picked up, to the point it was probably around 60mph winds. We sat down, waited and sheltered for forty minutes and were teased with partial views as the clouds constantly kept changing. As we waited, we were given a tiny glass of red wine to celebrate getting to the top!
As it hit the hour mark, we were slowly losing hope for the weather to change, but our guide said to wait till 6pm, which was when the clouds were meant to clear…and they did! We were extremely lucky and got to see a clear view of Fuego and the surrounding mountains and volcanoes, it was a spectacular sight! Sadly, we didn’t get to see any lava eruptions up close, but the views were still completely worth it!
We stayed at the top for another thirty minutes, getting our photos and videos. I don’t know how anyone gets aesthetic photos up there, because I was wrapped up in so many layers that I looked like a huge marshmallow! We might of stayed a little longer, but the weather changed drastically again and forced us back down to shelter. The lower we got, the weather changed again and we were graced with a beautiful sunset, with the clouds making it look even more special. As we continued are descent, we bumped into multiple big groups going up Fuego, with hopes to see the lava eruptions. There were about seventy people huddling against the sides from the wind, so our group were all very happy that we weren’t staying any longer, as it was pretty crowded!
As we continued our hike down, we started seeing the lava eruptions and wow, was it such a sight! The bright red sparks spurting out from the top of Fuego, followed by the rumbling sound of the eruption was just incredible. We were lucky to see the lava eruptions throughout our hike back to base camp, then at basecamp we had a clear view of it at dinner and during the night! For dinner you will be given chicken pasta followed by roasting marshmallows on a little fire. If you have any dietary requirements, let the tour know beforehand so they can prepare your meals.
Day 2
Day 2 started with an early wake up call to watch the sunrise over Fuego, from Volcán Acatenango. Normally, you wake up at 3:30am to start the ascent up to the summit of Acatenango. However, when we woke up, our views were completely covered and clouds everywhere, we gave it another hour before deciding not to go to the summit, which we do completely regret! If you can do it, you have to go to the Acatenango for sunrise! The weather slightly changed at 4:30am and we were able to see some views of the sunrise and Fuego. We decided to watch it from base camp, which for us, is the highest camp compared to other companies, so we did have a pretty good view anyway.
This was where I was a little disappointed in Blue Sky, only because they didn’t push to take us to the summit of Acatenango. I kind of got the impression that they didn’t want to take us because of the weather, even though the day before was just as bad. I do know that we might not have seen anything, but I think we all would have rather tried and failed to see the sunrise, rather than thinking we missed out! Everyone we spoke to said sunrise is probably the main attraction aside from the lava eruptions!
After sunrise, you have breakfast at camp, which was delicious coffee and pancakes with fruit, to help you warm and wake up. You will then have about an hour or so to relax before getting your things ready to head back down. We left at 7am, but I think it depends on how quickly you can all be ready, and it took us just under three hours to get to the bottom, which is pretty quick. Sometimes, it can take up to six hours to get back as it is so slippery, steep and harsh on your knees.
If you have booked onward travel, the shuttles normally leave at 2pm from Antigua, so you have to take this into account when hiking back down. If your group is slower, you are allowed to go ahead to get to the bottom quicker and then get a different shuttle back to Antigua. Luckily for us, our group were all determined to get to the bottom as quickly as possible, so we got down before 10am and back to Antigua at 11:30am. This gave us plenty of time to get our bags organised and have some food without rushing.
Overall, this hike was a huge highlight for us and our last big, overnight hike of our entire Latin America trip!! Sadly, the weather wasn’t on our side, so it was pretty cloudy and very cold, however, we were really lucky to see the lava eruptions, which is the main attraction. If I ever get the chance to come back to Guatemala, I would definitely do this again because it was that good! If you have the time, you 100% need to add this hike into your itinerary.