Guatemala Holidays & Vacations
Guatemala conjures up images of dazzling colours and intricate patterns, ancient Mayan kingdoms, and incredible natural beauty. It is a magical country that despite its many strives and struggles, welcomes visitors with open arms and offers them a captivating mix of culture, adventure, and stunning landscapes. Travellers to Guatemala can expect to be overwhelmed by towering pyramidal temples, fascinated by ancestral and current day cultures, amazed by the beauty of the Western Highlands and tempted by the many beautiful handicrafts on offer. Guatemala holidays truly offer something for everyone.
The countryside, dotted with volcanoes and traditional colonial villages, consists primarily of mountainous forest highlands and jungle plains. Guatemala boasts both Pacific and Caribbean coastlines, the former ideal for surfing and the later offering a totally different cultural experience. It is a biodiversity hotspot and offers many opportunities for wildlife spotting and hiking excursions. The area around Lake Atitlan in particular offers travellers a flavourful taste of Guatemala’s natural beauty, along with some phenomenal hiking and cycling options.
The country is also home to many impressive world-class archaeology sites, Tikal toping its list of fame, is located in the northern Guatemalan province of Petén. One of the major sites of Maya civilisation and it is a must visit destination for those interested in Mayan civilisations and fascinating ancestral beliefs. The former Guatemalan capital of Antigua is also one of the country’s primary attractions, boasting as it does some magnificent colonial relics. This is a city combing rare beauty, vibrant culture and historical significance.
This outstanding mix of scenery and culture – framed against a tapestry of vibrant colours – means that Guatemala really does have something to offer everyone and can’t fail to impress as a holiday destination. Our Captivating Guatemala Tour has been designed to capture all of the elements that make this such an interesting and beautiful country to visit, and takes travellers to three very different corners of the country, for them to be dazzled and inspired.
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More about discovering Tikal National Park
Tikal National Park is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site for its outstanding universal value. It is one of the few sites in the world to be recognised for both its natural and cultural significance, due to its extraordinary biodiversity and archaeological importance. The park comprises of 57,600 hectares of diverse habitats, including wetlands, palm forests and savannah, and is dotted with thousands of architectural and artistic remains of the Maya civilisation. Tikal was a political, economic and military centre, and was inhabited from the 6th century B.C. to the 10th century A.D.
According to UNESCO, the site is of outstanding universal value as it meets the following criteria:
- Criterion (i): Tikal National Park is an outstanding example of the art and human genius of the Maya.
- Criterion (iii): Tikal National Park has unique elements that illustrate the historic, mythical and biographic data of the Tikal dynastic sequence.
- Criterion (iv): The archaeological remains at Tikal National Park reflect the cultural evolution of Mayan society from hunter-gathering to farming, with an elaborate religious, artistic and scientific culture.
- Criterion (ix): The landscape mosaic comprising savannahs, lush forests, wetlands and various freshwater systems is part of the Maya Forest, one of the conservation gems of Central America, hosting a rich diversity of flora and fauna as a result of a remarkable evolution of species and ecological communities.
- Criterion (x): The Petén Region and the Maya Forest are home to an impressive diversity of flora and fauna across its various terrestrial and freshwater habitats. More than 2000 higher plants, including 200 tree species have been inventoried.
