Antigua, Guatemala
Arguably the most picture-perfect colonial city in the Americas.
October 24, 2002: 3:41 PM EDT
By Glenn Coleman, Money Magazine Senior Editor
ANTIGUA, Guatemala (Money Magazine) – Stuffed from lunch, my wife and I sat for an extra-long while at our restaurant table, holding hands by a tropical garden in a Spanish colonial mansion more than two centuries old. The birdies peeped. The fountain gurgled. The check arrived. Two bottled waters, two beers, a heaping platter of grilled vegetables drizzled with olive oil, a sampler of grilled meats (chicken, steak, pork chop, sausages), bread pudding, coffee, tax, tip… 25 bucks. And this, I reminded myself, was one of the expensive joints.
Lake Atitlan
Welcome to Guatemala, a nowhere else on earth combination of natural and man-made beauty at prices that border on — como se dice en espanol? — un-frickin-believable. Guatemala City is five hours from New York City on Central America’s Grupo Taca airline and three hours from Miami on American. Skip the sprawling, skanky capital and stay instead in nearby Antigua, arguably the most picture-perfect colonial city in the Americas. Three volcanoes ring this tourist-friendly town of intricately cobblestoned streets, fashionably restored haciendas and magnificently crumbling 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century ruins that have become urban parks bursting with bougainvillea. It’s a constant Kodak moment, especially during Holy Week, when Easter worshippers make their way through the streets atop carpets of flowers.
