Maeve GaleaJun 4, 2026 – 5.00amNo matter whether you arrive during a wet-season deluge or on an evening so clear it reveals the glowing red crater of Fuego, the region’s most active volcano, you’ll know you’ve arrived in Antigua because you’ll feel it in your bones. Not in a spiritual way, or a cosmic one, it will hit physically the moment the four-lane highway from La Aurora International Airport slides onto the centre’s sunken baroque grid, paved entirely with papaya-sized pebbles.Locals take the brain-rattling bumps in their stride. On any given day in the former Guatemalan capital, workers haul pineapples into ’90s-era Toyotas, others weave through traffic in tuk-tuks, or hang off the side of neon-painted chicken buses, the town’s famous public transport network of decommissioned US school buses.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Fetching latest articles