Gretchen Stuppy Carlson
Slowly but surely, San Juan La Laguna has become one of the most visited villages on Lake Atitlán. When we visited in 2026, it seemed like the town to visit. It is located on the opposite site of the lake as Panajachel and while the nearby San Pedro has built a reputation on nightlife and language schools, San Juan has gone a completely different direction: leaning into community-based tourism, traditional Tz’utujil Mayan culture, and an art scene that has turned the entire town into a kind of open-air gallery.
Most visitors come as a day trip from San Pedro or Panajachel, but spending a night or two lets you see the town at its best. We stayed nearby and got to town early before the other visitors rolled in.
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How to Get to San Juan La Laguna
The best way to reach San Juan La Laguna is via lancha (water taxi). The lanchas are relatively easy to use, inexpensive, and used by both tourists and locals to get around the lake.
If you’re coming from Panajachel, public boats will drop you off at San Juan La Laguna for around Q30. In good weather, the ride takes about 30 minutes, as the boat makes stops at Santa Cruz, Jaibalito, Tzununa, and San Marcos before arriving at San Juan. Just stay on one stop before San Pedro that’s you. You can get the boat right at the dock in Panajachel – just tell the Captain where you are heading.
If you’re already visiting neighboring San Pedro, you can take a cheap tuk-tuk between the two towns rather than a boat, which costs around 15Q and takes about 8–12 minutes. This is often the easiest option if you are based in San Pedro for the night. These towns are great to visit in a day since they are so close to each other.
The dock in San Juan is among the most transparent and well-organized on the shores of Lake Atitlán, with a banner clearly stating official prices for both Guatemalans and foreigners a refreshing change from some of the more chaotic docks elsewhere on the lake.
Once you arrive, the main streets runs directl uphill from the dock and you’ll find colorful umbrellas, shops and restaurants. Tuk-tuks are a convenient way to get up to the higher parts of town or out to the trailheads.
What to Do in San Juan La Laguna
The town is small but dense with lots of activity, and the mix of cultural experiences, hiking, and local cultural activities make it a great place to spend the day.
Explore the Street Art and Murals
This is the thing that hits you first when you step off the boat. San Juan is unique amongst the other villages of Lake Atitlán for its incredible street art and murals of Mayan culture, although Santa Catarina also has beautiful but different murals. The art starts, coming from the dock, on Calle de las ombrillas, with the biggest concentration of artwork on Calle del Café and Calle de los Sombreros – you don’t need to seek it out, just wander around or take a walking tour of town.
Visit the Weaving Cooperatives
San Juan is also know for authentic Mayan art, weaving, and crafts. A number of inclusive cooperatives help the women of San Juan make a living from these projects. We did not do a weaving workshop, but you can find classes that last a few hours to a few days. Here are story of someone who did one of these workshops.
Take a Coffee Tour at Cooperativa La Voz
If you’d like to take a coffee tour in San Juan La Laguna. We did a coffee tour in Antigua so didn’t do one here, but our friends did this tour and loved it. During the tour you head out into the fields and see the coffee plantations, learn about growing and picking, and then see all of their processing machinery before finishing by sampling the coffee. You can also enjoy the coffee in town
Hike to the Mirador Cerro de la Cruz
One of the most popular things to do in San Juan La Laguna is climbing up to the Mirador Cerro de la Cruz, also known as Cerro Kiaq’Aiswaan. The viewpoint offers one of the best panoramas of San Juan, San Pedro, and the three volcanoes, which are easily visible on a clear day. From town, hop in a tuk-tuk for Q5 from the dock, or walk the 10–15 minutes via the colorful streets.Go early if you can, before clouds start to settle on the peaks.
Hike Indian Nose (Rostro Maya) at Sunrise
Known as Rostro Maya in the local Mayan dialect, this is one of the best viewpoints on the entire lake. Located on a tall point in the northwest corner of the lake, it provides a stunning look out over the lake and all three nearby volcanoes: San Pedro, Atitlán, and Tolimán, and on a clear day, five more toward Antigua. Most people do this as an early-morning guided excursion. As with the volcano, go with a guide and take caution when waiting for early shuttle pickups in the dark.
Art Galleries and Chocolate Workshops
San Juan La Laguna is home to the Tz’utujil Maya people, and many locals are enthusiastic about sharing their customs and traditions, from weaving and fabric dyeing techniques to chocolate making, medicinal plants, and even stingless bees. There are several galleries selling paintings made with natural pigments, and a handful of workshops where you can learn to make traditional cacao-based chocolate from scratch.
Visit a Bee Farm
One of the more unexpected and genuinely delightful things to do in San Juan is a visit to one of the town’s stingless bee farms. The Tz’utujil Maya have kept stingless bees, known locally as meliponas, for centuries, and several families in town still practice traditional beekeeping using small log or clay hive vessels that look almost nothing like a conventional hive.
We visited one of the farms and enjoyed seeing the bees, learning about the farm and trying the honey.
Where to Stay in San Juan La Laguna
San Juan is home to very few accommodation options compared to its larger neighbor San Pedro so you can stay in San Pedro and come over during the day to San Juan or you can visit on a day trip.
If you are planning to stay – enjoy the quiet scene and check out these options:
High-end: Hotel Taa’ Tiin is a small boutique hotel with courtyard-style rooms, local murals, and an on-site temazcal.
Mid-range: Eco Hotel Uxlabil Atitlán is an eco-hotel on the lakeshore just outside town, with balconies facing the water, included breakfast, and free sunrise kayaking.
Budget: Casa Argentina comes in at around $30 per night and is a family-run guesthouse with a rooftop terrace overlooking the lake, a shared kitchen, and laundry service.
Exploring Beyond San Juan
San Juan works well as a base for the western side of the lake, and the lanchas make it easy to hop between towns. Some favorite excursions from here:
San Pedro La Laguna is the obvious first stop, just a short tuk-tuk ride away. It has a completely different energy, louder, with more nightlife, language schools, and a bigger backpacker scene.
San Marcos La Laguna is the yoga and wellness hub of the lake and feels like another world entirely, quieter, more spiritual, with excellent vegetarian food and the famous cliff-jumping at Cerro Tzankujil Nature Reserve.
Santa Cruz and Jaibalito, on the northern shore, are excellent for those wanting a more remote experience. The cliffside trail between the two towns is one of the best hikes on the lake quiet, scenic, and a world away from the busier towns.
You can compare all the towns around the lake in this post.
What We Didn’t Love
San Juan was noticeably busier with tour groups than in previous years, which marks quite a change. We arrived early in the morning, but by 10 am the streets were bustling. You might not have the nightlife like San Pedro but it isn’t exactly quiet here.
The town’s rising popularity has also brought more people actively trying to sell things near the dock nothing aggressive, but a noticeable change from the relaxed atmosphere you find once you get a few streets in. Give it five minutes and it settles down quickly.
Bring cash. Cash is king in San Juan and Lake Atitlán in general. Most of the ATMs around the lake are the yellow 5B machines, which accept foreign debit cards but charge exorbitantly high fees. We’ve heard stories of these running out.
