Antigua has its fair share of bars and late night venues catering for all different tastes. There are for example, your typical backpacker (or language student) hang outs, including the bar attached to hostel La Terraca; with a great view from the terrace & good happy hour drinks. Or the famous Mono Loco, where on ladies night, ladies drink free until 11pm and then pay Q4 (less than 40p) for any mixed drink, so the place resembles a frat party at 2am regardle...

I decided to go the whole hog during my studies and stay with a local host family. I really wanted to attempt to use my Spanish and learn more about the culture and there really is no better way. Many people are afraid that it can be a little awkward and conversations strained, especially if your Spanish is quite basic. Obviously the higher your level of Spanish the more you can engage in real conversation with the family. However families are adept at conversing...

Guatemala produces some of the best coffee in the world, in fact it's #2 after Columbia in the high grade coffee market. In 2012/13 Guatemala produced 3.72 million 60kg bags of green coffee. Most of this is exported however, more & more very nice coffee shops popping up in Antigua serving some of the good stuff to cater for the growing tourist market. Over half the coffee produced is exported to the US, representing 1/8 of the country's GNP and generating...

Guatemala has earned quite a reputation for itself as a destination for learning Spanish. The main advantages of studying in Guatemala include the fact that the accent here is pretty soft and easy to understand, unlike e.g Argentina with all their jajajas. The quality of the teaching is also high with most teachers having to obtain a diploma in English teaching. The classes are usually on a one to one basis, which means you can tailor them to meet your specific n...

Antigua really has quite a good culinary scene with a number of high quality international restaurants, refreshingly owned & run by both locals & ex pats. What it is however somewhat lacking in is restaurants serving good quality Guatemalan food. However given that it is such a tourist town, and tourists love to taste the typical dishes of the places they visit (well I do at least.) I think this is a definite gap in the market- restaurateurs take note! ...