With the holiday season now behind us, many people are looking to break up the winter doldrums with trips to tropical places.
In the last month, airlines such as Delta (DAL) and United Airlines (UAL) have announced new routes to various destinations across the Caribbean and Latin America.
Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Dominican Republic are among the most popular winter destinations.
Guatemala is a popular destination for those interested in Mayan culture. The U.S. State Department has issued a travel advisory for the country.
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U.S. State Department warns of ‘serious crimes, low arrest and conviction rates’
Neighbored to the north and west by Mexico and to the south by El Salvador, the Central American nation of Guatemala also has a tourist industry that is growing rapidly.
In 2024, nearly 2.4 million international arrivals chose it as their holiday destination, and approximately a fourth of them came from the United States.
That said, the travel advisory that the U.S. State Department has reissued for Guatemala at the end of December remains at level three’s “reconsider travel.”
The third level of the four-tier ranking system is usually assigned to countries with high levels of local crime or governments with which the United States has strained, but not entirely ruptured, relations.
At the start of December, the advisory to China was lowered to level two’s “exercise increased caution.”
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In Guatemala’s case, the advisory focuses on specific areas that “have problems with gangs, robbery, carjacking, drug trafficking and violence.”
“Local law enforcement may not always respond well to serious crimes, leading to low arrest and conviction rates,” the travel advisory said. “While tourists are not usually targeted, they can still be victims of opportunistic crimes.”
Guatemala is a great place to explore Mayan culture, but safety is a concern
A large number of foreign tourists coming in to Guatemala do so on cruise ships docking at its Puerto Quetzal port.
Norwegian (NCLH) and Carnival (CCL) , in particular, often add it to their routes around the Caribbean and Central America.
Guatemala also attracts those who are either studying or interested in exploring ancient Mayan civilization, as the country is often considered to be its cradle. Some of the most famous Mayan ruins include Tikal, El Mirador and Uaxctun.
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Cities such as San Marcos, Huehuetenango, Villa Nueva, as well as certain neighborhoods in Guatemala City (Zone 18 in particular), have been singled out for having the highest crime rates.
Tourists are strongly discouraged from visiting those municipalities, while representatives of the U.S. government or even federal employees in the country on their own time are officially forbidden from doing so.
The rest of the country is significantly safer, although the government agency still advises certain preventive steps.
Some, such as remaining aware of one’s surroundings and not walking through dimly-lit streets alone at night, can be applied to any place one visits, while others are specific to Guatemala.
Many of the beaches in the country have strong currents and undertows without signs informing swimmers of that.
“When visiting Lake Atitlán, use certified tour guides and travel between villages by chartered boat,” the advisory reads further. “The paths around the lake can be dangerous and hard to access. Emergency services cannot arrive quickly to help.”
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