Park Volcán Pacaya | Wild Camping

November 26th, 2024 by Emmaontour_2018

If you use the upper parking lot at the national park entrance, it is free. The lower private parking lot costs 100 quetzales per vehicle per night.
The guide at the entrance costs 200 quetzales, the one in the lower parking lot 300 quetzales.
We stayed here for two nights and it was very quiet here.
The toilets have been renovated and have water flushing.
The national park costs 100 Q per person over 6 years old.
The obligatory mountain guide costs 300 Q privately below and 200 Q at the park entrance.
We started at 6:00 a.m. and there was no one there yet.
The path is well signposted and ends today about 700 m before the last viewpoint. The volcanic eruption in 2021 covered the path with lava. The current OpenStreetMap maps are correct.

June 26th, 2023 by chasing.vida

Parked here for free for two nights. Not sure about bathrooms, as we have our own. The lot below seems to be private property, which is why it’s a paid option.

We wanted to hike for sunrise and avoid the ridiculous 200-300Q “required” guide fee (on top of an overpriced 100Q/pp entrance fee). We learned from locals that they do not use the money to properly maintain the trail anyhow.

Decent amount of trash and animal abuse. If you can’t hike this easy/moderate trail, please don’t make a horse do it for you. Pick an easier place to go hiking instead.

We left at 4am and nobody was around. AllTrails has the trail relatively well-marked to a good spot for sunrise. The trails showing a route to the crater are incorrect as of the most recent 2021 explosion. You’d be climbing up large dried lava rocks if you followed the trail on various app.

Instead: Once you get to the barbed wire, go around/under it, then once you get to the big picturesque tree, hang a left. You will go through a pasture where cows should be hanging out and you’ll stumble along a pretty obvious trail. Then, painted white spots on the lava rocks designate the way up. Be careful at the top: strong winds blowing into the crater are normal, and the fumes can be toxic.

We paid the entrance fees on the way down. Obviously the rangers were a bit confused why we didn’t have a guide, but they didn’t say anything else. Everyone super friendly.

May 30th, 2023 by roaminanalog

We slept here one night and we were the only ones here, beside a guide that stayed in the entrance building. Camping is free. There’s flushing toilets and a microwave they offered to let us use, if needed. We witnessed a spectacular lightning storm and then drifted off to sleep. Very quiet night. We got up at 5:00 and met our guide at 5:30. His name is Roberto Gutierrez. We actually met him initially at the other trail/park entrance in the town. We decided to hike in the morning for the best views, before the clouds set in, and the views going up from this parking lot are best, and hiking down the other side is in the forest. The cost for our guide was 300Q. This is the rate if you want to hike the complete loop, and not just one side or the other. That’s why there’s different prices, not that someone is trying to rip you off. 200q takes you to some viewpoints from this parking lot, and not a full loop. You can choose what you’d like to do. The loop gives you views of Pacaya, as well as great vantage points for Volcans Agua, Acatenango, and Fuego. We hiked up and Roberto knew of a spot in the Antigua Crater where we can still roast marshmallows. Fun for our kids. The entrance fee to the park is 100q per person as of this date, and children 6yo or under are free. Enjoy!

January 25th, 2023 by douhe

If you take the upper parking at the entrance it is free. The lower parking is 50 Quetzales per vehicle.
The Guide at the entrance is 200 Quetzales those on the lower parking are 300 Quetzales 🤔.

December 25th, 2022 by jeanmolin

We stayed with our RV at this family’s garden at Christimas night. Was very nice and memorable to sleep in the vulcan’s Pacaya base. There’s room for only one RV.
Our RV length is 7.5meters and i would say it’s almost the limit to be able to turn to enter in the house’s garden.
They charged 50 qtz to spend the night there.
We felt very safe and was very quite. You’ll wake read to climb the Pacaya, because this place is actually in the trail to the top, so there’s some bushes that will brush your rig but not big deal.
This parking is about 100mts AFTER the house you buy de tickets to acess pacaya. Is on your LEFT when you’re going up.
This guys have connection to guides and horses. They said is mandatory after some accidents that happened in the pacaya’s park. We hired the guide called Ambrosia. +502 3112-1296. She was very very friendly and very kind to adjust the pace for our kids (5 and 8 yo). Also Ambrosia helped us to rend one horse from her brother to help with kids.
Ambrosia and the house’s owner are relatives.

June 16th, 2022 by baerbel.travels

we parked for one night. big parking lot. in the early morning lots of people. entry price is 100q pp for international tourists. lots of stray dogs.

February 10th, 2020 by tanyakahana

we camped here for free and hiked up at 4am without a guide. easy hike, make sure you get up there before the sun rises so you get to see the lava.
we paid the entrance fee when we came back down.

April 7th, 2019 by janimafamily

There,s a dirt parking lot with pit toilets it is free to spend the night here and very calm and no light at all, from here you can have a guide to go to the volcano and see the lava as it is active, 50 qtz per person entrance, 20 child and 200qtz for the guide and if you want you can go by horse 200qtz more. In the way to the volcano there,s Ester,s house where you can eat good local food for 15qtz with juice and fruit as desert and rent sticks to climb for 5qtz, in the parking lot they ask for 10qtz. You can call or whatsapp her in advance if you want to order food at +50257461242 call or +50240029986 whatsapp. She and her family are really nice and will make you feel at home.