Nearly all of the information I found on the net about Guatemala was nearly 4 years old so here is a brief guide with regards to Guatemala City and I encourage others to post information lacking in this guide.

I. HOW TO GET THERE?

There are several airlines with service to Guatemala City and TACA Airlines offers regional service to Guat City if you happen to be in Central America at the time and want to hop over for a few nights.

I decided to go on this trip simply because of Spirit Airlines. Spirit Airlines operates out of Los Angeles and Ft. Lauderdale. If you happen to live in Ft. Lauderdale, your opportunity for cheap flights to Jamaica, DR, Costa Rica and Guat City are endless and dirt cheap. I recommend joining Spirit Airlines Spirit Club in order to get emails of their Hot Deals that come about weekly. I paid $88 plus tax for a RT ticket to Guat City from LAX. The total price was $167 which also included the $30 departure tax from Guat City. So in reality, the flight including tax was $137. After I left they had deals where they were paying the customer $4 each way to fly and after taxes it was $71RT. Spirit Airlines also has cheap flights to Costa Rica and DR from LAX.

join here http://www.spiritair.com/welcome.aspx

I took the Amtrak train from San Diego to LA Amtrak station and then took the Fly the Bus shuttle for $4 that goes directly to LAX. The costs are actually pretty high now that RT to LAX costs $58 and another $8RT for the shuttle. I do it because I hate flying on tiny planes to LAX, hate driving in LA traffic and would rather sleep on the train ride or watch a movie on my laptop.

The flight takes nearly 5 hours, depending on weather. I took the 1am flight and couldn't sleep very well but you arrive at 6am and you can sleep during the day until the bars start opening at 7pm. Many of the hotels offer a free shuttle but the airport is close and you shouldnt pay more than 40Quetzales for your trip.

II. GETTING AROUND

There are smog belching buses all over Guat City but they are crowded and dont have AC. Best thing to do is take a taxi around town. Yellow Taxi uses their meter but they have a 25Quetzales minimum fare. The other taxis dont use a meter and most dont have them at all. The prices for short trips are all over the place and reflect TJ prices. There are taxis out front of all of the bars and they are complete assfuckers. They will attempt to charge you 60Q for a 3 block ride. A ride within Zona shouldnt be more than 25Q but each driver has their own rates. All rates are negotiable. The first driver I encountered outside of Caprichos wanted 70Q to go 1/2 a mile but I ended up paying 30. It is very safe to walk short distances IMHO in Zona 9 but walk at your own perile. Zona 10 is completely safe to walk around at night. Dont walk around Zona 1 at night.

If you want to fly domestically to Flores(Tikal) or fly to other Central American destinations try TACA regional airlines.

III. HOTELS

Many hotels around town that can be found online on Yahoo Travel or Orbitz. Always try to find a hotel in Zona 10 as it is a wealthy and safe area. Holiday Inn is recommended by many around town but I chose Suites Reforma and Hotel located on Blvd. La Reforma. The rates for my room was $60 per night and $73, including tax. The rooms are pretty decent but the hotel is a bit dated. Not many choices in the mid range for hotels so you either have to pay $150 or a hostel and I chose something in between. The hotel requires a $200 deposit on your CC or cash. They take payment of the the hotel out of the deposit upon leaving the hotel. The hotel has free internet in your room and in their business center. The hotel also has free breakfast in the morning. The service at this place is fantastic and it is guest-friendly. I did not have to pay a joiner fee as I was pretty cool with the front desk. Unsure of the joiner fee.

Suites Reforma: http://www.suitesreforma.com.gt/

IV.MONEY, COMMUNICATION AND INTERNET

The form of currency in Guatemala is the Quetzales which is also their national bird. Currently the exchange rate is approximately 7.5Quetzales to the US Dollar. Upon arriving at the airport, there is usually two banks open and they give competitive exchange rates. All the banks also cash traveler's checks at usually the same or better rates than cash.

ATM's normally work but some banks will not allow Master Card and others dont allow the use of Visa's. Zona 10 has quite a few banks so you might have to bounce around to a couple of ATM's before you get one you like. I was only able to withdraw 200Q at a time at two different banks. Understand that the ATM's frequently run out of cash on Sunday and some ATM's are closed on those days so dont wait until then to get your cash.

IMPORTANT: Be careful with mixing up 10Q notes with 100Q notes. These jackass' put the number 10 all over the note even though its worth 100. Separate small bills from big bills to avoid this problem. Made the mistake of giving a taxi driver a 100 note instead of 10 and didnt notice it until late.

If you have a tri-band phone, you can purchase a SIM card for 25 Quetzales and the most commonly used is TIGA. You can also buy a small Motorola phone for 120Q($18), including 25Q in minutes. Cell phones are mandatory for contacting escorts and home if you are not using Vonage. You can go to the mall caled Centro Commercial Proceres and can compare prices.

The internet was great at my hotel and fast enough to use Vonage. Plenty of internet cafe's around and quite a few places have free wireless in the cafe's.

V. FOOD AND DRINK

Plenty of fast food restaurants around Zona 10 if thats what you are into. There is a food court on the top floor of the Central Commercial Proceres. The food court has large LCD's playing soccer and even has Cuban food. There is a chicken fast food place similar to Pollo Feliz in TJ that is called Pollo Campero. One located at Proceres and all over town. Tamales are quite good in Guat City and all of them cooked in banana leaves instead of corn husks. Licuados are very popular as well and are quite good. I ate twice at Hooters of all places and they have draft Gallo beer and stunning girls working there. One girl was damn near perfect and I asked her out several times and she rejected me each time as she it taken. Several photos of her with the backwards white cap in the site and the cover girl with her finger pointing to her lips. Unreal looking in person.

http://www.hooters.com.gt/

The beer of choice in Guatemala is Gallo. I love the beer and think it's the best beer I have had in Latin America thus far. They also have Dorado beer and Dorado Ice which I dont like but you might want to give it a try. Brahva Beer from Brazil is cheap and also common in the bars. I believe its called Brahma in the US. Corona is pretty common as well but fairly expensive.

VI.BARS AND BROTHELS

The city is spread out into Zones and most of the bars are in Zona 9. Since the last guide was made, several bars have closed down, including: Samba, Casablanca, Garotas , Queens and Venus. I didnt go to Club El Oasis, Club Paradise, Borders or Intl. Flamingo. I was only there two nights so I can only comment on how the bars were on Tue and Sat.

My favorite bars were Caprichos, Extasis, Le Club, Men's Club, and Club Platinum. All of the bars have very few local Guatemtecas. Nearly all of the bars have girls from Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. The hottest girls are from Nicaragua IMHO. If you are going to do 3-4 ST's througout the night, be prepared to spend $350 a night, including hotel(similar to TJ prices). Don't compare prices to Asia, Latin America is an expensive mongering destination. Brazil is more expensive that just about anywhere in the world now for Terma girls. Just enjoy the diversity of looks and great service and you will be just fine.

The specifics about the bars will be under that bars headings.

VII. ESCORTS, MASSAGE JOINTS AND STREET GIRLS

The other option is picking up street girls or having the girls come to your room, pick them up from the street or have a massage girl come to your hotel.

Escorts can be found online at:

www.centroerotica.com or www.hotescortsgt.com

The centroerotica escorts were shitty IMHO and the phone numbers were not working at hot escorts.

You can also find escorts on the Varios section of the classified section of La Prensa Libre newspaper. I like black girls so I called AFRODITA at 2384-0256 or 2384-1513 and they provided some hot girls. The drawback is that you dont see the girls beforehand and the phone pimps might try to sell you an ugly old chick by telling you on the phone that she is hot and skinny. We all know that Latin American men prefer chicks fat so their definition of flacita will likely be different than Gringos.

For massages, the girls can come to your room by looking at the myriad of ads from Prensa Libre. There are also many on site in Zona 1 and 3. Most of them are open 9am to 9pm. There is one that I can recommend located at Blvd. Los Proceres 16 ave. 17-42 in Zona 10. They have around 9 girls to choose from, all from Nicaragua and all pretty decent. The cost was 150Q for an hour and includes BBFS.

Also to add that the street girls are located on Avenida 5 in Zona 9 in between Calle 12 and 13. Usually around 10-12 girls and ST hotels nearby.

Can you elaborate on the issue of security? I hear that Guatemala is so dangerous, local gangs chop your head off if you walk in the parks at night.

Blazers, excellent. I was real tempted and curious about that Spirit Airline flight myself. I may check it out for the reasons you stated since the airfare price seems to be right, espec for the Big Front Seat. It's good to know there are Nicas and some hotties in GC.

AndresB, I'd imagine its like the U.S., some parts are dangerous. Once while waiting for a TACA flight at LAX-GautCity-SJO, they escorted three guys in handcuffs (tatoos/shaved head) to the boarding gate, then they take the handcuffs off the dudes and the dudes get in the plane that took us to GC.

One thing is for sure, the police do not fuck with tourists in Guatemala. I had one incident where a policeman in a truck offered to give me a ride home as there were no taxis around and it was pouring rain. Contrast that with TJ where I was held up at gun point TWICE by police in Playas when I lived there. IMHO, the Philippines is much more dangerous and you have to worry about setups by police and girls.

Thanks for the report on the basics in Guatemala City.

It has been several years since my last visit to Central America. So, it is good to get some updated information on the scene there.

As I have stated several times, Guatemala City is my favorite city in Central America. I know a bunch of guys love San Jose, Costa Rica, a few guys (a friend who retired and lives there) will claim that Panama City is the best, and other guys claimed Managua, Nicaragua is their favorite. Having visited all of them, Guatemala City is the best in terms of number of clubs and number of clubs with shows.

Que le vaya bien.

I preferred Guatemala City to San Jose in just about every aspect, mongering and otherwise. The countryside surrounding San Jose is beautiful but the city itself is an ugly shithole. Guatemala City has a lot of character. Plus, IMHO, better restaurants and, for our main purposes, better chica services at lower prices.

Spirit Airlines - Blazers amd Merlin,
I've been tempted by those low Spirit Airline fares but haven't tried them yet. It sounds like Blazer was happy with is flight. I was curious if others have any good or bad experiences with this airline. Anybody have any information??

Great report Blazers!!!

I'll be in G.C. next month,I found out that there is a club called Zeus. Zues only has Colombian Girls, but very expensive. There is also a club called PK2. Pk2 is owned by the same guy that owns Caprichos, suppose to have better girls than caprichos now. I will post my report next month along with pictures.

Clodbuster: I flew on Spirit from Fort Lauderdale to DR. On time and everything else was fine. I'd have no problem using that airline again.

Catocony, Care to elaborate on Guat City? I'd like to check it out some time, but everywhere I've looked the scene seemed dead...

I haven't been down there in 3.5 years, so I'm not up on the latest goings-on at all.