How safe is Guatemala for travelers?

The honest picture

• Guatemala has one of the highest violent crime rates in Latin America, and serious attacks have happened in tourist areas. That is the FCDO's assessment, not a hedge.
• This does not make it a country to avoid - it makes it a country where the standard precautions are not optional. Most visitors have no trouble at all.

The specific risks

• Unauthorised taxis and express kidnapping. Victims are picked up and driven between cash machines. Use radio-dispatched yellow taxis, Uber, or a hotel car.
• Buses. Gang attacks and extortion on drivers have caused deaths, and armed robberies occur on most tourist routes, including around Lake Atitlan. Private coaches are safer.
• Guatemala City is risky throughout, and the rural departments of Huehuetenango, Chiquimula, Zacapa, Izabal, San Marcos and Peten have elevated crime.
• Do not travel intercity after dark.

Volcanoes

• People die on Guatemala's volcanoes because they underestimate them, and there is no mountain rescue service. Nobody is coming.
• Check the official volcano status before climbing - several are active, and Fuego in particular.
• Go with a licensed guide, take warm clothing for the summit, and do not overnight on an active cone because a photograph looked good.

The child photography rule

• Do not photograph people without permission, and especially not children. In remote areas there have been attacks on foreigners driven by rumours of child abduction, and they have been lethal.
• This is not about etiquette. It is the one piece of advice in this section that has a body count attached and that visitors routinely ignore.

Drugs

• Penalties are severe, for use as well as trafficking, and the FCDO describes the prisons as overcrowded, violent and dirty.

If something happens

• Call 1500. English-speaking, 24 hours, and connected directly to the embassies and the tourist police.