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El Paredon Guatemala: So Much More Than a Sleepy Beach Town

Paredon is becoming the new hotspot for beaches in Guatemala, which overall is not really known for its beaches. However, everybody wants to enjoy a tropical break on a volcanic black beach and Paredon, right now, is definitely the hottest. Today we are going to be talking about El Paredon in Guatemala.

Unlike Costa Rica, Guatemala’s beaches are yet to be discovered for the great waves and surf. Which I bet are comparable to most of Costa Rica’s surf spots and even Cali’s surf.

Interestingly enough, Guatemala does have good surfing and surfing overall as a sport, being saturated and overpopulated in so many places. All over the world, including Costa Rica, which is one of the most known places for surfing in Central America, Guatemala has become a pretty good hotspot with still a lot of surf and an open beautiful ocean to find the right wave without being overcrowded without being, you know, in that territorial weird situation.

El Paredon Guatemala

El Paredon is about two hours from Antigua, making it a perfect long day trip. The beach here is always empty, and the weather is always amazing. For both kids and puppies. But the best part of it all, is the surf lessons. The locals of this town are all incredible surfers, and if they’re not out surfing, you can easily hire one to teach you how to surf.

Paredon is not only for surfing, but it’s also actually a really cute, sweet beach town that offers quite a lot. We started going to Paredon about seven years ago because, obviously, we live in Guatemala. At that point, there were only about one or two hotels. That’s how tiny it was and very little to do other than some of these hotels, that pretty much had everything already as part of the package, the one that we used to go to was the Surf House and back then surf house was literally one of the most popular and pretty much one of the few hotels there. Overpopulation is still very mild, but in Paredon terms, it’s definitely a booming place.

Hotels

A lot of the hotels that were there before are able to raise their prices and give a lot fewer benefits. Because there are so many hotels and Airbnbs and now that they have to compete with. So it’s really cool to find a hotel that is right on the beach, even though Paredon is this tiny little beach town with literally one paved road and all the others are sandy dirt roads.

I would say that there may be, you know you have the main area which is on the beach, and it’s still we’re talking like less than a kilometer of beachfront properties and the majority of these hotels and Airbnb’s are right on the beach. And then the hotels. They actually have restaurants in there, so you could just enter right off the beach or from one of the roads. However, there are maybe one or two blocks from the beach.

• • It’s really worth staying on the beach first and foremost.
  • It’s hot like we’re talking super hot there, so if you’re not right on the beach where there is a wonderful breeze, and you could just kind of see the open beautiful beach.
  • You cannot go into the water after a certain hour, the riptide gets really dangerous and that’s why you’ll only see surfers in the mornings and in the afternoons.
  • You’ll still want to go and hang out, even under the palm trees.
  • A lot of these hotels and Airbnbs have hammocks right on the beach.

Where to Eat?

They do have all these cute little restaurants popping up all the time, and they are your typical tiny little beach town eateries and offer quite a lot. You could have Asian, Guatemalan food, Italian, or French, so it’s constantly and ever transiently moving. It’s constantly changing because so many times people just come for six months.  They do a little pop up, serve really cool stuff, and then they move on because it is a very transient area. You will not find a lot of people that live there full time.

Things to Do in El Paredon

They’re actually an interesting amount of activities.

Stand-up paddleboard

My absolute favorite is the stand-up paddleboard. It is a must-do because there’s this gorgeous estuary filled with mangroves. And it is one of the best tours that you could possibly do. I have an entire podcast about the Stand Up Paddleboarding Tour, which is a must, and if you really want to know more about it, you are welcome to contact me and I’ll introduce you to the person that has this. I have no affiliation with him, but I have to say we did this for my birthday.

Just our private tour and it was like 60$ for the four of us including top-notch paddle boards, private it was fantastic so that is one of our favorite things to do.

Surfing

Obviously surfing if you’re already a surfer, but if not, it’s a great place to learn how to surf. And we used to go there a lot for my kids and my husband to take surfing classes because it was like 12$ an hour.

Private surf class. I mean, you can’t beat that. Maybe today is 15$ You still can’t beat that with a surfboard included. Otherwise you could go and rent a surfboard, probably for 15$ for the entire day. You could also go and rent boogie boards, which a lot of places have, or come with a boogie board on your own. They also have horseback along the beach because the sunsets are magnificent. It does get crazy hot in the daytime, and especially because it is a volcanic beach, you know the sand gets extra hot and that is something to take note of.

Fish Tour

There are fishing tours, boats along the estuary, they’re not like your big fishing types of boats, but very local kind of boats. And it’s just really fun to go and do that. So Paredon, it’s a really fun experience. It’s about 2 and a half hours if you’re coming from Antigua or from Guatemala City. The roads are fantastic. It’s really easy to get to, and you pretty much have everything that you’ll need there. There’s a bunch of little stores and whatnot, and again, like I said, the restaurants there are really great, surprisingly great, which is something that I really recommend.

Is El Paredon Pet Friendly?

Paredon is incredibly pet friendly. Just remember, if you’re going to be taking your dog, it’s hot you’re wearing shoes, they’re not.  This is just a public service announcement. Think about your dogs. Their feet will get burned because it is that hot. And like I said it is a super pet-friendly place, so if you do have a dog that you want to bring with you, definitely a place but just have the mind you know.

Don’t take them out in the hot sun, it’s really hot. But then in the late afternoon when the sun is setting, it’s absolutely magnificent, and I recommend just enjoying the sunset because that’s where you could and then you could go swimming a little bit and surfing because remember, the riptide is quite strong in that area.

How Much Time to Spend in El Paredon, Guatemala?

So if you have extra time in Guatemala a lot of times, obviously if you’re staying for a long term, definitely recommend going and hanging out there for a couple of days, maybe even three or four days. However, if you’re only visiting for about 7 to 10 days, which is the average amount of time people can visit Guatemala, I recommend listening to my podcast on traveling to Guatemala to get a better idea of how to really utilize your 7 to 10 days.

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The post El Paredon Guatemala: So Much More Than a Sleepy Beach Town appeared first on Travel Experta - Travel, Lifestyle, Freedom.

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By: Marina 'Travel Experta'
Title: El Paredon Guatemala: So Much More Than a Sleepy Beach Town
Sourced From: travelexperta.com/el-paredon-guatemala/
Published Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2022 17:00:00 +0000

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