A sprawling local market with comedores serving pepián, piles of handwoven textiles, and a sweet shop that has been selling the same candies since 1872.
At the west end of town, beside the bus terminal and its painted "chicken buses", the municipal market is where Antigua actually shops: fruit, flowers, spices, sandals, hardware and baskets in a maze of covered lanes.
Inside are comedores, simple kitchens serving set lunches of pepián, Guatemala's rich spiced stew, with tortillas made in front of you.
Next door, the artisan market and the textile shops in town sell huipiles, belts and blankets woven in highland villages, along with masks, ceramics and jade from Guatemala's own mines.
Back in the centre, Doña María Gordillo's sweet shop on 4a Calle Oriente has sold traditional candies since 1872: milk fudge, coconut sweets and marzipan figures. There's often a queue, and the queue is part of it.
A morning across town.
Start by the bus terminal to see the painted old school buses come and go.
Wander the produce lanes, trying fruit you don't recognise.
Sit down at a busy comedor for pepián or the day's set lunch.
Browse the artisan market and textile shops; ask where each piece was woven.
Walk back to the centre and queue at Doña María Gordillo for a box of candies.
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The market is a ten-minute walk west of Parque Central, on the edge of the centre.
Market stalls take cash only; shops in the centre often take cards.
Real handwoven pieces take weeks to make; prices reflect that, and so does the quality.
Antigua practical notes →Photographs from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels under their licences.
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