Travel Alert--Remember to take passports to any of the Caribbean, Central American, Mexican, and Canadian locations. Even children traveling with their parents need passports.

Guatemala is often called "the land of the eternal spring" because it has a perfect climate, as it stretches between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean in Central America-in a perfect location. Additionally, Guatemala is a beautiful land of mountains, lakes, and volcanoes. Start a visit to Guatemala in Guatemala City at the Ixchel Museum to enjoy the varieties of Guatemalan arts and crafts, particularly the hand-woven textiles and clothing made by the Guatemalan highland Indians. Visitors to Guatemala City can learn about its past Mayan cultural at the historic center, explore the main plaza, and see the beautiful cathedral with its Spanish architectural influence. To get the most out of a vacation to Guatemala, visitors should plan on studying the Mayan culture before starting the trip and pack a Spanish/English dictionary, camera, binoculars, and passport. If Guatemala is a vacation destination, plan to stay at least two weeks.

Antigua, the former capital city, is near Guatemala City and a perfect place to visit a coffee plantation where tourists can pick the coffee beans (depending on the season) and sample the fresh, rich Guatemalan coffee. In Antigua, vacationers also visit a museum with unique national musical instruments, La Merced Church with its ornate façade, and the Las Capuchinas Convent. Antigua also is a great place to shop for Guatemalan arts and crafts like ceramics and weavings or jade.

Lake Atitlan is in the Guatemalan Highlands and considered one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. Visitors enjoy cruising across the lake in large tour boats as well as looking at the dug-out fishing canoes of the local fishermen. There are villages and towns to visit around the lake where local crafts are available at market places that are 1000 years old. In the highlands, the Mayan and Catholic cultures mix in unusual folk rituals. Native highland Indian women can be seen balancing huge water jugs on their heads. After leaving the highlands, visitors need to continue on to the central Guatemalan valley where the Mayan villages are still intact and crops are grown in terraces.

In eastern Guatemala, visitors can view the Caribbean lowlands near Rio Dulce, wander through a nature preserve, and climb the steps of a Mayan temple at Tikal, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Tikal is considered the most unforgettable Mayan village which was settled in 700 BC. It is at the edge of a rain forest with interesting tropical birds for birders and monkeys to watch romping between the trees.

Another suggested trip:

Follow the Mayan culture through Central America and go to Copan, Honduras while exploring Guatemala.