Though worth visiting for the relics and ruins alone, Antigua is much more than an open-air museum. With bustling markets and buzzing cafes filling its plazas and cobbled streets, this is very much a living city with a thriving textile scene. Particularly during Semana Santa, the ‘Holy Week’ leading up to Easter, Antigua comes alive as its religious traditions spill out from the colonial-era Catholic churches and a procession of giant floats make their way through the streets.

Go a little beyond the city into the surrounding valley and hills to find quaint Mayan villages, leafy coffee farms and three imposing volcanoes.