My favorite way to travel a foreign country is with a local, and I’m definitely biased since my best friend was born and raised in Guatemala. So when I finally got to visit him in the place he calls home, I knew I’d love it. 

You can skip Guatemala City, but you definitely wouldn’t want to miss beautiful Antigua, Lake Atitlán and Panajachel – a charming town home to both locals and expats. And you certainly wouldn’t want to miss one of my all-time favorite travel experiences: visiting the important cigarette-smoking, alcohol-drinking Mayan folk saint, Maximón. Warning: He’s made of wood.