Parking/football field | Wild Camping

November 22nd, 2023 by compasschronicle.com

We spent 2 quiet nights here on the edge of the football field. During this time there were only locals here, many during the day, no one at night. Everyone was very friendly and we felt safe. The nearby showers are not luxury but very clean! 5 minute walk along the lake to the center of Pana.
The view across the lake of the volcanoes is magical!

IG: compasschronicle

October 1st, 2023 by recreotourdumonde

We spent 2 nights here. Very nice and quiet place ! Beautiful view on the lake and volcano ! We left our van during the day to visit others villages around, it’s very safe. We took a tuk-tuk to go to the port to take a boat to visit villages around. Very easy. We recommend !

July 24th, 2023 by poudredescampette.com

We spent 2 nights here on the edge of the football field near the lake. During the week it's quiet, there is no noise at night. No one came to play football. To go to the ferry, we parked in the public car park because the level of the river was too high and we couldn't cross it at lake level. The sunrise and sunset are wonderful!

July 20th, 2023 by silvi.kristofovicova

Nice and quiet place. Anyway. There is a beautiful golden dog. She is little bit more than 2yo and she will have puppies in august. We took her to local vet because we wanted to keep her, but we couldn’t as she will deliver and we have to cross the Darien soon. My heart is broken, she is afraid of people and it took her 3 days to get used to us, today she waited for me to wake up and jumped on me when she saw me. If you find her, please, be nice to her. She is the cutest doggo you can imagine. I am adding a photo of her.

July 8th, 2023 by sonny jadun

Stayed here tonight and about 6 weeks ago. A great place to stay and see Lake Atitlan. No problems at night. It was raining in PM when I got here. I had the whole field to myself.

May 27th, 2023 by chasing.vida

Stayed here for almost a week on and off. The locals are super friendly and curious, and nobody minded us parking there. We even interrupted a soccer game one afternoon to pull in and they didn’t mind at all. 😅

If you stay on a Sunday, expect a million people there and loads of music. Like when you open your door, there will be a family of 8 just hanging out leaning on your van. We got boxed in by several busses and trucks, but most leave by early afternoon. It was quite a spectacle to be there. Religious ceremonies and baptisms going on while vendors sell stuff and people blast rap music. Haha crazy stuff.

Lots of stray dogs. Most are friendly. One tried to nip at my girlfriend. She probably had it coming. Our dog fell in love with the one female black dog with white paws. She’s super friendly and wants all the pets.

Trash is everywhere and there are some bad smells of sewage running into the lake. Don’t recommend swimming at the ‘beach’ if you walk all the way down. I got a parasite, which is apparently pretty common during rainy season.

We met another group who left their van unlocked two times accidentally and were gone the whole day. Nothing taken. Really secure spot if you want to explore a bit and leave your vehicle.

April 20th, 2023 by Roadfuxx

We have been standing about 100m further under great trees for a few days. Normaly a nice place but unfortunately there is a lot of small plastic waste around. Showers 50m away. 15 Qetztal for a warm, clean shower. Many dogs here who are very concerned about our tires 🫣

April 6th, 2023 by glacraz.endress

Très chouette emplacement avec vue sur le lac, à proximité du départ des lanchas pour visiter les autres villages autour du lac. Attention aux chiens, notre fille s'est fait mordre par un chien errant. Je vous déconseille de vous baigner comme les locaux. Nous avons attrapé des démangeaisons et boutons. Un des enfants de copains voyageurs a attrapé une bactérie procurant fièvre et vomissements.
Omegasfamily2022

March 30th, 2023 by vida.nomada.1

Pasé aquí 5 días y estuve muy tranquila, la gente muy amable, me sentí segura. Hay algo de movimiento en el día pero al llegar la noche muy tranquilo.

March 9th, 2023 by oldies-auf-achse.de

Still as described, several places 4u to choose. Really big rigs might have trouble accessing - roads here are very narrow at times

March 2nd, 2023 by souldope_overlanding

Go just a little further ahead and there is a very nice place under a big tree - before you got to the mayan ceremonial place
(You can avoid the weekend tumult on the football field)
Lovely locals and friendly doggies!
We stayed more than a week here
Toilets on the corner- not for free

February 7th, 2023 by earthsguide

Free and lovely views
When we pulled up locals told us to park here, some wanted business of course but to be expected
Everyone is so kind around and right on water for swim. Sunset views are amazing
Spent two nights
Finding prices around town here are high though. Help the smaller carts and stalls prosper

February 6th, 2023 by Anna&Irina

One of the most beautiful places we had in Guatemala. The view of the three volcanoes on the lake is fantastic. It is very quiet here during the week. With the Tucuc you get for 20Q (we were 2 people) to the Embarcadero.

January 28th, 2023 by ticket2ride.de

Located directly at the lake Atitlan with a perfect view on the volcanos 🌋. We stayed for three nights and felt safe. Site is good for at least 5 vans. Perfect place to explore Panajachel 👍.

January 23rd, 2023 by nomadxplorers

Amazing place to stay in Pana ! Free, right next to a market. 15 min walking from the boat to the other villages. We parked above the football field so we were not in the middle of all the chicken bus during the weekend !

January 21st, 2023 by yannic.loritz

Stayed here for more than a week ..
Sometimes there comes some tourbusses in the early-morning with some annoying church people! Otherwise its very good: you can swim in the lake, its mostly quite, no insects, cool night and even a public toilet for 2q/shower 10q right next to the field .. 1min by foot there is a small shop with a lot of stuff 🤙 Paragliding landing is 5min by foot, but during the week you can also land your paraglider at this parking 😆

December 11th, 2022 by lorienzo91

we stayed in here 1 week, quite , there is a tap of non drinkable water, people wake up very early in the morning, no shade, very nice there were other 2 vans when we stayed there

December 11th, 2022 by birdbox-van.de

Nice place to spend a few nights on the lake. Quiet nights. Spend in total 5 Days here, no problem.
Baños are available (Toilet 2 GTQ / showers 10, sometimes only 5 GTQ)

July 15th, 2022 by proyectonomadacombi

Pasamos 3 noches aquí, llegamos el viernes al medio día, por suerte no hubo ningún partido de fútbol mientras estábamos, eso sí en sábado y domingo llegan autobuses grandes llenos de turistas y ocupan la cancha como estacionamiento, se van como a las 4 de la tarde y la noche es muy tranquila, solo se quedan unas cuantas personas a disfrutar de la noche y se van.
De preferencia compren sus víveres en las tiendas más retiradas del campo, ya que la tienda que está en la esquina cobra muy muy caro todo.

El agua era muy fría y no pudimos disfrutarla pero los turistas locales que llegaban se ve que están acostumbrados porque se bañaban como si nada.

March 30th, 2022 by 2gether 2 end.ofthe.earth

very busy and loud on sundays till around sunset.

March 26th, 2022 by bren.persia

todo perfecto. evitar los fines de semana! seguro y con una vista espectacular

March 12th, 2022 by Trota Glober

El lugar es tranquilo toda la semana con excepción del fin de semana en el día que llegan los turistas.
Es muy seguro, la policía pasa regularmente. consigues baños a Q2 y Q3 y todo muy cerca. el clima es fresco de día y templado en las noches. puedes ir a conocer las poblaciones al rededor del lago en las lanchas públicas, puedes ir en TUC TUC al embarcadero los precios están entre 10 Q y 25

February 28th, 2022 by @alyvanblake

when we got here I bought a shaved ice drink from a local on the corner and she confirmed it's free to camp and safe. within a few hours the local police stopped by just to say hello and check out the van and they said it's tranquilo. they patrol this area like every hour after dark. the ship yard next door is very busy all day and can get loud, but they offered to keep an eye on our setup while we did a lake tour. the local venders came on our first day to try and sell their stuff, but they didn't come back after we said no thank you. there was one lady that came everyday with fruit but it was all tasteless if edible at all and no matter how much I got she always said 30q, which is a ripoff. you can buy the same stuff for a quarter of the price anywhere else. we stayed for 5 nights without issue. i don't know how common it is, but when we were there, over the weekend, the entire lot filled up with like 10 chicken buses and a bunch of cars. I would say at least a thousand people showed up for various religious activities. I would say mostly for baptisms though. when it's not a parking lot the local kids still use it as a football field so try and park off to the side to stay out of the way.

February 23rd, 2022 by bm.aroundtheworld

Very nice spot, leveled and with good phone reception. We stayed 2 nights and felt safe. Just remember it's locals football field so we decided to change spot on Friday, as we heard that they play soccer there on Saturdays. Town is 15min walks. Beautiful view on the volcans!
Acces road is a bit narrow, we had no problems with our fiat ducato 6mt long and 2.7mt high
Bm.aroundtheworld from Switzerland

February 4th, 2022 by Dori & Mena

We stayed here based on the recommendation of a couple we met in Flores. Great spot with a great view. Locals and buses use the field as a parking lot and we weren’t bothered at all. It was quiet on a Friday night. Lots of surrounding vendors have bathrooms for a fee, not just the one across the street. The one across the street only allowed certain people to use the bathroom while we were there. After one night we moved to Bahia Atitlan Hotel/Campground to have a secure place to park the van while we were exploring San Juan and San Marcos by boat. Not that the van wouldn’t have been safe here, we just didn’t want to take the chance.

February 4th, 2022 by overlandingwithdogz

As per previous descriptions, a good free place to stay, with a great view. We felt safe and weren’t bothered by anyone.

June 6th, 2021 by manejandoypedaleando

We stayed here a whole week and it was a really nice stay. Felt really safe the entire time and people from around already knew us and where really friendly with us and the dogs. 10 minutes walk to the main street. 5 minutes walk to nice beach.

May 2nd, 2021 by williamdyche

As advertised in previous posts. Most people leave around sunset. Had a quiet night. Activity starts picking up mid-morning. We parked right on the football field.

March 30th, 2020 by stefan.postma

Stayed here overnight during the Corona lockdown and stuff, police checked after 16:00pm no problems really quit night.

October 7th, 2019 by magicamper1984

We did not stay at the football field, instead we drove all the way down to the end of the road and parked there for 7 nights. Safe and quiet. Cops even came to check on us and gave us their number in case we needed them. We really enjoyed this peaceful spot and all the friendly locals. Walking distance to town.

May 31st, 2019 by laskawilliams

Spot just as described. The road down can be a bit difficult as it is narrow and people do park on the street. But I did manage to pass each time with my rig. You just can't beat the view. Parked here for 8 days do to repairs to my rig. There are alot of local dogs but they left us alone. Most of the time a great quiet place to park. The field is used by kids, schools and friends playing soccer. Most of the time it's empty. Just park as far to one side as possible. The weekend does see more traffic but not enough to make it terrible. I would stay here again. I parked here in a 25' Class C towing a car.

April 9th, 2019 by delvientosur

Tranquilo, bellos paisajes dormimos aquí 3 noches sin ningún problema y gratis

April 9th, 2019 by delvientosur

Great place to rest for few days after several hours driving down the mountains. free and safe !!

April 8th, 2019 by fiorellarabelino

Estuvimos 3 noches aquí. Es gratis y seguro. Frente al lago, hay embarcaciones en esa parte del lago y puedes llegar a pie hasta la parte más alta del pueblo donde está el Mercado y la iglesia.
Muy recomendable este lugar. Mejor entrar tarde en la tarde o muy temprano en la mañana porque los caminos son angostos y se llenan de mototaxis durante el día.

June 19th, 2018 by dario.maritato

Great FREE spot! On the lake with view of the 3 volcano. It can get VERY noisy in the weekend: locals park here bus and celebrate religious ceremony on the lake with music and chants! The second day (Sunday) we couldn’t open the van door to get outside because of the people sitting around our van eating breakfast! Not big deal though, we just moved the van few meters!

June 16th, 2018 by this_is_artcore

When we arrived it was a grey afternoon and the parking lot seemed not so special, even though it’s right at the lake shore. Night was ok, just the usual barking street dogs. However, in the morning, the sun started shining, and more and more indigenous families started to arrive, putting up barbeques next to our van and socializing with us. Turned out there would be a baptizing ceremony a few meters away! Attended by indigenous families from a 40 km radius. We were very lucky to be invited by one of the families to join the mass, and have lunch together afterwards. Amazing experience!! They told us that they celebrate approx every three/four weeks, so who knows it might be there again.

November 30th, 2017 by morofamilytour.com

Great place and safe!
Superbe vue sur le lac et les volcans !
On y a passé 3 jours et 3 nuits. D'autres voyageurs rencontrés juste avant y ont également passés plusieurs nuits.
Calme et sûre. Jeux pour enfants.

May 14th, 2017 by d321605

A quieter place than the main beach area, at least for us, on a saturday afternoon.
Right at the shore with great views. A gravel road leads down to the area and passes behind it. Its in front of a childrens playground and a hotel. To the left boat dock. There is street light. A couple of sanitary places around till 8 a 9 pm.
Local who lives here considered it to be a safe and quiet place to sleep.
We had a quiet night except for the usual street dogs.