For the full story of our two days around San Pedro, the solo horse ride, the 4am hike to Indian's Nose, all of it, I've written that up separately as 48 hours in San Pedro. This shortlist covers the same ground, Vista de Pájaro, the horse ride, the coffee, Indian's Nose, San Juan's murals, the Mayan bee sanctuary at Mundo de Abejas, and Anafres for dinner, so I won't repeat all of it here.

What's worth flagging separately is something that's easy to overlook when you're this focused on the two villages themselves, actually getting out onto Lake Atitlán. Are you really on a lake if you haven't been out on it? In the mornings before the wind picks up, the water is calm enough for a slow paddle if you fancy renting a kayak. More practically though, you'll almost certainly end up on a lancha at some point, the public boat taxis that run between villages around the lake.

Riding a public boat taxi, or lancha, across Lake Atitlán, Guatemala

On the lancha across to the next village, cheap, quick, and a genuinely different view of the lake.

If you're visiting more than one village around the lake, which you should, you'll definitely end up on one of these boats to get there. They're cheap, quick, and give you a completely different perspective on Atitlán, skimming across the water with volcanoes on every side and the villages themselves suddenly visible in full from the water rather than the streets.

Aerial view of a lakeside village on Lake Atitlán, Guatemala

One of the lakeside villages you'll pass on the way, tucked into the hillside above the water.

Everything else on the list, the viewpoint, the coffee, the sunrise hike, the murals, the bees, is exactly as good as it sounds in the full write-up. Just don't let the villages distract you from the lake itself, it's the whole reason any of this exists.