What proved less enjoyable: realizing this town was considerably pricier than we’d expected.
We’d been in Antigua for under 36 hours when the truth sank in. Exhausted and hungry after a day of sightseeing, we strolled a few blocks from our Airbnb to a pizza spot on the edge of the central district.
Dinner was fine, but fairly ordinary. We split a large cheese pizza and a house salad. I had a glass of red wine. Then the bill came. Our meal totaled $40.
What?!
We checked the receipt for mistakes, but aside from an automatically added 10% service charge (common here), nothing unexpected was listed. Back in Chicago, the same meal at Pequod’s Pizza, one of my favorite casual Chicago pizza joints, would’ve been around $30.
Over the following days, multiple moments confirmed that Antigua isn’t necessarily cheap. Local guides quoted us more than $120 per person for a day trek to a nearby volcano. Weekend brunch ran about $12 apiece.
It’s not that these prices are shockingly steep, but the research I did before the trip suggested Antigua would cost less than what we pay in Chicago.
Major travel sites like Lonely Planet say you can “eat well and inexpensively” close to the central area. Paired with a favorable exchange rate — roughly 7.4 quetzales to $1 — and Antigua’s reputation as a backpacker-friendly spot, I assumed budget-friendly choices would be easy to find.
Long-Term Travel on a Shoestring
We planned to base ourselves in Antigua for about six weeks; slow travel is one of the perks of being a digital nomad. While much of working from different locations feeds my travel itch, finances are an important part of the equation as well.
When I became location-independent in March 2017, I saw it as a chance to trim my living costs and pay down debt. I set it up so that after roughly a year without a permanent address, I’d have also saved more money.
So when dining, drinking and entertainment expenses in Antigua didn’t seem as cheap as I’d imagined, we had to adapt to keep on track with my financial objectives.
Find Out What Things Actually Cost: Use Online Reviews
After those early price surprises, I started paying closer attention to online reviews before heading out for a meal or drinks.
People generally consult reviews when choosing a spot to go or what to order. I hadn’t considered using them before arriving, but the more I combed through reviews, the more I realized they held the cost answers I wanted — and in a more practical, user-friendly way than some cost-of-living tools.
If I’d checked forums like TripAdvisor, Google and Facebook in advance, I likely wouldn’t have experienced sticker shock upon arrival in Antigua (and would have uncovered the budget-friendly eateries) sooner.
Reviews are valuable because they’re candid and usually unfiltered. But they’re also subjective, so the trick is to look for recurring notes. Here’s a method for scanning price information strategically when planning your next extended trip.
Step 1 – Scan reviews for overall price trends
To understand whether many places are pricey, check reviews in the low-cost and mid-priced categories. This is most useful for restaurants but can also apply to tour companies, shuttle services and attractions.
Are lots of reviewers mentioning price — saying it’s cheap or costly? Reviewers often point out price when it’s noteworthy, so this gives a sense of whether a place is especially inexpensive or overpriced.
It also helps to note where the reviewer lives. Someone from New York City will have different expectations than someone from Columbus, Ohio, for instance.
The aim here isn’t to rely on single reviews — there will always be extremes — but to browse several entries and see whether patterns emerge.
Yelp isn’t available in Antigua, so I relied on TripAdvisor. I also joined a few active Facebook communities, including one for expats in Guatemala, which has proven to be a great source of information. Google reviews and the review sections on Facebook pages have been useful for aggregated insights, too.
Step 2 – Search reviews for price-related keywords
After you pick a restaurant or another TripAdvisor listing, you can search all reviews on that page. Use keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl+F to find words on a page.
If you’re planning a trip, I recommend checking a few suggested tour operators and eateries and searching reviews for terms such as “price,” “cost,” “cheap” and “expensive.”
“Price” is an excellent neutral search term; if reviewers mostly use it to complain about high prices, that’s informative. Comparing results for “cheap” versus “expensive” is revealing. When I looked for “expensive,” I found nearly twice as many mentions.
The same approach works within Facebook groups. Their search features comb through posts, and by using the keywords above in the expat group, I found several comments that validated my impressions and threads with suggestions for less costly places to eat.
As my stint in Antigua comes to a close, I’m unsure when or where my next extended trip will be. But the travel urge will surely return, and when it does, I’ll know exactly how to research to get a realistic sense of what daily expenses will look like.
