New Zealand may be the epicenter of Lord of the Rings tourism, but I recently visited a Shire in a more unexpected country... Guatemala. Yep, there is a hobbit themed park just 5 miles north of Antigua which has one perk that NZ's Hobbiton does not - you can stay overnight in a hobbit hole.
Hobbitenango is a magical little park on a mountain with a stunning backdrop of even more mountains. Mountains, Gandalf, mountains!
It's possible to just get a day pass, but the highlight for me was sleeping there, and at $129 for a hobbit hole that includes admission, activities, and breakfast, I think it's more than worth it.
They offer a shuttle from their office in Antigua up to the parking lot, where you'll then hop on a 4x4 truck to bounce your way to the park entrance, and from there, the day is yours.
Aside from enjoying the incredible view, you can partake in archery and axe throwing...
...a rustic and somewhat janky mini-golf course spread out over the mountain where your club is a wooden mallet...
...ride a tire swing down a mini, ground-level zipline...
...sit on the hill to enjoy some whimsical live music...
...ride a horse, although these horses looked very defeated and sad, so I can't speak to how well they're treated (we did not ride)...
...and fly through the sky on an incredible rope swing that was my favorite activity of the day.
There are also some gorgeous photo opportunites, such as botanical angel wings, a swing, and the Colossus Garden where you can step out onto a giant hand. I recommend doing these sooner rather than later, as we got clear, beautiful pictures in the morning, but when we returned in the evening, the whole view was shrouded in fog.
Midday
Evening
There are also merchant stalls, a buffet area, a restaurant, a bar, and a beer garden. We sat by the fireplace at dinner, where I had sopa de tortilla and an alcoholic hot chocolate, and the clouds had rolled in so heavily around the hills that it felt like we were eating in the sky.
Beer garden
Once the day crowds cleared out and the park was closing, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. There are only three hobbit holes available to rent on the premises, so you should be able to count the other overnight guests on one hand.
We booked La Casita del Sueño, and it was absolutely adorable. Walking through the red hobbit door brings you into a circular bedroom with pretty lanterns, the comfiest bed, a fireplace, and a wall-hugging ledge table against full-length windows. There was also an ensuite bathroom, a private patio area with chairs and a lounger, and a gate to block the general public from coming up to your door during the day.
Along with this, we were assigned a highly attentive personal assistant named Nelson. We had drinks in the very cute bar at the end of the day, joined by a host of local dogs, and Nelson insisted on carrying our second round of drinks back to our hobbit hole, delivering us room service, and then returning to light our fire for the night.
Disclaimer: This is not Nelson.
We enjoyed nachos and micheladas in our cozy room with the smell of woodsmoke around us before bed.
In the morning, I had some type of eggs in ragu sauce for breakfast (they also gave us bread and porridge, so the eggs could count as second breakfast) that might have been my favorite meal of the trip, and overall the food at Hobbitenango far surpassed my expectations.
Ending our perfect stay, Gandalf was up early and waved us off from a distance as we hopped back in the 4x4 to leave the mountain.
This may not be a full-on Lord of the Rings experience and is certainly nothing like the movie set, but it is still a wholly charming little park that will give you the warmest Shire vibes you can find in North/Central America.
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