119 Best Hotels in Guatemala

Friendly owners are a nice plus at this budget find with mostly second-floor rooms in the center of town. Of the hotels we recommend in Panajachel, this one is closest to the bar action on Calle Santander. The noise is really only a problem on weekends, but rooms 1, 8, and 9 do not face the street and make for quieter evenings. Their bay windows face a center courtyard occupied by the sedate restaurant downstairs. Those three rooms are larger than the others and have fireplaces, too. We like Room 9 in particular; it has its own interior balcony.

In a lovely old building, this hotel is a welcome retreat from the frantic pace of the streets outside. The large, elegant lobby has an antique chandelier and a sweeping staircase. The high-ceilinged rooms, though a bit plain, are nevertheless comfortable. If you don't mind the noise, ask for one with a view of 6 Avenida—it's a great way to view the action without having to fight the crowds.

The well-manicured gardens of this small complex lead down past a shallow pool, bricked Mayan sauna, and Jacuzzi to a private beach. Although many of the condos lack good views of the lake, their barrel-roof brick ceilings and understated Moorish design more than make up for it. This is a great place for groups or families—each bungalow can sleep six, and has a separate living area, fully outfitted kitchen, and private terrace.

This pretty colonial house puts a little space between you and the bustling Zona Viva. Floor-to-ceiling windows in the reception area look out onto a sunny courtyard dotted with statues. Sloping stairs lead up to the individually decorated rooms. Other rooms in an annex are newer, but they lack the charm of those in the main house.

This little hotel has a definite charm, most of it emanating from the engaging couple that runs it. The simple rooms, with handwoven bedspreads, surround a sunny courtyard. Clotheslines full of the day's laundry stretch to the roof next door. The shared baths are clean, but hot water is available only in the morning.

Built in the Spanish style around a central courtyard, Hotel Santo Tomás is one of the town's best lodgings. Breezy passageways in which hundreds of plants spring from rustic clay pots lead past two trickling fountains. Spacious rooms are decorated with traditional textiles and antique reproductions. Each has a fireplace to warm you when the sun goes down. The back of the hotel is quieter, and has views of the surrounding countryside. The large restaurant ($$) is a quiet lunch refuge from the market cacophony.

Most rooms here face a peaceful courtyard with cast-iron tables and chairs and lots of greenery. Several on the second floor share a balcony that overlooks the avenue. A small café behind the courtyard is a great place to relax after a day of exploring the city.

The cluster of bungalows, set farthest from the park entrance, wraps around a well-manicured garden and a pool, which you will be very happy to see after trekking through the ruins. There are several types of accommodations: bungalows (the best choice), junior suites in two buildings, and rooms in the main lodge building and in an outbuilding. The bungalows have thatch roofs and stucco walls decorated with traditional fabrics. Electricity is limited to a couple of hours in the morning and for around three hours at night. A restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner has a menu with daily specials. Some bookings require a breakfast and dinner package.

Any lodging with its own heliport must cater to an affluent clientele, right? Yet rates are very reasonable here. Opt, if you can, for one of the 14 rooms across the street from the reception. They are scattered throughout a pleasant garden. With their stucco walls, big wooden doors, armoires, antique furniture, tile floors, and hammocks in the breezeways (and some rooms with fireplaces), they echo an old Guatemalan hacienda. Eight other rooms sit either above the reception area or near the parking lot. Beef is the specialty in the restaurant ($–$$), along with great lake views.

This three-floor lodging sits on a quiet street, just one-half block off Calle Santander. Rooms come with cabinet, bed, and table—not much else—but the place is a good, peaceful budget find.

Livingston's finest hotel, the Villa Caribe has some great views of the Caribbean from its hilltop perch. The extensive grounds overflow with foliage. Spacious rooms, in a thatch-roof building, all have private balconies and ocean views. Palm trees surround the large pool, where you can relax in one of the lounge chairs or order a drink at the bar. The restaurant serves seafood dishes, such as coconut shrimp and robalo, but is almost always empty. The staff can arrange trips up the Río Dulce and to spots around the Bahía de Amatique.

Surrounding a covered courtyard illuminated by skylights, the spacious carpeted rooms at Hotel Villa Real Plaza all have fireplaces that you'll appreciate on cool evenings. Those in a newer wing are superior to those in the dimly lit older section. The restaurant (¢–$$) has an interesting menu, whose offerings range from chicken cordon bleu to a variety of meaty stews. You'll receive a small discount if you pay with cash.

This hotel was once the general store that gave El Estor its name. Now run by the loquacious Oscar Paz, it has clean, cozy rooms. The wide wooden balcony is a great place to observe the town's waterfront. Before checking in, make sure the town hall next door has no plans for a dance; otherwise the thumping music will keep you awake until 4 am.

When you pass through the front doors of this hotel north of the main square, you enter a courtyard overflowing with greenery. The older rooms, set around a portico, are brightened by locally made fabrics. They can be a bit noisy, however, especially those facing the street. The newer ones in the back are quieter, but lack character.

Traditionally Monterrico's most happening place gives you several lodging options that will work out, no matter what your budget. They range from multi-person dorm rooms to fully equipped bungalows—they're made of concrete and are still a bit on the basic side, but comfortable, nonetheless. If you're feeling flush with your quetzals, and are here with a small group, opt for the two-story, stone-and-brick deluxe bungalow, the only unit here with air-conditioning, hot water, and television.

Even if you don't stay here, stop by for a meal

—everybody in town usually does at some point during their stay.

Perhaps the best accommodations in Tikal, this lodge's cobblestone footpaths will lead you through a tamed jungle (but not so tame as to deny you a hello from a spider monkey or an iguana) to remodeled bungalows, painted with elegant interpretations of Maya motifs. The original structure was built almost 60 years ago to house archaeologists working at Tikal; those rooms are now the budget options with shared baths. If your budget allows, choose one of the bungalows or suites instead. The Jungle Lodge remains an affordable option in the park, but recent upgrades have made some rooms more luxurious—with outdoor showers, Jacuzzis, and other tropical amenities—and more expensive. The food is underflavored and overpriced: stay here and eat elsewhere (the two other park hotels have restaurants).

Don David Kuhn has lived in the area for 40 years and is a great source for Tikal travel tips, while his lakeside hotel, an institution in Petén, also offers much to the visitor. In fact, you can consider this little inn as the area's semiofficial tourist information center. (The hotel's website also has a wealth of information on travel to Tikal.) Rooms are simple and clean, all with private baths and most with air-conditioning. The gardens, though, really deserve your time, as does the lakefront deck. (Remarkably, drinks can be delivered to you there via a mini hand-cranked ski lift, the "Toucan Express.") The casa has an open-air restaurant with good home cooking and winning views of Lake Petén Itzá.  The hotel offers good, well-priced tours to Tikal, Yaxhá, and other sites, along with horseback riding and boat rides on the lake. Choice of breakfast or dinner included.

Built atop a cliff overlooking the azure waters, this gorgeous inn unquestionably has a great vantage point for gazing at Lago Atitlán. All the rooms have views, but those from Number 1 and Number 3 are the most breathtaking. If you can tear yourself away from the windows, you'll notice that the beautifully decorated rooms have wood-beam ceilings, red-tile floors, and stucco-and-stone walls hung with local handicrafts. If you want to get a closer look at the lake, kayaks are available. Meals are served family style in the cozy restaurant (¢–$).

You enter this stately hotel through iron gates, then step into a small reception area that leads to a comfortable lounge with a fireplace to keep out the chill. The restaurant spills out into the courtyard; its cast-iron chairs are surrounded by arches covered with dangling philodendrons. Traditional tile floors grace the rooms, which are furnished with antiques. Rooms in the front open onto a balcony, but those in the back are quieter.

The traditionally backpacker-oriented "Lost Iguana" is part hotel and part summer camp. It hasn't forgotten its roots, but has upgraded some of its offerings, which range from simple to splendid. The restaurant ($) serves up good family-style meals, and the dormitory rooms can hold up to eight of your traveling companions. For a bit more privacy, choose one of the stone-floor, thatch-roof bungalows—each has its own balcony—lit with kerosene lamps. (Even the nicer rooms are a good value.) Guests tend to be fairly young—most come for scuba-diving courses. You can also choose between Spanish, art, or weaving classes, too.

Stop by for the Saturday-night barbecue, even if you aren't staying here.

A fresh sensibility, which includes distressed wood and acid-washed concrete tastefully layered over historic architecture and original beams, makes this Flores's most stylish hotel and very easy to recommend. A sister hotel to Jungle Lodge in Tikal, La Isla de Flores uses the same style of painted motifs to make the walls look like beautiful, oversized screen prints. A bar has opened on the rooftop with a Jacuzzi where you can loosen your muscles after climbing all those temples. The restaurant Achiote is on-site.

Francis Ford Coppola's Guatemalan lodging is decorated in exquisite taste, with rich textures and all casitas glimpsing Lake Petén Itzá; espresso makers and craft toiletries make it decadent and a combination of Balinese and local furnishings make you want to import some of the aesthetic home. The nice full-lake-view units are many steps farther down the hillside and treacherous for some. The restaurant's Guatemalan fare, such as chilaquiles, beef tenderloin served with peppercorn sauce grilled on the open parilla, is delicious; however, it's local food at resort prices. A gift shop above the restaurant sells crafts at fairly reasonable cost. A split-level pool just below the restaurant lets you cool off if you don't care to swim in the lake. You're about an hour's drive from Tikal.

Las Lagunas, lagoon-side luxury on the expansive grounds of a nature reserve with spider monkey acrobats giving frequent shows, has spacious waterfront wood cabins have soft, decadent beds and hot tubs, and the infinity pool is perfect for cooling down after a hike. A complimentary boat tour will carry you through the lagoon to Monkey Island, where you can delight in feeding the rescue critters. Certainly, the most special part of this resort is its setting, but the service is exceptional and the restaurant is world-class. A slim breakfast is included, as is an airport shuttle. Guests can also enjoy a complimentary boat tour.

Here is the place that gives San Marcos its New Age-y reputation. The tranquillity of the lake provides the perfect setting for this yoga retreat, which offers day-, week-, and month-long courses. Pyramid-shaped cabins concentrate energies for spiritualists seeking that elusive transcendence. The reasonable price includes accommodations, classes, and use of the sauna and other facilities. You stay here, you're expected to participate. (Guests staying at other lodgings are welcome to enroll in courses, too.) As they are fond of saying here: This isn't a hotel.

Our nod for the best views on the lake goes to this cliffside hotel just outside Jaibalito near the tiny village of Tzununá. All rooms and the restaurant and pool share the same amazing vista. The payback for those views is the 100-meter (330-foot) climb up from the dock via hundreds of steps to reach the place. (Better to make advance arrangements with the hotel to have someone meet you in Tzununá and transport you here via Jeep.) No matter how you get here, lodging is in ample-size stone and wood bungalows with tile floors and bright drapes and spreads. The restaurant ($$) serves local and international cuisine, with seafood the specialty.

This centrally located hotel is popular with Guatemalan business travelers, who appreciate its unusual combination of convenience and tranquillity, thanks to its position on a quiet street one (uphill) block away from the main square. The spotless rooms are simply furnished, with one double bed. Next door is a small coffee roasting plant (owned by the same family), which fills the air with a delightful scent.

Long regarded as Chichicastenango's "second hotel" (after the Santo Tomás), the Mayan Inn was actually the first lodging to set up shop here. (It dates from the 1930s, and is one of the country's best-known hotels.) Rooms have corner fireplaces, and surround a series of beautifully maintained garden courtyards. Most have wide windows overlooking the pine-covered hills. The service is as impeccable as always—an attendant in traditional costume is assigned to each room.

A beautiful courtyard with a fountain and colorful gardens welcomes you to this retreat. The elegant rooms downstairs open onto small gardens, whereas the romantic suites upstairs have four-poster beds piled high with down comforters and terraces where hammocks swing in the breeze. The rooftop patio is wonderful in late afternoon or early morning, and the restaurant is one of the best in town. The meat dishes are particularly good, such as the lomito (pork) bourguignonne with escargots.

The hotel and restaurant maintain an active evening cultural-events program open to the public.

This former colonial house has character that most other hotels can't match. Ivy-covered walls give way to a cozy reception area. Some rooms surround a breezy courtyard overflowing with potted plants, whereas others share a balcony reached by a spiral staircase. The softly lighted rooms have wooden paneling and tile floors. The Middle Eastern restaurant is an ideal lunch spot; take a table on the tranquil patio where hummingbirds surround a melodic fountain.

The one-time palace of Leonor de Alvarado de Cueva, the daughter of Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado, today serves as a lovely hotel and gives Casa Santo Domingo a run for its money in Antigua's top-notch sweepstakes. Just half a block off the Parque Central, it's the most centrally located hotel in the city. The large, flat-screen televisions in each room are a nice touch—one almost never seen in Guatemala—but look a bit out of place among the colonial elegance of canopied beds, period art, fireplaces, stone-tile floors, and garden. Descending the beautiful grand staircase will make you look just as gracious as we assume Doña Leonor did.