13 Best Hotels in El Peten, Guatemala

Rooms here are just functional; but Lake Petén Itzá is a few skips across the street and verandas in tones of blue and orange make for lovely places to sit. Colonial spindles and other notes up the charm dial, as does the little checker-clothed restaurant where you'll have included breakfast (hot and decent). It's easy to confuse this with the several similarly named hotels.

Built in traditional Spanish style, this modern hotel is easily recognizable by its stone walls and barrel-tile roof. Rooms, some of which are in need of refurbishing, face a small courtyard with a trickling fountain. Ask for a room on the first floor, as these have much larger windows. The patio restaurant sits under big arches leading to the grassy courtyard, making it a much more pleasant place to relax than the musty bar.

This hotel has the feel of a backpacker's lodge, only not at backpacker prices, but it's in the park, and despite the less-than-luxe mattress, you'll awaken to birdsong. Jaguar Inn has a decent if overpriced restaurant with shaded outdoor seating. Rooms of different sizes have tile floors, fans, and wooden furnishings, with Guatemalan fabrics. You can also camp here on a crowded platform for about Q110 (US$15) per person, including complete supplies and use of bathrooms and showers. The inn optimistically promises electricity from a generator 24 hours a day, but hot water is only available from 6 am to 9 am, and 6 pm to 9 pm. The hotel will pick you up in Melchor near the border for US$90 one-way for two people.

Santa Elena's spiffiest hotel puts you in mind of an old-time lighthouse, dignified in blue and white and sitting lakeside, with splendid views of Flores across the water. From the top-floor terrace especially, views here shine, with bright and spacious rooms, tile floors, and impressive windows. Although far from luxury level, it has standard amenities and nice spaces to lounge. The on-site restaurant will do in a pinch. It's under the same management as several other hotels in Flores, so if you can't get a room at one, you may have other choices.

The common areas, with lake views and cheery colors are lovelier places to be than the simple rooms, but the oldest hotel in Flores remains a reliable one. A plunge pool graces the atrium of this classic lodging, almost like a functional fountain (which can actually be a little off-putting unless you don't mind swimming in front of guests checking in). The lakefront location is excellent. With so many options nearby, it's best to dine outside the hotel. The same owners also operate Hotel de La Casona del Lago, among others.

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.

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.

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.

You could lie in bed and count the birds flying by your window at these villas on Lake Petenchel, east of Santa Elena, where pyramidal angles invoke the temples at Tikal. All 56 rooms, in two-level bungalows spread out around the grounds, are tastefully decorated with colorful weavings and mahogany accents, and they have terrific views. Some 50 bird species have been spotted in the area. If you're interested in more wildlife, ask an attendant where to find the troop of spider monkeys that roams the grounds and the adjacent rain forest, or the local crocodile. Villa Maya is part of a small group of villa-type hotels around Guatemala. Vans shuttle you to and from Tikal.

With stunning views of Flores across the bay, this quiet, laid-back inn is actually located in the village of San Miguel, a quick drive from the island, or an even quicker boat ride. The rooms are comfortable, the proprietors are a wealth of knowledge and can even guide your trip to Tikal or other archaeological sites, and as you relax on the delightful property they make it feel like your home away from home. You can hike from the inn to El Mirador of King Canek, a treehouse with a 360-degree view that allows you to see the lake and island from a bird's-eye view.