12 Best Hotels in Guatemala

True charm pervades La Posada, a lovely colonial home overlooking Cobán's central plaza, which the current owner's grandmother opened as a hotel in 1939. Rooms have wooden floors and exposed beams and are furnished with antiques. Some have special touches like wardrobes and writing desks, and three have fireplaces. Painted blue chairs and cloth hammocks fill the porch overlooking the pretty garden. In the reception area is a Ping-Pong table, which is popular with families. Request a room away from the street if you're bothered by traffic noise. A cozy restaurant with a fireplace serves international as well as Guatemalan favorites.

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).

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.

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 with 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.

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.

This hotel has the feel of a backpacker's lodge without 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 (we don't recommend this option). 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. A restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner has a menu with daily specials. Some bookings require a breakfast and dinner package. Try to avoid this as the food is underwhelming.

You start seeing the signs advertising this hotel on the Atlantic Highway as you leave Guatemala City, and long before you get here you've memorized the name and location. The place, a few kilometers south of Cobán, is huge, and in that regard very un-Verapaces-like, humming with all the activity—gym, shops, playground, meeting rooms—of a hotel that bills itself as a "resort and conference center." Rooms are scattered around the lush grounds; some have fireplaces. The hotel has a lot of amenities and is a good value.

We like the one- and two-bedroom cabins in this roadside lodging near the Biotopo del Quetzal. All are set back from the road and can accommodate four to eight people. Each has a much-appreciated fireplace with ample wood supply for those chilly nights, of which there are many up here, making them much cozier than the simply furnished, stucco-wall, brick-floor rooms in the main building closer to the highway. The Posada operates its own small nature reserve; it's ideal for short hikes and is full of orchids, including the region's famed monja blanca.

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.