I should have written this review years ago. My wife and I have been bringing groups of university students to Guatemala for a month-long Study Abroad summer session for five years now, and each year have spent a week or so at the Uxlabil. All in all, it is our favorite hotel in all Guatemala. The entire staff is extremely friendly and helpful, the view is magnificent and the food is first rate. San Juan is an extremely clean and friendly little town and while the hotel is a ten-minute walk from its center, it is very safe and pleasant, even at night. Don Francisco, the owner, has become a good friend, as have all the staff, and we always look forward to this part of our month in Guatemala. Our students love it also.

We had a wonderful couple of days here. Gaspar gave us an interesting tour of San Juan and Melina cooked us some nice meals. The hotel is a 10 minute walk along an unlit path to the town center, so we didn't want to walk it at night, but dinner was available at the hotel.

The room was comfortable and the view from the balcony over the lake in the morning was outstanding. The coffee tour was worthwhile and the local artists produce very nice paintings. We caught the bus from here to Quetzaltenango direct, without having to go back across the lake to Panachel.

If you like a nicely kept, authentic eco-hotel on Lake Atitlan with extremely helpful and friendly staff, fine breakfast and dinner, large rooms with eco-standard, a free view on lake and mountains, if you like to relax and to walk through the hotel's own plantation for organic coffee (which you also enjoy at the hotel), if you appreciate a nearby village with welcoming people Eco Hotel Uxlabil is the very place. Stay there, hike and you will not forget it that fast.

I travel for business and pleasure a great deal and have never been motivated to write a review for a hotel, until now. The hotel sits by Lake Atitlan with beautiful views of the lake and surrounding mountains from literally every room. The hotel itself has a rustic Mayan feel. For example, most rooms have stone floors and stone walls and furnishings with a Mayan flavor. On some walls there are Mayan murals. The food was excellent and staff always very helpful. Given our outdoor interests, we appreciated the canoes and kayaks at our disposal. Because Lake Atitlan was higher than it had been for 50 years, we could not use the volley ball courts. But we did enjoy reading in the hammocks, looking at the views, and just relaxing. Given our interests, we also appreciated the environmental aspects of the hotel. For example, the water was solar heated (and always as hot as desired), food grown on the premises is organic, and the hotel works closely with the adjacent village.

We drank the filtered water and had no problems.