My wife and I stayed for two nights in early January (2012) and again for one night a month later, when we were winding up our travels. (The woman I took to be the principal owner, Francesca Sanchinelli, had kindly agreed to let us store a bag with her during our month away from the city.)
Posada Belen is probably unique: an old family home, from the mid-19th Century, that has a tiny central courtyard and rooms off a corridor that skirts the courtyard and leads past the dining room and kitchen. Our first room was a bit gloomy; but our second room, #2, was brighter and more comfortable in other ways. The atmosphere of the place is friendly and relaxed. The place is absolutely secure. It has genuine, if dowdy charm.
Francesca and the members of her staff are all as nice as can be and extremely helpful in all ways. My wife had an anxious episode with a toothache that needed a dentist's attention, and Francesca was very willing to help arrange a dental appointment for her. Francesca also helped to arrange for a very pleasant, bright guy to drive us around town on the day we were to fly out, in the late afternoon: we wanted to visit a couple of the museums (for a second time), which are in the southern part of the main city, and not have to return to pick up our bags at Posada Belen, which is in the northern part.
And this is 'the rub,' really. You have to ask yourself whether you want to stay in Zone One, which is the 'historic' part of the city, rather than further down, near the airport, the museums, and the restaurants of so-called 'Zona Viva' (Zone Ten), which is the most prosperous area of the downtown. Zone One has the Cathedral and the Central Market, which is a partly sub-terranean affair on two floors of a large, modern building behind the Cathedral. These are the only two attractions of Zone One. Getting to the more southern parts of the city from Zone One will cost you about ten dollars in a taxi; and it will cost you about ten dollars to get back. You won't want to take a bus, believe me. So costs mount up.
I have to confess that I find Guatemala City one of the most unpleasant cities I have spent any time in: right up there (or down there) with Lima. It would not surprise me to learn that tour groups don't stay in Guate at all: they probably go straight from the airport to Antigua, which is lovely, pleasant and not much more than a half-an-hour's drive from the airport. Yet if you care about cultural matters, surely you will want to visit the museums, especially the National Archaeological Museum, the small gem of a museum, Popul Vuh (sp?), and its immediate neighbour the Museo Ixchel, which focuses on textiles. (Don't miss the fantastic paintings--nearly 70 of them--by Carmen Pettersen in the Ixchel!, which show a wide array of native costumes that she wanted to record before they fell to disuse.)
- Posada Belen Museo Hotel
- Hotel Posada Belen Museo
