My Guatemalan friend and I (68 year old male) traveled to Flores to visit the Mayan archeological sites at Tikal and the more recently opened Yaxha. We arrived at the hotel around 5:30 AM after traveling to Flores on the overnight bus from Guatemala City. Our room was on 2nd floor, at the end of the open-air corridor leading to a spacious patio overlooking the lake. Most of the rooms are arranged along this type of corridor. The vantage point from the patio provided a spectacular view of the sunrise over the lake. Beautiful! Our room was not large, but it was well furnished with 2 double beds, side tables, desk/dresser, a rack to hang clothing, a safe, TV, ceiling fan, and a quiet, efficient air conditioning unit. It would have been difficult to accommodate a lot of luggage in the room. Everything seemed clean and well maintained, the beds were quite comfortable, and there was ample hot water in the private bathroom. If we had to spend a lot of time in the room then it might have felt somewhat cramped, but if we had had more time we would have enjoyed using the patio, with it's pleasant breeze and beautiful vistas. As mentioned by another reviewer, there is a potential problem associated with the louvered, frosted glass windows in the wall separating the room from the corridor. (Most of the rooms have this kind of window configuration.) The windows provide some natural light for the room, but they do very little to block or diminish any sounds, so, while it was not an issues during our visit, in some situations this could definitely be a problem. The hotel's location is excellent, because everything in this island town is within a 10 or 15 minute walk. Flores itself seems more like Key West than it does more typical Guatemalan towns. Hotels, restaurants, gift shops, and tour agencies abound. The adjacent mainland town Santa Elena, also has many hotels and other tourist-oriented businesses, but it is much more oriented to providing goods and services to the region's population. I can't offer many comments about the staff because we didn't have much interaction with them. That which we had was pleasant but business-like and quite satisfactory.
A comment about the bus from Guatemala City to Flores, we used Linea Dorada, which offers a high-end Pullman bus service . We had missed the earlier, slightly more expensive bus that departed at 9:00 PM so we took the later, but cheaper, 9:30 PM bus. That overnight trip was very uncomfortable for me because of the rather cramped seats and leg-room (my height is about 6'). It was impossible to get comfortable enough to sleep or rest well. So when returning to Guatemala City we took the more expensive service (it's about $7 more) and it was definitely worth the few extra dollars, providing a snack for the trip but, more importantly, considerably more personal space, with seats that recline to a more comfortable sleeping position and room for a taller person to stretch out their legs. Incredibly, I actually got a good nights sleep on the bus. As they say...Priceless.
- Hotel Del Lago
