Hotel Isla de Flores

An Island You Can Walk in Ten Minutes

Flores is a small island in Lake Peten Itza, joined to the mainland by a causeway and laid out in coloured houses around a hill with a church on top. You can walk the perimeter before breakfast. Hotel Isla de Flores takes a three storey house on the lake side of it, together with the Victorian inn next door, and runs the two as one address. The interest is vertical: ground floor restaurant, rooms above, and on the roof a pool and a terrace that look across the water towards the forest on the far shore. In the Peten, where most beds are either in town or deep in the jungle, this is the version that gives you both.

Why It Works

We kept it as the practical base for the ruins. Tikal is a long morning, best begun early and finished before the heat, which makes the drive the deciding factor and the roof the reward at the end of it. Thirty rooms is enough for the house to run a proper restaurant and not so many that the pool is contested. The two joined buildings give the address a character the newer places on the causeway do not have, and the position on the lake side of the island means water rather than traffic outside the window.

Why This Location

Tikal is around three quarters of an hour to the north by road, Yaxha is a longer run east, and the airport at Santa Elena is about ten minutes away, which turns the Peten into a two night stop rather than a three day journey. On the island itself, the shops, bars and restaurants are all within a few streets, and boats leave from the shore for San Miguel and the quieter side of the lake. The causeway means you can arrive by car without needing one afterwards.

Fast Facts

• Price: Premium

• Vibe: Island, coloured, easy going

• Rooms: Thirty, split between a historic three storey house and the adjoining Victorian inn

• Best For: Travellers doing Tikal and Yaxha, short Peten stops between flights, couples who want the lake at the window

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The rooftop pool, and the fact that it faces the sunset rather than the street

• Dining: Restaurant on the ground floor of the inn, international and Guatemalan cooking, with the island tables a few minutes away

• Amenities: Rooftop pool and terrace, lake views, walking tours arranged at the desk, live music in the evening

• Attractions: Tikal, about three quarters of an hour; Yaxha; the island church and its hill; boats to San Miguel

Two Houses Joined at the Hip

The older of the two buildings carries most of the rooms over three floors, and the inn beside it holds the restaurant below and further rooms above. The difference between them is in the proportions rather than the finish: taller ceilings on one side, a more domestic scale on the other. Ask for a lake facing room, since the ones turned inland look over the island instead, and ask for a floor high enough to clear the neighbours. Air conditioning matters here in a way it does not in the highlands, and every room has it.

The Roof, and the Hour Before Dinner

The pool is not large and does not need to be. It sits at roof level with the lake beyond it and the forest behind that, and it collects the whole house between five and seven, when the light goes copper and the water flattens. Drinks come up from below. This is the part of the stay people describe afterwards, more than the rooms and sometimes more than the ruins, and it is the argument for two nights rather than one.

Planning the Ruins

Guided runs to Tikal leave early, and the desk will arrange the driver and the guide together, which is worth doing rather than booking them apart. Yaxha takes a full day and rewards it. Between the two, an afternoon on the island covers the church, the hill and the lake shore without a vehicle. Bring light clothing and expect heat and humidity year round, which is the one thing the highlands do not prepare you for.