Adriatika Hotel & Residence

Built for the Guests Who Stay Longest

Most city hotels are designed around one night and adapt reluctantly to more. Adriatika starts from the other end. It calls itself a hotel and a residence, and the accommodation follows: the smallest unit is a junior suite of forty eight square metres, and the largest is a family suite of almost a hundred, split into three areas so that a family does not have to go to bed at the same time. The address is Zona 14, a residential grid of walled houses and gardens between the Zona Viva and the airport, and the building keeps the register of the street rather than the skyline.

Why It Works

We kept it for a use case the capital handles badly. Guatemala City is where consultants spend a fortnight, where families regroup between Tikal and Atitlán, and where anyone flying out early wants to be near La Aurora without sleeping in an airport hotel. Suites with sitting areas and a gym that never closes answer all three. The second reason is the finish. Markis, the restaurant, is panelled and properly run rather than a breakfast room with ambitions, and a heated pool with a built in jacuzzi in the garden is not what a residence usually offers.

Why This Location

Zona 14 is the quiet one. Hemmed by Avenida Hincapié on one side and the long diagonal of the Zona Viva on the other, it is where the capital's houses are, which means walled gardens, low traffic and almost nothing open after ten. That is the point. La Aurora international airport is a few minutes south, close enough that a dawn flight is manageable. The restaurants of Zona 10 are a short drive north. So are the Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología and the crafts market in the Parque Aurora, which between them make the best half day the city offers.

Fast Facts

• Price: Premium

• Vibe: residential, contemporary, calm

• Rooms: suites throughout, from a forty eight square metre junior suite to a family suite of almost a hundred square metres with one king and two queen beds

• Best For: families, long stays and extended work trips, travellers with an early departure from La Aurora

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the heated pool with its built in jacuzzi, which makes the garden usable on a cool highland evening

• Dining: Markis restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner, panelled in wood

• Amenities: heated outdoor pool and jacuzzi, fitness centre open around the clock with dry sauna and lockers, covered parking, long stay residences, pets accepted, step free access

• Attractions: La Aurora international airport (a few minutes south), Zona Viva restaurants, Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología and the Mercado de Artesanías at Parque Aurora

Suites Sized for Staying

Three categories, and the difference is space rather than decoration. The king room is a junior suite in everything but name. The executive suite adds a view towards the hills that close the valley. The family suite is the one that justifies the word residence: three areas, one king and two queen beds, room for a family to spread out over a week without the usual negotiation about the bathroom. For longer stays the hotel switches into residence mode, which is the arrangement to ask about if the trip runs past a fortnight.

Markis, the Heated Pool and the Gym That Never Closes

Markis serves through the day, and the wood panelling and the service make it a place to take a meeting as much as a meal. Outside, the pool is heated and carries a built in jacuzzi, open from morning until evening, which in a city that cools off sharply after dark is the difference between a garden you look at and one you use. The fitness centre runs around the clock, looks onto the pool, and comes with a dry sauna and proper lockers, a combination aimed squarely at the guest who arrived on a night flight.

What to Know Before You Book

Ask for the residence terms if you are staying more than a week; the rates and the arrangement differ from the nightly booking. Pets are accepted, which is unusual at this level in the capital, and the building offers step free access, which is rarer still. Check in is from mid afternoon and check out early afternoon, with an early departure option that matters given the airport. Parking is covered and on site.