Hotel Santana

When visiting a new town in a foreign country we usually book only 1-2 nights at a hotel to try it out before booking more nights or moving on. We were happy to extend this stay from 2 nights to 5 after sleeping here 2 nights. The room on the 3rd floor lakeside was clean, had beautiful views, sunny, had air conditioning, hot water, daily housekeeping, blackout blinds, decent wi-fi, and free bottled water & shampoo. Staff were friendly enough. The restaurant offers several of their breakfast entrees free with the room and other choices are available for ~Q50-60. The pool deck is worn and the pool area is in a cramped space by US standards, but excellent by Central American standards. The only downside is the nightly bar music and partying that lasted til midnight on most nights, even weekdays. Some party houseboats leave from the dock outside the hotel. I saw similar noise concerns in reviews for most of the hotels on the island. I suspect any streetside room would have plenty of street notice from tuk tuks and motorcycles until 10pm or so and any hotel near a bar will have the music noise. If you need quiet and you want to stay on the island, your best bet is probably an inland alley away from the perimeter road. The island itself is mainly restaurants, hotels, and a few small stores. We hired a private lancha from the dock for a few hundred Q to spend 4 hours motoring us around the lake to Arcas, San Miguel, and the little Mayan museum on Isla Santa Barbara.

My favourite hotel in Guatemala. The view from the balcony was excellent, overlooking the lake with the hammock, chairs and table. The room was clean and spacious. The bathroom had good running water and warm water. The breakfast allows you to choose food from the cafe next door which was good quality and mixed options.

After the el mirador trek I stayed at hotel Santana and it was a very pleasant surprise. Excellent staff and the room was clean and beautiful with a great view. The restaurant below was very good also. I would stay there again in a heartbeat. Very nice.