Las Lagunas Boutique Hotel

Las Lagunas Boutique Hotel stands on a private estate of more than 300 acres in the forests of Petén, in northern Guatemala, where lagoons, open savanna and old oak woods have been kept as a nature reserve rather than cleared for farming. Its 20 suites line the water: most are freestanding bungalows on the shore of Quexil Lagoon, the largest of the estate’s five lagoons, and a few sit among the trees above another lake. The buildings were designed to sit lightly on the land.

This is a small, service-minded hotel with a round-the-clock reception, a restaurant facing the lagoon, an infinity pool, a spa with saunas and a museum of its own that shows archaeological pieces and works of art. It makes a comfortable base for the great Maya sites of the region — Tikal, Yaxhá, Uaxactún — reached on private tours arranged by the hotel, with slower days spent on the lagoons by kayak or boat.

Every suite’s rate includes a boat trip across Quexil Lagoon to Monkey Island, one of its two islands, where monkeys live.

Kayaks for the estate’s lagoons and bicycles are on hand, and there are guided tours through the nature reserve and private boat outings on the lagoon. The hotel also arranges private tours to the archaeological sites of Petén:

• Tikal — the Great Plaza and Temples I–IV in the forest, with most of the walk in deep shade and lunch at a restaurant inside Tikal National Park;
• Yaxhá and Topoxté — a densely built ancient city with temples, old causeways and a ball court;
• Uaxactún, in the north of Petén — a Classic-period astronomical observatory;
• Ceibal — by boat along the La Pasión River to a Maya city in the rainforest of southern Petén;
• Aguateca — by boat through the Petexbatún stream and lagoon to a city of the late Classic period;
• The Blue Crater — a crystal-clear stream with underwater gardens in the El Pucté reserve.