
By Timothy Scott, Editor of Luxury Latin AmericaGuatemala has long been a favorite destination for intrepid adventurers and students looking to improve their Spanish. A few notable luxury hotels have opened up in the past few years, however, and some existing hotels have brought their operations up a few notches. Upscale travelers now have somewhere fancy to lay their head in the four main Guatemalan destinations. La LanchaLocated on a steep hillside on the shores of Lake Peten, this is the best hotel near the Maya ruins of Tikal. As a part of director Francis Ford Coppola's triumvirate of hotels (the other two are in Belize), La Lancha is a stylish and comfortable set of bungalows with calming views and a sideshow of toucans and howler monkeys. The restaurant here far exceeds any other in the area and the choices of excursions can keep any budding explorer busy for days.Casa PalopoWith a panoramic view of dramatic Lake Atitlan, ringed by extinct volcanoes, Casa Palopo is the kind of hotel that makes you want to sit in one spot for hours, the scenery washing away all your cares. The level of artistic sophistication in this intimate hideaway is far beyond the ...
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