FLORES & TIKAL

Flores is the more populated Guatemalan city in the North and known for its gateway into the well known Mayan ruins. Here you can easily take tours to several different ruin sites and also is central to popular destinations such as Belize and central Guatemala. The city of Flores itself is quite small and easy to get around.

We spent a total of 2 days and 3 nights here, and spent our time visiting the Mayan site of Tikal and relaxing in the town before we headed to Belize. There is not much to do in the town so I would say 2 days is plenty of time to see the ruins. There are many ruins in these areas but Tikal is by far the most popular.

Getting Here

We took a shared shuttle van from Lanquin which took about 8 hours (pretty standard for means of travel within Guatemala!). We took the first shuttle in the early morning at 6:30am and got into Lanquin by about 2:30pm with enough time to check into the hostel. We booked our shuttle through our hostel in Lanquin. Flores does also have an airport so there are easier ways to get here versus very long bus rides.

  • Cost: 215 Quetzal ($28 USD)

Location

In Flores there is a small island that connects to the mainland via a bridge, called the Island of Flores. Here is where many of the tourists stay and is very cute and quaint, easily walkable to all the shops and restaurants. We certainly enjoyed our stay here since it was a bit more quiet and very easy to get around. We found that most of the other travelers were staying in this area so all the other pickups for the tours and transport was in this area.

Accommodation

There are many places to stay on the small island that seem very cute and quaint. We stayed at Los Amigos Hostel which had excellent amenities and overall atmosphere. The decor throughout the hostel was very green and lush and very comfortable. They had every amenity you needed from a restaurant, massages, lounge, bar, and tourists kiosk. We got a private room that was massive including two beds and air conditioning. Highly recommend if you are on a budget but want all the amenities.

  • Cost per night: 300 Quetzal ($40 USD)
  • Website

Things to Do

Visit the Mayan ruins in Tikal

The most popular tour in this area is to visit Tikal, which is home to one of the more popular Mayan ruins. There were options to do the sunrise tour which is very popular however a wake up call at 4am was not really on our agenda, plus there was cloud/rain in the forecast early in the morning so we opted to do the next option at 8am which still gave us a full day to explore the ruins and beat the heat.

The tour pretty much goes all day, with a guide who takes you through the main ruins for half of the day and then you have a couple of hours to explore on your own which was nice. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the history, the animals, and plants that were native in that area. Overall, I would highly recommend you do the tour. We booked through our hostel at Los Amigos.

  • Cost: 100 Quetzal ($13 USD)

Get Massages

Our cool hostel offered a bunch of spa amenities so of course we wanted to take advantage and treat ourselves from the long bus rides and hours of site seeing. There was a yoga studio just around the corner from the hostel that had a nice garden area in the back of it where they did many of their spa services including a hot sauna. The rooms were not air conditioned but they had fans going to help cool you down from the humidity. After the massage they gave you a very cute spread for tea to help continue the relaxation and hydration. Highly recommend after a long day of walking around the Mayan ruin sites!

  • Cost: 200 Quetzal ($26 USD)

Food & Dining

Los Amigos Restaurant

Of course we ate at our hostel because the ambiance was so nice we had to stick around to try the food. Definitely recommend if you stay here, the food options were good and portions were huge.

Raices

Great spot with tons of food options and located right on the water. It’s a great spot for happy hour and dinner to watch the sunset.

Sky Bar

This spot is definitely worth it for the drinks and view. Their rooftop views are pretty nice and the overall vibe is very chill. The food is a bit average but definitely a good spot to check out even if for a drink on happy hour.