There are three hotels inside Tikal National Park – Jaguar Inn, Tikal Inn, and Jungle Lodge. Jaguar Inn is the lowest priced and offers both bungalow rooms and tents. This is the only place to legally camp in the park. They have their tents set up on stone platforms under a roof so you have good protection from the elements. The tents include mattress, sheets, access to shared bathrooms and showers, and use of the hotel amenities. For budget travelers and those who enjoy camping, Jaguar Inn is a unique option.
Tikal Inn is the middle of the road option in Tikal. Cost tends to fall between the other two hotels, as does the level of the accommodations. We were originally booked there but ended up switching when I found a good rate for the Jungle Lodge. Tikal Inn has a nice pool, cute thatched-roof bungalows, and seems to be home to the most wildlife among the three hotels.
Jungle Lodge recently renovated all of their rooms and tends to have the highest price tag as a result. It is also located closest to the park entrance, although none of them are far away so it is all relative. Their website is under construction so there is not a lot of readily-available information about them. Booking was a bit of a leap of faith based primarily on Trip Advisor reviews and pictures. We booked through Orbitz and had no problems. The hotel does maintain a Facebook page and responds to messages on there. Email doesn’t seem to be an option, but they answered my questions promptly through Facebook.
The lobby and restaurant are both housed in the main thatched-roof building. The front desk staff was friendly and helpful. There seemed to always be at least one person at the front desk who spoke English. We ate lunch in the restaurant and had a nice meal. The menu was only in Spanish and the server also only spoke Spanish but we had no issues ordering and getting what we wanted. We also got a boxed breakfast, which is a great option for those doing sunset or early morning tours. We ordered the night before and picked it up from the night watchman since the restaurant was not open that early.
We were in cabin 4, a cute cabin nestled in the jungle behind the main building. It had a king-sized bed and a queen pull-out couch. The bed was comfortable and the boys slept well in the pull-out. The room was a little crowded when the pull-out was set-up, but since we were only in the room for a brief period of time, it wasn’t an issue.
We had a private outdoor area in the back of the cabin with a cute sitting area and a hot tub. We didn’t have the time or appropriate temperature to make use of the hot tub but it was a nice touch. I imagine on a cooler evening it would be a neat experience to sit in the hot tub and listen to the jungle sounds around you.
The bathroom was recently remodeled as well and was modern and clean. There was a separate tub and a stall shower that had a door connecting it to an outdoor shower. One word of warning: the toilets and sewage system in Guatemala cannot handle toilet paper so you must throw your used toilet paper in the trash. The toilet in our room was also a little weak in its flushing abilities, but overall it was an incredibly nice bathroom considering we were in the middle of the jungle.
Speaking of being in the middle of the jungle… one thing you will run across at all 3 of the hotels in Tikal is limited hours of electricity. When you check in at the Jungle Lodge, they give you a key, the wifi password (only available in the lobby), and a little sheet of paper telling you the hours that the power is on. I can’t remember the exact hours but it was on for something like 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours at night. It really didn’t affect us because we were gone most of the day. And even if you are in your room during daylight hours, there isn’t much need for additional light. Electricity does run to the overhead fan all night, as well as the two outlets next to the bed so that you can charge your devices. If you bring a flashlight or headlamp (or even just your cell phone flashlight), you’ll be totally fine.
We had a short stay and filled most of our hours in Tikal so we didn’t get to take advantage of the hotel pool. I imagine if we had stayed a second night, we would have loved to cool down there in the late afternoon after touring around Tikal. The pool was nice and the hotel grounds were lovely, although I was a little disappointed that we didn’t see any wildlife. (We definitely heard the howler monkeys at night though!)
My one issue with the hotel was the difficulty in getting safe drinking water. We were advised against drinking the tap water or even brushing our teeth with it. The water in Guatemala is much worse than the water in Belize. Yet in Belize, both hotels we stayed in had a giant 5 gallon water jug in our room to provide safe drinking water. I understand that it may not be feasible to provide that type of water jug deep in the heart of the Guatemalan jungle, but there was no easy place to get water at the hotel. They provided two miniature bottles of water in the bathroom to brush your teeth with. It was barely enough for the four of us to brush our teeth twice while we were there. The front desk does not sell water bottles, although they sell candy and ice cream. In order to buy a bottle of water, you have to walk into the restaurant and flag down a waiter. The whole thing was awkward and inconvenient and when the restaurant was closed, there was literally no access to clean water. It seems like it would be an easy fix to sell water at the front desk.
But other than the water situation, we had a lovely stay at the Jungle Lodge. It was really just a resting point in between tours and we were pleasantly surprised with how nice, clean and comfortable the rooms were. It was way more than I expected given the location of the lodge in the heart of the Guatemalan jungle.
