Casa Palopo

- If you stay in this hotel, make certain you get a room w/ AC. The entire hotel is open air. We live in FL and are very used to the heat, but not having any space we could cool off in inside was really challenging. - The hotel is very remote. Our planner told us we could get a tuktuk. This would have been impossible. It is a solid 20 minute drive on windy dark roads in the middle of the mountains. You must have a driver. - We found the food to be really bad. We had dinner the first night and breakfast 3 mornings. It was the worst food we had on the entire trip. They are trying to serve international cuisine (I think?) and its just downright inedible. In our experience, the food isn't amazing in Guatemala overall, but we had much better meals at places our guide recommended that served local cuisine. - Staff is very nice, somewhat slow but as expected. - Beware of inaccurate charges. We had to have our driver call to dispute the bill when they itemized us for $250 USD and then charged us $2,500 USD. They never made us aware of the included continental breakfast so we paid a small fortune (in Guatemala standards) to order off the menu and try to find something we could eat. The entire experience made us feel taken advantage of. We used a travel planner - Travel Pioneer - who was less than helpful after the fact. However, not having AC after we expected it was absolutely the biggest issue. As beautiful as the hotel is (the pictures are accurate, its stunning) its very warm during the day. It does cool off at night but you have to compete with the wild dog noises as you leave everything open air in an attempt to sleep.

We had a wonderful stay at this very special hotel with glorious views over Lake Atitlan. Our room was close to reception and on the level of the terrace, bar and restaurant - which was great as the site is steep, with many steps up to the infinity pool and jacuzzi, though happily there was a great new lift down to the lakeside and the fabulous Kinnik restaurant. Our room was spacious & richly coloured with lots of unique artwork plus floor to ceiling views of the lake - even in the shower! Service was delightful, discreet, friendly and the food and drinks everywhere (but especially at Kinnik) was always delicious. Loved our cacao shots and nighttime tea too! Our 3 nights here were very special indeed and we’d highly recommend it.

We recommend Casa Palopo this an escape from the outside world. This boutique hotel has all of the amenities of a large property. The staff from the restaurant were very attentive and the Chef du Cuisine provided us with very creative dishes. When we return to Guatemala we will definitely be returning to Casa Palopó. Thank you

My husband and I very much enjoyed our stay at Casa Palopo. Our room (San Rafael) was comfortable and well equipped and the morning/evening rituals of a cacao shot and relaxing tea each day was a nice touch. The views of the lake from the public areas were beautiful - it was so peaceful to sit on the patio in the late afternoon to read or just gaze at the lake. And the location - about 15 minutes from Panajachel by tuk-tuk - made it easy to get to other towns on the lake by public lancha. We ate dinner twice at 6.8 Palopo and once at Kinnik and both were delicious. It was nice to have luxury of staying on site for dinner each night, yet have the variety of foods that both restaurants served. Of all the things we loved about Casa Palopo, however, the staff was the standout for us. Everyone was so kind and helpful. A special thank you to Jairo, for the chicken bus cocktails, malanga chips, teaching us some Kaqchikel, and great conversation.

We were there for 3 nights and overall we enjoyed our stay. We were in one of the suites which had a great view of the lake with easy access to other areas of the hotel such as the dining area, bar and the one swimming pool which was currently open. The room itself basically had everything we wanted apart from black tea and a kettle for us mad English tea drinkers. The bed was very comfortable while the room had a balcony and 2 chairs which we made a lot of use of. Our included breakfast and evening meals were served in the main restaurant and were overall good and were made better by the very pleasant serving staff. One can also enjoy a pre dinner drink either in the sitting area near the bar or the terrace overlooking the lake. We made use of both. Note - the hotel now has a newly opened second restaurant- the Kinnick - reviewed separately and which was very good. You can access a pier at the lake side down 160 steps which we found quite manageable and from there you can get a boat to visit other places around the beautiful lake though I think it needs to be booked in advance. The hotel is a Relais and Chateaux hotel and did not quite meet the standard of others we have stayed at. This was due mainly to being asked if we wanted certain things done, of which we said yes to a few, yet not all of these were actioned. For example, we were asked if we would like a specific type of pillow to which we said yes, there being a lavender and cold one available, but neither appeared! Having said that, if we visited the lake again, this would be where we would stay so despite the small lapses, it was very good.