Del Lago Atitlan

Location: Situated right on the lake with a platform, clear safe water for swimming and sunbathing, great view of the lake

Big MEH I’ve been and worked in many hostels that pride themselves on being “inclusive” and “friendly” however many of our interactions with the people working at the property (besides the locals working on the grounds) were quite hostile and we felt as if our questions were an inconvenience to them. You must also buy water from the hostel or buy plastic bottled water from nearby stores. We like to do what we can to limit our plastic intake when travelling so we were filling up our water bottles for 5Q in the main area. However no one mentioned that the main area closes at 10pm locking the only source of water for the whole hostel inside of it!! & every tienda in town was closed, we checked everyone, seriously. Which in the end resulted in me having the worst 2 day hangover of my existence. Why not just be kind to fellow backpackers and leave the water jug with an honesty jar outside the locked area instead of trying to make an extra buck/not trusting the guests staying at your hostel. I personally always believe charging for water in a hostel is a really sleazy move, especially when you can support local in Guatemala and buy clay filtration systems that will filter unlimited water for free and cut down on plastic waste. You would think that in a place like San Marcos you would find a hostel that was less focused on making money

My daughter booked 2 rooms on this hostel. One a family roon with "bathroom" and another with shower. As common everywhere we understood that a "bathroom" means shower & toilet. Apparently it wasnt. Only toilet. But our stay didnt start with this disappointment but with difficult communication with the owners. All day long our personal tour guid tried to call the hostel to let them know that we will arrive by boat at night. On both phone no. written on the website and facebook no one answered. When we arrived everything was dark. We got off the boat with all our luggage and 3 young tired girls (ages 8, 6, 6) on pitch dark until our guid found the reception. It turned out the place is actually ran by volunteers, not profesionals. No one explained how to use the hot water system, and onmy room (grandmother age 69) dthe electricity was off. The expectations of the volunteer was that this is a problem of the electricty of Guatemal. A strange explanation as other rooms were with light all the time. It turned out that the onlt private place we can use for shower had hot water problems as you need electricty to put the gas heater on. So we used the public ones even we paid more money for a private one. The top was on the second day when another volunteer, who was at the desk for orderding breakfast decided we have to pay for the girl's meals. For 20 minutes my daughter tried to show her that everything was paid in advance - but she refused to move from her wrong idea. Not even thinking of calling the owner of the hostel to find out. Only aftr my son in law was firm with her to call the owner in order to settle everything she did so. No apologies were given. So if you want to stay in a hostel that has its potential but is full of misunderstandings, an owner that is never there, gives stupid and rude answers and explanations on e-mail, and run by amateur volunteers - you are welcome to stay there. Otherwise I suggest you look for a better place with proper management as we had experienced in 6 other hotels, airbnb, and hostels in beautiful Giatemala.