El Carmen Hotel & Restaurante — Hotel in Sacatepéquez

Really great experience here. Staff are very nice and accommodating, food was delicious and you actually have a menu to order from (go ahead, order that steak for breakfast!) (the enchiladas are also good), and the location was very accessible for all of our Antigua wandering. It was nice to be able to go to central park or the market and buy something and then just decide to walk back to the hotel real fast and drop it off so we wouldn't have to carry it. It's close enough that you have that option.

Only cons are pretty much just the bathroom. It's not that bad, but I felt like it always stunk a little bit from the pipes. Also, I thought that they should put a lid on the trashcan considering you have to put your toilet paper in there (but at least they empty it every day, assuming you don't put up the do not disturb sign). It also gets super misty in there from the shower, I recommend leaving the bathroom door open when you shower. They must get terrible mold problems, though I didn't notice any so they must keep it clean. Can't believe they don't have either a fan or even a window in there (in room 203 at least. We stayed in a different room for two nights that had a window, but you could only open it a crack before people would begin to be able to see in as they walk by [window opens to outside, but the halls are open air]). Room 203, which has a queen, is a bit cramped too, but not too bad. We had two stays at El Carmen, and our first room, 205 I think, we liked a little better. It's the last room before the terrace (where breakfast is).

If you need to contact them, I recommend using WhatsApp. They always respond within the day in my experience (and I had a lot of questions), and it's in English. Plus I don't have free calls to Guatemala.

I did use their airport shuttle service, both ways, and the driver was on time both times.

They provide a water filter to each room that uses some sort of pottery type filter. You can fill it up in the bathroom when you run out. I will say, my wife and I both caught a stomach bug in Guatemala, and we know it wasn't from food (99% sure). We thought maybe the filters didn't filter enough for our bodies to handle the foreign bacteria, but on a phone call, our doctor said it is most likely just a viral thing picked up from traveling I guess, since bacteria you get from food or water is generally just a lot of diarrhea he said, but we were also vomiting. So take that for what you will. Maybe just to be safe though, stick to bottled water if you're just visiting, and avoid fruit and veggies that need to be washed (melons and bananas and things you have to open should be fine). There are pharmacies near central park and the one I went to the pharmacist spoke English. I told her what was going on and she gave me antibiotics and an anti nausea thing without needing a prescription (post Dr. call, we found out antibiotics probably weren't necessary, but oh well).

As far as wifi in Antigua, most restaurants you go to will have it. El Carmen has it too, and it's a bit slow but not bad at all. Room 205 (I think), which is further in the back had poor connection for me though. I imagine most of the rooms don't have that problem, room 203 was certainly fine. You can use Google maps to search directions from El Carmen or a restaurant, and the gps part should still tell you where you are. It won't give you step by step navigation, but if you load the route before you leave you can just...

The service was great, the workers were friendly, and the location was perfect! The hotel was close to many restaurants, shops, bars and the city center. The food at the hotel was great, as I enjoyed their breakfast every morning. The problem was the ants. The first room we were giving seemed fine. I was a little taken aback by the beds/ mattresses being against the wall without head boards. Only 15 mins passed and we notice things crawling in the bed. We took a closer look and saw it was small ants. I notified the front desk and the manager came upstairs’ to investigate. Once he was upstairs my friend and I noticed there was an entire army of ants crawling up the wall Lamont the base boards (I have pictures and videos). The manager moved us rooms and I thought that was it. Well, it wasn’t. That night I saw more ants in my bed which caused me to loos sleep all night. In the morning I told the front desk and they said they would spray and take care of it. I went back to my room after breakfast and the smell of raid (the bug spray) was unbearable. We looked to find other hotels and everywhere was sold out with it being around the Easter celebration. My friend didn’t have any ants in her bed so I stayed in her bed which was very uncomfortable and annoying. The bed was empty and we continued to see ants around and on the bed. I felt uncomfortable and I didn’t even unpack because I was so afraid of ants crawling in my luggage or on my belongs. Throughout our 3 might stay we smelled raid all throughout the hotel. It was terrible. I got home and left my bags in my garage for 4 days and bought it inside my house and my luggage smelled like raid, so disgusting. I inspected and washed all my belongings and didnt see any ants. Thank god. The walls are paper thin. We heard people showering, flushing the toilet, clearly hear conversations, music, and having intercourse. The walls make it so there’s no privacy. The toilets smelled so bad at night. All and all I wasn’t comfortable sleeping bc I was constantly looking for bugs or afraid there was more than just ants. The workers were kind and sprayed daily as I would see house keepers with raid spray in there hand or in their cart. It was really frustrating because we constantly saw people cleaning but they ants were still there. They really need to get more than just raid because the raid spray didn’t kill the ants. They need to fill the holes and cracks in the wall and the base boards. The front desk told me that the there were ants in the city especially after a rain. I just can not understand why they were crawling in the bed and why the mattresses didn’t have head boards or base boards on them. Just made it extremely easy for ants to crawl into. I poster picture with the times stamps on them so you can see. The ants or spiders were in my bed all night even after moving us rooms after seeing the ants in the...

It was a bad experience for us. First of all, our room 202, was right under the rooftop restaurant. At 6 30 in the morning, they would be moving chairs and tables, which we can totally hear. People started going to the restaurant at 7, and they have to pass right by some of the rooms, one of which is ours. They would make all kinds of noise and we were not able to go back to sleep after the furniture move. The hotel said their quiet hours are 10 pm till 6 am so if you want to stay there, don't expect to sleep in.||There is a big step between the flooring in our room and the vanity and door to the bathroom. There are also gaps in the wooden planks, so in the middle of the night, we had to be very careful to not trip and fall. Very dangerous. It is a safety hazard. The walls were thin so you are hearing all the hotel noise. We did not get any rest there.||The "vanity" was so small that if one of us is in front of it, you cannot open the bathroom door.||My husband even purchased a massage session and they wanted to use our room to perform the service. Unheard of. They found a room to give the massage and it was mediocre at best.||I have to give it 1 star because of 3 great staff members who were kind, friendly, professional, very helpful, and made us feel very welcomed. They are Guisela and Daniel from the restaurant, and Arnaldo the bell hop attendant who greeted us everyday and was very helpful with our luggage.||Overall, a terrible stay. There are plenty of other hotels to stay so look at other options before choosing this one. We would not...