Kula Maya: Boutique Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Sololá

I spent 1 night here for my birthday. I enjoyed the atmosphere and the staff was very warm and helpful. I communicated with the staff via Whatsapp before my arrival because of my concerns about arriving during check-in hours. I arrived in the evening and the guardian was waiting for me at the entrance to help me with my luggage. It is a nice little walk to get to the actual hotel so keep that in mind. Check-in was easy since I had already paid online. As with the rest of Guatemala, there will be a lot of dogs in the surrounding areas and you may here them barking or fighting at night. The pool is a welcome respite from the heat. The property is beautiful and compact. There are only a few rooms so it never felt crowded. Make sure you communicate and manage your arrival time as they do not accept check-ins after 8 PM.||The Room|I stayed in the Abundance suite and it was so lovely! The room was large and the sofa and bed were to my liking in terms of aesthetics and firmness. There is no air conditioning, but the fan provided made me comfortable. There is a live tree growing through the room. I thought is was really cool, but was warned that because of this the room may be prone to leaks if it rains. They do have a bucket and extra towels in the room in the event that this happens. It did not occur during my stay. The internet was stable and allowed me to complete my homework. The desk provided more than adequate space to do that. The bathtub was a dream. It is deep and was perfect for a soak after my hike from the previous day. I do wish there was a way to keep the floor from getting wet during a shower but it did dry in a decent amount of time. I can't say enough about the view from the balcony. I woke up and was simply in awe of the creation in front of me. It was truly mesmerizing. ||Services and Staff|Wendy provided great information at check-in and told me how to catch the lanchas for the tours I wanted to do the next day. She answered all of my questions made sure I knew they were there to take care of me. I got a massage and facial from Isabella and they were fantastic. It is a few days later and I am still relaxed. The restaurant staff was very accommodating and made good breakfast recommendations. Flavio helped me get some great pics for my birthday. The manager, Ricardo, SAVED my life! I didn't know it would be so difficult to get a ride to Guatemala City in the evening if I had not prebooked. Uber was useless, but Ricardo and the young lady that was bartending were such a gems in making sure I got to my next destination safely! The guardian was also very kind in taking my bag to my ride and not rushing me. I am so grateful to the staff for all of their kindness!||Areas for improvement|There was some construction occurring on the roof that helped wake me. It wasn't terrible as I was already getting up early and had slept really well. I also could here guests in the next room and music from downstairs. Use the ear plugs if you are a light sleeper. ||I did have some ants in my room around the sink. Why? I have no idea as there was no food or drink in there. There were also some small flying insects that came and introduced themselves that night. Idk what can be done about this, but it isn't a bad idea to expect to see a few.||During my massage I could here the conversations of guests sitting in the outdoor dining area. It was a tad distracting, but the property is very compact so it would be hard to avoid that unless you got your spa service done pretty early. I had mine at noon so that was a contributing factor. It would be nice if those rooms were more soundproof to help you stay in a zen headspace.||Bottom Line|I would 100% stay here again! The stay was beautiful and relaxing. The staff was wonderful and truly went above and beyond for me. There was easy access to other towns, restuarants, and places to get cash as well. I felt very safe on the property as a solo traveler. If you are looking for a beautiful and intimate place to stay, give...

It was somewhat difficult to find accommodations on the higher end around Lake Atitlan, but we were happy to have found Kula Maya. I am rating 5 stars because overall, we did enjoy our experience, but I do have two pieces of feedback to include below.

The rooms and beds were more comfortable than expected, the staff were all very nice & responsive, and the views were absolutely incredible (we stayed in the Reflections Suite). The hotel is also very close to many walkable locations, including restaurants, laundry, massage services, shopping, etc. There was a new restaurant that opened the first day of our arrival, May 1st, and everything we ate was delicious. The Moscow Mules with fresh ginger were the best we have ever had! We liked the small quaint boutique feel, but we did see most of the busy times being because of the outside attention that the new restaurant was bringing - this was only during the day. Overall we felt very safe. I will mention that there was a bit of noise around the property at night, so it wasn't the quietest area, but we can sleep through anything so it wasn't a problem for us, but it may bother others. The hotel was very accommodating in helping us schedule drivers and private lanchas as needed, even on short notice sometimes (i.e. the day before).

Now, for our pieces of feedback:

We were there to celebrate both of our birthdays and our wedding anniversary, so when they asked if we were celebrating anything, we mentioned this to the front desk staff. Instead of wishing us any happiness for the events we were celebrating, they immediately shoved a menu at us, listing out all of the additional items we can buy to celebrate on our own. If there was something interesting, we would have no problem paying for it, but we thought they were genuinely asking to make our experience better, but it turns out that wasn't the case necessarily and they wanted to sell a few more things. I think the menu is a great idea, but maybe say Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary before passing the menu over.

The Spa - we heard it was great, so we booked massages on our anniversary. When asked for pressure, we mentioned deep. We are frequent massage getters (we had 4 in Guatemala alone within the 9 days we were there) and this was by far not only the worst of the 4, but probably one of the worst massages that both of us have had. It was deep alright, but it was aggressively up and down and up and down and up and down the back - so it was not doing any favors in releasing any knots from the day of exploring and it sure wasn't relaxing. I asked her to stop and slow down twice, and she did for 10 seconds, and then sped up back to her regular speed again. I also pointed out a knot and asked her to try to work on a specific spot and she was going all around the knot and literally couldn't find it, so she went back to her aggressive up and down the back motion again. The gal that was working on my husband also used the same technique, and was sweating quite a bit (we get that it is hot), but it was dripping on him and she didn't do much about it. Maybe the spa is great for their other services, but we left very unsatisfied and decided to walk down to another massage location down the walkway and paid 1/3 of the price for another massage that...

I spent 3 nights here as a female solo traveler. From what I could tell, this is one of the nicer hotels in San Marcos. The dome experience was very unique, and the best part was the front row view of the lake. Like others have said, because there is no insulation and the bar next door (also not insulated) plays very loud music from 7-10, that period of time is unpleasant, but that’s really no one’s fault. The dome gets really warm during the day, so its more comfortable to open doors or windows or sit outside. At night I was comfortable with the fan they provided. I was able to do work comfortably at the desk in the room and the wifi was pretty good. This is unavoidable probably, but you do get some bugs and flies in the dome. Nothing that seemed dangerous or scary, I just kept swatting myself :) The resort is small and not crowded, however they do sell day passes for the pool and I believe the spa customers can use it. The pool was a big draw to this place for me, so I was disappointed to find the water very green and murky when I arrived. When I asked about it, the staff said this was normal or how it should be which I know isn’t true. I saw them attempting to work on it, and it got a little better over the next couple of days. By the third day it seemed clear enough to get in, but not as clear as I expected from photos online. Note that no outside food or drinks are allowed, and there is no onsite restaurant. They serve a good breakfast daily, but all others meals have to be purchased offsite - the options are close by and I felt safe getting to them at night. It’s hard to rate this in San Marcos because I don’t know what’s better there, but I stayed at the sacred tree in Santa Cruz before this stop and I was spoiled! It was extremely nice and the highlight of my time...