Experience the best of Flores

Flores sits on a small island in Lake Petén Itzá, joined to the shore by a short causeway, with cobbled lanes circling a hilltop plaza and a cathedral. It stands on the site of Nojpetén, the last capital of the Itza Maya, which held out against the Spanish until 1697. The island is ringed with small hotels and lakeside restaurants, and boats cross to lakeshore villages.

Tikal National Park, a UNESCO site an hour or so by road to the north-east, is the great attraction: temples rising above the rainforest canopy, plazas and causeways of a Maya city at its height more than a thousand years ago, with toucans, howler monkeys and coatis in the trees. Other sites in the Petén include Yaxhá, beside a lake, Uaxactún and Ceibal. The Petén is Guatemala's largest and most forested department.

Lakeside kitchens serve freshwater fish from the lake, black beans, tortillas and fried plantain, and fruit juices are made from whatever is ripe. The climate is hot and humid, with the wet season running from about June to November and the drier months from February to May.