Easy-going FLORES is a delightfully sedate place with an old-fashioned atmosphere, quite unlike the rest of the region’s towns. A cluster of cobbled streets and ageing houses built around a twin-domed church, it sits beautifully on a small island in Lago de Petén Itzá, connected to the mainland by a short causeway. The modern emphasis lies across the water in the twin towns of SANTA ELENA and SAN BENITO, both of which are ugly, chaotic and sprawling places, dusty in the dry season and mud-bound during the rains. Santa Elena, opposite Flores at the other end of the causeway, is strung out between the airport and the market, and takes in a new shopping mall, a few hotels, banks and two bus terminals. San Benito, further west, has even less going for it. The three towns are often lumped together under the single name of Flores.
Today, despite the steady flow of tourists passing through, Flores retains a genteel air, with residents greeting one another courteously in the streets. Though it has little to detain you in itself – a leisurely thirty-minute stroll around the lanes is enough to become entirely familiar with the place – Flores does offer an enjoyable, historic base and has an excellent selection of hotels, restaurants and tour operators.
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written by Rough Guides Editors
updated 26.04.2021
