Boutique Hotel Tour Operators since 1972 links to external reviews and reports about Posada Belen Museo Inn. AND SOME EMAILS FROM FORMER CLIENTS NOW FRIENDS. Many did take our classic package or variants. All the messages below where received by e-mail and we have so many more that we can not keep up, we love to feel we made a difference with all this guys to enjoy Guatemala it´s nice to be good in something and it´s iven better to see how it shows in our clients positive travel experience. We really enjoy that!!! Dec 24 2007 Dear Sanchinelli´s. I am sorry that I am writing this so long after my stay, but I wanted to say, Thank you very much for my stay at the Posada Belen this past September. I was fortunate to stay at the Posada for one night, on my way out to Santiago Atitlan, and then for a few days around Independence Day. You have a wonderful staff at the Posada, so I wanted to say thanks to Daniel, Rafael, Nilo, and of course, to Chef Juan. Good service was always available, the food was always very good, and the hot chocolates... excellent! And, of course, thank you to Maria, who not only kept my room looking fantastic, but returned my clothes from the laundry folded and pressed. Thanks also to everyone for being so patient with me on my last few days, when it seems I caught a cold that would not leave me alone. The poor taxi drivers that got stuck with me - a gringo with a stuffy nose, who could never remember whether he had paid for the cab at the hotel, or whether he needed to pay the driver! On my next visit, I will know better, and will be better prepared. A Merry Christmas to you all, and I hope to see you again in the future, Hola Francesca Rene, I wanted to write and thank you and your staff for your hospitality...I'm home safely in Vancouver! I'm sorry that I missed you on my last night through on the way home. San Marcos La Laguna was amazing--I completed my Indian head massage course and the place just quieted my soul and I feel centred and healthy and happy. I stayed at Posada Belen both on my first and last nights in Guatemala City. I got in late from the airport on Day 1 so I had to wait to sample your full dinner until my last night and I was not disappointed in the least. It was a homecooked meal served with flair and with caring. Your staff (Rafael, Nilo, Juan) were hospitable around the clock and I felt like I was staying in someone's home instead of just a room in an impersonal hotel. My friends at home loved the photos I took of the little garden, an oasis in the jumble of smoke belching buses and speeding cars in Zona 1. It was wonderful to meet you both as well as your staff...I most definitely will recommend guests to you without hesitation and return myself in the future. Take good care, Karen Ho Vancouver, BC, Canada. Dear Rene Francesca: Allow me to thank you once again for your valiant and complicated work in helping me achieve the impossiblethat is visit every site that I wanted to see in Guatemala within the short time I was there! I got lots of good stories for the news paper that I write for and will send them along to you. I know that my travelling companion Ernst from the Riu Hotel in CanCun is sending you clients too. Guatemala still holds the mystery in a shell. Who REALLY were these first Mayans and how do they come about their complicated way of being (influenced by the Chinese? Egyptians? Olmecs? I fondly look back over the 2000 digital fotos that I captured and cant believe I actually saw all those placestotally to the thanks of yourselves and fulfilling the complicated schedule I had to complete. It all went like clock work. Ps/ you can see some of the stories also on my website www.ric-polansky.com dear Rene and Francesca it was most wonderful to have had the opportunity to have spent time at your most wonderful posada. we will remember it fondly. until later...best regards...gary Jan 2007. Bonjour Muy buenas dias! I spent a couple of days in Posada Belen. I really enjoy the place... and most of all the very nice people of Posada Belen. The food is excellent Bravo to the chefs!!! Denis (Ulysse's Guide book on Guatemala) should be there this week. I spend 3 weeks with him. Denis is working very hard to build this tribute to the culture of Guatemala. Muchas gracias Saludos a todos (y Denis) pierre daigle. Dear Rene and Francesca, Just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that we all arrived home safely. The flights home were uneventful and all were on time. We can't begin to tell you how much we all appreciate the time and effort you spent in planning our tour and caring for us during the time we spent at the Posada Belen. The way our tour was requested, we returned twice to the Posada Belen and each time it was like coming home and putting on a pair of comfortable slippers. Your staff could not have been more caring. They went the extra mile for us many times. The food was the best in Guatemala, and the Posada Belen was charming. Please make sure to tell them all how much we appreciated them. Hope to see you all again soon, George, Alice, Piper, Jonathan, Mason and Valerie. Hi Francesca and Rene, Thanks so much for a great tour I had this last Feb.28 to March 8, 2006. It was just right. The Hotel Posada Belen, is a great place to stay and relax. It is a perfect place to stay in Guatemala City. Thank you for arranging a well organized tour of Copan, Quirigua, Rio Dulce, Tikal, Chichicastenango, Lake Atitlan and Antigua. I think I visited all of the places I wanted to see in Guatemala in such a short period of time. The hotels and their location are very well placed. I particularly like the Hotel Jungle Lodge in Tikal. It is walking distace to the Tikal ruins, making it possible for me to see the sunset in El Mundo Perdido and sunrise in Temple IV. They are both memorable scenes. I also like the tour in Copan and Quirigua. I have plenty of time to see the ruins with a guide and also on my own. I particularly like my boat tour of Lake Atitlan. I have learned a lot about the Mayan way of life and traditions. I am also amazed by the market day at Chichitenango. I describe it as organized chaos, a dynamic market place. Lastly, I like my stay in Antigua. The people at Hotel Posada de Los Bucaros are very friendly and helpful. I have a wonderful walking tour of Antigua and I visited all of the places I listed that I wanted to see there. Again, thanks for a wonderful stay in Posada Belen. My regards to all the staff. Thanks again for a Guatemala Classic Tour! Dear Rene and Francesca, When we said goodbye, I told you that I would write you an e-mail as soon as we got home and got our business back in order. It has taken a little over a week but now I have time to express my feelings about our trip and wonderful stay with you. The itinerary that you put together for us was more than we expected. This was our eleventh trip to Central America and I can state without any equivocation, that this was our BEST. To begin, I want to restate that your website www.guatemalaweb.com got my attention, in my opinion it is the best site on Guatemala, available. I was a little leary about the eight night-seven day tour that you had put together, but it proved to be more than we expected. I am not trying to get you to go up on your charges by I thought it was to inexpensive to give the transportation and accommodations that we desired. I was delighted to be incorrect. I hope you can use this letter and you have my permission to use it on your website, as a recommendation to anyone that is considering a trip to your wonderful country. Even if they are not interested in touring the country or seeing the Mayan ruins, staying at your wonderful home is a treat in its self. You and your great staff could not have done more to make us comfortable and give us a feeling of home away from home. If anyone else is reading this, I want to state that we had the free run of this beautiful home, it was like we owned the...

To see more recent reviews of Posada Belen Museo Inn Guatemala City, please: From the Posada's Guest Book (yes we have been in bussines long time). Steven Kinzer, Is the author of Bitter Fruit the history of the CIA in Guatemala. Comida and Culture (published in the episcopal news). These are the personal memoirs of my trip to the tropical country of Guatemala in the spring of 2003 (March 26th - April 3rd). Looking back upon the memories, I hope that this will inspire you to take the trip to Guatemala to assist our. Upon my arrival to the city of Guatemala (Wednesday the 26th), I was met by our posada guide, Victor Hugo. He was a man in his late fifties, spoke perfect English and had a wonderful sense of humor. He drove us (the Thomaes and I) around town for a while to soak in the picturesque view of the city. Guatemala City is a beautiful cultural mecca. It small streets are flowing with market stalls, people in native dress, and of course, hundreds of tourists from all over the world. We continued our wonderful tour and finally made our way to Posada Belen. It is a lovely little, very home like hotel tucked away on Calle 13 A. On the inside, it has tiled floors, with a small outdoor garden, including a fountain and two turtles. The owners, Francesca and Rene, are two of the nicest people that we met. The meals at the hotel are absolutely superb. Home cooked delights, the meals begin with a soup, then continue to a main course and a finished by either plantanos or homemade ice cream. The rooms are nicely arranged with one, two or three beds, a personal bathroom, shower and wardrobe. Comfortable and very affordable, it is worth going just to stay in the hotel and see their museum. On Thursday, we were picked up by our guide in the early hours of the morning to take the hour and a half drive to Chicicastenengo. Driving on the highway that goes North all the way to Mexico, it was packed with trucks loaded with melons to take to the market and buses and dozens of buses all around. This is the public transportation in the country, so the people take buses everywhere. They stop virtually anyway there is a person waiting flagging them down. We stopped about half way at a wonderful restaurant made out of wood and a gigantic thatched roof. The inside was so nice and they served wonderful authentic. Guatemalan breakfasts: eggs, sausage, papayas, frijoles negros, and a really tasty cookie like thing, known as sweet bread. We continued on to. Chicicastenego, where we went through the market. Hundreds of vendors packed the crowded little streets as we made our way to the church of St. Tomas, built on the steps of a Mayan ruin. Inside were many offerings and flowers to dead relatives. We continued through the streets looking at the stalls placed in the street. There are hundreds of vendors trying to sell you things. In addition, there are little children in the street, either begging of tugging on your clothes to buy little knick-knacks that they have for sale. The next day, we took the five-hour drive to Mariscos. Once in Mariscos, we met. Padre Abraham and his wife, Dona Juanita. The welcomed us graciously into their home, despite the scorching temperature and high humidity. We stayed in the. Bishop's house, which had electricity, fans and a refrigerator. The following day we went to Playa Dorado, where Padre Abraham has a second church that he preaches at in addition to San Estaban. On that Sunday, we drove to Rio Dulce, to see Padre Victor, and his wife. The church is a small little one (though it has electricity and a sound system) with a beautiful little ornate altar. The service is quite the same as ours, except it is in Spanish. They do use the same prayer book as we do. That afternoon, with Padre Victor, we went to the Castillo de San Felipe, a castle in the harbor of Rio Dulce, guarding the port from marauding British ships in the 16th century. Relatively small, we toured through the main section of the castle, the dungeon area, and finally up onto the highest part, where the portcullis is controlled for access to the castle. On our last day in Mariscos (Monday) we drove to see Rolando (a lay pastor), and gave him art supplies for the large number of children in the day care at his. Then we continued the five-hour journey back to Guatemala City. All the way, you could feel you ears pop because of the rise in elevation. Mariscos is about 150 - 200 feet above sea level, where as Guatemala City is about the elevation of Denver, Colorado (3500 feet). Once back in the city, we said good-bye to. Victor, and set off to drop our luggage at the hotel. From there we walked 6 blocks on to the Central Market, in Guatemala City. I had thought that the market in. Chicicastenego was large, but this market was incomparable. Shops were squeezed into every available inch of area. Thousands of people crowded the square and the surrounding area. Vendors would follow us, trying to get us to buy things from their shop. We stopped numerous times to bargain with vendors, trying to talk them down to lower prices on certain items. Most of the time, they will go down anywhere from twenty to a hundred quetzals (there are about 8 quetzals to the US dollar), just to get an American tourist to buy something. In one instance I was looking into buying hammock. I talked the merchant down but she refused, only to later follow me trying to get me to buy it, offering a new. On the following day (Tuesday), Victor drove us to the archeological museum, in the center of Guatemala City, following our glance at the National Palace (which was closed for presidential meetings). We toured the museum, which was very interesting. It had artifacts from various Mayan ruins from all around. Guatemala. There were also stone pillars from Tikal and other ruin sites on display in the rotunda. We then continued to drive through the residential section of the city. Basically, it is a Guatemalan version of Beverly Hills. Dozens of mansions squished together on land. Most of them were embassies, though there were multiple residential houses in the area as well. On our last day in Guatemala, we drove to Cuilapa, to visit Padre Hugo (who came to our church a few years ago). His church (Jesus de Palmas) was on top of a hug bluff, over looking the highway that leads into El Salvador. We talked with him for a time, and he played some folk songs for us on his guitar. His church has a complete sound system, plus and electronic organ. We then drove to a really good restaurant, about a stones throw from the border of El Salvador. We then dropped. Hugo back off at his house and drove back to Guatemala City and made it just in time for dinner. We then checked all our bags to make sure we had everything packed and then called it a night. On Thursday morning we drove to the airport. After waiting in line we got our boarding passes and headed for the gate early, knowing that the security checks would take a while. Finally we got t the checkpoint. A guard signaled to us and told us to go through the metal detectors, the to go to the tables on the right to have our luggage searched. The practically tore my bag apart. They searched every nook and cranny, including the lining of my pants, and every pocket in my bag. Obviously I had nothing to hide, but it was terrible. And the worst part was, he didn't put everything back the way I had done it, and now my bag was stuffed and overcrowded. Finally we got onto our plane, and we landed twenty minutes early in Houston. When we first got to immigration, I was afraid that they wouldn't let me in because of the Che. Guevara t-shirt that I was wearing. But we got through ok, until Customs. We were searched again. It took a long time, though not as long as in Guatemala. Finally we took off, and three and a half hours later, we landed in. Philadelphia. So ended my excursion to Guatemala and I encourage everyone to go. It is safe, and it is a great experience to help our companion ch...

 Luggage storage
 Rent-a-car service
 Central situation
 Clothes dry cleaning
 Conference and meeting room
 Credit cards accepted
 Dinner may be served in the room
 Facsimile services
 Garage places
 Hairdryer
 Access to internet
 Ironing facilities
 Kitchen
 Laundry services/washing machine
 Smoke-free guest rooms
 Around-the-clock recetpion
 Parking lot
 Private park, garden, courtyard
 Quiet surroundings
 Restaurant
 Safe deposit box
 Private/Ensuite bathroom
 Solarium
 Tea and coffee making facilities
 Phone at reception
 Cheques accepted