Island town on Lake Petén Itzá — gateway to Tikal and the Petén jungle
Flores is a small colonial town built on a tiny island in Lake Petén Itzá — connected to the mainland by a single causeway, its pastel-coloured facades and cobblestone alleys are the classic staging point for Tikal, one of the greatest Maya cities ever built. The ruins of Tikal (60km away, easily a day trip) rise from the Petén jungle canopy — Temple IV at 70m is the tallest pre-Columbian structure in the Americas. Sunrise at Tikal (arriving before dawn for the mist-over-pyramids moment) is one of Central America's definitive experiences.
The Petén lowlands were the heartland of the Classic Maya civilisation (250–900 CE) — Tikal was one of the dominant city-states of the Classic period, at its peak home to 100,000–200,000 people. After the Classic Maya collapse, the Petén was one of the last regions of the Maya world to fall to the Spanish — the Itza Maya of Lake Petén Itzá held out until 1697, more than 170 years after the conquest of highland Guatemala. The island town of Flores (originally called Nojpetén — the Itza capital) was the last independent Maya kingdom to be conquered in the Americas.