Guatemala

Guatemala's jungle is bigger than most people realise. The northern department of Petén holds one of the largest unbroken tropical forests left in Central America, most of it inside the Maya Biosphere Reserve, and Tikal's temples are only the best-known thing standing in it. Two more jungles sit further south: the Río Dulce, a river canyon running from Lake Izabal through rainforest to the Caribbean at Lívingston, and the limestone hill country of Alta Verapaz around Semuc Champey, where a river disappears under a natural bridge and leaves a staircase of turquoise pools on top.

Each of the three has its own kind of stay. Around Lake Petén Itzá, in the villages of El Remate and San Miguel, small owner-built places sit in the trees near the lake, with Tikal an hour up the road. On the Río Dulce the cabins are on the water and often reachable only by boat, with howler monkeys in the trees and a dock for swimming. At Semuc Champey the stays are guesthouses in a Maya Q'eqchi' community, including a treehouse observation platform a few hundred meters from the pools.

The dry season runs roughly December through April; the wet season is May through November, with the heaviest rain in the back half. Fly into Guatemala City and take the one-hour flight to Flores for Petén, or drive to the Río Dulce in five to six hours. Semuc Champey is a long day on rough roads from anywhere, and worth it.