Buzzing of mosquitos is another nocturnal sound that can cause vacation stress but that is another whole aspect of reality of the tropics. I have organized and led tours throughout the Maya and Andean areas. I still enjoy these countries and look forward to returning again and again. The hotel staffs in Central America tend to be friendly, a genuine friendliness that you do not always get out in many Caribbean Islands where tourists are treated like unwelcome guests. Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, and Honduras are renowned for their honest hospitality.
Visitors are welcome and often treated like family.
Nonetheless, in the push to make a profit, most hotels cut corners and pad their ads and brochures. I have found that tourists will often understand and even accept a defect if they are honestly informed of the problem beforehand. Thus I hope this brief section on Reality Check will help both the hotel owners and managers understand what can ruin a vacation, and will assist the tourist from recognizing that life in tropical Central America is not the antisceptic culture of Switzerland. Belize, Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala have so many interesting cultural, ecological, and archaeological aspects of interest that all these countries are well worth visiting despite the reality of hotel conditions, especially since not every defect is present in every hotel.