Belize - Good Idea for the Cayo

Old Apr 9th, 2008, 09:37 AM
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Belize - Good Idea for the Cayo

I'm going to Belize with 2 buddies. I've looked around and gotten the Fodor's Belize book, and I think we want to check out the Caves Branch Adventure Co. to start our trip.

I am wondering a couple things:

Is it smart for us to rent a car and drive out to the Cayo the evening we get in? We will arrive to Belize City at around 4:45 p.m.

Next, I think the 3 night package at Caves Branch looks good...I want to do 2 days of just adventure activities (caving, hiking) and then maybe go to some ruins on our own. The package includes meals and drinks, and if it saves us any money it wouldn't be alot, but I've heard good things about the place and for simplicity's sake think we might just do the package deal.

The package deals that leave caves branch for Tikal are around $150 per person... I figured if we had our car, we could just drive out to Tikal and maybe even stay there a night to see it instead of basing that trip out of Caves Branch. It seems like it would be more adventurous, and probably not too much more expensive. Is this safe?

If we didn't stay in Tikal, is there an alternative for a good day of ruin-exploration and a good place to stay at night?

After spending 3 days in the inland, we're gonna drive back to Belice City and take a water taxi or boat out to the cayes for the remainder of our trip (3 more days).

Does this sound good?
robkoval is offline  
Old Apr 9th, 2008, 10:26 AM
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Hi, there. We had a blast at Caves Branch in 2003 - check out the Black Hole Drop. I wouldn't rent a car if I was you - expensive and a liability in some areas, plus you're not going to need it while at Caves Branch and you won't be able to cross into Guatemala with it for Tikal, anyway. I think one rental agency allows it but you wouldn't have insurance; I would not risk it myself.

Your best bet may be to arrange a shuttle with Caves Branch, or taxi to the bus station, bus to Belmopan, and hire a taxi (or shuttle) from there. The first would be quicker and probably in time for dinner, a highlight at Caves Branch.

Tikal is AMAZING and well worth an overnight in the park where there are just 3 hotels. Last August the Tikal Inn www.tikalinn.com was $75/double with dinner and breakfast. When you stay in the park you can enjoy the cooler evening and morning hours when the wildlife is abundant and you practically have the place to yourselves. Day trippers travel 3 hours each way from Belize and get a few hours during the heat of the day to explore with the rest of the crowd.

Photos and travelogues linked below if you're interested; Tikal photos in the Belize 2003 and Guatemala 2007 collections. Keep us posted!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyholeman/collections
hopefulist is offline  
Old Apr 9th, 2008, 11:02 AM
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Drive to CB will take about 1.5 hrs and all on good paved, well marked hywys. The lodge is less than a mile off the Hummingbird, I'd say its safe to drive and easy to find at night. You can leave your car at the border and catch a mini van to Tikal and back. Another great site to consider in Cayo would be Caracol and its a lovely drive thru the Mtn Pine Ridge and thick jungle. CB does a great job, clients are always happy with their experience.
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Old Apr 9th, 2008, 12:56 PM
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Katie's right: Caracol is amazing, and if you start in the morning you can see Rio Frio Cave, Caracol, Rio On Pools(the coolest place here), and Big Rock Falls. And you could stop for a drink at either Five Sisters Lodge or Mystic Mountain. You'd basically do 2 days worth of tours in one day; and you wouldn't be rushed as long as you started early...
I always loved Jaguar Paw's cave tubing. It's so prehistorically beautiful. Some of it is pitch black, and there is a cave you can hike way back into. Sweet place!
When in San Ignacio, be sure and try the lamb quesodillas at Hannah's. They are kick ass! Number one on the best of cayo page!
http://www.shc.edu.bz/marcus/couchsurfing/cayobest.html

Have an awesome vacation!
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Old Apr 16th, 2008, 01:41 PM
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Thanks for the replies!

Would it be easier for us to just do the mountain ridge/caracol for a day, stay the night somewhere, then drive to Belize City early the next morning?

I have heard Tikal is great, but it seems like it might be more work to drive to the border, catch a bus there, etc. Is it just as enjoyable/historic to go to Caracol and stay inside Belize?

If we do that, where should we stay the night to start our early morning drive back to Belize City and head towards the cayes?
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Old Feb 10th, 2009, 08:04 PM
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Just got back a couple of days ago with my two teenage children and husband from Belize. We had an 8 day itinerary and must have come in onthe same 4:45 p.m. plane trip you are planning. We then rented an SUV and drove to Caves Branch (or as I accidentally kept calling it - Daves Ranch). Very doable and not too difficult. Roads are good and drive was easy. We stayed only one night at Caves Branch in the tree house. It was fabulous!!!!! Probably the highlight of my trip. The food was excellent, best of the whole trip. I wish we had stayed 2 to 3 nights. I did not see the bungalows but another guest said they were nice.

We went on the tubing/cave/ zip line adventure. First you will be in the back of a wagon pulled by a tractor that takes you through citrus groves to where they put into the river. Very bumpy and pretty funny. You then will get on the tubes and go immediately into the caves. You go through 6 caves with short spurts of daylight in between. We really enjoyed it. But, because we were doing the zip line, they really hurried us along and we back stroked on our tubes for 3 or 4 hours. My shoulders were really cramping and it wasn't the relaxing tube ride I had been anticipating. If I did it again, I would speak to my guide and tell him you don't want to be hurried that much or do the zip line a different day. Guests we met there had been there for 5 days and thought the best tour was the one where you hike up the waterfalls and do some caves (not exactly sure). I think 3 nights is the way to go.

After our tour, we headed out in our rental car to stay at San Ignacio. I highly recommend this the night before you leave for Tikal in Guatemala. It is 2 1/2 hours from San Ignacio. We didn't get back until about 6:00 p.m. If we had to return to Caves Branch it would have been another 1 1/2 hours each way or 3 more hours of driving that day.........too much. They mislead you on this so be aware. You do not want to drive to Tikal yourselves. The car rental companies won't let you take the vehicle across the country border anyway. You have to bribe the border people and the directions are difficult. We stayed at the San Ignacio Resort hotel which was very nice. They arranged for a tour for us. It was just the 4 of us in a van with a very nice tour guide named Hugh. When you get to Guatemala, they require that you pick up a Guatemalan guide. You will stop at a little gift store and he will be waiting for you. What ever you do.......ask for mario to be your guide. He is a 27 year old med student who has been doing the tours for 10 years to pay for his schooling. He can read the hyrogliphics, speak Mayan, and knows every detail you could ever ask and he is a lot of fun and will show you how to order a Guatemalan beer called a Goya. Tell Julie from Minnesota says Hi. Seriously, I can't say enough about him. The road in Guatemala is HORRIBLE so be prepared ..... you don't want to drive it yourself. We came back that night and stayed in San Ignacio again. You could stay in Flores in Guatemala - can't comment more because we didn't do it. You'll love it and it is worth the adventure. If you buy coffee....make sure you buy the beans from high in the mountains not the low growing stuff that is bitter.

We then spent a day driving back to Belize city to catch our flight over to Ambergris Caye. We stopped at the zoo and went to the baboon reserve (really howler monekys). I would recommend both. Be sure if you go to the reserve that you make it to the visitor center in the green rundown metal building (kind of a dump) and go on the 45 minute nature walk to see the monkeys. Bring a couple of bananas with you. The "guide" will call to them, they will come out of the trees and eat out of your hand. They are gentle and sweet and very loving. It takes about 15 minutes but it is really fun if you are into animals

We then flew over to Ambergris Caye - if you do this, use Tropic Air, much better planes than the others. We rented a home called Caye Villas which were lovely. We stayed on the north end where it is mostly private homes. The town itself - San Pedro is very crowded, narrow streets, lots of tourists on golf carts, lots of vendors, bicyclists and walkers. Very congested and kind of dirty and not my favorite for more than a couple of hours. We took a water taxi up to our house. The reef is a little less than 1/2 mile from the shoreline. You cannot swim across to the reef because there is way too much boat traffic. You have to take a tour boat or a kayak (more later on that). The beach is nice white sand, but is covered in plastic garbage. Apparently they dump garbage in the ocean and the plastic all washes back on the beach. Its not horrible but its not great. The water near the beach is quite shallow and covered in sea grass which looks like paper that's been through a shredder. No shells to speak of. No fish close in to speak of. Also - where we were - it was always warm (80), humid and quite windy. There was always rough water and/or white caps out to the reef. It really did require hiring a tour boat. My husband and 13 year old sun took the neighbors kayak out the last day to the reef, it filled with water (don't know why) and sunk leaving them stranded. They had to be rescued by passing boats and we get to replaced a defective kayak for $2000. WE lost all of our snorkelling equipment, but at least they survived. The fishing is only so so. It has been overfished quite a bit and didn't hear any great fishing stories.

If I did it again, I would spend more days in the jungle, and only 2 days on the beach. You can send me an email direct at [email protected] if you have more questions.
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Old Feb 11th, 2009, 04:32 AM
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Juliesue - thanks for sharing! Sounds like you had a great trip other than the kayak incident - yikes!

Crystal Rentals allows their cars to cross the border into Guatemala but, in my opinion, it's still not a good idea to drive that stretch. We just hired a van driver on the other side to take us there and pick us up the next day.

Since the original post is 10 months old I think you should start a new post for your travelogue. That way you can have a more specific subject line and more people will get to read it. Happy trails!
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Old Mar 20th, 2009, 11:18 AM
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Juliesue, I agree with Hopefulist. Start a new post so that others will get to read that awesome travelogue! Loved reading it. Love that you took your teenagers (I am still feeling a bit nervous over bringing ours to Belize) and had such a fun memorable trip! The bamboon santuary is also on our list and I can't wait to watch my teens feed those little guys. Thank you for a great read! Did you happen to see Xanadu Island Resort on Ambergris? We are thinking about staying there for a few nights at the end of our jungle stay.
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Old Mar 20th, 2009, 01:19 PM
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stacy, thanks for pulling up this thread - I hadn't seen it. We're leaving for Caves Branch (the 5-night package in a treehouse) and Placencia next week.

This might have convinced me to do Tikal another time (I am the "ruins freak" in my family and have already been there; not sure if my husband and the boys want to leave Caves Branch w/ its extreme adventure for such a long day trip). We might go to one of the ruins in Belize instead.

This thread also makes me feel as if we made the right decision to skip Ambergris.

Have any of you done both the Caves Branch cave adventures and the ATM cave? Worth doing both. A friend who stayed at Chaa Creek said the ATM tour was the highlight of her family's Belize adventure, but they didn't do the Caves Branch caves as well.
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