The Cayes and Atolls Hotels

The more budget-oriented cayes, such as Tobacco and Caulker, have mostly small hotels and simple cabins, usually built of wood and typically without any amenities beyond a fan or two. Caye Caulker, for example, currently has only two hotels with swimming pools. At the other end, notably on Ambergris Caye, are deluxe condotels (condo developments where individual owners rent their units on a daily basis through a management company) and an increasing number of vacation villas, usually rented by the week. Some of these are extremely upscale, with 5,000-plus square feet of luxury and the latest toys, whirlpools, plasma TVs, DVD players, and custom kitchens. Nearly all the hotels on Ambergris Caye have air-conditioning, and a majority also have swimming pools. Air-conditioning is also available at nearly all the remote caye lodges, except at the very low end.

Regardless of which caye you're staying on, lodgings have several things in common: they're small (often just five or six rooms), low-rise, and almost always on the water.

One lodging category, sadly, is becoming an endangered species: the thatch cabaña or thatch hut. Why are there so few of these traditional island lodgings still around? They're easy targets for tropical storms and hurricanes; the thatch is expensive to maintain; and they're havens for creepie crawlies.

Off-season (typically just after Easter to around Thanksgiving), most island hotels, except some budget hotels, reduce rates by around 30% to 40%.

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