EmilyMB

Greetings,

My fiance and I have finally picked a honeymoon destination for October 2008- Belize! We chose it for the beauty, ease of travel for a week trip, and cost.

From reading other threads, it seems like many split their trips to enjoy both the beach and the mountains. We want to stay in one place for a week, and am having a hard time finding THE place, so thought we could come here for help.

What we like:
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Quiet
- Snorkeling, no diving
- River tubing
- Ocean front if possible- those cabanas look fantastic!
- Mayan ruins for a day trip

Any suggestions? Thanks!!

Emily

JeanH

The four main beach destinations are Ambergris Caye, Caye Caulker, Placencia and Hopkins.

The first two are islands, so getting to ruins, cave tubing, and jungle exploring/hiking will require a boat ride or a plane trip. Certainly possible, but makes for some long days.

Hopkins or Placencia will have easier access to mainland tours. Snorkeling will require longer trips, since the reef will be between 10-19 miles out, as opposed to less than a mile from the cayes.

Personally, I'd find a hotel I really wanted to stay at, and plan from there.

StanKase

We just spent a week at Hamanasi Resort in Hopkins. It is 55 miles south of Belize City (the resort flies you there on a scheduled airlines in the package cost). The snorkeling was good to very good and we are pretty avid snorkelers.They go out every day. They offer 4-5 in-land trips. Some are quite worthwhile and others are just o.k. but most take up the entire day. They have all the activities you want.
The food is very good at dinner, some of the best we have had at resorts in Belize and Honduras. Breakfasts leave a bit to be desired. The beachfront rooms are $1800/person including tax in season and it is ALL INCLUSIVE. In Oct. you might hit a day or two of rain since tropical depressions/hurricanes do not officially end until Mid-Nov. but if you go late Oct. it should not be a big issue. In fact the rates may be slightly less until late Nov.
We liked it compared to 4 other resorts in the area.

EmilyMB

Thanks, StanKase, Hamanasi looks like a great recommendation, and I hadn't found that resort yet. What was it about Hamanasi that you liked better than the other resorts in Hopkins?

I love to snorkel, so I'm glad the snorkeling is good. Snorkeling isn't my fiance's favorite, but he'll give it a go a couple of times, so we want to find a place with other activities as well. We have been focusing primarily on the Hopkins/Placencia area. But there are still a lot of options just in there.

Thanks!!

StanKase

The other places were on Ambergeris Caye where acess to tours of the interior were difficult because it is an island about 20+ miles off the mainland. The othe resort we went to twice Lighthouse Reef Resort was quite good but closed in 2005 for renovation and has yet to re-open.
We have not gone to others in Hopkins. Thje only other was Anthony's Key Resort on Roatan. Honduras. It is very nice but does not offer all the activities you are looking for.

Snorleling at Hamanasi has tours to ruins, a Jaguar Reserve, tubing in caves, kayaking and a pretty challenging hike to a nice waterfall in the jungle. They can do all these easily because itis on the mainland and only 30-35 minutes out to the reef for snorkeling offerred daily but you just don't go on an in-land tour. In 7 days you do 5 tours and can go out snorkeling twice included in the package.

SusanSDG

I just returned from Belize and really enjoyed Jaguar Reef, next door to Hamanasi in Hopkins. The people were lovely and I paid less than $140/night (for room only). The honeymooners who were there were very happy-try the spa's duet massage at sunset. Breakfasts were divine-buffet style-and I enjoyed all of the food. They have beachfront cabanas and excellent tours; those to the Jaguar PReserve are half day, and they do river kayaking and horseback riding there as well.

LvSun

We also thought the Jaguar Reef Lodge was great -- of all the islands and trips we have been on, we rank that trip #1 -- lots of fun and adventure. We did everything on your list except the ruins (but they are available). You may want to read my trip report "Jaguar Reef Belize Trip Report".

Katie_Valk

Hamanasi, JR and Almond Beach are all great places to stay in Hopkins. You might also want to look at Placencia, further south with better beaches, quaint vllage with good restaurants, easy access to many of the same mainland tours.

SusanSDG

Yes, in fact, they're all contiguous. My casita was actually in "Almond Beach, at Jaguar Reef", as is the spa.

EmilyMB

First, my thanks to all who have replied and also apologies for having two threads going with similar topics...

Susan, we're leaning towards the Almond Beach casita. Do you remember the one you stayed in? And was it quiet at night- ie, were there people in/near the pool that you could hear? We are not night owls, and just in case we're there with a party group, wonder how it would be. The email-er from AB, who is incredibly fast to reply- gotta love that!!, told me that in October, the resort will only be 50% full.

Katie, as we haven't confirmed anything yet, I'd be curious for your recommendations in Placencia. I can tell you we've ruled some places out- Kanantik is closed, Roberts doesn't have the private cabana/casita, and Turtle Inn is out of our price range and doesn't have the tours we want. Any others I'm missing?

LvSun- GREAT report. Thank you!! If we had any doubts about choosing Belize, these reports paint the picture for what we're looking for.

As always, thanks so much to Fodorites, I appreciate it!!!

StanKase

When you add the cost of the in-land tours and food at Jaguar Reef you might find you are spending as much or more than Almond or Hamanasi (which is the class of the 3 based on visiting the other 2 but NOT staying at them).
What every you choose enjoy!!

EmilyMB

Katie, I went to belize-trips.com and your website is incredible- I learned much more about the two areas, Placencia and Hopkins- from your description.

Thank you!

http://belize-trips.com/land_sea.html

SusanSDG

My room was "Tambren". It was not beachfront, though you could see the water from my porch. It actually felt a little more private. The place was VERY quiet; by 9pm it was completely dark and silent,though I wasn't there on a weekend. The pool bar closes much earlier, so there's no real action there, though the pool never officially closes. Sea kayaks are on the beach for use whenever, and you can decide which tours you want the night before. It was very relaxed and casual-not the place if you want to be waited on or want a large property- no motorized watersports, just one dining room, but plenty of beach lounges and no waiting for anything. And a beautiful beach!

I'll post my full trip report soon.

EmilyMB

BOOKED!!!!!

I'm feeling such a sense of accomplishment!

Between Hamanasi and Almond Beach- both had excellent reviews on Fodors, Belize Forum, Travel Advisor, Yahoo Travel, Conde Nast, and anything I could find. Both had very nice staff manning the email for the couple of questions. I feel so fortunate to be able to choose between the two!

We ended up going with Almond Beach. Looking at the pictures and from reading, I'm willing to guess that Hamanasi is the more luxurious of the two. And those treehouses do look spectacular. The romantic honeymoon packages were practically identical. For 6 nights, Hamanasi was $20 more and had 4 tours (zip line extra $250 for 2 people) and alcohol not included, and Almond Beach had 5 tours including the zip line at no extra charge and alcohol is included. But when you look at the price of the honeymoon packages- which made sense for us- if we wanted more plush accomodations, I would have gone for the extra $$ for Hamanasi. We'll be living it up still- the casitas at Almond Beach, and ours is beachfront, look amazing. I love the sound of waves, and it sounds like it will be very private since we're going off-season.

(And we can always plan the anniversary trip to Hamanasi!)

Tipping point is that Almond Beach has a honeymoon registry. We don't have much stuff on our registry, and as much as we like to travel, thought this would be a neat thing to have going for the trip.

Thanks so much for all of the replies!

SusanSDG

Get to Almond Beach before the word gets out about their amazing massage therapist!
Congratulations and bon voyage!

StanKase

Emily; You probably made an excellent choice.Having not visited there (went to Jaguar Reef for lunch with Gen. Mgr. of Hamanasi)as I said Almond will be special. On the zip line make sure they have a tour leader and at least 2 if not 3 helpers. One at each take-off platform and one at the platform you are heading to. This is important in case you grip to hard stop you want a helper on either end so one can shimmy out to help you. It is loads of fun but don't be surprised if you do not see any animals or just a bird or two while on the line. But, on the one we went on (11 lines/platforms) we had about a dozen monkeys up in the trees at several platform stops.
I suggest you ask alot about each in-land trip for some may not be worth going on when you could relax and even go out on their snorkel outing that day.We were on the Romance Package like the Honeymoon-7 nights that offerred 5 tours and we only went on 2 of the 3 in-land ones for the one to the ruins was a ruin of about an acre with only 3 deterioated structures based on pictures we saw at the conceige desk and those that went confirmed.Just a suggestion.