Belize resorts and restaurants...any advice
 

My friend and I are planning a trip to Belize in late October for a week. We are two girls in our late twenties and early thirties. We are staying in the Cayo district for 4 nights probably at the Ka'ana resort and then Ambergris Caye for 3 nights either at Portino or Mata Chica resort. Any suggestions for hotels or knowledge of these places would be much appreciated. Also we figure we will check out the restaurants in San Pedro so any advice in that category would be great. When we are in the jungle we heard the ATM cave tour is great and which Mayan ruin do people recommend? Any other tour activities in that area???
Thanks so much for any info!!!

Chary

Both Mata Chica and Portofino are beautiful properties. They're also miles from town. You'll need to take a water taxi back and forth.

Have you looked at anything closer to town? Xanadu? Victoria House? The Phoenix? Maybe even Ramon's?

I like being able to walk to town. Other people like the relative isolation of being up north on Ambergris. If you plan on spending much time in town, I'd look at staying closer. Many people stay north and don't come into town, they just eat at the resorts up there. From Mata Chica it's a short walk to Rojo Lounge. I'm not sure how far apart Mata Chica and Portofino are.

I'm anxious to hear about your time at Ka'ana - I seriously considered staying there, but chose Chaa Creek instead. Definitely do the ATM tour and if you can get to Tikal, I'd highly recommend it. Even though it's a full day trip, it's a wonderful day at the ruins. For a shorter trip people we spoke to liked Xunantunich a lot. It's very close to where you're staying and it's a nice site for a half day. We also went to the Barton Creek Cave, which is a half day cave tour, where you go into the cave in a canoe. That was very cool.

We stayed at Portofino and absolutely loved it. For us the fact that it was only accessible by water taxi was fine. It was easy to take Portofino's only shuttle (water taxi) or hop on one of the boats picking up or dropping off people from town excursions. You also can use the island taxi for fee. I can't remember - is it around $6 US person? I enjoyed the boat rides back and forth, very relaxing. Portofino's property is very nice and the staff - can't say enough about them. Their pool is great too. Their food was fine. I wouldn't want every meal there. It was good - but we were there for 5 nights and it would get old, as any place would, in that length of time. We had dinner one night at Matachcica and thought the meal was fantastic. In town, we ate at the Blue Water Grill, again, a great meal. And had lunch at Fidos - good meal there too.

We stayed at Ramones years ago and liked it. The food was decent and we could also easily walk to town. That was our first time staying in a thatched roof accomodation, so that is what drew our attention to it.

I second Xanadu - not right in town but close enough.

And, for a fabulous meal - you have to go to Hidden Treasure! back in a residential district, an easy walk from Xanadu, the food was delicious!

Thanks for the advice.. I think we are definitely staying at K'anana in the jungle area and Portifino by the beach. We are definitely doing the ATM tour and Tikal. We are then doing 1/2 day horseback riding combined with Barton creek. Keep the advice coming we really appreciate it:)

On Ambergris, we liked Paradise Villas,right on the beach, which we managed to get a deal on and were not expensive. Best of all, just a couple of blocks from the main part of San Pedro, but far enough away to not get all the noise.

Inland, the ATM cave is definitely a must-do. Next to Tikal, probably the most memorable think we did down there. Liked the low-key ruins of Cahal Pech in San Ignacio. No crowds, but impressive ruins nonetheless. Lots to do in the San Ignacio area and a good jumping off point for a trip to Tikal.