We're planning a short trip (4 nights) to the Cayo area in April and are having a hard time choosing between Chaa Creek, Black Rock Lodge and du Plooy's. We're avid hikers, would like to do day trips to both the ATM cave and Tikal, a little horseback riding and canoeing, and also have the feeling of being "in the jungle."

Black Rock seems to be the most remote (and maybe that's a problem for day trips?), but perhaps it feels least like a resort? For those who have been to Chaa Creek, does it really feel like you're in the jungle? I'd love to hear any advice or opinions to help us choose between these lodges. Thanks!

We stayed at Macal River Jungle Camp, Chaa Creek's wild cousin, and LOVED it. Sweet cabins, great food, helpful camp host, parrots and toucans and motmots from our hammocks. We canoed down the Macal River, hiked for miles, and enjoyed the natural history museum and butterflies at Chaa Creek. The site and our photos are here:

www.belizecamp.com
http://flickr.com/photos/staceyholeman/collections

Happy trails!

All 3 are fine lodges close to each other on the Macal River. Chaa Creek perhaps the best in the region. You can take any of those tours from either lodge.

Thanks, guys! We're definitely interested in the Macal River Camp and inquired about that already with Chaa Creek. But they don't have availability there for all 4 nights, so we'd have to cobble together a stay at the camp with 1 night in a cottage, and the price they quoted us for that came to nearly the same as spending all 4 nights in a cottage with one of their package deals. (Their tour prices seem pretty high if you book them outside of a package deal.)

I highly recommend an overnighter to Tikal. If you were thinking of that as a day trip you might want to reconsider and spend your 4th night there in the park. It's amazing to explore the ruins in the cooler evening and early morning hours when you practically have the place to yourselves and the wildlife is active. You could go with a tour but it's easy to do on your own.

Chaa Creek proper is really lovely but too manicured for our taste. We're usually budget travelers by choice so even the jungle camp was a real splurge for us.

Have a great time, whatever you decide and please keep us posted! Happy trails!

Thanks again for the replies.

Well, I'm still waffling. Black Rock has a lot of things we like about it, but I am unsure about recent changes in ownership and a rocky history (in terms of crime) that would be hard not to keep thinking about if we were staying there. Almost wish I didn't know.

For the Macal River Jungle Camp, how was the shared bathroom situation? How far from the cottages for those 3am bathroom runs? Approximately how many people
sharing how many showers? In a lot of ways, this looks like it might be our best choice.

Yes, we did think long and hard about overnighting at Tikal. Unfortunately, I don't think we'd
have enough time to do that without having to give up something else like horseback riding or canoeing. I wish we had time for a few more days!

When we were there I think there were 4 or 5 toilets and 4 or 5 showers. We were there in low season and there were only 2 other people staying there. Seems like plenty even if the cabins were full, but I don't know how many "full" is. Distance to the bathroom varies widely by which cabin you're in; if you have a concern you could make a request to be closer.

It is really hard to decide what to do when there are so many options. I can't really imagine Tikal with huge crowds in the heat of the day sandwiched between 3 hour car rides, though, so an overnighter there would definitely be a priority for me.

Whatever you decide to do I bet you'll love it so you might as well start planning your next visit now.