twbuss

We are planning our first trip to Belize in late March early April with our 24 and 16 year old daughters. After reading the boards, I was planning on two locations, the Cayo area and one of the CAys ....wherever Seaside Cabana is located. Do you think this would be two good areas and where do you recommend staying in the Cayo area beside Chaa Creek...

Also...can you travel to location with taxi and or boat or do you need to fly?

Any other recommendations you want to add would be helpful. Thanks

hopefulist

Splitting between the Cayo area and Caye Caulker (where Seaside Cabanas are located) is a great idea. I've stayed at 4 different places in the Cayo and loved them all for different reasons. Are you wanting a jungle lodge, a place in town, a budget place, an adventure lodge? Are you not wanting Chaa Creek because it's incredibly expensive or because it's too manicured? Are you interested in caving, hiking, villages, ruins, shopping? If you give us more information we could help you better.

To get from the airport to the Cayo district you can taxi to the bus station and take a bus there, or hire a shuttle; you can't fly. The road trip takes 2 hours+/- depending on your mode of transit; same back to the water taxi to Caye Caulker. You can fly between Caye Caulker and BZE, the international airport or the municipal airport (cheaper).


In case you're interested, my photo collections with travelogues are at the link below. I'd be happy to help if you're willing to give more information. Happy trails!

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

twbuss

Chaa Creek looks wonderful but expensive. We would like a jungle or adventure lodge. Caving, hiking and ruins would be activiites that would be of the most interest to us.

Would one week be enough time to cover both place. Thanks
Any recommendations of places to stay in Cayo?

Patty

Yes one week would be enough to cover both.

Take a look at duPlooys or Black Rock, both on the Macal not far from Chaa Creek, but less expensive. Also Chaa Creek has their own Macal River camp.

hopefulist

I can personally recommend Macal River Jungle Camp - fantastic setting, sweet tent-cabins, delicious food, friendly camp host, great hiking and canoing, plus access to the amenities at Chaa Creek including the pool, museum, butterfly house, internet, and tours. It's $55US/night/per person plus tax which includes dinner and breakfast. www.belizecamp.com

The Trek Stop is another great place, a budget option just west of San Ignacio within walking distance to Xunantunich. They can prepare good Belizean food for you or you can shop in the Chinese grocery in the village San José Succotz and cook in their share kitchen. They have cute little Caribbean pine cabins and a great butterfly enclosure. I think it's about $25US/double. www.thetrekstop.com

Last summer we stayed a few nights at the Aguada Hotel in Santa Elena, a neighborhood just over the bridge from San Ignacio. Our beautiful room was huge and had a kitchenette and there's a reasonably priced restaurant onsite, air conditioning, and a nice, clean pool. We paid about $50US for a deluxe room.
http://www.aguadahotel.com/

I recommend the ATM cave trip - http://www.pacztours.net/pages/tours/ATM.html - absolutely incredible. You can take taxis to the ruins of Xunantunich and Cahal Pech and explore them on your own and the ruins of Tikal in Guatemala are amazing; they can be visited as a day trip but I recommend visiting overnight so you can explore the ruins in the cooler evening and early morning hours when the wildlife is active and you practically have the place to yourselves. You can arrange the travel on your own or hire a company to do it (including Chaa Creek, though their prices might be higher).

One week wouldn't be enough for me, especially since you give up chunks of 2 or 3 days transitioning. If you can muster more days you'll be forever grateful. Keep us posted!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyholeman/collections (my photos and blog/travelogue links)

Gritty

I was in Caye Caulker and the Cayo area over Christmas. I love Caye Caulker!

I'm not quite sure what you're looking for, but we stayed at Clarissa Falls Resort while we were in the Cayo area. I highly recommend staying there. I've never met more friendly staff, and it's more budget-friendly ($75/night) than Chaa Creek. Clarissa Falls is in the same area as Chaa Creek, and probably the Trek Stop (I don't remember seeing that one, but Clarissa Falls is within walking distance of Xunantunich). The walk from Clarissa Falls to Xunantunich took us about 1 1/2 hours. We just followed the jungle trail along the river.

That Macal River Jungle Camp option that hopefulist mentions sounds great, too!

We traveled from Caye Caulker to Clarissa Falls over the course of one morning. We took the earliest water taxi from Caye Caulker to Belize City, then took a taxi to the bus station. The bus ride took about 2-2 1/2 hours, and it's super cheap (less than US$10 each). There are also express buses that do this route faster. One warning about the buses--they don't care if you get a seat or not. We were hurried onto a full bus and I had to stand in the aisle for about 45 minutes until enough people got off for me to get a seat. In retrospect, we could have waited for the next bus.

We told the bus driver that we wanted to get off at Clarissa Falls, and he knew where that stop was. The hotel itself is about a mile from the main highway, and we hiked it (we had backpacks). If you choose to take a bus, it might be best to get off the bus at San Ignacio and take a taxi to Clarissa Falls, or call the hotel from there and they might come and pick you up.

I would think you could also get a taxi to take you across the country. Be sure to negotiate a price!

hopefulist

The Trek Stop is within a mile or 2 of Clarissa Falls. When we stayed at the TS we floated on inner tubes down the Mopan River and were picked up at Clarissa Falls, lovely setting, friendly people, not a jungle lodge, though. The Trek Stop isn't either, but also has a nice setting in an old mango orchard. It's set near the road and the buses can drop you off there, too. Some of the buses from BC and Belmopan stop in San Ignacio and don't go all the way to the border/Benque. If they don't, a taxi is a good idea rather than waiting for another bus.

It's just about 5 minutes from the Trek Stop to the hand-cranked ferry crossing the Mopan River, then 1 mile up hill to the ruins, 20 minutes maybe.