Hi, guys - For anyone who has stayed at Chaa Creek, did you do any of their on site excursions? I was checking out their website, and they offer bird watching tours, night hikes, canoeing, horseback riding, hiking, a butterfly farm, natural history center, rainforest medicine trail hike - really a lot of activities that look pretty cool. Has anyone done any that they particularly enjoyed? Or any that they didn't really care for? Thanks for any guidance you can give me!

And in case we get the chance to relax, how's the pool there?

Most of those activities are included in the room rate and all are well worth doing.

The canoe trip down the river is fun. The butterfly farm was weak. They have a very nice spa.
Katie knows what she's talking about. She arranged our trip years ago when she was working at another travel agency that I can't remember the name of. She has excellent knowledge of accomodations in Belize.

Thanks, Katie. They all look great. I don't know if we'll have time to enjoy them all though if we do Tikal, the ATM cave, etc. It's hard to decide.

Shooie, where did you go on the canoe trip - are there any stops along the way or do you just go out and enjoy nature? Was it a guided trip?

We did the night hike, which was nice. We didn't see a whole lot but it was a lot of fun. It was included in our rate, so we didn't pay extra for it. We saw tarantulas, some crazy bugs, leaf cutter ants and walked quite a bit. We walked the medicinal trail on our own with the guide booklet and found it very interesting. I would have liked to maybe have a guide tell us more, but we didn't find time to book a guided walk. We went to the little museum and butterfly farm. The butterfly farm is in no way near Peace Lodge butterfly standards, but the man who worked there told us all about it and they really work hard raising the butterflies. It was pretty interesting. Didn't have time for the spa, but heard very good things. LOVED the pool - spent every afternoon there after coming back from an excursion. It was wonderful. We walked down to the canoes, but didn't take one out. It's not a guided trip, you just paddle down the river and can be picked up in the town at a given time.

We really didn't plan anything in advance, except that we knew for sure we wanted to do Tikal and ATM, the rest just fell into place once we got there. We also had one 1/2 day excursion included in our package and we went to Barton's Creek Cave and that was very cool as well.

One thing I'm guessing, is no matter what you do there, you really can't go wrong!

I would recommend doing Tikal as an overnight rather than as a day trip from the San Ignacio area. The wildlife hides when the day trippers are there. Early morning and late afternoon is when the park is most magical--spider monkeys play in the branches freely, raucous flocks of dozens of parrots buzz around, all kinds of different birds. And the setting is just serene despite all of the animal life--in a way that it just can't be when tour buses pull up.

It also doesn't make sense to spend a LOT of money on both a tour and essentially a place to sleep when you can stay inside the park at 1/3 the cost.

Shell answered your question for me. The canoe trip was nice, but I wish it was longer. Chaa Creek is close to "town" and not remote and jungly like Chan Chich is (which we loved). But if you want to go to Tikal, it's in a good location. We didn't do the day trip to Tikal because we want to do what RAC suggested--stay overnight at Tikal. It's still on our bucket list.

I'm just tagging along here. Hoping to visit next year so taking your notes.

Thanks, Shell - we'll check out the night hike and the medicinal trail for sure. Shooie, I didn't realize C.C. was close to town. Did you guys eat all your meals at C.C. or did anyone go into town for meals? If there are any good restaurants nearby, I'd love recommendations. Might be fun to try them.

volcanogirl - close to town is sort of misleading....you can canoe down the river to town and get picked up, but it's not a walking distance type of thing at all. It's about 15 minutes or so down a really bumpy road, then to the main road. It's not really a trip that most people wanted to make often We met some people that tried to find some places to eat and ended up just staying on the property, it just didn't work for them logistically. Others canoed into town, had lunch and then came got their ride back.

In San Ignacio, Hannah's is a must. Show up early if you don't want to wait in line (but it is worth the wait if you have to).

Okay, thanks guys!