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My husband and I are planning a very quick getaway to Belize. We plan on staying in the jungle (no beaches) to see the Mayan sites. We genernally prefer 5 star, smaller private hotels. What would you recommend for Belize that is top notch and a good location for viewing the ruins? We also may spend a night in tikal or surrounding area, so recommendations for that area would be appreciated as well.

For Tikal, there aren't any legit 5-star placers insie the park itself. But, the trade-off is worth it--the location inside the park is enough of a bonus to outweigh any luxury, in my opinion. The animals and birds are most active during the morning and late afternoon when those staying outside the park are gone.

If luxury is a must, lodges like Chaa Creek and Blancaneaux in the San Ignacio/MPR area can be used as bases to see both Tikal and Caracol as day trips.

For Lamanai, the best option hands down is the Lamanai Outpost Lodge. Fantastic service, wonderful food, and a wide variety of activities. The only downside is that the rooms are rustic rather than luxurious--they're wood cabanas, instead of granite/marble suites.

We liked Chaa Creek; they have charming cabins, nice trails for hiking, a good restaurant and bar, and a great pool. Their service is wonderful, and they'll arrange tours for you. Some of their tours are expensive; check with Pacz to compare prices. We used them for the tour to Tikal.

We loved Chaa Creek and its location, especially for visiting Tikal. Blancaneaux gets great reviews as does Lamanai Outpost Lodge and Chan Chich.

Loved Chaa Creek...day trips to Tikal are do-able

Another vote for Chaa Creek.

Camino Real for a large upscale hotel or La lancha for a smaller upscale hotel 35 mins from Tikal.

We were in Chaa Creek at Christmas and loved it. Great guides to Tikal, Xunantunich, etc.

I'm most interested in Mayan ruins and animals...I'm getting sooooo confused. :-)

What are the advantages and disadvantages for Chaa Creek, LO, and Chan Chinch. Blancaneaux is a new one for me. I'm just starting to look at Belize instead of returning to CR. The airfare for CR at the moment is twice what we paid last year, but it appears that flying to Belize will be just as expensive though.

We would plan to spend at least 7 nights, but no more than 10. No need for canopy tour, as we did that in CR. The cave tubing sounds intriguing, but I'm not sure what area one needs to be in to do that.

Some of this is based on hearsay (we've only stayed at the LOL of these places)


LOL:

Advantages-- include a great variety of wildlife and ecotourism activities, lagoon setting, direct access by foot to Lamanai archaeological reserve. The boat ride in (a truly fabulous perk)allowed us to get within 4 feet of the biggest Morelet's crocodile I'd ever seen as well as a chance to spot dozens of species of birds, including Jabiru storks. On the grounds of the lodge, we got close enough to howler monkeys to hear them chewing their food.

Disadvantages-- more rustic/adventure oriented than luxurious, a destination rather than a launching point.

Chan Chich:

Advantages--world class luxury, fantastic deep rain forest wildlife sightings (best place to see a wild cat), built on actual Mayan site (how cool is that?)

Disadvantages--even more isolated than LOL, offers access to mediocre ruins (you can tour Lamanai from there, but it's two hours away as opposed to the two minutes walk from the LOL)

Chaa Creek:

Advantages--combines beautiful jungle setting with luxury and access to sites/activities like Tikal, Caracol, the ATM cave, Barton Creek, etc.

Disadvantages--not the wildlife destination the other two lodges are, more manicured than wild, if you're spending most if your time on day trips, are you getting your money's worth?

I'll throw in a dark horse:

Tikal Inn:

Advantages--inside Tikal National Park itself, adjacent to archaeological reserve itself. Swimming pool. The benefits of staying inside the park itself cannot be overstated--you can enter the reserve in the early morning as part of a tour, then cool off in the pool, then check out the museums and visitors center or some more nature trails and then return at your leisure towards the end of the day to experience the park at sunset--the park is really amazing when the tour buses have left--it's magical. The wildlife--especially birdlife--is spectacular. We had keel-billed toucans and collared aracaris flying ten feet over our heads while we were in the pool.

Disadvantages--there is no luxury inside the Park. Rooms are very basic (clean and pleasant but more budget motel than Four Seasons) food is very pedestrian, and there is maybe 6 hours of electricity in your room per day (lights out literally at 10:00 pm). Service is adequate but one does not get waited on hand and foot due to modest staffing.

Bonus factor: $130 a night gets you a poolside cabana inside Tikal National Park. You can't beat that combo of value and location.

Between LOL, Chaa Creek, and Chan Chich, I would expect similar levels of service and food--both were stellar during our stay at the LOL.

Chaa Creek is really only manicured around the cabins; we went hiking all over the property. I believe it's 365 acres, and our guide was using a machete to chop through some of the areas where we hiked. One of the most gorgeous views I've ever seen was from atop a big hill on one of our hikes. We literally spent about 7 hours hiking one day. It's also built on a Mayan site. We didn't see the level of wildlife there that we've seen in CR, but we did see howlers on the property; they're part of a howler relocation program and two tribes have set up shop on the property. Also saw some cool birds during their free morning birding and saw a toucan. There's a river that runs through the property, and they offer canoeing and horseback riding. They also have a great pool. Food and service were wonderful; my husband got dive bombed by a toucan on a hike and lost his sunglasses; the next day they were at the concierge desk with a note to be delivered back to him. Food was excellent there, and they knew us by name on sight. It's a neat spot. The pictures that I've seen of Chan Chich are of amazing wildlife; I'd really like to go there someday, but it didn't offer the access to everything we wanted to do. I like the looks of LOL too and its setting on the water. Hard to go wrong.