PatrickMcC

I've noticed that there are very few trip reports on this message board compared to some other boards so I thought I'd give one a try. I really like reading them on the USVI and Costa Rica boards. So here goes.
Fri. Feb. 18th- We(my wife and I)drive to Boston Logan and will stay overnight at the airport Holiday Inn- we get to leave our car there for 10 days free if we stay overnight. Dinner is at Santarpio's in East Boston- it was highly recommended by several people and the pizza is great- with a bottle of Chianti total bill $25.
Sat. Shuttle from the Inn to Logan- the shuttle and airport are a madhouse- school vacation week- but we get to Dallas with no problem. At Dallas American is offering 5 people $800 vouchers to give up there seats on the flight to Belize City and go the next day. As the plane is boarding 20 minutres later they are still asking and no one is taking- I get nervous and we board the plane out of order because I am afraid they might bounce us against our will- Can they do that??? Anyway we get on the plane and I don't know what happened but we decide that Belize must be a hot spot now. We arive in Belize City after a relatively short flight- the van from Crystal Paradise resort is waiting and after a two hour ride we arrive in the Cayo. Our room is in one of the thatched roof cabinas overlooking the beautiful grounds. It is clean and comfortable- not fancy- pretty much what we expected. We eat dinner in the open air dining room family style and enjoy meeting the other guests. This resort is run by a local family .Good food.
Sun. We go on a tour to Carocal ruins and the Rio Freo cave and pools. On the way we stop at the Three? Sisters lodge to pick up two people- this lodge is in a remote but beautiful setting- we see Coppola's reseort Blacaneaux?- very fancy. Carocol is impressive and the tour by one of the Tut family sons is awesome- he is extrtemely knowledgeable about the Mayans.
Six people on this tour and we enjoy all the other people. At dinner that night we exchange stories with the other guests- again a lot of fun.
Mon. We have signed up for a moderate Mayan cave tour but when we wake up my wife's back is in bad shape. We cancel and go into San Ignacio for the day. There is a Mayan ruin here called Cachel Pech and we wander the grounds virtually alone; It is a nice park setting and we learned so much from our guide at Caracol that we understand a lot of what we see,. There is a small but very nice museum on the grounds. Afterwards we walk about a mile to the San Ignacio hotel and sign up for a tour of the jungle behind the hotel-Queen Elizabeth stayed here when she visited Belize in the 1990's/ We have to wait for the tour so we each have a papaya juice in the cafe. Our tour guide starts a fascinationg tour of the jungle and all the medicinal uses of the various trees, plants etc/ but about ten minutes into the tour my wife becomes ill. She feel faint and her stomach seems a little upset. We go back and rest for a few minutes in the hotel and she feels a little better. We fear the papaya juice has struck- maybe they didn't use purified water? She drinks water and after a brief stroll around San Ignacio we go back to Crystal Paradise- she rests for a few hours and feels better. We decide it was dehydration- she doesn't drink much of anything most of the time and we had been walking in hot weather all morning. So keep drinking your water in Belize. She feels fine by dinner. We enjoy meeting new people at dinner- especially three brothers and their wives/significant others who are on a vacation together.
Tues. We are driven from Crystal Paradise with the 3 brothers etc. to the border for our trip to Tikal. The driver is Mr. Tut the father of the family that owns Crystal Paradise- he is very friendly and funny. He smooths our way through customs and makes sure the other six are connected with their driver to Tikal-they are returning to Crystal Paradise and have booked Tikal through him. We haven't and have to walk a few hundred yards into Guatamala to the Rio Mopan lodge to meet our connection to Tikal. The owner of the lodge- a Swiss gentleman who lives here is surprised to see us. There has been a mixup and he isn't expecting us. While he is on the phone we have visions of missing our tour of Tikal.He says he will start driving us to Tikal and hopefully our scheduled driver will meet us before we get there, if not he will take us. The road is the worst road we have ever been on- worse that the dirt roads of Belize. We have an interesting conversation with Marco who is really an archeologist and about an hour into the drive a van appears from the other direction- our driver. We transfer to the van which is a much smoother ride on this incredible road.
As you get closer to Tikal the road improves a lot. We arrive to late for our scheduled private tour and are put on a tour with a family with three teens/pre teens from Connecticut. This turns out to be a lot of fun for us- nice parents and nice kids who are excited about everything. The 5 hour tour is fantastic- Tikal is awesome- don't miss it. At the end of the tour the guide says that he has a "friend" who can take us on a midnight tour of the jungle with an 80% chance of seeing a jaguar. The three kids and their mother and my wife want to go. The Dad and I are skeptical but we cave- so that night the seven of us leave our lodge at eleven and go trampsing through the jungle until 2 in the morning- the friend makes a lot of jaguar noises but no jaguar- we are the sucker tourists but the kids think it is great and we have a lot of laughs over this tour- $20 EACH- not a bad days work for this friend. Costs us $40 and the family $100.The Tikal Inn is very nice and the meals are good.
Wed. We fly from Tikal(Flores) to Belize city on Maya Air- 10 seater. In Belize City we change planes- 12 seater for the flight to Placencia with a stop in Dangriga. The Dangriga and Placencia airstrips are about as wide as my driveway- crushed stone and dirt- the planes slide when landing and taking off over water. We have been in small planes before but they are always an experience-you definitely know that you are flying. With the stop the flight to Placencia takes about 35 minutes-it definitely beats a three hour drive from Belize City. The planes all looked new and everyone at Maya Air was very nice and professional. The van from Roberrs Grove Inn meets us at the airport and we drive the dirt road about 2 miles to the resort. This is a beautiful resort but when we arrive my wife says that no one will talk to us here- it looks to fancy.Fortunately this turns out to be a very wrong prediction. Our room is extremely elegant. The shower is bigger than my bathroom at home and all the decor is first class and we have their standard room. The staff at this resort is extremely professional and extremely friendly.We spend the afternoon on the beach and have dinner at the Inn's Mexican Restaurant across the street on the Placencia Lagoon-excellent and reasonable.
Thurs. We eat breakfast at Robert's Grove -excellent and reasonable continental breakfast. Then we borrow bikes from the resort and bike into Placencia-very old bikes but on the dirt road they are fine. Placencia is a very laid back town-we walk the famous sidewalk, stop in a few shops and check out the beach which is strewn with garbage-plastics etc. After biking back we spend the afternoon on the beach-Roberts Grove is very uncrowded and has water sports equipment for the guests to use. That night we go to dinner at Kitty's Place, a nearby resort. Dinner was good, the resort has a nice pool and bar on the beach but we couldn't see much in the dark.
Fri.We go on the Monkey River tour. This involves a boat ride across the lagoon to Monkey River village and a trip through the jungle. We don't see much wildlife but the tour is excellent as is the lunch at Monkey River Village. Four of us on this tour and we have a great time with the other couple. That night we have dinner at Roberts Grove- an excellent dinner at a very reasonable price.Great service..
Sat. We go on the Jaguar Reserve tour. Again we see no Jaguar- they are very hard to spot - but the jungle tour is excellent and then you float down the river in tubes- the view of the jungle from the tubes is fabulous-our Mayan guide is a gold mine of information about Mayan medicine from the rain forest. There were 10 of us on this tour which took all day and we had a great time with the other people. On Sat. night Roberts Gtove has a barbecue around the pool which attracts a lot of people from outside the resort. A local band played and the barbecue was fabulous.
Sun. We spend the morning on the beach- I am ready to slip into a very lazy life style but we have to leave at 11. We arrive in Miami o. k. but the plane to Boston isn't working-they eventually get a new plane and we get home at 4 a.m. Monday morning-a bad end to a great trip.
Mayan ruins, wildlife, beaches, jungle- Belize is a great vacation spot.
I want to read more trip reports on this board.

joe555

sounds like a great time.me and family were thinking about going to belize this summer, kids are 8 and 10, wondering if other families at roberts grove? are there other resorts nearby,how is the beach by roberts grove,were there alot of mosquitos also?

mitty

great post! i leave Thurs. you gave me a couple new ideas to check out. Thanks!!

Pumpy

Great trip report. We're (wife, & kids 6 & 11) headed in June and will be sure to write of our travels.

I too wish more people would share their Belize trips w/ the rest of us!

atravelynn

Thanks for the report on Belize and Guatemala. Though you did not spot a jaguar in Tikal, did you see anything else that night?

PatrickMcC

Joe 555- there were other families at Roberts Grove the guests covered every age range.the beach is nice and the water was very calm. They have kayaks and small sailboats which are free and three swimming pools.They run snorkeling and other trips from the resort but they are expensive, especially with a family-check their website.There were no mosquitos or bugs of any kind at the resort-even after dark we ate and sat outside but that was February. There were a few mosquitos on the Monkey River and Jaguar tours so bring deet.There are several other resorts near Placencia-check out the Placencia website.

atravelynn- We saw one bird on the Tikal jungle tour but during the day (at sunset) there were a lot of monkeys in the trees.
Thanks to everybody for their responses.

dfarmer

Thanks so much for this trip report!

I am a die hard, love Costa Rica person, however my husband has wanted me to research Belize and Panama. It is so hard to get firsthand info on these two destinations.

I find tons of info on Ambergris, but very little on the Cayo and Placencia.

Your trip is exactly as I envision a trip to Belize.

You travel about the same time of year as us, can I ask about the weather and water temp? I just love the 90 degree days in coastal CR and the wonderful warm water.

Wonderful report, I just may look at Belize a little more seriously.

pdxgirl

Thanks for the great trip report! we're planning a trip to Belize next winter and your report was very helpful. How did you book your Tikal trip? Did you book it from home or after you got to Belize?

PatrickMcC

dfarmer- The days in the Cayo were hot but not oppressive-nights were a lot cooler- the first night we needed blankets. Tikal was very hot but there is a lot of shade, Placencia was tropical-hot days , comfortable nights, the water was extremely warm. We have been to Costa Rica and are going back next year to areas we missed.I think that you will like Belize as much. Many of the Cayo resorts have their own websites, some are a lot more luxurious than Crystal Paradise. Check out www.placencia.com.
pdxgirl- We booked Tikal through our travel agent in advance who was excellent. I'm sure mixups can also occur when booking through your resort and this was a minor one. If you want to stay at Tikal itself and are travelling during peak periods I'd book in advance.

dfarmer

Thanks Patrick - sounds blissfully perfect!

I did check the website for the lodge you stayed in, looks like a good fit for us. I am certainly not opposed to luxury! But it is not necessary.

I did see your recent post about 8 nights at Bosque del Cabo - fabulous place!

Can I ask? You mention using a travel agent, did you use a company in Belize? Did they make all your arrangements? And if you would recommend this company, can you tell me their name?

Thanks again, I really like your itinerary.

PatrickMcC

dfarmer- We used a Belize agent-Katie Valk-the Belize Travel Experts. If you tell her what you are interested in doing she will give you web sites to check out. It can all be done by e-mail. Everything-rooms,flights, transfers was arranged in advance. We arranged the day trips after we arrived at the resorts.

Jessie_

Thanks for the great report. Our little mayan guide was afraid to bring us to Tikal so we just shopped at the border under the protection of some very young kids with sawed off shotguns. We hope to get back to Guatemala and really see it sometime in the near future. Our son spent some time there and really liked it.

Your report on Belize brought back some great memories. Thank you. We stayed up in the Pine Forest and visited many of the same places you went to. We also visited San Ignacio and the ruins around there. We stayed at Rum Point in Placencia but ate several meals at Kittys for a change-good food there as well.

Your report certainly makes me want to go back.

lillypad056

Thanks for the great trip report.I have a question reguarding the Tikal Inn.I read in a tour book that the electricity shuts down between 11p and 5am.Is this true?If so were the nights bearable without working fans.

PatrickMcC

Jessie- I am wondering when your guide wouldn't bring you to Tikal- was it a few years ago when conditions were not as safe? Although we read that there had been some robberies of tourists and it wasn't a good idea to wander to remote parts of Tikal, it seemed safe.
Lillypado56- Yes the electricity did go off but if we hadn't been on that crazy Jaguar hunt we would not have noticed. The room was very comfortable all night.

LA_FadeAway

PatrickMcC,
Thank you so much for the trip report. I'll be visiting Belize and Tikal this summer and will also be posting a report. You're right that this bored is lacking in reports about Belize.