travelrex

Reservations are in now place, last two weeks of October, Taca from LAX to BZE, through San Salvador. Four nights at Chaa Creek, 2 nights at Tikal Inn then 8 nights at Banayan Bay. Anyone want to volunteer any tips or suggestions to help make this trip great?

Pumpy

We stayed 3 nts at Chaa Creek (loved this place) & 7 nts at Banyan Bay (very nice) this past June. Not sure what kinds of things you enjoy doing so I'm not sure what to recommend. At Chaa, I'd definitely recommend the night nature hike, horse back ride, and the canoe trip (unguided) to San Ignacio.
As for Banyan Bay, definitely go out to Hol Chan park & Shark ray alley (snorkel and/or dive). You can bood at BB's Dive Shop. Enjoy!

LanSluder

I also have stayed at both Chaa Creek (many times) and Banyan Bay and think they're both terrific. Tikal Inn I've seen but not stayed at.

Among other travel guides, I do the Belize portion of Fodor's Belize & Guatemala 2005, and you can read that for my take on what to do in both places.

--Lan Sluder
www.belizefirst.com

ewesthoff

My recommendation is for Banyan Bay only. Schedule a day snorkel trip with the dive shop at BB. They will take you to different locations and in between, to a small private island where they serve lunch, it is awesome.

msteacher

I was just in Belize a couple of weeks ago, so I'll pass along my 2 cents. I stayed a few hotels down the beach from BB, which looked quite nice and had a lovely pool area. I enjoyed a great lunch at their restaurant, Rico's. The two best things we did in San Pedro were a catamaran trip and a fishing trip.

The catamaran was a full day of sailing with snorkel stops at Hol Chan and Shark Ray alley, and then lunch (on your own) on Caye Caulker. Our hotel booked the trip for us, but the boat left out of Ramon's.

I have not fished since I was about 12, but I also really loved the reef fishing trip we did. There were 4 of us on a boat with a guide who took us out to the reef where we caught a variety of fish (mostly snapper). Then we stopped to snorkel while the guide cleaned the fish. We then went to the beach where he cooked up the fish for our lunch (including the lobster we found while snorkeling), then back on the boat for more snorkeling before going home. A great day.

In the San Ignacio area, I'd recommend doing the ATM tour (but be aware that it is quite physical) and the cave tubing. Both were really fun.

Tikal is great too. Hire a guide when you first venture into the park to help you get your bearings, then spend the rest of the time on your own. Climb as many temples as you can. Get up early (though I don't think sunrise is really necessary... it's often to foggy), then spend the middle of the day enjoying a long lunch and/or siesta. It's too hot and more crowded from around 10-2.

You are going to have a great trip. Enjoy!