Reviewed 10 Aug 2007 by Tammy McChristie
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Blancaneux lodge in Mountain Pine Ridge, Belize. Snorkelling in Belize was a highlight though we did not agree with the feeding and, especially, the handling of sharks and rays in shark-ray alley in San Pedro, Belize.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
If you end up staying as long as we did in San Pedro (9 nights) and you are on your honeymoon, stay in Victoria House for the last few nights and not in Caribbean Villas for the whole time. We ended up moving even though we had paid for Caribbean Villas for the whole time.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Local people were employed everywhere - good! Not so sure, as mentioned above, about feeding and handling wildlife as mentioned above. We were not aware of this before we went out on the boat.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Excellent - feel very relaxed. The company that we booked through were very reliable and I would book with them again.
Reviewed 17 Apr 2007 by Margaret Canavan
We definitely enjoyed the holiday and I would rate it probably at about 4.5 stars. There were many memorable elements, diving with a loggerhead turtle off Ambergris Caye was a definite highlight as was our stay in the jungle which was just an awe inspiring experience in itself... the best bit being our tour into the ATM caves.
Some learnings....
1. If I were to do things differently I might not have had two bases at Pooks Hill and Five Sisters as the locations were actually very near each other, so the sights near either resort could be done as days trips from the other. Instead I might have changed a couple of those nights into a stay at Placencia in order to have seen three different regions of Belize. Our third stop was in Ambergris Caye.
2. Also... we did a day trip to Tikal in Guatemala... if other people were doing something similar... buy your souvenirs there. They are cheaper than Belize and all the crafts in Belize are generally brought in from Guatemala.
3. Don't worry about getting Belize dollars, American dollars are accepted everywhere, and whilst the pound is so strong against the US dollar your money will probably go further if you exchange it to dollars, as the Belizean dollar/US dollar rate appears to be pretty fixed at 2:1.
4. Also... make sure you take cash! ATMs are by no means everywhere and a lot of them didn't accept our debit cards.
The Five Sisters lodge was clearly and proudly run and owned by local Belizeans so this definitely felt like we were benefiting the locals. They also had hydro powered facilities which were quite impressive. We also took a brilliant horse ride trip through the jungle run by a local Mayan man which was really enlightening to their role in Belizean society and their attitudes to their environment.
We stayed in the Caribbean Villas in Ambergris Caye which is actually owned by and English man, so not sure if the same could be said here, although all the staff seemed to be local to San Pedro. Pooks Hill is owned by ex pats in Belize and employs a mixture of international and local people. However, they communicated a sense of really caring for the environment and heritage of the land around them.
There were many great things to see and do in Belize. They have an unbelievable wealth of ruins and Mayan artefacts... I wonder if there is more they could do to protect them so that future visitors will be able to enjoy them as much as we did on our stay.
