Just a few notes on your trip to Banyan Bay. I was there about 5 years ago and the stay was great, no problems. My only caveat was the location. It's a looooong walk to town in the June heat (about a mile). I usually stay closer to town now because I found myself there most evenings for dinner or shopping. Think about renting a golf cart for the week.
As for tours and things. You can do all the tours you want from Ambergris but the cost is higher than if you had based yourself on the mainland for the interior tours. You just can't get around the cost of airfare to/from the island. We did a trip a year ago where we stayed on AC for 4 days and then went to San Ignacio for 4 days. While in San Ignacio we toured the ruins and caves and Tikal and all. We rented a car from Crystal car rental, it worked out fine. It was very easy to drive to a lot of the attractions on the mainland.
One note, take your kids to see the Belize zoo. The admission is cheap and they will see more cool animals than in any zoo in the states. They have all the cats such as Jaguar, Margay, Jaguarundi, Black Jaguar, Ocelot.
If you want to save money as a family try this;
Fly to the mainland to the municipal airport (half price), rent a car, see the Belize Zoo, eat at Cheers or Amigos, go Cave Tubing, return to airport and fly back to AC. You could do that for half the price of a package tour that does less.
Better yet, stay a few nights on the mainland and tour around a bit. The San Ignacio Resort Hotel is very nice and close to a lot of attractions in the Cayo District (ruins, canoing, horseback riding, cave canoing, Tikal).
John and Julie (4 kids)
questions? indianajohn41@hotmail.com
Ambergris Caye 
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