Will be traveling to Belize for the first time in February/March (haven't decided on exact date yet) and wish to spend 3 days on the mainland and the next 7 on the Ambergris Caye. We would like to go on a jungle tour and do a cave tube. Question? In all of your opinions (which from reading this board now for about two weeks are many)which tours would you suggest and which accomodations would you recomend. As for dollar amount, well I'm not to sure. Don't need to skimp but don't really need extravagant either. I'm mostly excited about our stay on the Caye. I don't know how I will contain myself for the next 6-7 months! I feel like I know some of you already just from reading this board. As soon as I have exact dates of my trip I'll post'em and if any of you will be there during my stay it would be fun to get together for a lounge in the sun and a drink or five!!! And also find out about this BBQ you all talk about. Take care all!!

We are sure you will get lots of good info, because as you said,and as we have found, this board is great!We are leaving in 8 short days for our first trip to AC, and we will be happy to report back what we find as "rookies"! We are staying at the Seven Seas due to proximity to town but will be scouting for future accomodations. We are not going to the mainland,but we will be glad to report what we find!

Three days on the mainland is a short time. If it were me, I'd go to the Cayo District of Western Belize. The San Ignacio Hotel is wonderful for a short stay. You will have access to all the numerous sites in the area, including a shopping trip to Melcher De Minco, Guadamala. The town of San Ignacio is also interesting and what I like, it has a distinctly Central American feel, as opposed to the Carribean feel of Ambergris Caye. The Cayo Districts have plenty of accomadations, the reason I like San Ignacio Hotel is the comfort, convienience overlooking the town and hospitality. Its a bit pricy as I recall, but I now only remember the wonderful time there, not to mention the wonderful swimming pool. PS. Don't over plan, take it as it comes! Good luck.

I can't say enough about Jaguar Paw, the mere fact that you are in the middle of the jungle and yet the rooms are to die for and lets not forget that the cave and river tubing is on the property. They have pool and yummy food and a cool bar. I heard thru the grapevine it is up for sale but still doing business as norm. Give Cy a call, you will not be let down.

Personally I think I would do it a bit different. I'd do 5 and 5... while the caye has a lot to offer so does the mainland... you shouldn't miss it...

I agree with Denny. We did three in the jungle (duPlooy's) and 6 on Ambergris. I wish we had stayed in the jungle another day or two. It was fabulous. Not enough time to do all that we "discovered". DuPlooy's will set up tours for you. Provide the transportaiton, guides, lunches etc. The prices seemed reasonable to me. They have quite a list of things to pick from. Great people and nice accomodations. Right on the Macal River and close enough to San Ignacio to do some shopping or out to eat etc.

as always, my two cents: in 1993 we did 10 days in belize, 7 mainland 3 ambergris. i was glad, as the first trip you should see the nature sites as they may be gone someday. (?) i also did the cayo district at that time. rented a suzuki sidekick at belize airport and drove there, that way you are your own boss. from there (san ignacio hotel, which is not first class by any stretch but adequate)as our base saw xunantunich and cahal pech (first more impressive than latter) then moved east to banana bank ranch (specializes in jungle horseback riding tours) and was base for 1000 foot falls, mountain pine ridge, and rio frio cave. this cave does no tubing but it was AWESOMELY BIG to me and the river was refreshing after. then one overnight in belize city & off to ambergris. we had a blast that year. this year, since we are older, wanted to relax only, had "seen it all" we did ambergris only.

hi sunkissed, my husband & i are going in oct. for the first time. we have searched the net for 2 weeks,and we decided to stay at seven seas, so we can have more $ to spend on tour & other things. this web site we found to be very useful for tours in cayo district http://www.awrem.com/casamaya/daytrip.html
this is thier day tours but they have overnite packages also. check out http://www.belizex.com/ for more info. we chose the inn at xunantunich to save $ for trips...all have a/c queen beds, cable, etc....we will let you know how it was when we get back.

I understand that JaneinPA doesn't think that San Ignacio Hotel is not first class. My rating system for Hotels is if they don't wake you up every three hours and want to change the sheets and charge another $10BZE, then ya flying first class. I guess its all relative.

Thanks! I'm on the prowl on this board again. I appreciate all your helpful insight and don't worry Bill, I won't overplan. More or less I'm usually a fly by the seat of my pants kinda gal. But beings as how we are only spending a short time on the mainland and not a lot of time to decide once we get there, thought it might be better to have some kind of idea of what we want to do. But hey, the minute I set foot on AC, the shoes come off, the bathing suit goes on and the rest, well it can wait! Hopefully will be able to meet a few of you when my time will finally be here to leave. Chow!