San Ignacio

Cave trips (by canoe at Barton's Creek) The market every Saturday morning The hiking/backpacking trips Coracol ruins

Quick Tips:

***If you plan on heading out to San Ignacio, or anywhere outside of Belize City for that matter, do not rent anything other than a 4 wheel drive SUV. Most companies won't even let you rent a sedan if you are leaving the city, but if you do, you will immediately regret it. When going off the beaten path, to places such as Coracol, you will even have to drive through rivers (no bridges).*** ***Also, if you plan on going to Coracol, do not believe people that tell you that it is required to have a guide to enter the park. Several people told us this, and we went without a guide, and noone ever said anything to us, and furthermore, there was no need for a guide. The museum at the entrance explains everything, and not bringing a guide saves a LOT of money in most cases.

Best Way To Get Around:

Rent a 4 wheel drive SUV, unless you are very adventurous and on a loose schedule, then you could check out the buses.

Very fancy pool area, with two pools, lit with color-changing lights underwater. The pool area also had an amazing view of the city, as it is positioned on a hill overlooking the town. It was also nice being right next to the ruins.
The rooms were small suites, with a very small living room that had a tv and a futon, with two average-sized rooms off it (one with two doubles and one with a queen), as well as a shared bathroom. I think it might have had a mini-fridge as well.
Overall a nice place, especially if you are looking for some romance, but it was a little fancy for my tastes, as we prefer to stay in rustic accommodations. Hence our short stay here of one night.
(Also, the bar and restaurant were very expensive)

Very pleasant place. I usually prefer to be in a centrally located place, such as a hostel, so that I can really soak up the culture of the city. However, considering all of the hiking and long days we had in San Ignacio, this place being on the outskirts of the town was also kind of nice. Being able to get out of town, lay in the pool, and drink a few Bellikins was quite relaxing. The two ladies who were running the place, however, were not the most pleasant. The price that they tried to get us to pay at first was much steeper than we had heard around town, so we eventually got it down to $50 USD per night per cabin. Still a little steep for the area, but the place was nice. Also, the groundskeeper was extremely helpful. He lives in a small indigenous village not too far away, so his English isn't too great, but good enough that he can communicate. This place was also great for animal-watching (particularly birds) due to it being somewhat removed from the town.

Some good ruins, and it is still being excavated. While we were there, there were many archeology students working on it, which was interesting to see how the process is done (and how painstakingly slow). The ruins definitely have some unique characteristics, and are worth checking out if you are up near there and are really into ruins. However, if you have already been to Caracol and/or Tikal, it is not a necessary trip. We had gone to both Tikal and Caracol prior to Cahal Pech, and found it interesting, but were getting to the point that all the ruins were beginning to look the same.