We had 10 days in Belize and split them evenly - 5 days in the jungle at Caves Branch and 5 days on the beach. Two hours after arriving on the beach we were all ready to go back to Caves Branch. Not that there was anything wrong with the beach - we just loved Caves Branch!

The best part of Caves Branch are the adventures. The tours themselves are a blast, but they are made so much better by the knowledge and expertise of the guides. These guides are incredibly well trained - history, geography, jungle survival, flora, fauna, you name it, they knew about it.

The suite and lodge itself are very well maintained. Our family of five stayed in one of their new treehouse suites. It was super clean, comfortable, very private, the jungle shower was a favorite and we had plenty of space. The location of Caves Branch is beautiful - a real oasis in the jungle. We had fun swimming in the river, too!

One of the daily highlights (besides the adventures) was gathering in the lodge for chips, salsa, and cool drinks before dinner. This was a fantastic opportunity to meet with other travelers and discuss the days' adventures.

Our favorite adventures were the river cave expedition and of course the Black Hole drop (even our eight year old rose to the challenge on this one!)

Caves Branch, however, is not for everyone! As many other reviewers have remarked, this in not a resort - it is jungle camp! The food is good, plentiful and made from lots of local fresh products; the accomodations are clean, comfortable and spacious. We came prepared to be active, to be challenged and to have fun. We experienced all that and more. With rare exception, the other visitors to Caves Branch are like minded. They were for the most part physically fit, well traveled, adventurous and not at all squeamish.

If you are excecting gourmet food, luxurious accomodations and spa type treatment you should stay elsewhere.

I was blown away by the beauty of the jungle - I never expected to fall in love with it but I did. We have more adventures to complete so I believe a return visit to Caves Branch is in our future...

Thank you Ian Anderson and the incredible Caves Branch staff for the best vacation this family has ever had!

This was the first place my husband and I stayed during our stay in Belize, and we stayed here one night.

I am normally not the "camper" type, and this was about as roughing it as I get, BUT I loved it! Our room had no lights, the only electricity was the ceiling fan. We loved the oil lamps and loved how our bed was surrounded by screens and we could hear all the sounds of the night.

Dinner was fun too. We sat with a full table of people around our age from the States, and talked about our travels throughout dinner. Everyone was really nice, and I loved the family style dining. The food was really good as well. Get there on time though because they start promptly and if you miss courses, you are out of luck.

Oh, when we first got there, we got a complimentary drink that got me pretty buzzed, LOL. It was yummy.

One thing that annoyed me was when we checked in we were asked to donate to a charity they were helping out. I dont mind donating, but to be pressured into it was kinda annoying.

Oh, there are no locks on the door, and that was my first experience with something like that. I did not mind though, and liked how they felt it was safe enough to do something like that. I just took my DSLR camera with me everywhere I went.

The grounds were gorgeous. I walked around for some time just taking pics of flowers....

Overall, the stay here was awesome and I highly recommend the resort.

My husband and I have traveled to many places in Central America and Mexico and Caves Branch is now our favorite place we have ever stayed! The people at the lodge and the guides were amazing. You are treated more like a visiting friend then a tourist and the guides are fun and informative. We stayed in one of the treehouse suites and it was amazing! It was beautiful and relaxing after a long day out on the trails and in the caves. It is definitely worth the extra money! The family style dinners were fun and the food delicious. I can't say enough about the lodge and the people.

We( my husband and I and two kids 5 and 7) spent 3 nights at the caves branch from the 14th -17th feb 2007. Staff seemed helpful and welcoming, and showed us our bungalow right away. We stayed in number 11, and it was quite roomy, bathroom had a light. They brought a little bed for our 5 year old at no extra charge. Fresh towels every day for all of us. We found a very interesting stick bug which we shared our shower with. Second night I found a lovely(but large) spider inside my pillow case.... And a second spider(approx3-4inches across) in the bathroom, but he left us alone and we were more than happy to leave him alone. Meals were very good, fruit, salads and lots of veggies at every meal. There were mambo dancing lessons, which our sons loved!!! We woke up to the Howler monkeys and jungle birds.
We went to Tikal on the day trip, Guatemala was amazing, the landscape seemed different than Belize. We ate at a small Guatemalan cafe and had breakfast, although I do not recommend drinking the coffee, we suspect was the culprit because my husband and I suffered the next few days and had to be very near a toilet!!!! Tikal itself was beautiful, a must see!! Monkeys and parrots, toucans and surprisingly not alot of people.
My husband and 7 year old went cave tubing, they loved it, my 5 year old and I went horseback riding at Banana bank, we had our own guide, he was awesome!!!! WE ended up getting forgotten for three hours by our caves branch pick up but they were very apologetic and gave us a free tranfer to Belmopan. I do recommend taking the bus service from Belmopan to Belize city, the caves branch charges $130 US,to belize city, we took the bus for only $ 5 US. There was lots of room and they put our suitcases in the back right behind us!! Going to the caves branch was a good experience overall, pricey for three days but a nice change of scenery, it was a good start before heading to the cayes.