My husband and I stayed at DuPlooys for five nights over Christmas before heading to the Victoria House on Ambergis Caye. We loved everything about our stay. The property was lush, gorgeous and so peaceful. We spend three nights in Jungle Lodge 4 and two nights in the casita and both were immaculately clean. Jungle lodge 4 is the closest room to the restaurant so while still nice, it was a little less peaceful and private than the others. The casita is the furthest away from the restaurant, so very quiet but really too big unless you are housing a family. Jungle lodges 1-3 appeared to be up by the office so were kind of off the beaten path and not in the lush forest area.
The food was very good, the staff was incredibly nice and helpful, the trips were phenomenal. The river was pretty but it wasn't overly appealing for swimming i thought but we also didn't really have time to swim with all of the activities.
When we booked we were torn between DuPlooys and Chaa Creek/Hidden Valley but since we were going to the jungle we wanted to be IN the jungle and DuPlooys was just that. I highly recommend!

Just back from staying at duPlooys (February 2008).

It is a beautiful spot, with buildings linked by walkways perched on stilts along a ravine along the Macal River.

The bungalows are spacious and meticulously clean, the staff is accommodating and the food creative and excellent. Ricky the bartender is a cheerful and helpful guy, serving up exotic local juices like sorrel and lime, and presiding over a lovely wooden bar hanging over the ravine where kinkajous and collared aracaris come to eat the fruit put out by the staff. Canoeing along the river is relaxing and pretty, especially when the male iguanas turn bright orange to attract the females at this time of year.

If you are reasonably fit do not miss the excursion to the caves known locally as ATM (Actun Tunicihil Muknal). It is a day you will never forget. We went with Juan Carlos, an excellent guide.

One note of caution: Many people who go to duPlooys are birders (which we are not). Unless you place this interest ahead of all others, do not go on any duPlooys' excursions without checking to see if birders are going along (and declining to go if they are). We had the disappointment of going with duPlooys in a group of 6 (of whom 3 were birders) to the spectacular ruins of Tikal in Guatemala. Philip, the duPlooys' driver, is an avid birder, and stopped every few minutes to point out various drab and semi-invisible birds to the other birders, who trained their binoculars and cameras on house wrens and similarly uninteresting species for agonizing minutes, so that our 2-hour drive to Tikal took more than 4 hours! (Phillip also insisted on stopping at the same souvenir stand both coming and going, where he made long personal phone calls.) For us it was a shame to have our visit to Tikal, which could support interesting explorations of several days, cut by almost half so that we could repeatedly have ducks pointed out to us. Also, the Tikal guide that duPlooys hired (Louis) concentrates almost exclusively on Mayan cosmology rather than on the ruined buildings themselves. After he tells you about the coming end of the world, and the fact he is immune to malaria because he has a bullet in his chest, you stop listening. Between his astrological nonsense and (in particular) the selfishness of the birders, our once-in-a-lifetime visit to Tikal was severely compromised.

We stayed at DuPlooy’s for four nights after Christmas, after a four-night stay at Belizean Shores (see my review of this resort too.) It was a huge contrast to go from the white, clean, sunny conditions on the beach to the muddy, messy jungle – even though we booked our trip this way, it was a difficult transition. But the lodge itself was fine: basic but comfortable – the grounds are well maintained and the rooms are clean. Internet access is available in the office for a fee. Even though we understand the conservation philosophy of the lodge, the rooms are really dim. No matter how you try to dry your wet clothes, they take days to dry (and they never do get completely dry) and end up smelling musty or moldy – so be sure to bring plenty of bathing suits and changes of clothing, especially depending on the tours you select. We lost power one morning, but it was restored in about 15 minutes. Other guests mentioned having a bat and bugs in their unit, but we didn’t have that problem. Definitely bring strong mosquito repellent and wear plenty of it during all your tours. Even fully covered with the spray, I managed to get a good number of bites during our time here.

We were on a package since our trip was around the holidays so meals were included. There’s really no place to go for meals since DuPlooys is very secluded, so we were glad they were included. We originally doubted the quality of the food on a meal plan, but we actually ended up liking the food here. Breakfasts were pretty good as was the lunch we had on site on the first day. Since we were on full-day tours for our full 3 days, we had lunches provided on those. One was a stop at a restaurant at Tikal – food was decent. Nothing too special but a huge relief after a full day of walking and climbing up steps. The bagged lunches on the other 2 tours were pretty basic (ham/cheese sandwiches, cookies or chips, juice, fruit bar) but filling enough. Dinners at DuPlooys were good. Soups and salads were usually really good, main entrees varied – chicken and vegetarian dishes were usually better than expected but lamb/pork dishes disappointed, desserts were always tasty. Service was consistently excellent, staff very friendly. They serve breakfast and dinner in the dining room and lunch in the bar which is an open walkway that leads to a lookout point over the river. This is also where they feed bananas to the adorable kinkajous that come everyday at dusk (between 6-6:30pm) and the birds (toucans) in the morning around 6am.

DuPlooys is located off of a dusty/muddy rocky dirt road about 20 minutes from the main road. This makes it difficult to get to San Ignacio unless you request a stop in town on the way to/from your tour. But everything is pretty much included in a package so they try to make things as convenient as possible for you. Be sure to book your tours at least by 6pm the day before. The office closes by 6pm, so you may not be able to sign up for anything in the evening. DuPlooys offers a good range of tours and we definitely took advantage of the activities.

DuPlooys sent a taxi cab to pick us up from Belize City Municipal Airport – he had our first and last names mixed up so when he asked the office for us, they had told him we were not on the plane. Even though the airport is extremely small, we were waiting around for more than 30 minutes before we saw each other. We included a stop at Xunantunich on our transfer from Belize City since Xunantunich is only about 20 minutes away from DuPlooys. We were lucky to get a great guide for this site – as one of the original caretakers of the site, Elfego was extremely knowledgeable.

For more information on the tours we took from DuPlooy's, see the reviews I submitted separately for:
1) a full-day tour was to Tikal with our driver Philip and tour guide Luis
2) a full-day tour to Actun Tunichil Muknal (“ATM”)
3) a full-day tour to Flour Camp Cave, which I believe is only available to DuPlooys and one other place

I had a massage by Ivy in the separate spa hut which was really nice after three days of non-stop activity! On our last morning, we explored the Botanic Gardens on the property – it was quite nice. We also asked for a stop at the Belize Zoo on the way back to the airport. The zoo is quite small so you don’t need more than an hour to see the whole place but it’s worth the stop. Among the highlights is the beautiful black jaguar.

We arrived at DuPlooy's on Christmas Day for a 5-night stay and and began our amazing 2-week Belize vacation!

We all agree that DuPlooy's was the highlight of our trip. They treated us like royalty there and all of the staff were so friendly and knowledgeable about Belize we felt like we were being treated to special service all the time. (Thanks Anivar, Ricky, Louis and Tanika!) Stephanie; the owner/manager was very friendly, helpful and gave us really personal service, as well as gifts for Christmas.

The food was fabulous and the accommodations were perfect. We stayed in the newer bungalows and they were so clean and well kept. The treetop bar, spa and botanical gardens are just beautiful and we loved to sit and enjoy a drink and watch the toucans, kinkajous and even the night time visit by the possum!! The website photos don't do this resort justice - it is incredible!

We chose the tour package and were thrilled with our adventures! Our personal guides; Fermin, Phillip, Louis, Arnold, Alexi and Andre were very knowledgeable, interesting and friendly. The tours were fantastic and we loved being on a new, exciting adventure every day. (The worst part of the trip was that we were so tired at night we had to go to bed at 8:30 a couple of times just to rest for the next day's adventure).

We definitely recommend this resort!!

The Crazy Canuck Gringos from Western Canada