My husband and I stayed at Chan Chich for the first 4 days of our honeymoon in Dec 2005. It was our first visit to belize and it was fantastic! Chan Chich was exactly what we needed after the busy wedding preparations - lazy days getting used to all the wildlife and settling into the slower pace! The lodge is miles from anywhere so is perfect for a few days - we spent the time wandering the trails, wildlife spotting and relaxing in our very comfortable cabana. We were originally in a standard cabana but were upgraded on the second day to a luxury one - WOW!! It was lovely - HUGE bathroom with a two person shower, massive bed, and a hammock and futon on the deck.

There weren't many people staying when we were there so we got chatting to a few people which was good for learning about wildlife that had been spotted. The staff were friendly and the food was lovely (although warn them in advance if you're vegetarian - we had and still found the choices a bit limited for veggies). Breakfast was great but the menu is a bit confusing in terms of the options you can choose - we realised on day 3 we'd been ordering 2 breakfasts each!

Thoroughly enjoyed our stay here and only the knowledge that we were off to explore somewhere new made leaving possible. Would definitely recommend it to people who can entertain themselves, like birds and wildlife (monkeys and turkeys all around) and want a different experience from the norm.

This was our chosen destination for our honeymoon and it was a wonderful choice. Cannot say enough good things. Bird and wildlife watching of a LIFETIME, the location and guides (especially Gilberto) here cannot be beat. The cabanas are comfortable and cozy. The food is EXCELLENT. Beautiful grounds situated on ancient mayan ruins. The pool is incredible. Stay here and not only will you not be sorry, you will long for a return visit, as we do. (We will be back definitely!)

we had a fantastic 3 day package at Chan Chich - great birding with really knowledgeable guides (we are not experts), excellent food and luxurious cabanas. There are plenty of well marked trails you can do on your own if you do not want to take up the offer of a guide - but worth doing to meet up with the other guests there. Only cloud was the mosquitos, particularly after a rainstorm so use some effective mozzie repellent before they bite :)

My boyfriend and I spent a week at Chan Chich from the end of Oct to beg of Nov. From the moment we landed in Belize city the service was impeccable. We opted for the charter flight and were very glad we did since our pilot Daniel was excellent and we learned during a day trip that the roads are unpaved and very bumpy (not something I would want to spend 4 hrs there and back on). The grounds of Chan Chich were amazing, very well kept, so relaxing and beautiful. The cabana was very luxurious, tastefully decorated, and unbelievably clean...the pictures on the website don't do the place justice. The shower was huge with 2 shower heads (although there was only really enough hot water for a quick shower). We didn't do the meal plan and I was glad because breakfast was so big that I was rarely ready to eat lunch (but that's just me). If I could've though I would've because the food was top notch, very gourmet. I've lived in NYC and DC so I'm used to great restaurants and I was more than pleased. The purpose of the trip for us was mainly to relax and experience something new so it was a success. We knew nothing about birding but it was fun to learn from the guides and some of the other guests. Our only slight complaint is that there really wasn't a whole lot to do. We did the day trip to Lamanai which was definitely the highlight (the boat trip option was a lot of fun). We did a guided nature hike which was interesting...the guides were very knowledgable. We went horse back riding which was the highlight for my boyfriend (who went 2 more times). They offered massages in the cabana which I was very happy to learn (we found out through the staff, it wasn't listed in the brochures). They had a really nice bar so it was nice to relax there after dinner. But for about 3 of the days we just kinda hung around, read, walked around...the pool was nice but too cold to swim in. We started to get antsy by our second to last day so decided to go to Ambergris Caye for our last day...which turned out to be a huge mistake. We stayed at Captain Morgan's (mostly b/c it was the only place that got good reviews in Frommers that was still available last min) and it was a dump and we had one problem after the other. Granted it was also raining the whole day which made it miserable but this place was far far from the accomodations at chan chich. Read my review of that place for the gruesome details. I would never bother with the Cayes or Belize City for that matter. Heed the warning of all the reviews of the city - we drove through it on our way to the airport and were SOOO glad we didn't try to walk around, it was very decrepit. So if I were to do it again I'd just spend less time total but all at chan chich. I really recommend it to anyone, especially anyone considering Belize. I would've done more hikes but in the forest areas there were lots of mosquitos. In the chan chich lodge grounds there were practically none though. We were there during the rainy season so I expected it and went prepared with 100% Deet and treated clothes with Permethrin (which really worked...at Lamanai especially there were swarms of mosquitos around us and we left our vacation with only 1 but bite each). We also took the advice of the travel clinic and took an anti-malaria pill before we left which I figure better safe than sorry since there wasn't much of a reason not to take it. All in all it was a fantastic vacation, I really miss Chan Chich it was a truly beautiful place.