Belize will forever hold a special place in my husband and I’s heart as this is where we went for our Honeymoon!  It also happened to be my first time visiting South America and it couldn’t have been a better experience.

We stayed in the small village of Hopkins which is a (very) small plane ride from Belize City.  Specifically, we stayed at the Hamanasi Resort.  My husband had read that this is one of the top ranked resorts in the world (depending on who you ask I suppose).  After our stay there, we couldn’t argue otherwise!

Hamanasi Resort

Don’t let the website fool you, they do not have any need to invest heavily in their website as their business predominantly comes from word of mouth.  The staff was beyond friendly…they truly felt like friends by the time we left.  The resort is so small that you will find that you make friends with all the other tourists as well to some extent by the time you leave.  With that said, it’s a very secluded and private resort where many of the guests were also on their honeymoon.

We stayed in a tree house as opposed to the beach front properties. Looking around on our tree house, we couldn’t see any signs of civilization and that’s exactly how we wanted it. We had a wrap-around porch with Jacuzzi outdoors along with a hammock to swing on. It was, in a word….bliss.

We thought we would eat in the Hopkins village occasionally, but the food at the resort was just REALLY good that we had no desire to do so.

Our booking package came with several excursions so we definitely took advantage. As my husband is a diver and I wasn’t, I wanted to get certified.  I had private lessons as nobody else was getting certified at the time so C-Dawg took care of me. He was extremely professional and at no point did I ever feel out of control or unsafe.  I was able to go on all the dives with my husband but would go off with C-Dawg to do my tests then after I completed the steps, we would meet back up with the diving group and explore. It was an overall great experience: warm water, very high visibility, beautiful sea life.

The Blue Hole is what every diver wishes to go diving in. Unfortunately, it’s not for beginners so I was reduced to snorkeling. However, I didn’t feel like snorkeling cheapened the experience.  Because of the coral reef protruding up to the surface, there is a lot of wildlife that live among the reef…..we even saw nurse sharks!  But what made it extraordinary was being able to get up close and personal with the reef even as a snorkeler. Typically snorkelers are looking down below at the reef and often miss the details….the blue hole allows you to experience firsthand what divers get to see.  Do keep in mind that the boat ride out to the blue hole is nearly 3 hours.  Dramamine was a MUST for me as I quickly get sea sick. Pack extra, it’s a long day!

We also did a cruise down Monkey River. Be warned, it’s a LONG drive down to Monkey River and we ended up only seeing a few monkeys up in the trees but nonetheless, it was a good experience.  We also did the zip lining one day that was such a fun excursion. The views were fantastic and the lines were SO HIGH…if you’re afraid of heights….this is not for you. Although, my husband doesn’t love heights and he rather enjoyed it.  There were many other excursions that looked to be very fun and unique and we didn’t hear any of the other guests say they had a bad experience on the excursions.

Cheers!