Call us shallow, but we always feel so much better about a hotel when their web site is well-designed, informative and doesn't have photos of the hotel from the 1980s.
And when it comes to eco-hotels or just hotels in the Belize region, we've seen some doozies. We're talking homemade webpages that someone's 6-year-old may have thrown up. But the Hamansi Resort is both an eco-hotel and in Belize, all the while pulling off a great, organzied, and informative website.
From there, Hamansai is stocked with things to do on the beach, in the water, and trekking through the rainforest. Then of course there's the eco part meaning they're actually nice to their gorgeous surroundings and hence the surroundings are nice to you too (well let's hope the birds never lose it and attack.) For Hamansai, being an eco-hotel also means encompassing a whole lot o' land:
40% of Belize is national reserve. Hamanasi, an eco-resort, promotes responsible, sustainable nature based eco-tourism! The hotel is nestled in 21 acres of rare coastal forest teaming with birds, flora and orchids
And as for the guests, there are a whole lot o' room options for you ranging from luxurious honeymoon suite to a beachfront room or a "spacious" treehouse.
The Salamander Belize is located outside of San Pedro in Ambergis Caye, Belize. This very remote, solar-powered hotel has eight cabanas or "huts" running from $180 a night. They come with hardwood floors, bathrooms with running hot and cold water and best of all they sit on the beach, perfect for snorkel and dive afficionados.
And just a 30-minute boat ride from the hotel is the famous diving spot, the Blue Hole, where the water is so deeply blue that one can even see it from outer space.
The hole was formed after the Ice Age caused the existing dry cave system to collapse (we aren't scientists so visit Blue Hole on National Geographic.) At first this diver's heaven was thought to be bottomless until Jacques Cousteau measured it with a mini-sub and found it to be 400 feet deep and 1,000 feet in diameter.
If you are heading that way, you can hit up closer hotels in San Pedro, or stay at the Salamander.
But since this is Belize, a tropical destination, there are some bugs:
Keep your cabin door closed and your porch light off at the end of the day and you should be fine, we did not need nets over the bed. On a still day we left the porch light and coming back from dinner you could see a mat of mosquitos gathered in the thatches above the porch (door was closed).
Azul is a secluded two-villa beach resort that combines San Francisco loft culture with a Belize beach resort.
Two San Francisco refugees opened Azul earlier this year in an attempt to combine high design with the natural beauty of Belize. The two villas have an open floor plan, 20-foot ceilings with beams of mylady wood, and are beachfront.
Viking stoves, a 50" plasma television w/ Direct TV, and iMac G4 with wireless access make up the best of the new. While bamboo railings, a palapa with hammock, and a rooftop hot tub overlooking the jungle round out the old.
Oh yeah, and it is all beach front, and of course, there is a beach bar serving mojitos.
Yup, this qualifies as a spot we don't even want to tell you about in case we can find a way to swing the rates this winter.
