From L.N., New York, NY
This past March, my husband and I took our two children on a wonderful trip to Central America. We began in Antigua, Guatemala for Easter Week. Antigua (not to be confused with the island!) is a World Heritage Site colonial town that was once the capital of the Spanish Kingdom. Now, in addition to colonial architecture and Spanish language schools, Antigua is famous for its incredible Easter Week celebrations. Locals create beautiful “carpets” on the cobblestone streets made of crushed flower petals and straw. Religious processionals then walk over the intricate carpets during the many parades that take place in the days before Easter.
We stayed at a lovely inn, the Casa Encantada (9a Calle Poniente Esquina #1, Antigua; 011-713-344-2344; www.casaencantada-antigua.com). There are several other properties, such as the Posada del Angel (4a Avenida Sur #24A, Antigua; 011-502-7832-5303; www.posadadelangel.com) and the Meson Panza Verde (5a Avenida Sur #19, Antigua; 011-502-7832-1745; www.panzaverde.com) that would also be wonderful choices. The Casa Santo Domingo (3a Calle Oriente #28A, Antigua; 011-502-7820-1220; www.casasantodomingo.com.gt) is another great choice. It is more of a hotel than an inn and is situated in a beautiful former mission. It also has a large pool.
While in Antigua, we hired a helicopter to take us to Lake Atitlan for the day. We circled the active volcanoes surrounding Antigua on our way to the lake, which was amazing! We didn’t spend the night at Lake Atitlan although there are two beautiful properties there: the Hotel Atitlan (Finca San Buenaventura, Panajachel; 011-502-2360-8405; www.hotelatitlan.com), where we landed, and the Casa Palopo (Carretera a San Antonio, Santa Catarina Palopó; 011-502-5773-7777; www.casapalopo.com), which looked incredible but didn’t allow children. The lake is surrounded by various villages, which you can visit via boat. We went to Santiago, where our guide took us to visit the shrine of Maximon, a Mayan deity, in the home of a local shaman.
After spending Easter week in Antigua, we traveled to the rainforest in Belize. We stayed at the Chan Chich Lodge (011-501-223-4419; www.chanchich.com), a jungle lodge built on an ancient Mayan plaza, surrounded by 130,000 private acres of rainforest preserve in northwestern Belize. I was a bit concerned when we first arrived as the rest of the twenty or so guests were serious bird watchers, which is not really our family’s thing It turned out to be an incredible adventure! Our guide took us on amazing nature walks which included crawling into looters’ trenches in the side of the Mayan ruins. Also, there is a working farm, Gallon Jug, that is part of the estate and where we went horseback riding and canoeing on a beautiful lake. We went on night drives in a jeep to look for jaguars and other wildlife. During the day, howler monkeys swung from the trees all around us. We stayed in a fabulous two-bedroom villa with a living room, which I highly recommend for families.
After three nights in the jungle, we flew to Ambergris Caye for three days of beach. We stayed at the Mata Chica Resort (011-501-223-0002; www.matachica.com). The property is a small, hip hotel directly on the beach. The only negative is that we were in one of their three “luxury villas” which, unlike the single room accommodations, was set back from the beach, behind the other rooms. We would have preferred to be directly on the beach. Belize has the second largest barrier reef after Australia, so we were able to do incredible snorkeling. The town of San Pedro was not much, so we preferred having dinner at our hotel where the food was fabulous, or at a neighboring property, Azul (011-501-226-4012; www.azulbelize.com), which also had a great restaurant. Azul also has two villas, both of which are on the beach. They looked very nice from the exterior, but we didn’t see the interiors.
Read another member’s account of her trip to Guatemala.
_ Read our insider’s report on Belize.
