My husband and I are Belizeans but have lived in the US for 38 years. Our children were born in the US and we have traveled extensively. Belize is by far our favorite place. It's home. The beauty of Belize is captured at Calico Jacks- El Progresso , Cayo district.
The location is a little difficult to get to but well worth the bumpy ride ; we saw it as an adventure.
The beauty of this place lies in the natural fauna and flora that surrounds the 300+ acres that the resort is surrounded by. We took a trip on the zip-line. It was amazing. To zip over the jungle and look out around you is total awe. The stars at night are so beautiful beacuse of how clear the night sky is.
There are 2 Mayan caves on the property with authentic artifacts. It's a must.see. Take a hike along the medicine trrail and you will learn so much.
What the owners have done here is great. Their staff is crosstrained in all aspects of the resort.
The staff was very friendly and knowledgable and capable.Thanks can't wait to go back.

My wife and I went to the new resort being developed at Cayo, and spent a whole day walking its medicine trail, exploring one of its caves, and (madly) testing a 500 foot zip line running over the forest canopy. We had the best one day's activity in years and if we were not laughing, we were stunned into silence as we discoverd plants and trees, and bats and historical artefacts. One day of this and we felt we had spent a week trekking. We took our risks to explore unfinished features, as we know the owners. Not satisfied with that we got to sample great local food and fruit wines, which we suggested be part of any 'goody' bag offered to visitors. Fabulous!

We had the most amazing experience at Calico Jacks inn February 2008. We have two boys 11 & 8, who cannot stop talking about the trip, the hotel, the food, and the small staff who felt like family by the end of our week.

CJ's is small, maybe 10 cabanas? It was so quiet, there were other guests during our stay, but we felt like we were the only ones. The cabanas are beautiful and clean. The beach is 20 yards away, and there's a beautiful pier over the water with two hammocks. Each cabana had a hammock out front as well. I don't think its possible to count the number of times I fell asleep in a hammock.

The food was amazing! We ordered in the morning so there would be no left over food. My younger son only ate grilled cheese sandwiches, when they ran out of cheese the spent hours traveling to get more. We were there for my older sons birthday and they made a birthday cake for him.

'They went out of their way to accommodated our needs. They organized amazing trips tailored for our family. I have to mention again beauty of the people and location. The staff is small and by the end of week we felt like we were leaving family.

We have stayed a large fancy hotels, friendly small hotels, and dirty hotels. We really didn't know what to expect from CJs, we never imaged something so intimate and friendly. There were some people who just ate their meals and didn't befriend the staff. But we learned so much more about Belize than we could ever have going on tours and walking around Placencia.

The final consensus parents and children alike was that it was the most wonderful, beautiful, happy place we have ever stayed.

The hotel is very far from town- about a 25-30 US dollar cab ride over a bumpy street. The hotel would like to get you for all services: food, tours, cabs, etc. The food was average and on the pricey side. The hotel rooms were nice looking, but poorly made. The ceiling is made of palm leaves and would fall apart and leave leaves on the bed. The room did not come with soap, shampoo, water (as said), glasses, etc. They told us they could not clean the room earlier, because they only had one key and we had it. The beds left your back in pain. We heard complaints from other guests who almost slept on the floor, because the mattress was so bad.

The owner is a drunk. He sits around drinking hard liquor and treats his staff like they are servants of his. It was not the place to be at night; Most of the quests went to the hotel next store for tours, food, etc.

They are also building a casino next door, which could add to noise.