Tour Guide: Eco-Lodges in Belize

We all want to be green these days, and some companies are making it even easier for us to travel that way. Manaca, Inc. offers eco-tours in more than 20 countries, from Nepal to New Zealand to Namibia. The company selects local operators, guides, and eco-lodges and asks them to sign Manaca’s Responsible Tourism Pledge to ensure authenticity and sustainability.

Book an eco-tour to Belize and you’ll experience the ruins, rain forests, and coral reefs that make Belize’s environment unique. After touring the ancient Mayan ruins with Manaca’s hand-picked guides, you might stay at DuPlooy’s Jungle Lodge, located next to the 45-acre Belize Botanic Gardens. Or you could stay at the Chaa Creek, the first jungle lodge in Belize, which sits on a 365-acre reserve and employs more than 70 local staff. You can see butterfly farms and a medicinal rain forest trail, and have plenty of time to enjoy horseback riding, hiking, bird watching, canoeing, and the spa facilities offered by Chaa Creek.

Macaca’s Eco-Assessment rates lodges based on what each does for community, conservation, and education. All of the lodges are tested by Manaca staff members, and while Manaca claims some lodges “vary in rusticity,” they promise that “they are all quite clean and pleasingly comfortable.”

Manaca’s rating system makes life a bit easier when it comes to choosing what tours to go on, so they get a definite plus in our Tour Guide book.

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