Welcome to Part 2 of our amazing family getaway to Belize. If you haven’t read Part 1, check it out here! We started off at Blancaneaux Lodge, but this article is about our stay at the Turtle Inn, our second Coppola Hideaway resort. On our way from Blancaneaux to Turtle Inn, we booked an excursion to St. Herman’s Cave to do some cave river tubing. After hiking for about 5 minutes through a flat, grassy forest, we arrived at the cave. You had to negotiate a few slippery stairs to get down into it, but there were ropes to hang on to, so it wasn’t too bad. Once we got into the cave, we snapped into our life vests, put on our helmets and headlamps and got in our tubes.

Our guide pulled us against the current down to the end of where it was safe to go in the cave, pointing out some really cool rock formations along the way. Then, we went back floating along with the current, some of the time in the complete pitch black, which was a super cool sensory experience. The only thing you could feel was the coolness of the water. You could see nothing, and when everyone was quiet, you could only hear the waterfall in the distance. Eventually, we made it back to the entrance completely refreshed from the cool water. I think there was some secret Mayan magic going on in those caves, because I suffer from chronic hives, and when I went into the cave, I was covered in them. When I came out, my skin was completely clear! A true miracle!

We ordered lunch through the resort to eat after the cave river tubing experience which was super filling. We had wraps, sandwiches, soft drinks, chips, fruit and cookies. It’s a ton of food and totally worth it to have the resort pack lunch for you! It was about 3 hours total drive to Turtle Inn, so it was really nice to have this little adventure in the middle of the trip so that your travel day is not completely wasted.

When we arrived at Turtle Inn, we were greeted by the manager, and our leftover red velvet cake from our amazing bbq dinner on our last night at Blancaneaux was whisked away to the resort’s refrigerator. The main building is open air, and completely welcoming. I absolutely adore open air lobbies! We again sat on the couch and were provided with welcome drinks while we checked in. We were then escorted to our two-bedroom beachfront villa, the Dolphin. It was literally right on the beach and about 15 feet from the water line. It was set up much like the villa at Blancaneaux except it was screened in, rather than open, due to the bugs, and I’m guessing, the weather. While we had zero rain up in the Pine Forest, several nights at Turtle Inn we experienced some pretty epic storms. This time, though, the villa had king sized beds, which was much appreciated by me and Brian. There was also an outdoor shower, which I absolutely loved. Again, no a/c, but being right on the beach, it wasn’t necessary. There was a nice breeze and good ceiling fans in the room. The villas that were set back not on the beach, though, seemed pretty stuffy without the ocean breezes. The included continental breakfast was also identical to that of Blancaneaux – where you had the option of yogurt or eggs along with fruit, bread and pastries.

Our plan at Turtle Inn was to relax a bit more than our adventurous days at Blancaneaux, and we spent a lot of time by the large, oval, main pool. We ventured into Placencia town one evening for dinner, which was lovely. I would have liked to go into town once or twice more to check out the shops and other restaurants and cafes there, but we were SO lazy once we got to the resort! We loved the beachfront bar, especially at happy hour when there were complimentary chips and guac, and discounted drinks! The beach at Turtle Inn was pretty, but the water did have a lot of seaweed and the kids didn’t love it. After one afternoon of splashing around and jumping off the large platform, they were kind of over it and we spent the rest of the time by the pool.

The food at Turtle Inn was excellent, but much more expensive than at Blancaneaux. We ate at The Gauguin Grill, which is the seafood place on the first night. The food was amazing and we had a great time in the beach-front restaurant. It was a nice welcoming dinner. We also ate at the the Mare Restaurant once for the Dutch Indonesian Rijsttafel dinner and once for just a regular dinner. For the Indonesian meal, were 11 dishes total, I believe, but they were all relatively small. The meal was quite expensive, and so we didn’t think this was a very good value. We loved the service at Mare Restaurant, though. The servers were all very jovial, and made sure we were having a good time, joking with the kids and being silly.

We did one excursion when we were at Turtle Inn, which was snorkeling at the Silk Cayes. Unfortunately, the water was pretty rough and some of the passengers on our boat weren’t tolerating it, so we couldn’t go all the way out which was super disappointing for me. I was also disappointed because I wanted to book the trip for a different date, but the manager convinced me to go on the first day because you never know what the weather and water will be like. Turns out this was the roughest day of waters during our trip…. but who is really to know? I should really just stick to my gut though next time. We did go to a tiny uninhabited island to snorkel, and this may have been a better first snorkel trip for the kids anyway. We saw some pretty corals and some brightly colored fish. We then had a massive barbecue lunch on the island which really filled us up. There were some other annoying large groups of drinking revelers on the island, though, which detracted from the chillness and remoteness of the place.

Afterwards, the water was a bit calmer and we were able to go to an area to swim and snorkel with nurse sharks, which was creepy and fun. These sharks don’t actually have any teeth, but they are large and had white eyes so they were weird looking. It took a while for all the kids to get into the water, but they all eventually did. It was in this area that we were also able to swim with super large sea turtles. I cannot even convey how large these things are and it’s hard to believe that they float! This was a super cool part of the experience. I would highly recommend getting a good quality waterproof camera for these types of trips. We all had a ton of fun with it!

On one of the days, the little kids did had a couple hours of activities with one of the workers at the resort. They did all kinds of stuff including feeding the turtles and chickens on the property, they went fishing, and did some coloring. They also got gelato! At the same time, the big kids went kayaking around Placencia in search of manatees. Unfortunately, there was apparently a lot of traffic on the water so they didn’t spot any. All in all, Turtle Inn was the relaxing few days that we absolutely needed at the end of this trip. In case you were wondering, we finished our cake on the last night of our stay at Turtle Inn and it was still amazing. If we were a little more economical with the pieces, this cake was so large it could have served 20 people.

A few observations: First, Blancaneaux is much less expensive than Turtle Inn. The food was less expensive, as well as the rooms. We got our fourth night free at Blancaneaux in their most fancy and expensive villa, and paid less, still, than three nights at the two-bedroom beachfront villa at Turtle Inn, which was not their most fancy and expensive villa. Plus, at Blancaneaux we had butler service with lots of nice extras, and at Turtle Inn we did not. Most of the more adventure-type stuff to do and the cultural stuff is actually way closer to Blancaneaux – so they have a lot more activities on offer. There are also fewer bugs there, and the weather is cooler since you are up at a higher elevation. That said, while we all agreed that we preferred Blancaneaux over Turtle Inn, there was literally nothing wrong with Turtle Inn. We loved staying there as well and had an incredible time. Every single person who worked at Turtle Inn was super nice and helpful. We also felt a little more connected to reality since Turtle Inn was closer to town and a little buzzier than Blancaneaux. It’s really not fair to compare the two places, but impossible not to, since they are owned by the same company and the rooms and experiences are so similar. They are both extremely service-forward and you will never ever want for anything at either resort. I completely loved every minute at both resorts!

This was a super epic trip, and while I hope that this is not the last trip we will have taken with all four kids, if it was the last, it certainly was the best. I would highly recommend booking a Coppola Hideaway for your next Belize vacation.