Welcome To The Macal River Camp
And its brand new website
The Lodge at Chaa Creek means many things to many people.
For families, it represents a great vacation with something for everyone, from toddlers, teens, moms and dads to grandparents, to enjoy. For couples, it’s the ultimate romantic getaway, with a dedicated team of Romantic Adventures specialists on call to help plan the perfect idyll. For groups of friends, individuals… you get the picture.
This “something for everyone” aspect is also reflected in the wide range of accommodation options, from the original, signature cottage collection to the newer Ix Chel Luxury Rainforest Villas, with a range of individually designed and appointed suites and villas in between.
One of the more interesting options, and certainly the most affordable, is the lesser-known Macal River Camp.
The Camp is one of Chaa Creek’s more established accommodation options, used annually for the Eco Kids Environmental Education Summer Camp and other events, and as an interesting, affordable jungle experience and base for exploring the rest of Belize.
The Macal River Camp also means different things to different visitors. For some, it’s a budget-friendly alternative to the more high-end lodgings. Camp guests have complete access to the restaurant, lounge, infinity pool, spa, Belize Natural History Museum and Butterfly Farm, and all amenities, attractions and activities within Chaa Creek’s 400-acre private nature reserve for a fraction of the cost of other lodgings.
Having all this available a pleasant walk away makes sense for people travelling on a budget – or simply wishing to have more vacation money to spend by saving on sleeping arrangements.
Others stay at the Camp for the experience of being so close to nature and experiencing the jungle in a simpler, back-to-nature manner.
Featuring bungalow style casitas – Spanish for “little house” – built on raised poles with private verandas, comfortable beds with fresh linens and towels, hammocks and lovely jungle views, the Camp is surrounded by a pristine rainforest environment, yet is an easy, scenic walk along the river to the central lodge area and Chaa Creek amenities.
With hygienic, Eco-friendly showers and bathrooms, a large airy thatched palapa serving as a common dining and entertaining area, and delicious, home cooked meals served by the Juarez family, who also act as hosts, look after housekeeping, security and whose paterfamilias, Docio, has become famous for his advice, information, anecdotes and stories, the Camp offers true Belizean hospitality.
With no electricity, lit by the warm glow of kerosene lamps at night, this is also a rare opportunity to experience the jungle much like early explorers, settlers, chicleros, and, more recently, Chaa Creek’s founders did.
When Mick and Lucy Fleming first took over an overgrown citrus orchard on the banks of the Macal River in the late 1970s, with the only access by canoe or horseback, this is more or less how they lived. Except without having delicious home cooked meals made for them, the attention of a warm, friendly family, and all the delightful amenities of a first-class jungle lodge at their fingertips.
Other travellers have more specific reasons for staying at the Camp. There are the serious birders who say the quieter, more remote location of the Camp means they have a closer relationship with their fine feathered friends from morning into the night. And this is true for all nature lovers – your chances of at least hearing howler moneys, kinkajous, jaguarundis, ocelots and other nighttime forest dwellers are enhanced at the Camp.
Where else can you have such a true jungle experience, but with the comfort and security that the camp offers?
Which brings us to a question: with so much going for it, why isn’t the Macal River Camp better known?
Maybe it’s because, as someone recently put it, “you’re keeping your light under a bushel-basket, your flowers in the attic. You need to let people know!”
We realised they were probably right, and so we’ve just launched a new website to give people a chance to learn more about this unsung hero of Chaa Creek accommodations:
https://www.macalrivercamp.com/
And, to celebrate the launch of the new website, we’re offering the first ten people who book a stay at the camp, using the “Book Now” tab on the website, 10% off accommodation, making an already great deal that much better. All you need to do is enter the code “CAMPL18” into our booking engine and you will automatically receive the 10% off. Hurry – only valid on first 15 reservations made using the promotional code!
So – whether for a more authentic jungle experience, as a more affordable option for families, couples, friends or solo adventurers, or simply to see what it feels like to stay in elevated casitas up on the banks of a lovely tropical river, serenaded to sleep at night by the sounds of the rainforest, we encourage you to check out the new website and see for yourself if the Macal River camp is right for you.
Who knows? To paraphrase Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine at the end of Casablanca, “This could be the start of a beautiful relationship.”