Hotel Review: Belcampo Belize in Punta Gorda, Belize

One of the Best Hotels in Belize, Re-Born

It’s always a tense moment when a hotel that seems to be on top of its game announces it will be getting a new general manager, a new name and a new direction. That’s what happened shortly after my stay at Machaca Hill Rainforest Canopy Lodge in Southern Belize.

Honestly, I didn’t see the need for any changes at Machaca Hill. The boutique resort’s 12 suites were chock full of luxury with large, chic rooms with stone-inlaid showers and floor to ceiling windows with views into 15,000 acres of private jungle, outrageous food and a petite spa with an epic, nearly entirely glassed-in massage room (be prepared for toucans and spider monkeys to spy on your spa day).

All of those book-it-now elements remain. But owner Todd Robinson didn’t become a successful innovator by sitting on his laurels and doing things the way they’ve always been done. So, in December, the hotel was re-born as Belcampo Belize with a fresh focus on sustainable, local, traditional food—a theme that dovetails nicely with the cleanly raised and carefully butchered organic and grass-fed meats sold by Mr. Robinson’s Belcampo Meat Company in Northern California.

Belcampo Belize is located on 3,000 acres of farmland including an impressive three-acre organic garden which already supplies the resort’s restaurant with fruit, vegetables, eggs and (coming soon) pork and poultry. Starting in the fall of 2012, Belcampo Belize will debut three culinary packages (US$75 per person) to help guests get deeper into local food traditions and techniques.

A jungle food foraging trip will culminate in a cooking demonstration of the ingredients gathered, another tour will teach guests how to process and use traditional Mayan ingredients like tepary beans and a third tour will introduce guests to the country’s unique blend of Belizean, Indian and Caribbean cuisines making the most of the resort’s newly-planted spice grove.

Our review of this hotel was originally published by iTraveliShop and note that this property is now called Copal Tree Lodge