Blackbird Caye Resort

BELIZE, TURNEFFE ATOLL - BLACKBIRD CAYE RESORT

Just a bit before sunset, a warm relaxing glow washes Blackbird Caye beaches. © Copyright John Hessburg, U.S. Dive Travel Network.

Easily the most loyal Blackbird Caye Resort clients we've ever met, are scuba diving & snorkeling aficionados Neal & Becki Litman of Miami, FL. Fond of the colorful corals & tranquility of Blackbird Caye, they’ve been revisiting nearly every year since 1988 ! © Copyright John Hessburg, U.S. Dive Travel Network.

Delightful seaside cabanas at Blackbird Caye Resort. Mucho eye candy ! © Copyright John Hessburg, U.S. Dive Travel Network.

BELIZE IS A BREEZE; YOU’VE GOTTA SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT! These reefs are among the healthiest & most colorful in all the Caribbean region.

SCUBA DIVERS, SNORKELERS & BEACH-BASKERS – here’s some seriously good news re’ BLACKBIRD CAYE RESORT – our vote for the BEST-VALUE 4-STAR DIVE RESORT in all of BELIZE. Ideal for reef snorkelers, too …

Check our “WILD & WONDERFUL WINTER SPECIAL” at LIVE-ABOARDS.COM !!

Call 612-yyy-zzzz for the up-to-the-minute special wholesale discounts, which change nearly every 2-4 weeks.

Snorkeling packages, with 2 free boat trips daily for 5 days, are priced about $300 p/p cheaper than diver packages, on the base rate.
Remember to add about $5 pp/day hotel tax + air tickets + small tourist tariff.

Please feel free to phone John, Susan or L.J. for more info at 612-yyy-zzzz.

Blackbird Caye never has looked better in the last decade. And Manta Resort will soon become a full notch even better. Now, rightfully these two tropical island resorts can be called the class acts in Belize, the best tropical vacation destinations on the Belize Barrier Reef. Blackbird Caye Resort & Manta Resort passed our WHITE GLOVE TEST for all key criteria:

* QUALITY of MEALS -- delicious & filling, plenty of variety daily, fun surprises several times a week, seldom greasy or overly salted, delightful from soups to entrees to desserts; the servers are prompt & quick responding to special requests.

* QUALITY of CABANA AMENITIES -- the bathrooms are clean as a whistle; the beds are firm with spotless linens; the cabanas are dust & bug-free; & Blackbird Caye even installed small high-tech stereos inside your room so you can bring down your own vacation CDs.

* DIVE BOAT CLEANLINESS & REPAIR -- Their boats gleam; the engines rumble with well-oiled smoothness; the tanks & weights are safely stowed & always in ready-to-roll order; & the decks would make even Niles Crane crack a smile. The dive vessel & snorkeling boat crews take genuine pride in their work, & it shows from stem to stern.

* STAFF ATTITUDE & SERVICE ACUMEN -- impeccably polite, witty & warm, without becoming solicitous; friendly & laid back with plenty of cool workaday humor. Staffers are cheerful in catering even to nuance favors (such as knocking down a few green coconuts & placing them in a fridge for cool evening coco-tails, with a straw punched through one stem-eye...)

* DAILY TLC in the GROUNDSKEEPING & BEACH-SWEEPING Dept. -- no complaints here; the staff fogs for bugs daily & cleans the beachfront before you rise, & the lads eliminate all litter close to the cabanas. Have to concede there's a little flotsam & jetsam -- from plastic bottles to snack wrappers -- gathering half a mile south down the beach, due to the *&@#$% cruise ships, but that's pandemic in the western Caribbean. The beach boys work their tails off to keep things clean, so give 'em a good word.

By all objective criteria, acknowledged by dive professionals worldwide, this is the best-value luxury scuba diving & snorkeling resort on the Belize Barrier Reef -- longest living reef in the Atlantic-Caribbean hemisphere. This sector of Belizian sea is also the only place in the Atlantic or Caribbean where you can find classic coral atolls, just like the gleaming life-rich atolls of the South Pacific. There are only three atoll systems in Belize, & Turneffe Atoll is by far the most environmentally brilliant & ecologically diverse of them. What's more, our agents' many visits to Belize since 1992 confirm that Blackbird Caye is the pearl of Turneffe Atoll's best resorts -- in price, value, service & reef quality.

Not sure exactly what’s an “atoll?” No problema… Atolls are sunken rims of huge ancient volcanoes that winds & waves over millennia slowly wore down below sea level. Then beautiful rings of islands formed along this rim over ensuing centuries. In each of these three Belizian mega-atolls, the extinct volcanic caldera (bowl at the top) has formed a sandy bottom, shallow & gentle in most locales, & lush with colorful corals. There are countless scores of brightly-hued fish species everywhere. These Belize atolls are alive with sleek mantas & eagle rays, plus skates, trumpetfish, cute li’l 'cudas, spectacular rainbow reef fish & the occasionally surprising dolphin pods, too.

While not as kaleidoscopically brilliant as the reefs of Fiji or Papua New Guinea, the atoll life forms of the Belize Barrier Reef are worthy of a noble silver medal. When you factor in that your air ticket from the USA, Canada or Europe is about half to one-third cheaper than flying to Fiji or PNG -- then Belize is a mega-bargain -- offering the choicest corals & marine life you will find anywhere in the Caribbean. Fully on a par with Little Cayman's Bloody Bay Wall & the outer pristine islands of the Turks & Caicos chain, Belize simply offers the best diving & snorkeling in this half of the planet, amigos del mar.

We are confident these Belize snorkeling trips & Belize scuba diving vacations will be a "C.P.B" for all our job-stressed urbanites out there -- that is, a Calm Palm Balm to soothe your soul. So welcome sunseekers, funseekers & beach-baskers, you are entering a Tropidelic No-Hassle Zone for singles, couples, families & dive clubs. Blackbird Caye Resort is the sine qua non of Belize snorkeling & Belize diving vacations.

KEEN ON EXPLORING the RUINS, RIVERS & JUNGLES of the BELIZE MAINLAND? HERE ARE SOME HANDY HOTLINKS to our ECO-TOURS PACKAGES in the Highlands of Belize & Guatemala:

ANCIENT MAYAN RUINS at TIKAL, GUATEMALA / Eco-Tours Part I --

SAN IGNACIO VILLAGE, BELIZE HIGHLANDS / Eco-Tours Part II --

BELIZE CITY WATERFRONT, RADISSON FORT GEORGE HOTEL --

Click photo to enlarge.

For prices & more info, call John, Susan or L.J. at 612-yyy-zzzz.

For more details on Blackbird Caye Resort, click here.

All Photos © Copyright U.S. Dive Travel Network. All Rights Reserved.