Ka'ana Resort — Hotel in Cayo District

My wife and I spent 2 weeks in Belize for our anniversary in April. We spent the first week at Ka'Ana on the recommendation of another resort, and it may be the best recommendation I have ever received!!! This beautiful boutique resort is stunning and gorgeous, beautiful little bungalows nestled in the forest. Pictures do not do the grounds justice at all, it is just that breathtaking! The rooms themselves were super clean and elegant. Our little cabana had a back patio which included a soaker tub and an outdoor shower. My wife and I never once used the indoor shower during our entire stay! Another big convenience was that you could do everything for the resort via WhatsApp. Wanted to schedule an excursion, order room service, have a tree branch removed from your outdoor tub or have drinks delivered poolside. Our experience started before we even arrived as the staff was in communication well before we got there assisting us in planning our vacation, making sure we understood Covid-19 requirements, and making arrangements for us to get to the resort. When we landed in Belize City we were greeted at the airport by Brandon, one of the resort tour guides, who drove us the 2 hours to the resort and educated us on everything Belize along the way and told us about the excursions we could take throughout the week. And we did take advantage of the excursions throughout the week doing the zip lining/cave tubing excursion, Xunantunich, and Caracol adventures. We had Andy as our guide for all 3 of those adventures and they were amazing because of it. His knowledge of not just the region but of Mayan history made these adventures just that much better. Add that he is super fun and personable. As he says there are 40,000 people living in Belize and he knows 39,900 of them. Andy also took care to watch out for us, when he found out my wife had a stroke a year ago and has to move a little slower, he made sure to not only watch out for her but also made extra effort to remind her that "we aren't on any time schedule" and that it was her adventure and she could take all the time she needed. Our excursion experiences were typical of our interactions with all the staff at the resort. Whether it was making plans with Trisha at the front desk, Eddie giving us rides to town and advice on restaurants, Lily brining us our cocktails poolside, Ms. Fiona trying to help us plan our activities for our stay, Victor at breakfast, or winding down our day having drinks at the bar with Miguel (ask him about the canoe races). Everyone at the resort, in fact everyone we encountered was always smiling and friendly. This is the first country I have ever visited where everyone seemed not only happy that we were there, but was eager to teach us and show us everything this amazing country has to offer Ka"Ana took their care and treatment even a step further with having Andy drive us the 3 hours to Placencia to the next resort we stayed at. Most other places would have arranged a car service, instead they gave us that door to door service and treatment that you'd think were reserved for the rich and famous, and I never could have imagined receiving. Recommendations while there; book your excursions through the resort. They are about the same cost as the others you could book in town. The difference is smaller groups and that personal service that comes from Eddie, Brandon, and Andy. Also, get off the resort and experience the towns. The staff at Ka"Ana will not only recommend places but will also give you a ride or make arrangements (taxi is about $10 each way) and eat at the local restaurants and get gifts from the shops. Also definitely go to the farmers market on Saturday. My only warning is try not to fall in love with the people and country of Belize. I think Ka'Ana spoiled us so much that after 2 days we started planning a return trip, and after 4 days we started looking in to maybe buying property and...

Minus 1 star for mediocre onsite restaurant. Waitstaffs and open air restaurant vibe were excellent but food was bland and uninteresting. I had a dinner & 3 breakfasts there. I repeated the breakfast meals only because it was included, & I was able to pre-order the day before. Pre-ordering really help since it takes 30-45 minutes to get your food otherwise. We had ordered 3 steak and egg for the 1st breakfast and only the eggs were edible. All 3 steaks were chewy-rubbery and had almost a rancid taste. Needless to say, none of us ate the steaks after the first 2 bites. We stayed with the safer choice of oatmeal and the stuff fry jacks after that. Portions were generous but we wasted food because nothing was especially tasty.

Minus the 2nd star because the property did not live up to its expensive rate with direct booking. I was charged $2731 USD for 3 nights & 2 casitas. The rooms were basic and did not look like the website pictures. One safe did not work & the 2nd safe ran out of battery the 2nd day, requiring me to wait in the room while handyman replace the batteries. There were tiny little white bugs around the counter above the mini-refrigerator. I did not put my items on counter space or touching walls to avoid transporting any unwanted passengers. I did not report the buggy issue since bugs are to be expected in a tropical clime and there were only about 5 dozen bugs scurrying about. The water pressure was low and tepid for the outdoor tub and shower. It was not relaxing to soak in a tub of lukewarm water while trying to commune with nature. Thank goodness the indoor shower only has the low pressure issue. Some of the pool loungers are stained & has rips with the stuffing visible. The pool was tiny and the water was cloudy, hopefully from over-chlorination and nothing else. Cleaning staff was awesome & the room was cleaned twice a day.

I drove 5 min to the Rumor Resort next door and gave them a bag of 25 articles for washing at 2PM & requested a 6PM pickup. They were glad to do it for $10USD. I did not even enquired at Ka'ana since I had read in a review that the resort charges $3-5 USD per piece. This brings me to my next point. You need a car when staying at Ka'ana otherwise you are at their mercy regarding food and laundry. It is outside of San Ignacio. Luckily, it is very simple to drive in Belize. You only have a handful of highways that are 1 way in each direction, making navigation around the country simple. There are very few cars on the road since gas is about $6.5/G and minimum wage is $1.65/h. There are frequent speed humps so you can't race anywhere.Going above 10mph over the higher speed bumps will launch you with a rather jarring landing. Even driving on unpaved roads to the San Ignacio garden, to meet up with our guide at the ATM, or to the Coxcomb Jaguar Preserve were not problematic in the 4 wheel drive. I think a teen with a learner permit can handle these roads. I am not an adventurous driver & would not attempt to drive in Bangkok or only reluctantly...

I honestly don’t know where to begin as everything about Ka’ana from the customer service from the staff to how beautiful the resort was, was just AMAZING! I will start with when I first booked the resort for our Honeymoon and came in contact with Mark Flowers, from the beginning he was so helpful with going over all the available excursions with me and checking to see if I had any dietary restrictions so that they could plan for my arrival. He showed amazing customer service and when you think that it couldn’t get any better… it does. Jason he is ABSOLUTELY the best!! When my husband and I arrived to the resort for our honeymoon in July he knew exactly who we were and knew everything about us… he did his homework and we LOVED it! He was so sweet he had gotten some of our wedding photos from our sneak peek pictures and made us the cutest welcome letter! Make sure when you visit to do some of the amazing excursions they have to offer so that you can see how beautiful it is in Belize. We did the Mayan Ruins, Horseback riding, Cave tubing, chocolate making and the Mayan cooking class (which I’ll get more into later) just to name a few and they were all AMAZING. Our tour guides were Andy and Brandon and they were by far the BEST we truly enjoyed them and they went above and beyond but with Ka’ana I wouldn’t expect anything different. On my last night there I suffered from a heat stroke (found this out once I got back home and went to Dr) during our Mayan cooking course (which was totally my fault for not hydrating myself properly that day after a massage) however I wanted to mention this because the performance from the staff again was exceptional. They took care of me and made sure that I was well taken care of and Jason even drove to town to buy me Gatorades AND got me ice-cream from the best ice-cream place in town! That’s not the end of it due to me having my little episode my husband and I didn’t really get to eat and missed the BBQ night they had put on as well. When my husband went down to get something additional to eat all the food was gone but they fired the grill back up and cooked the works for us!! You won’t get this kind of service from anywhere so if you’re looking to stay here look no further this is truly top notch and as good as it gets. I want to thank Wolfgang, Amin, Elito, Miguel, Candy, Silvia, Julianie and Danielle for being so AWESOME and making sure Dewayne and I were taken care of every step of the way. If I forgot to mention anyone that we came in contact with I am truly sorry as you all were the BEST!! My husband and I loved this place so much that we tried to book to come back for December as soon as we got back home but they are completely booked which shows you that we aren’t the only ones that knows how amazing this place in. It took me a while to post a review due to other sites limiting how long the review could be and I just couldn't shorten my review. Thank you all again and we hope to see you soon!!...