Huracan Diving Lodge — Hotel in Long Caye

The Diving|We have been diving all over the world, and every dive off Long Caye Island is the best diving in the western hemisphere. It is so remote that the turtles aren’t afraid of divers and don’t swim away. We saw so many turtles over the course of the week, including green, loggerhead, and hawksbill. The many groupers were enormous, we even saw a Goliath grouper, which must have weighed over 200 pounds. We saw so many giant spotted eagle rays and southern stingrays. And we saw many reef sharks. The coral and flora was colorful, healthy, abundant and surrounded with all the large, beautiful colorful reef fish that you hope to see in this part of the world; parrot fish, hogfish, filefish, drumfish, angelfish, and puffers. On the night dive we saw 2 octopuses and numerous large crabs and lobsters. On previous trips to Belize, due to the distance from other atolls/resorts to Long Caye, the dive schedule only allowed us to visit this area once per week. We were so excited to learn that this tiny resort existed and that it was possible to dive this incredible paradise every day. ||The Resort’s Diving Program: |The diving program is comparable to other programs in the region. They offer 2-3 dives per day plus one night dive (including a trip to Blue Hole and Half Moon Caye). The equipment is up to date, resort staff prepare/rinse/place your tanks, BCDs every day, and provide all of the assistance you need getting in and out of the boat. Because the location is so close to the great dive sites, the boat rides are just long enough for you to gear up before it is time to start diving. Our dive master that week was Daniel. He did a great job of taking us to beautiful sites, conducting the standard dive briefing, remaining attentive and demonstrating his considerable knowledge of the plant and animal life that we saw on the dives. Joseph, who drove the boat, was a capable and attentive driver, and was always there when we came up, regardless of whether it was a drift dive or not. ||Getting to and from: |The Belize airport has modernized and is very easy to navigate. The lines to get through immigration can be quite long on Saturday, though. Once you get outside the airport, there are plenty of taxis to take you where you need to go, or you can book with a local driver, such as Williams Belize Airport Shuttle (who we have gone with many times) or you can arrange a driver through Huracan. The resort picks you up at the dock behind the Princess Ramada in Belize City at a specific time on Saturday. The boat ride is about 2 hours on an open speedboat. ||Accommodations: |The resort is in a single, well-built building with 4 guest rooms, about 70 yards from the beach. It has a screened-in dining area, a kitchen, a dive shop, and an outdoor area where you can dry your clothes and take an outdoor shower. 2 minutes from the resort, there is a beach (and kayaks), but the bugs were too bad to enjoy the beach while we were there. We did sit out at the end of the long dock to read in the afternoons, watch the sunsets, and sometimes stargaze (it is so dark and remote, it was worth it). There were fans and hot water for showers, but no air conditioning. The resort has electricity from generators that run until 9:30 at night, at which point they ask people to unplug devices. Amazingly, the resort has wi-fi (not enough to stream but enough to check email and texts). The four people working there were friendly, knowledgeable, and delightful: Daniel, Joseph, Shannon, and Michael. ||Food: |Shannon, the chef, was enthusiastic and creative. He was so kind about accommodating the difficult food allergies and preferences of the guests. His meals were plentiful and delicious! We even got to have lobster, conch, lion fish, and other delicious locally caught fish. ||The Island:|The island is beautiful, small, and palm-tree covered, part of the bigger atoll, with many iguanas and hermit crabs. There was no sargassum problem when we were there. ||Booking:|It was fairly easy and straightforward to book with them in advance. They were friendly...

Context: my wife (31F) and I (30M) stayed at Huracan for 4 nights. My wife got her open water certification last year and did a couple of dives since then. She completed her advanced open water at Huracan. I got my advanced open water when I was 16 and did a couple of dives each year since then (excluding covid). I am therefore an intermediate diver, my wife was still a novice. This was the first diving-specific or diving focused trip we have done and we loved it!|| ||Travel: the communication with Christian before we arrived was very good. A car picked us from the airport and returned us to the airport at the end. We booked the advanced open water course a month before we arrived but unfortunately the resort provided no communication around this except confirming that we had booked it. Once we arrived they expected my wife to have completed the homework/book element of the course already. Fortunately they had a hard copy of the book in the lodge and my wife spent the first evening and next day studying it. Bear in mind in case you want to get advanced certified.|| ||Diving: hands down the best diving of both of our lives. We did not feel that our lack of dive experience limited the experience in any way but without the advanced certification you will not get to experience much of the Blue Hole. The reefs are beautiful, teeming with life and there’s loads to see on every dive. We spent 20 minutes next to a turtle watching it eat and swim. We were surrounded by reef sharks numerous times. We saw various rays, lobsters, octopi and hundreds of fish. The Blue Hole dive was very unique. The location of the resort is excellent – most of the dive sites are 1-10 minutes away by boat. Sam, our divemaster instructor, was excellent. A very good mix of safe and fun to dive with. Very clear debriefs before each dive and very attentive to minor issues like equalising problems. Emmanuel our second guide and Joseph the boat captain were also excellent. A shoutout to our fellow guest and divemaster Beat who also made the dives very enjoyable and was great to get to know during our stay. I wish I had brought anti fog spray for our masks and I hadn’t forgotten my dive computer! Overall the dives were 11/10.|| ||Accommodation: it is basic. There is no air con but there is a fan in the room. During the middle of the day it can be borderline unbearably hot in the lodge but fortunately it rained a few times and we had a lot of cold water to use for showers. The lodge is unfortunately set quite far back from the shore, so there is no breeze and loads of mosquitos. There are sun loungers by the lodge but they are unusable due to the bugs. There is not a lot else to do if you don’t dive, though. If you are serious about diving and not looking for a super luxury experience I think it’s worth it.|| ||Food: big shoutout to Chef Shannon who treated us every day to freshly made three course dinners, buffet breakfasts and filling lunches. Highlights included a day trip to Half Moon Caye for a bqq and dives and cooking a lobster we had caught a few hours  before – the best tasting lobster I’ve ever had and I’m from an island near France and eat lobsters regularly.|| ||Staff: all excellent. Very attentive and happy to help. Raheem the dream was good to get to know and I enjoyed learning about how they maintain all the scuba gear and compressors. He also did a good job keeping the lodge clean and tidy.|| ||Overall: highly recommend if you are looking for a cost-effective dive resort and are prepared to go without some luxuries during...

I did A LOT of research before traveling to Belize and choosing Huracan. I considered aspects of covid, the reviews, the reef conditions... everything. As it relates to covid, Huracan is on BZEs list of gold standard cleanliness so it’s an approved place to stay... also you’re on a remote island in the middle of the ocean so very unlikely to get any kind of sickness . The staff wore masks and took our temperatures every day. We felt very comfortable at the lodge. I read all previous reviews, the good and the ugly. You have to read between the lines on the ugly ones... I mean one complaint was about mosquitoes, what do you expect when staying at an eco lodge on a remote island? & even then there were absolutely zero mosquitoes in our room. pack deet spray if you’re going to be out at dusk or in case it rains. But 80% of the time we were on the water anyway where there are obviously no bugs. I live in Florida and I occasionally see cockroaches in my own home, so I was impressed to see ZERO our entire stay. How is that even impossible?! I need to know their secret to that! The good reviews about the staff and food are 10/10 accurate. We came for the diving but we wanted to stay because of the people. We will never forget this experience and the impression on our hearts is truly from the outstanding staff. Their lodge manager Jose is an absolute gem & his pride in what he does motivates all the staff around him and brings such positive energy to the whole team, the guests notice and we can feel it too. Any business would be honored to have him.

The food!! Fresh everything... I was most impressed with the freshly baked breads and tortillas and cakes and desserts... just wow. I did not have a single bad meal and we were there one entire week, three meals a day. I don’t think I can say that about any restaurant! And the dives.. I’ve dove several places in the world including Mexico, Bonaire, all of the keys... this was better than all of the above. First, location location location. I’m used to :30-:60m boat rides each way for a two tank dive... well you can practically see the mooring lines from the dock! 5m tops, I had to start gearing up as soon as we got on the boat because I realized I only had a few minutes! And the corals are just teaming with life!! Every dive was unique and I got to cross one of my bucket list dive sightings: the octopus! 💛 the reefs have been well preserved and the wildlife is plentiful.... not to mention our dive master Emric was absolutely brilliant ...after diving for 8 years I can confidently say he is the best dive master I’ve ever had. He is not only an expert dive master with decades of experience, but he is an expert in all ocean wildlife of Belize! He was like our own personal fish identifier! & whether you’ve been diving 8 yrs or one guest had not dove in over 20 years, he was patient and calm, made everyone feel very comfortable and taken care of. I’ve witnessed dive masters be short and annoyed with novice divers, but Emric was patient every step of the way with all of us. If you are seeking a truly unique and intimate experience, you love nature and you don’t mind a little hot weather... then book with Huracan and shy away from those major resorts and dive into the...