Iguana Reef Inn — Hotel in South Caye Caulker

I first travelled to Caye Caulker with a friend in 2018. We stayed at an Airbnb on the East side of the island. But after seeing Iguana Reef Inn, we knew that we had made a mistake and would be staying there in the future.

I recently returned in December 2022 and stayed at Iguana Reef Inn for two weeks. This place is so incredible it's hard to know where to begin.

The location is on the West side of the island is perfect! It's quiet & peaceful, yet only a 5 min walk to the Main Street. This is the only hotel on the island that has a beautiful walk-out beach. They have tons of lounge chairs for guests, hammocks (both on land and in the water), comfy seating areas in the shade and an amazing beach bar with the best drink menu on the island.

Next to the dock you will find a protected area with netting in the water where you can spot seahorses in the morning and throughout the day. They have paddle boards available for guests to use. I went out almost every day - it's great exercise, fun, the water is beautiful & you can even see some amazing sea life such as manatees and starfish.

As the clock reaches 4pm, you will see many stingrays appear at the beach. The hotel feeds the stingrays every day at this time, so guests are welcome to see them up close. But be sure to listen to the staff about safety around the animals. Pelicans also come to the beach around this time and are fun to watch. The sunsets that you see from this side of the island will truly take your breath away. Lastly, once the sun goes down, be sure to head to the end of the dock where they put sardines in a bucket with holes so the nurse sharks come to eat.

If the beach is not your thing, they also have an amazing private pool that you can lounge by all day. The property is truly a tropical oasis with so many incredible type of palm trees throughout. The rooms are absolutely beautiful! They're equipped with everything you need, showers are amazing, beds are a dream and the air conditioning is perfect after a long hot day.

I realize this is getting long so I'll try to summarize:

The property is absolutely stunning and there is no other place on the island that can compare. The staff is so friendly and always going out of their way to make sure that you have everything you need. There's so much to do at the hotel, you don't even need to leave! You can see iguanas, stingrays, pelicans, sharks, starfish, seahorses, eels, crabs, pufferfish & more, all without leaving the property. The beach is beautiful and the water is clear. The rooms are clean, spacious, comfortable & relaxing.

I am already looking at booking my next trip down to Caye Caulker & there is no where else I'd consider staying. Can't recommend this place enough and hope you have an...

Iguana Reef Inn is by far, the nicest hotel on the island with the best location. I did a lot of research on where to stay and was so glad we selected this place. The room was very spacious, clean and the A/C ran great. There was bottled water, drinks and snacks in the room that you could purchase for a very small fee. The continental breakfast was perfect for those wanting a light breakfast. The pool was great and perfect for cooling down after being on the beach.

There's a great bar right on the beach which hosts the stingray feedings at 4:30 every day. The beach is clean and great for swimming. There are swings and hammocks in the water for relaxing and the dock has a great seating area to watch amazing sunsets. Next to the dock is a sea horse sanctuary along with crabs, butterfly fish, & small barracuda.

Why this resort is so popular is because people from all over the island come to watch the stingrays being fed in the afternoons. The hotel employees do this and hand out fish for people to participate. The only thing I'd like the employees to do is ask people NOT to touch, pet, or write their initials on the TOP of the stingrays!!! There's a protective mucus layer on their skin, which can be damaged by human touch, making them vulnerable to infections and diseases. People would use their fingers to put their initials and draw pictures in this protective layer which lasts for hours. :-( Their new employee Laura seemed very conscientious on making improvements at the resort in regards to recycling and developing more sustainable goals. I'm hoping this is something she could alert the other employees to ask the tourists not to do.

There is no restaurant on the property but we discovered next door and behind the resort is a place called Meldy's. It's a woman's house where she cooks and serves food right on her small porch. We ate there several times and we had the BEST shrimp curry dish ever. I highly recommend eating there for local food and the prices were very reasonable.

All the staff at the resort were amazing. Very friendly, helpful, accommodating and provided excellent food suggestions, tours, calling us a cab, etc. We will definitely stay here again when on Caye Caulker. We loved going in late May as there were never any crowds at the pool,...

This hotel is exactly what we needed for our trip to CC. Our room had a safe and a minifridge which we used. The hotel supplied us with pool/beach towels. Our kids used the pool almost daily. We used their bikes and paddleboards at least 1-2x during our stay (we used them both to go out to the Split). Note, they did not have kids' bikes to borrow, but the front desk directed us to Anwar Tours to get a kid bike for our daughter. The beach and pier was so fun for adults and kids. Our kids played with other kids and we talked to other tourists. We saw seahorses, sting rays, crocodile, nurse sharks, eels, lots and lots of different fish. While we were paddleboarding one morning, dolphins swam up to us!! I've read negatives about their breakfast but I thought it was fine. And if it was not enough, then we walked out to get fryjacks or baked goods from a number of shops.|The only negatives were that we can hear people walking above us easily so bring ear plugs if you are sensitive to that. Also, the toilet does not flush very well, but this is probably not a hotel thing - I find this commonly in other parts of the world compared to America. |Finally I cannot give enough praise to the staff and owner at this hotel. Every staff member (from the lady who cleaned my room to the guys who worked the front desk) were so nice and helpful. Every morning I see 2-3 men cleaning the walkways and the pool - and their hardwork really shows. And Eric, the owner, is a wealth of information. If there was a fish I needed to identify, he knew what it was. He tried to help my husband spot reptiles and snakes (although a snake sighting was fail). He let my daughter "help" him feed the stingrays. He hung out with the guests at the beach and on the pier at night. Some of the staff would join too. It feels very inviting when you can hang out with the staff and the hotel owner and just shoot the breeze. |If you are on the fence about staying here, stop waffling and just book it!! You will...