It’s hard to put into words what our stay at Jade Jungle Resort was like. We spent four unforgettable nights at this 300-acre all-inclusive eco-resort deep in the jungles of Belize, and it’s truly unlike any place we’ve ever stayed.
It’s the perfect mix of beauty, adventure, culture, nature, relaxation, and history. It’s a special kind of place that stays with you long after you return home.
Keep reading to discover what makes Jade Jungle Resort such a hidden gem, and why it deserves a spot on your Belize bucket list!
What It’s Like to Stay at Jade Jungle Resort
Table of Contents
- Where is Jade Jungle Resort Located?
- What are the Rooms and Amenities Like at Jade Jungle Resort?
- What is the Property Like at Jade Jungle Resort?
- What is included at Jade Jungle Resort?
- Final Thoughts
Where is Jade Jungle Resort Located?
Jade Jungle Resort is located near Belmopan, in the lush Cayo District of Belize. It’s about 1.5 hours from Philip S.W. Goldson International Airport in Belize City.
The drive itself is an adventure, as you wind through the rainforest and pass through small villages before reaching this peaceful jungle hideaway.
What are the Rooms and Amenities Like at Jade Jungle Resort?
The resort features ten bungalows that accommodate anywhere from two to six guests.
We stayed in one of the Boardwalk Cabanas, which comfortably slept our family of 4. Our room was spacious, clean, and seamlessly blended the natural elements with modern comfort.
We also had the most breathtaking jungle views right outside our window!
The bungalows feature hand-thatched roofs, comfortable beds (the pillows were dreamy!), and hot showers with water heated from fallen cohune nuts.
We appreciate that Jade Jungle is an eco-resort that is almost entirely self-sustained. Just note that since the resort runs on solar energy, there is no air conditioning.
The rooms can get warm during the day, but you’ll be spending your days out exploring and not sitting in your room.
It does cool down at night, and we stayed comfortable with the windows open and the fans running. I actually loved falling asleep to the glow of fireflies outside our windows and the sound of howler monkeys and rolling thunder in the distance.
Wi-Fi is available only at the main lodge, where guests can relax in a hammock or on the couches in the open-air lounge. Being off the grid gave us a chance to disconnect from the world and reconnect with each other!
You’ll also find a beautifully designed outdoor gathering space with a large stone fireplace, a comfortable seating area, and lights strung from the trees.
I love the cozy and rustic vibe of the dining room, featuring checkered tile floors, heavy wooden tables, and flickering kerosene lamps.
What is the Property Like at Jade Jungle Resort?
Jade Jungle Resort spans across 300 acres of private rainforest, and with only ten bungalows, it often feels like you have the entire jungle to yourself. The staff-to-guest ratio ensures personalized service, and everyone made us feel like family!
The property is thoughtfully designed, with 3 different treetop suspension bridges, wooden boardwalks, an elevated yoga platform, a secret garden, and a network of jungle hiking trails.
There are so many cool places to explore without ever leaving the property!
While crossing the swing bridges, keep your eye out for the howler monkeys who call this jungle home. They spend their entire lives in the treetops and never touch the ground!
The sound they make is equally fascinating and frightening. Instead of a howl, it sounds like a T. rex is going to come crashing through the trees! In fact, they used the sound of howler monkeys mixed with other animals to create the dinosaur noises in the Jurassic Park movies!
The Meadow is a short walk from the lodge, where you’ll find a large open clearing perfect for lawn games and throwing a ball around. My boys especially loved pushing each other on the giant swing!
There are a few cultural and historical features that are unique to Jade Jungle. The first is the remains of an ancient Maya Plaza. An audio guide is available to learn about the history of the plaza, or you can ask for a guided tour.
You’ll also find a massive ceiba tree on the property. In the Mayan culture, these trees hold sacred meaning. They are known as the Tree of Life, and it is believed that the roots are connected to the underworld, and the branches are connected to heaven.
What is included at Jade Jungle Resort?
Jade Jungle is an all-inclusive resort, which means that transportation, meals, on-site activities, and off-site excursions are all included with the price of your room.
Transportation
Complimentary transportation to and from the airport is included for resort guests. The average cost for the 1.5-hour drive is about $200 USD each way, so you’ll appreciate not having to pay the extra cost!
Food
Your stay includes three meals each day, and I can’t rave enough about the incredible food and the amazing chefs!
Most of the ingredients are grown right on the property or sourced from local farmers. Each dish is made from scratch, and you can literally taste the elevated freshness and quality in every bite.
Breakfast and lunch are served buffet style, and dinner is a four-course meal lit by kerosene lamps.
Each meal was thoughtfully curated and deliciously executed! My youngest is such a picky eater, but he cleared his plate at almost every meal and often even asked for seconds. If I’m being honest, we all asked for seconds a time or two!
A selection of sodas and juices is also available at the lodge and is included with the all-inclusive package.
On-Site Activities
Jade Jungle offers a variety of on-site activities, such as guided hikes, bird watching, and harvesting food from the Secret Garden. Our favorite on-site activities were tubing down the river and taking a Mayan cooking class.
River Tubing
A portion of the beautiful Roaring Creek passes through the Jade Jungle property, and it is the perfect tubing river!
Inner tubes are available for guests, and we loved floating down the winding river.
You’ll be able to access 3 different hidden swimming holes where you can relax at the beach, jump off rocks, and swim in the deep pools. My favorite is the stunning Emerald Pool.
The river is mostly calm with a few mild rapids. It was such a fun and relaxing way to cool off on a hot and humid day in the jungle!
Mayan Cooking Class
Jade Jungle offers a Mayan cooking class on select days at the resort. My boys were a little hesitant when I signed them up for this, but we all had a great time!
We learned the lengthy process the ancient Mayans would use to make corn tortillas, and we had a chance to make our own masa and tortillas from scratch.
We also used the masa to make homemade pupusas stuffed with beans and cheese. They were grilled to golden perfection and were mouthwateringly delicious!
They paired perfectly with fresh tea made from blue butterfly pea flowers grown right on the property. It was such a fun, delicious, and educational experience!
Off-site Excursions
We’ve stayed at other all-inclusive resorts before, and while it’s common for food and on-site activities to be included, we’ve never stayed somewhere where daily excursions are also included!
Guests at Jade Jungle Resort can choose from a list of included excursions to create a customized itinerary for their stay.
There are so many great options, it’s hard to narrow down which ones to choose! I’ll share the excursions that we chose, but click the link for a full list of off-site activities.
Cave Tubing + Ziplining
Our first excursion took us to the Nohoch Che’en Archaeological Reserve, where we were able to experience a combo tour with Cave Tubing and Ziplining. I knew the boys would be excited about this, and we all had a blast!
We started with ziplining first. The course offers 6 different lines that will take you through the top of the jungle canopy and over rivers. It was equally thrilling and beautiful!
We visited during the off-season in September, and were lucky to have the entire course to ourselves! The only disadvantage of visiting in September is that it is often rainy. There were also a LOT of mosquitoes, so wear bug spray!
After we finished the zipline course, it was time for cave tubing. The entrance is located at the same parking lot, so it’s easy to combine both tours.
After grabbing our tubes, life jackets, helmets, and headlamps, we walked down the jungle trail for about 45 minutes.
There are a few river crossings, so wear water shoes, swimsuits, and clothes you wouldn’t mind getting wet. I also recommend bringing a dry bag for your phone, camera, water bottles, and any personal items you want to bring on the tour.
We made a pit stop at a cool bat cave, where we were able to see bats hanging from the ceiling and learn some interesting facts about these nocturnal creatures.
Once we reached the water, our guide tied the tubes together, and we headed into the mouth of the cave.
The Caves Branch River flows through the cave network for about 7 miles, and we had a chance to float through for about one mile.
The cave transitions from narrow passageways to soaring caverns with skylights. One of the highlights is seeing a waterfall flowing inside the cave!
Our guide was fantastic and we learned so much about the cave formations and the history of the area. He was also so great to paddle us in the slower water and navigate us through the small rapids.
We floated through the cave for about 45 minutes, then continued floating on the open river for about 25 minutes back to where we began the hike. It was beautiful and relaxing!
Lunch at a local restaurant is also included with the tour. We enjoyed generous portions of nachos and burgers at an open-air restaurant before heading back to Jade Jungle.
Rio On Pools and Mountain Pine Ridge Falls
This day trip takes you into higher elevations where palm trees give way to pine forests. The landscape was stunning and completely different from the lowland jungle!
Our first stop was at Rio On Pools, where our boys had the best time swimming in natural granite pools and cascading waterfalls. We also enjoyed a picnic lunch with scenic views.
Our next stop was at Mountain Pine Ridge Falls. We took a trail and a steep set of stairs down to the impressive multi-tiered waterfall plummeting into a jade green pool.
The scenery was beautiful, and we had a wonderful afternoon cliff jumping, swimming, and sunbathing on the granite slabs.
Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) Cave
People travel from all over the world to visit the ATM Cave, and it is literally right in the backyard of Jade Jungle Resort!
It’s about a 10-15 minute drive, which means that you’ll be the first tour group in the cave, and you’ll have the whole cave to yourselves for much of the tour.
The ATM Cave isn’t just any cave. In fact, National Geographic released a list of the Top 10 Most Sacred Caves in the World, and the ATM Cave was ranked as number one.
Visiting the cave is an immersive cultural experience mixed with adventure, beauty, and history.
When you arrive at the parking lot, you’ll leave all your belongings in the car. Visitors are not allowed to bring anything into the cave, including cameras or phones.
You can each bring one bottle of water on the hike, but you’ll leave it at the entrance to the cave. Your guide will have a dry bag with extra water bottles, and you can put any medication in the bag if needed.
You’ll need to wear closed-toe water shoes (or old tennis shoes will work), and you must wear socks. For girls, I recommend wearing leggings instead of shorts, as you’ll be scrambling over rocks.
Your guide will lead you down the trail for about 45 minutes to the entrance of the cave. The trail is flat and easy, but you will be crossing the river several times.
Once you reach the cave entrance, you’ll have one last chance to use the restroom before the adventure begins!
You’ll immediately begin by swimming through deep water and scrambling over rocks. You will be in the water for the majority of the time, and life jackets are required.
My boys especially loved swimming through narrow passages, squeezing through cracks, and climbing over rocks. I am extremely claustrophobic, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. There is one part called the “decapitation chamber” that wasn’t my favorite, though!
It was so beautiful inside, I wish I could have brought a camera to document it. However, it was nice to just be present in the moment and soak in the whole experience.
You’ll be in awe of the massive cave formations, but it’s the history of this cave that is so compelling. Actun Tunichil Muknal translates to “Cave of the Stone Sepulchre”, which is a foreshadowing of what you’ll discover inside.
For centuries, thousands of Mayans lived and thrived in this river valley until a great drought hit. As you tour the cave, you get a sense of the desperation the people felt during the drought.
The ancient Mayans believed that caves were a sacred portal to the underworld, allowing them to connect with the gods and their ancestors. So when the drought hit, this is where they went to submit offerings to the rain gods.
The first evidence of this is the remains of thousands of pottery pieces. Many of them are large pots and vessels that would have been quite difficult for them to carry through this dark and winding cave. The vessels are left in a distinct pattern with a “kill hole” to release the spirits.
As you venture further into the cave, you’ll find a ceremonial altar that was used to make blood sacrifices to the rain gods. You can still see the sharp stones used to pierce the flesh and the vessels used to collect the blood.
When the blood sacrifice didn’t bring rain, things escalated. Our guide took us about a mile into the deep recesses of the cave, where we took our shoes off and climbed a ladder into the sacred upper chamber. It is here that you can see evidence of human sacrifice.
The cave is the final resting place of at least 14 individuals who were sacrificed to the rain gods in an attempt to end the drought. The “Crystal Maiden” is the most fully intact skeleton, as her remains have been calcified to the cave floor.
Our guide went into great detail about the history and the events that took place in this cave. It was so fascinating and so heartbreaking. Especially when you find out that the sacrifices didn’t appease the gods, and they had to permanently leave the valley that they had inhabited for generations.
Touring this cave was such a remarkable experience, and it is such an advantage to be staying at Jade Jungle with easy access to the cave.
Final Thoughts
Jade Jungle Resort has been one of the most memorable places we’ve ever stayed as a family.
We formed deep connections to the land, the culture, and the people. We adventured all day and came back exhausted and happy. We ate extremely well, and I’m still craving that cauliflower tomato soup and shaved Brussels sprout salad!
Whether you’re planning a family vacation, romantic getaway, girls’ trip, milestone celebration, or corporate retreat, Jade Jungle Resort offers a unique setting that combines luxury, sustainability, and authenticity.
This place truly stole a piece of our hearts, and I have a feeling it will do the same for you!
And while you’re in Belize, I highly recommend visiting the beautiful beaches as well. See our guide How to Spend 72 Hours in Placencia for our recommendations for the best beaches!
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