Blancaneaux Lodge

Blancaneaux Lodge is Francis Ford Coppola's jungle hideaway in the hundred-and-seven-thousand-acre Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve in Cayo, where thatched hardwood villas, cabanas and cottages stand on stilts over the waterfalls and pools of Privassion Creek, a Michelin Guide hotel among Coppola's Family Hideaways. Around twenty units run from riverfront cabanas and the Enchanted Cottage through two honeymoon Luxury Cabanas with private plunge pools and six two-bedroom Villas for families to the Francis Ford Coppola Villa with its own plunge pool and a dining table for fourteen, all in hardwood and thatch with Guatemalan decor, semi-open showers and decks over the creek. Montagna Ristorante plates Italian cooking from Coppola family recipes, an organic farm and a stone oven, Guatemaltecqua adds poolside Belizean, Guatemalan, Mexican and Mayan plates, and the bar pours Coppola wines. The Waterfall Spa treats beside a hot pool, with the resort pool and the natural creek pools and waterfalls alongside, and horseback riding, the Caracol Maya ruins, caving, hiking and mountain biking fill the days. Continental breakfast is included on a two-night minimum, and arrival is around two and a half hours by road from Belize City or a thirty-five-minute charter to the lodge's own airstrip — made for couples, families and nature-and-adventure travellers.