Everyone should spend the night in a tree-house at least once in their life!  The Parrot Nest Lodge located in Bullet Tree Falls near San Ignacio, Belize gives you the chance to do exactly that at a very reasonable cost.

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Any bus traveling between Belize City or Belmopan (location of Belize Bird Rescue) and either San Ignacio or the border town of Benque Viejo Del Carmen will get you to the San Ignacio bus stop.  From there you will need a taxi to Bullet Tree Falls and you will probably have to bargain for it.  They will quote $15 or even $20 if they think they can get away with it but you can usually get them down to $8-10.  Or you can use their private shuttle from the airport and stop at Belize Zoo if you like-highly recommended!

They aren’t on any of the hotel aggregators such as Expedia, Hotels.com, Pointshound so you need to book by email.  The other thing is they will ask for a credit card to secure the booking.  I wasn’t comfortable having my credit card number being on record with me traveling in remote places where I can’t get online so I asked them to “pencil me in” and I would pay on arrival.  Luckily we were there in August, low season so there was no problem with this and we got our tree house!

We arrived at dusk so we didn’t get to see the grounds that evening but the tree house was small but very cute!  It kind of reminded me of a tree house I had as a kid only in a much nicer location and with a better view!

First thing, we went downstairs to the shared shower facilities to freshen up, then went to the dining room for dinner.

Soft drinks were very cheap, around $1 US or 2 Belize so we drank our fill.  I can’t remember what we had for dinner, it was good though as I don’t remember having any complaints!

We did get a good night sleep and there were no mosquitoes!  The next morning, I was eager to look out the window from up in the tree and be eye to eye with some birds.  We could hear them all around us but not see them.

Now we could finally see the other treehouses, the grounds and the river.

We strolled around the grounds and down to the river hoping to see birds.  No parrots but there were a few birds around, not as many as I would have hoped for but we only stayed the one night.

We had breakfast in the dining room, now we could see it a lot better.  The drinks in the fridge are on an honor system where you write down what you take and pay it when you leave.

I’ve been a backpacker my whole life and am very comfortable in places like this, especially when it has such a beautiful setting!  If you are used to Hyatts, Hiltons and Intercontinentals, this may not be the right choice for you unless you have a spirit of adventure.  Tours can be organized here to the popular ATM – Actun Tunichil Mucnal, Caracol and for river rafting.  We didn’t do any tours as we aren’t really into caves and wanted to see birds!  You really can’t beat the prices and the staff were all very helpful and friendly.  I loved it and would come back in a flash if we ever return to Belize.