A dramatic hideaway in a rainforest wonderland
In the early 1980s, Francis Ford Coppola visited Belize, immediately fell in love with the location, and purchased the abandoned Blancaneaux Lodge. For more than a decade the hideaway was used as a family retreat before Francis opened his tropical paradise to the public in 1993.
Blancaneaux Lodge is a 20-room luxury hideaway where waterfalls tumble into turquoise pools above the jungle canopy. Its remote mountain setting allows guests to explore the ancient civilization of the Maya and to return to their own thatched roof dwelling, rich with Guatemalan décor and nestled in the foliage of the Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve.
The lodge itself is nestled on the banks of Privassion Creek and is set among tropical pines, oaks, palmetto, craboo, and ancient melastome shrubs. Within a few miles of the boutique hotel in Belize you will find the steep limestone hills and valleys of the 13,000-acre Noj Kaax Meen Elijio Panti National Park. The dense jungle, steep ravines, spectacular waterfalls, and fast flowing rivers are home to many rare or endangered species of flora and fauna.
Beyond the Mountain Pine Ridge lies the vast uninhabited network of 14 protected areas that comprise the 1.2 million acre Maya Mountain Massif. Less than an hour drive along dirt roads to Guacamallo Bridge, the granite bedrock and red soils of the Mountain Pine Ridge meet the limestone and moist tropical broadleaf forests of the 264,000-acre Chiquibul National Park and the Caracol Archaeological Reserve.