My husband and I emailed Kate and Ian (from their website) a few days before we flew into Belize City. Ian picked us up at the Punta Gorda airport and took us out to Hickatee. This was our first trip to Southern Belize and to Hickatee and we would definitely recommend it.

Accomodation: Clean, charming, spacious, comfy bed
Coffee: Local grown and roasted beans, best coffee we had in all of Belize (served every morning on our veranda)
Food: WONDERFUL (they can cook for us anytime). The fresh bread was so delicious! Mashed potatoes were so rich and creamy, veggies and seafood cooked to perfection, and everything served hot.
Property: huge variety of plants, tons of birds, trails to trek on, small pool to soak in, chairs to repose in and a great atmosphere to relax and wind down
Other stuff: awoke to the sound of howler monkeys and birds each morning; lots of books to read; the tour of the Butterfly Farm was really interesting.

Highly recommend this for couples who are looking for a charming, reasonably priced place to stay that has great food and atmosphere. Kate and Ian are very friendly, knowledgeable and also very supportive of the community they live in. They shared lots of information including their love of the local music and culture. It was a fantastic way for us to start our vacation in Belize.

The stand-alone cottage is one of 3 available rooms, pretty, airy, very clean, surrounded by jungle gardens. Owners Ian and Kate are friendly and helpful, they bring you coffee on your porch in the morning and breakfast on the veranda -a great way to start the day. Located just outside of Punta Gorda, better to have a car or be prepared for $7 taxi or a hot bike ride into town. Cool drinks at the bar and a tiny dipping pool were very much appreciated. Ian was going to his "other job" at the Butterfly Farm, he met us at Lubaantum and took us there - a great experience to be in a cage literally covered with butterflies!

We loved it. It was beautiful. Breakfast was the best!

This review is long overdue. We stayed at Hickatee in May of 07 for 2 nights. Kate and Ian were hands down the best hosts we encountered on a two week trip through Belize and Guatemala.

The food is excellent-- home cooked meals prepared by Kate and Ian were incredibly delicious. The cottages, too, were extremely nice. Kate and Ian have made a real commitment to supporting the local community. They are so involved in so many events and projects in PG that it's hard to believe they also run Hickatee! They are very knowledgeable about the local area and can suggest and help arrange almost any trip in the area.

They went out of their way to accommodate us. After one night there they suggested we explore the Rio Dulce in Guatemala. They drove us to the dock to catch the boat to Livingston, Guatemala and we were off on another completely unexpected and wonderful adventure. Thanks to them for the recommendation! We returned two days later for another relaxing night at Hickatee.

If I were to run a guest lodge, Hickatee is the ideal to which I would aspire. Really, I can't say enough nice things about it-- Highly recommended.