This would fall into the category of a consumer report, and I would hope that the tour organizer will post a rebuttal here, because there are always at least two sides to a story.

For instance, we have had people leave Rick's Place because they thought they had no hot water in the shower -- some people don't ask, and I always forget to tell them that in some of the rooms the controls are reversed so you have to turn the knob the opposite way to get hot water. Some people never try turning it the other way, and they "decide to leave early" and maybe they tell all their friends that Rick's Place doesn't have hot water. Meanwhile, we don't even know that they had a problem.

Maybe the organizer has to be down there, too, on these trips to Belize, just to make sure that the people taking the trip have somebody to watch out for them when they are out sailing. In places like Belize, just as in the Caribbean islands and the Virgin Islands, boat maintenance can be very difficult and expensive. I have heard reports from friends and relatives who have tried to take out beachcats from resorts in the islands and found the boats in serious states of deterioration and not really safe to use. So maybe the organizer of this tour is just being very cautious and trying to look out for the safety of his clients.

We have a friend who has a little "resort" in Belize, Bocatura Bank, which is advertised in my magazine and on this website. But it makes no pretense at being a first-class resort, although I think they do have some water, plumbing and electricity now. It is an "ecotourist resort," which means, I think, that you are very close to nature.

As with everything, it is a matter of "buyer beware" and knowing the right questions to ask before you buy a product -- or a vacation.

The problem is that people who have never been to some of these countries "south of the border" do not even know what questions to ask, since conditions can be so radically different from what we have learned to expect even in a low-budget place in the U.S.

By the same token, tour organizers to places outside the U.S. should be sensitive to the "culture-shock" factor and make sure people are aware of what they are getting into.