Ambergris Cay Hotels

• CaptainDan
• Reviews: 24

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Ramon's Village: good quality & location

Ramon's is a great place to stay. Its located right in the center of everything and is high quality all the way. It's a bit more expensive then most places on the island but well worth it. They have several huts for rent each with all the amenities you could think of. The pool was just remodeled not to long ago. The hotel is located right on the sand and the beach in front is great for relaxing and swiming.

I mainly stayed at Ramon's because they have one of the best dive operations on the island. If you're a scuba diver this is a great place. Though you don't need to stay here to enjoy the scuba shop it does make it very conveinent.

Also note that none of the rooms have TVs in them. At first I thought this would be bad but I rather enjoyed finding other things to do then watch tv. Just bring a little movie player if you want to watch something at night.

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average
• Related to: Romantic Travel and Honeymoons, Beaches, Luxury Travel
• Written October 7, 2006

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• Annie77
• Reviews: 4

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Hotel del Rio: Budget friendly

We stayed at Hotel del Rio on all three trips to Belize. Rooms are basic- no TV, no phone but are very comfortable. We've stayed in the Casa Blanca rooms which are basic hotel rooms with bed, bath, small rack for hanging clothes, fridge and AC. We also stayed in the Double Guest House which was much larger with two beds, bathroom, fridge and very breezy balcony. There is a lovely sitting area under a palapa. La Popular Bakery and Dahlia's Market are right behind the hotel. I highly recommend Hotel del Rio!

• Opinion of Price: less expensive than average
• Written August 20, 2006

"Front yard" of Hotel del Rio

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• marc_berryman
• Reviews: 3

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Royal Caribbean Resort: Royal Caribbean Resort treats you like Royality

Royal Caribbean Resort is new, but has worked through the start-up pains described in older reviews of this exceptional resort. Friendly, courteous, and helpful staff, along with individual cabanas, and probably the largest pool on Ambergris Caye, made this an enjoyable location. Every spot in the resort has a great ocean view.

The brightly colored individual cabañas, now with bone chilling air conditioning, were clean, well constructed, and all had a great views of the ocean, The cabanas are spacious, with separate bedroom, bathroom, cable TV, phones (upon request) and a large living area with one corner dedicated to the kitchen sink, microwave, small refrigerator, coffee maker, cooking and serving utensils. There are muli-speed ceiling fans in the living area and in the bedroom.

The staff goes out of the way to ensure you will have an enjoyable time. Bike and cart rentals, along with all other activity needs, are available through the attentive and detail minded staff. The golf carts were new and were loads of fun as we explored the island. We booked several SeaRious adventures through Yoram and his staff, and our expectations were always exceeded.

South of San Pedro, about a mile and a half from the center of San Pedro, the resort is very quite and peaceful. A 15 - 20 minute walk along the beach, or a fairly short bike or cart ride, will place you back in the center of San Pedro. Taxi ride from the airport or the water taxi site to the resort was $5.

Best Pool in Ambergris Caye
Every unit has an ocean view
Fantastic Staff

• Opinion of Price: less expensive than average
• Related to: Budget Travel, Fishing, Diving and Snorkeling
• Written July 2, 2006

Cabanas at Royal Caribbean Resort

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• Bwana_Brown
• Reviews: 3530

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Hotel del Rio: A Simple Room

The room was very basic, with a double bed, one dresser, a ceiling fan and three louvered windows that did not have an air-tight closure. This, combined with a single thin blanket, led to a chilly first night's sleep as a cool and breezy spell of weather had swept in on the day we left Caye Caulker. We periodically awoke to the intermittant sound of distant dogs barking and the rattle of the nearby palm leaves in the wind. The shower was not too bad, but there seemed to be only one water temperature which was, fortunately, lukewarm!

To be fair, this was the low-end of the accommodations at the Hotel del Rio and we did have a chance to move into one of their more upscale Casa Blanca rooms for US$74, but we decided to 'rough it'! In addition, there are other individual nice-looking thatched roof casitas scattered here and there on the well landscaped grounds of the hotel (see second photo).

• Opinion of Price: less expensive than average
• Related to: Family Travel, Backpacking, Beaches
• Written March 20, 2006

Our double bed with door to bathroom/shower

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• Bwana_Brown
• Reviews: 3530

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Hotel del Rio: On the Northern 'Outskirts'

Based on the summary in my 'Moons Handbook' on Belize, which said that the Hotel del Rio was "one of the best bargains on the island", I had booked one of their two economy guest-house rooms way back in December, for the second leg of our Belize trip following 'Caye Caulker'. You could tell that we were now on a higher real-estate valued island, because even this basic accommodations was US$51 per night. The photo shows our small second floor balcony with it's only 'window' toward the beach being a narrow gap past a building on the adjoining property, with the second photo showing our actual view from the balcony.

The Hotel del Rio is located almost at the very north end of San Pedro, only one block from the San Pedro River which actually cuts the town off from the remainder of Ambergris Cay. This is at the 'rougher' end of San Pedro, where most of the locals live, but we never had any problems coming or going on our 25-minute backpack walks from and to the Water Taxi terminal located in downtown. The hotel required a one-night nonrefundable credit card deposit when I booked it, and I paid the remainder of our planned 2-night stay on our second day there.

The hotel is very nicely landscaped with palm trees and it fronts onto a section of beach, with a private Hotel del Rio dock. A beach 'street' of sorts runs all along here (Boca del Rio), so the lounging area at the hotel is divided from the actual water's edge by this thoroughfare. We really enjoyed the Belizians who ran the place, and had a great afternoon chatting away one afternoon beneath the shade of their thatched roof common area (see 'Things to Do').

• Opinion of Price: less expensive than average
• Related to: Family Travel, Beaches, Backpacking
• Written March 20, 2006

Our small balcony door peeps thru the Palms

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• tfulle01
• Reviews: 4

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Take a chance and visit here in the offseason

Great Dive/Fishing/Accomodations in Ambergris Caye.

I'm just going to put it like this. When I left, I felt that the staff where my friends, good friends. I can't wait to get back there.

This is a great place to stay in Ambergris. Give a call down there, or email to negotiate reservations. You can email me too, and I'll try to help you set something up or give you some advice.
They have a nice beach, pool and rooms. There is a dock and a dive shop on the premises. Crazy Canuck's Beach Bar is one of the best bars on the island and Monkey Bites Cafe is also great for breakfast. The deals you can get here, especially during the offseason, are amazing. I would reccomend that anywhere you go in Belize, you negotiate your reservations, rather than just accepting online rate quotes. If you are planning on diving, fishing or any other watersport or inland trip (ie: cave tubing) they will put together a custom package. Best of all, once you get there they are very flexible. For instance, maybe you booked 5 days of diving, but you change you mind and decide you'd like to go fishing for a day. Just talk to Clinton, who runs all the dives and excursions, and he'll help you out very fairly giving you full credit for one booked excursion or trip towards another. When I was there I made some changes to the package and I ended up with a credit. He wrote me a slip for the difference that I was able to use towards my tab at Crazy Canuck's!

• Opinion of Price: less expensive than average
• Related to: Beaches, Water Sports, Diving and Snorkeling
• Written March 5, 2006

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• Foundryman1
• Reviews: 111

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Banyan Bay Villas: Mindless beach bumming...In Style

Stayed here for six nights and really enjoyed ourselves

Just far away from town to be quiet but close enough to everything.Nice pool,really nice staffand very clean.I think these are privately owned units that the hotel rents out when the owners aren't there.The rooms were decorated very personably.
The pool is three tiered with the first tier 1' then 2.5' very good for small kids but if you are an adult it too shallow to do much besides sit around in it. The lower level is about 4'-5' with a sit down bar in one end.Being the slow season the bar was unstaffed but we did see waiters bringing out drinks and snacks for people at the pool.

There's Stewart Wegner in the second picture and a picture of the beach. There's seagrass everywhere but the workers rake it up everyday.As beaches go on Ambergris it's a pretty good stretch.
Next photo is of the pier and dive shop. I think it's Bottom Time that runs the snorkel trips.
You can see the waters still a little cloudy from the storm.

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average
• Related to: Diving and Snorkeling, Beaches, Fishing
• Written November 8, 2005

pool at Banyan Bay Villas Belize

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• Matt875
• Reviews: 3

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• head05
• Reviews: 36

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Banana Beach Resort: Kinda Touristy... but cool nonetheless.

The only bad thing about this place is that you need to take a taxi into downtown...or is that a good thing?

There are 2 pools - one in each terrazo section of the hotel. There is an internet cafe in the giftshop and a really nice restaurant attached with the hotel.

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average
• Related to: Family Travel, Beaches
• Written July 19, 2005

Room with a view at the Banana Beach

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