kellirose

Planning a trip for 3 couples to Ambergris Caye for 5 days. First timers. We want to fish,snorkel,scuba. Need a place to stay with access to nice beach, pool, restaurant/bar on site. Mid budget range. Were considering CR but decided on Belize for water activities suggested by another member (thanks vg). Celebrating husbands 40th, please help me make it great!

volcanogirl

No problem, kelli - we love both countries, but for water, Belize is amazing. We loved Ambergris Caye. We stayed at Victoria House - it's an amazing property on a beautiful beach, nice rooms with a.c. which we definitely appreciated after staying in the jungle, a good pool, a fancy restaurant and also a casual bar restaurant where we ate a lot of our meals. You can bike or take a golf cart into town. It's a little pricey though, not sure what your budget is. Our favorite activity was snorkeling at Hol Chan - we saw beautiful fish, big rays, nurse sharks, and even sea turtles there. Shark Ray Alley is popular too, just for the spectacle of it. Lots of good restaurants on Ambergris too. We also did a snorkel trip to Mexico Rocks - they had cool smaller things there like eels and lobster. The Blue Hole is popular but we didn't make it there. A lot of the Belize hotels have sea grass in the water, so snorkel trips out via boat are popular. Happy early b-day to your husband. We would definitely go back to Ambergris.

kellirose

Thank you! Really appreciate your knowledge. I am trying to keep the lodging under $200/per couple/night so we can meet everyones budget. Beach will be mainly for relaxing (when or if we do). I will take a look at Victoria House, if not for this trip, for the next! Thanks again and any other advice you have is welcome!

Katie_Valk

Prefer individual hotel rooms or a 3 bedroom condo hotel and room with living room and kitchen? Lots of grt options available for both in your budget

kellirose

I think individual hotel rooms would be the preference but open to suggestions.

JeanH

Do you think you'll want to eat out at different restaurants each night? Hit the bars? Listen to live music?

If so, I wouldn't stay too far from town. There are numerous beautiful properties north of San Pedro, but, access by water taxi can get expensive in a hurry.

The nicest beach area close to town is at Ramon's. I have no idea how expensive their rooms are. Sunbreeze Hotel would be another option close to town.

kellirose

We would like to have the option of going to town without too much difficulty. For the most part our main draw is the fishing and scuba/snorkel so the ease of access for the daily activities is more important. But the option of going to town would appeal to some of the group. I'll check the places you mentioned, thanks!