All-Inclusives in Belize (near diving)?

[susanNjay]

I am looking for some suggestions for a place to stay in Belize. My husband and I generally dive while visiting ports on cruise ships and have stayed at Iberostar in Cozumel in the past...
I have read about Tranquility Bay Resort...is that the best one?
We want to be near great dives and hopefully to eat good food. ;)

My husband has been diving for 6 years. I have been diving for a year and a half. I have only logged 14 dives, (all in Cozumel with scubawithalison dot com) and he has logged about 30.

Thanks for any help you can give...

--Susan

[peterbj7]

This isn't just a cruise ship stay, is it? How long will you be here? And when?

Tranquility Bay is (I believe) a very nice place, and certainly has good diving nearby. They have their own dive center, which is small and personal (therefore flexible) and has an instructor. To the best of my knowledge though it is not an all-inclusive. In fact, I can't think of any all-inclusives on either of the two northern cayes - which isn't to say there aren't any. Perhaps someone else will post. For these two cayes I recommend you look at Belize Lodging Guide, Resorts, Hotels, Accommodations, Reservations, Rooms in Belize (http://ambergriscaye.com/pages/lodge/lodging.html), a very good source of information. You will also find somewhere on All about San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize - Index (http://ambergrisvacations.com/forum/index.php) a number of aerial photos of most of the resorts on Ambergris Caye.

There are other locales in Belize which may have all-inclusives beach resorts. One I know and can personally recommend is Thatch Caye Resort, about half way down Belize on its own private island just inside the reef. Upmarket, small and personal, idyllic, with superb diving locally (very different diving from that offered up here), and with its own well equipped dive center with an instructor. Because they're so small they can be very accommodating re diving. The resort is very close to being all-inclusive, about the only add-one being a bar tab and any excursions you may wish to take. But it's all totted up at the end and you don't need money, which is the key aspect of an all-inclusive.

If you've logged 14 dives in 18 months and your husband has only logged 30 in 6 years, you must have been quite an incentive for him to get back in the water!

I hope that helps for starters. I'll post again if I think of anything useful to say.

[Downing]

Assuming this isn't a cruise ship stay, I can absolutely recommend Turneffe Island Resort. It's about 30 miles off the mainland at the southern end of Turneffe Atoll. They handle the transportation from Belize City. You can check out their website for details.

My wife and I were there for two weeks summer before last and will probably go again next summer, which is unusual for us as there's just so much to see and do out there. Great diving and great food, all in a tropical island paradise setting.

[Ralph Capeling]

You might want to consider Placencia in southern Belize. It has the best beaches in Belize and being on the mainland makes it easy to do inland tours. Laughing Bird Caye is a national park and a World Heritage site and is half an hour by boat away from Placencia. Are your kids old enough to dive? Splash Dive Shop runs a program where we teach the local kids whose parents can't afford diving lessons so we have lots of experience teaching kids. We can make hotel or resort reservations for you as we partner with a number of hotels and resorts that can fit any budget and we can pick you up at the airport in Placencia.Check out our website at Belize by Splash Dive Shop located on the Placencia peninsula in southern Belize (http://www.Splashbelize.com).

[peterbj7]

What about all-inclusives in or near Placencia? And (I know it's not in Placencia) is Hamanasi all-inclusive?

[Ralph Capeling]

Hamanasi is all inclusive and has a good reputation. Splash can do all inclusive or divers can book their own resort/hotel from the list on Splash's website which covers a range to fit any budget. Splash is also a tour operator so can do inland tours.

[peterbj7]

Not quite sure what you're saying. Splash can offer an all-inclusive holiday even though it's not a resort? It's not the same as a hotel/dive package.....

[Ralph Capeling]

Splash partners with a number of hotels and resorts that do not have dive shops. This means that Splash can offer accomodation that fits a range of budgets from economy to high end depending on the needs of the guest.

[craracer]

I second Turneffe Resort. My wife and I were there for an exceptional week last September. No, phones. No TV's. Absolutely stunning island. The food was simple and fantastic, and the staff were brilliant. It's an extremely quiet and secluded island. I think it was about an hour boat ride from Belize.

The diving was exceptional. We were there during the slow season, but they had absolutely no problem taking just the two of us out (daily) to dive. The diving rivaled Roatan, but in a different way. We went to the Blue Hole, which had amazing stalactites, tons of sharks, and BMW Mini sized fish. Some of the best diving I've done to date. The crew was extremely knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful. We even talked the managers into going on a few dives with us (they used to manage a dive op in Palau). Nitrox available.

The accommodations were fantastic (we had a private cabana on the beach). Indoor and outdoor showers, AC worked great, safe in the room, gorgeous room.

PM me and I will send you a link to some photos if you would like.

[vladimir]

I will join in recommending the Turneffe Island Resort (http://www.turnefferesort.com/). I also stayed in one of the private cabanas and was quite satisfied with the accommodations and the diving. There are excellent dives a 5- or 10-minute skiff ride away. The rooms are not as deluxe as you might expect for the price--you are paying for the isolation as well as for the room. Well worth it, in my opinion. They take a maximum of 22 guests on the entire island. Insects can be an issue, depending on the weather. The food was served family style and was very good.

[smokey braden]

vladimir,
thanks for the link.
beautiful resort.

with the dive package, are they saying just two boat dives a day?
can you blow two tanks in the morning and then do a third one in the afternoon?
thanks,

[Downing]

When I was there, this was the dive schedule:

Saturday - transfer day with most guests leaving or coming. No diving.

Sunday - 2 dives: checkout dive in the morning followed by an afternoon dive

Monday - 2 dives: both in the morning

Tuesday - 3 dives: first the Blue Hole, then an SI on Half Moon Caye followed by a second dive in the area, then picnic on Half Moon Caye, then an afternoon dive on the way back to TIR

Wednesday - 3 dives: two in the morning, one in the afternoon

Thursday - 3 dives: two in the morning, one in the afternoon with an "optional" night dive but if you elected to do the night dive you were required to skip one of the day dives, which for most of the night diving folks, me included, was the afternoon dive (weird but them's the rules)

Friday - 2 dives: both in the morning

Except for the Blue Hole trip, all surface intervals are done on the island. All dives really are 10 minutes away at most and some, like The Front Porch, are more like three minutes away.

I was there for two weeks, so I got well acquainted with the dive schedule.

[CarlosCabanas]

Tranquility Bay Resort can give you great pristine diving right in front of the resort! We also have a great restaurant on site and are constantly having good reviews on the food. We are trying to become more dive orientated, but right now we don't have crowds of divers coming. This means that you often are diving alone with the tour guide or just a couple of other divers!

Carlos

[peterbj7]

Since I first posted I have stayed and dived at Tranquility, and can confirm that it's well equipped and has excellent diving nearby. I was teaching a basic course so I didn't get to explore the deeper diving, but since that stay I have dived just a couple of miles south on the reef - well within normal diving distances from Tranquility - and there were some most unusual and spectacular rock formations underwater on a bottom of around 80ft. I think you could dive for a week from Tranquility and never get bored. The food is indeed excellent and there's wifi there, but don't go there if you need nightlife - it's pretty remote and by 10pm most people are in bed.

I haven't asked, but I imagine you could fit three dives into a morning there, as with such early nights you can be up "at sparrow fart" (as a girl friend of mine used to say so poetically) and out on your first dive before most people in town are up. Diving early in the morning is different from diving at dusk, but just as interesting and quite different from regular daytime diving.

[Papa_Bear]

Ramon's Village would be worth looking into!

[nodakdive]

Stayed at Ramon's Village in Jan-Feb of 2007. Extremely convenient location. About 1 block from the airport, right on the beach, and basically on the edge of town (?). Loved all the great restaurant choices on Ambergris and from Ramon's you could just walk down the beach past many restaurants. The dive shop and personnel were great, the resort and personnel were great, the proximity was great, the breakfast was great. The only downsides I experienced was the food in the restaurant at night and some of the rooms were loud. I was in cabana #13 and at time I thought the road traffic was going right through my room. All that said, I'd stay there again, and believe it or not, in the same cabana. I got used to the noise which curtailed sharply after about 10pm, and from the room it was a 45 second walk to the dive shop and my gear, a 10 second walk to the bar and ice, and it was a large corner room. The food, btw, was quite expensive at the restaurant, and though you could stay all inclusive there (I think? Our breakfasts, and some of our night meals were included), I wouldn't, simply because of the many great places to eat in town. As a matter of fact, I only ate one of the included suppers. Some of the food was hit and miss, though some was really great. And, if I recall, drinks and food were expensive. For instance, they had a seafood chowder that I ate for lunch several times. Truly excellent, but $5 or more for a bowl. All in all, a great place, expensive, but I'd stay there again. Can't remember the name of the DM I had all week, or the guys on the boat, who were young and friendly dudes, anyhow, they were excellent. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the dive sites were mostly spur and groove? I'd never done that kind of diving, so I really enjoyed it. Grouper every dive. Sharks every dive, and the 2nd dive of the vacation, we had a pod of 7 dolphins show up and play with us for about 10 to 15 minutes. Btw, the people on the island were very nice, and while we were there, they had some kind of an election going on, and there was also carnival or something like it. One night, there were groups of men dressed like women who went up and down the streets, stopping along the way to sing songs and dance. This alone made the trip worthwhile. They were hilarious. I think it was some kind of men's club that was doing the performance. Oh, and part of the festivities was throwing eggs at people. (?) It was a complete blast.
-Blair