Belize Dive Haven?

[Ayisha]

I have the opportunity to go to Belize Dive Haven in March 2020.
I understand the place is brand new.
Anyone know anything about the accomodation and dive op?

The dive op is run by Norbert from Aquasub in Toronto. The resort was under construction for many years. Their booking engine originally offered an ocean view for $100 per room per night, but all dates were unavailable. The owner is Karim Hakimi of Hakim Optical, who was/is a long time diver. It has been in "preview mode" at half price since the early spring. I had waited years for it to open, but had already booked my Belize trip by the time it was finally booking.

Norbert said that BDH is about a 10 minute boat ride from the Elbow off Turneffe. IMHO, the only decent diving on Turneffe at all was the Elbow north of the cut, so it's in a decent diving area. They have reported diving with lots of sharks, rays, dolphins, etc., but I haven't seen many pictures.

Our plan was to stay at BDH for a week and then stay for another week and dive at Glover's reef from Placencia, and stay in San Ignacio and do some cave river tubing, and visit Tikal Mayan ruins in Guatemala nearby. We did all of it except that we substituted the Aggressor for BDH, and we had an amazing time. Again IMHO, the best diving in terms of health and colour of the corals and abundance of critters was Glover's atoll followed by Lighthouse atoll and distantly by Turneffe atoll. I did the Elbow off Turneffe in 2006 and loved it, but didn't get to it this time, so not sure how it is now.

There are lots of areas to explore in/near Belize, both uw and topside.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Anyone been here yet and can comment? The only reliable looking reviews i have seen are not great....and completely expected..

 

[chillyinCanada]

Anyone been here yet and can comment? The only reliable looking reviews i have seen are not great....and completely expected..

Where have you found the reviews please?

Why would negative reviews be completely expected?

I noted that they're currently offering a "special" of $1900 for a week, 2 dives a day. You can book a three tank Blue Hole, Halfmoon Caye day and it's ONLY $260 more (same as in town) smh

 

[ReefHound]

Where have you found the reviews please?

Why would negative reviews be completely expected?

I noted that they're currently offering a "special" of $1900 for a week, 2 dives a day. You can book a three tank Blue Hole, Halfmoon Caye day and it's ONLY $260 more (same as in town) smh

Yeah, they don't seem to focused on the diving (2 tanks per day?) yet who would spend that kind of money to go to the atolls if not for the diving? They seem barely worth the "half price" special.

 

[chillyinCanada]

The place is way over built too. Damn shame

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Where have you found the reviews please?

Why would negative reviews be completely expected?

I noted that they're currently offering a "special" of $1900 for a week, 2 dives a day. You can book a three tank Blue Hole, Halfmoon Caye day and it's ONLY $260 more (same as in town) smh

tripadvisor. (Yes.don’t believe reviews from trip advisor etc.. but you can clearly see this review is long and credible) Belize Dive Haven - UPDATED 2019 Reviews & Photos (Ladyville) - Guesthouse - TripAdvisor

lots of reasons I was unfortunately expecting ‘not great’ reviews: (I want to clarify that I said ‘not great’ not ‘negative’)


I know Belize well, most of the prebuilt claims and timeframes seemed wildly optimistic
It has been plagued with issues since inception and has taken 12+ years to construct
If you know anything about sir Hakeem, great at making spectacles, zero experience of hotels.
It’s more of a vanity project than anything the whole marketing strategy just smelled wrong from the beginning..very ‘Frye festival’ a bunch of models flown out for a series of ‘close cropped’ shots, most of which could have been taken anywhere. Limited social media strategy, no effective launch marketing strategy, sporadic random updates with deadlines repeatedly missed
East facing beaches in Belize are pretty much a write off at the moment. It requires an army of staff to keen the sargassum at bay
I have spoken to several DMs I know in Belize and they don’t have a positive opinion. Aggressive tactics to try and recruit DMs away from operations and then promises not materializing etc. Suppliers getting stiffed etc.

etc.etc.etc. Ad nausium..

don’t get me wrong. Any new dive operation is something I want to be wildly successful..but I also don’t have much time for dive operations who dupe divers with wild promises of luxury etc that don’t materialize..and aren’t cheap..fail and then the locals are left high and dry...as we have seen with failed ‘luxury resorts’ in north ambergris Caye who had more of a ‘field of dreams’ strategy than a proper professional plan and operation..

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

There was one positive review I saw that I particularly liked though....it was about a year ago and said something like ‘ this is the best luxury hotel in the universe with 11/10 luxurious luxury, sir Hakeem is a business genius, he is created a new level of luxury’....

......brilliant

 

[chillyinCanada]

Belize is not an easy place to do business, most especially when the business owner is not a local. That and building out in the middle of "nowhere" . . . Smh

The sargassum has cleared up this week so anyone going in the near future and for as long as it's abated, should be able to enjoy.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Yes...the road to hell is paved with good intentions..some of it seems to be the usual teething ‘restaurant not open yet’ ‘diveguide killing the wildlife’ etc...it can be corrected quickly, but there seem to be some bigger issues that will likely create longstanding problems..not least how much effort it takes to maintain a pool that size..

‘the caveats are also a big concern..’2 dives a day’...oh..you want to dive elbow reef etc and the divesites we shouted about in the promotional material? That’s gonna cost you extra...

 

[2skidivers]

I have the opportunity to go to Belize Dive Haven in March 2020.
I understand the place is brand new.
Anyone know anything about the accomodation and dive op?

We were there in September, about 2 weeks after it officially opened. The diving was very good but most of the dives were done right outside the resort. Dives to the Blue Hole and Glovers Reef are extra. Even going to The Elbow was done only if there were enough people. Even at 50% off, we thought the place was overpriced. We wrote an extensive review on trip advisor