“Paradise in your backyard!” We were greeted upon arrival by Martin and Diana. 2 wonderful and helpful caretakers. If you are looking for R & R this is the place. House is colourful and looks like a tree house overlooking the Caribbean Sea. It is our 4 th. Time here and would highly recommend it. Returning again in November. Restaurants in walking distance. Check it out!

“Amazing tropical escape” We stayed in this amazing home for a week with a total of 12 family members from all over the country. The house was very roomy with plenty of space for everyone. The house backs to the lagoon with tons of birds and dolphins swimming by. A short walk across the street takes you to the ocean for a nice cool down on a hot day. It was a little bit of a drive to Placencia, but worth it. I would advise you to plan ahead for meals. If you want to eat out and avoid cooking, check to see what is really open close by. The belizian time is not understated! And we didn't realize what housekeeping meant. We were spoiled. Didn't have to wash a dish the entire week. That is what I call vacation! And the pool...oh the pool. This made this home exceed our expectations. A gorgeous ocean front pool with sand vollyball, kayaks, and a gorgeous refreshing pool surrounded by palms and with a swim up bar. We ended up ending most days here. The staff was great and we were usually the only ones there. Definately recommend this place. The only thing I would mention that could use improvements is sound control. It is a large all tile open floorplan and sleeping in if there are little ones along may not happen! Overall, great place.

“Sand, surf, sun, ahhhhh...” We arrived to a cozy, delightful cottage. Don't think of a resort, instead think of comfortable rustic charm. The breezes were constant but just down the sidewalk the breezes were blocked and it was much warmer. The porch was wonderful and morning coffee and cinnamon bons from John the Baker was a welcome treat. Ask for tips on the local spots and support the locals. Great food at Dawn's Grill & Go, breakfast at Cozy Corners, pizza & sandwiches at Rick's, the Shak, and yummy homemade ice cream/cells to at Tutti-Fruiti's. The waters are clear and shades of blue. Snorkeling is good, lots of places to tour. Monkey River is a good one and Cockscomb Preserve is beautiful for hiking and tubing. Kay is a marvelous host and very helpful. Her kitties are welcoming and visit often. We WILL be back!

“A wonderful, comfortable beach house - just a stones throw from” This is an amazing little beach house, perfectly situated right on the ocean with a great deck, amazing views, and lots of privacy! Stayed here for a little more than a week and would definitely stay again. Amenities are very nice including good air conditioning and comfortable bed and living area. Highly recommended!

“Great location. Wonderful hospitality. Great place to relax and enjoy the sea.” I can't speak more highly about the hospitality. Very willing to accommodate us and our needs. Very comfortable. Loved having our own mini kitchen, and the layout of the room was nice. Plus we loved the added bonus of the beach being so close to us, and not being right in the village, but at the outskirts made it more quiet and personal. If you stay here you will not regret it, great place at a great price.

“Amazing and awesome time.” What an amazing and phenomenal experience. We had an awesome time. The accomodations were clean and comfortable. The food could not have been fresher - right from the sea. A fully stocked bar with great amenities. We kayaked around the island and visited neighboring islands. It was a bit cool to snorkel at the time we were there, but the whole experience was truly awesome. What a peaceful and relaxing place.

“Awesome” I rented both houses for my extended family and it was awesome. We will come back someday. Lots of toys and the screened in porch was fantastic for the baby and for evenings hanging out playing games.

“I really liked it” A lovely place to stay. The Flip Flop Palace is secluded and private whilst being within moments of the Maya Beach Hotel so there is always someone close at hand should you need them. I found the service excellent. Everyone from Ellen, one of the owners, to the reception staff to the wonderful housekeeping ladies were fabulous. The waiters in the restaurant also gave spot on service and were so friendly. And a special mention to the lovely Marlon who was so welcoming and friendly. The Flip Flop Palace is great and I loved staying there. Thicker curtains at the bedroom window would have been good as I was woken up early by the rising sun every morning until I thought to hang beach towels over the curtain rail to keep the light out. The location is amazing. One of my favourite places was the promenade/jetty where I loved to go and sit and read. As far as the amenities, the best thing for me was the hotel having a guest computer so you could check emails etc whenever you needed to. Equally importantly was the quality of the food, which was outstanding. I am a vegetarian and was not expecting to find it easy to get veggie food in Belize at all, but the Maya Beach restaurant not only served vegetarian food, but it was superb, and you have more than one dish to choose from! I'm not surprised the restaurant has won awards. I liked best having my own place, rather than a room in a hotel. I liked least the pitch black walk from the hotel to the Flip Flop Palace at night (take a torch!).

“Fabulous beach views, beautiful pool, good amenities, great serv” Aqua Villa is the perfect place to stay if you want to be close-but-not-too-close to busy Placencia. The house has a beautiful pool plus a fabulous ocean view, and we spent many hours lounging on the deck enjoying both. The beds were comfortable, the kitchen well-stocked (even a blender!), the wifi connected, and the a/C worked when we wanted it, but we often just left the windows open to the sea breeze. The living room is tiny but the with the tropical weather, we never stayed indoors. Maid service from the Maya Beach Hotel was excellent. We have stayed at two other resorts in the Placencia area and having "our own" house while still enjoying the services of the Maya Beach Hotel was the best of both worlds. The area is quiet and agua Villa is within walking distance of a grocery store, making it easy to do your own cooking. Cooking your own seafood and eating outside was a highlight. We also tried many wonderful restaurants, and the best restaurant of the week was just steps away, the Maya Beach Hotel Bistro. We had to force ourselves to try other restaurants because the Maya Beach Bistro was so good. We rented a car for other restaurant trips and excursions and found that we were just minutes from Placencia and only an hour or so from the Bocawina zip line experience. The ziplining was amazing and the drive to and from a great way to see a less touristy view of Belize. One day we drove to the ruins and had a terrific lunch at Coleman's Cafe on Main Street in the Toledo district; the food was tasty and the hospitality even better. Agua Villa is a perfect place to get away from it all when you need to, and get to it all when you want to.

“Honeymoon in Dreamsicle” My husband and I stayed at Maya Beach Hotel in the Lower Dreamsicle House for our Honeymoon in May. Our experience with Maya Beach Hotel and the staff was outstanding. Our "house" was clean, and private, with beautiful views of the ocean and just steps away from the restaurant. It was so nice to sit on the lower porch and enjoy our coffee and breakfast each morning, and enjoy a cool beverage while sitting on the beach with our feet keeping us cool in the ocean waves. When we wanted to explore the area or take adventures, Ellen and her staff were so helpful and knowledgeable. Martin was always willing to give us our options for activities and help us coordinate our adventures. Without their help and recommendations, we wouldn't have been able to experience the local favorite hot spots or organize our adventures with ease. It was so nice that they coordinated someone to pick us up and drop us off at the airport for our arrival and departure. You can tell they really enjoy what they do, and their passion is unmatched. When we come back to Belize we will definitely stay at Maya Beach Hotel and we recommend it to anyone looking for a beach front relaxing vacation!

“Great property on a peaceful, gorgeous part of the peninsula” We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at One Particular Harbor. We were 2 couples and chose to each stay in one of the bottom floor rooms & use the upstairs to lounge and as the main kitchen. Having both an upstairs & a downstairs deck was great. There was always a mix of sun and shade & many comfortable spots to relax. We also enjoyed having the small pool. There were a couple of small things to point out. First, the screens in this home are a real pain! Melissa had warned us that they were having problems with them, but it was nearly impossible to close the screens without multiple tries, slamming them, and oftentimes they’d come off the tracks. Unfortunately one of the couples bedroom screen was completely unusable so they had to run their A/C. These screens are a great concept to be able to have all the doors wide open all the time, however, what a bummer that they just don’t work! Second, Melissa had also warned us not to feed any of the neighbor dogs who sometimes come around. There were 2 dogs from the north neighbor who hung around on our beach nearly all day & night. They posed no problem and just quietly relaxed in the shade. The south neighbor, however, had a dog who seemed rather unfriendly & barked a lot. There was one day he barked almost the entire afternoon. On other days when he was let outside he’d get near the other dogs & start fighting with them & barking at them. On one occasion he took the fight onto our deck where we were relaxing. We yelled at him & tried to shoo him away. The neighbors were within view but didn’t act concerned or apologetic which we thought was strange! There is no pier on this property which we knew in advance. During our stay the wind was just right to have piles of seaweed accumulate on shore. Teo, the caretaker would come by each morning to work on the seaweed, but he seemed to just shovel it back into the ocean & it would eventually make its way back onto shore. We climbed over the seaweed to get out & swim, but the bottom was very mucky. It might be nice someday to have a pier to swim from, but there’s plenty of spots to lounge on the property & we could always use the pool for swimming. Lastly, this property was a bit far from town for us. We specifically booked it for this reason, but given we enjoy dining out for meals & there’s many great spots to try in Placencia, we wished we were a little closer. With the speed bumps on the peninsula road it seemed to take us 30 minutes to get to town which seemed too long to do more than 1x per day. We ate at Maya Beach restaurant, Mangos, and Singing Sands – all of which are very good (Maya Beach = excellent!) and only a 10 minute drive away. But in summary, this is a really great property on a peaceful, gorgeous part of the peninsula. The house is set up so nicely for 2-3 couples and was supplied with absolutely everything you could need. The kayaks they provide are awesome and the view from both of the decks as well as the lookout rooftop deck are phenomenal. Melissa was very helpful arranging the rental, getting us set up with a rental car, recommending flights & arranging a last minute monkey river tour for us. She also took the time to meet us upon arrival to show us around & met us again before we departed.

“Incredible Location, Fantastic Host - Highly Recommended” Our group of 8 had a fabulous stay at Swan Villas. It's just outside of Placencia in Maya Beach. The house is uniquely designed and very relaxing. Loved the private suites and especially the pool, when the heat got to be too much. There is lots of wildlife around, like iguanas and birds. The view is to die for. We enjoyed the kayaks on the "lake" side of the house and walking on the beach right across the street. Great restaurants in the area. We went to the Bistro 3 times. We were divers after the whale sharks and would be out most of the day. The house is very secure and the host is readily available and very helpful. Rudy gave us some great tips for the area, and even on to our next stop in San Ignacio. Would love to visit again.