Restaurant and Bars

[patticakes40]

We are heading to Belize on the March 3rd Saling on the Enchantment of the Seas. Does anyone know of a good place to stop and get a bit and have a drink or two...:)

[vmom]

There is one major resturant/bar at the port that might fit what you are looking for. Can't remember the name, but its the only one right there, can't miss it. It's not like Margaritaville for anything like that tho.

[nolaAlive]

Wet Lizard is perhaps what most people think of, but you might want to check out Iguana Rana.

 

http://www.thewetlizard.com/

 

http://www.iguanaranabar.com/

[patticakes40]

Thanks for the suggestions! How close is the Iguana Rana to where the cruise ship docks.

[nolaAlive]

Belize is a tender port into the Belize Tourism Village. Nothing in the village is very far from the tender docks. Banana Rama is at one end and Wet Lizard is nearer to the middle.

[driftwood]

The duty-free area, owned and operated by Diamonds International (where have you heard that name before?) is the largest and cleanest complex of its kind that I have seen, and the two bars already mentioned are very attractive and appear very well stocked. If you want to dine, however, the most dependable and least expensive place is The Smoky Mermaid, a semi-al fresco courtyard restaurant with sheltered areas for rainy days, which offers an excellent variety of seafood (Caribbean lobsters are in season right now, and the snapper is excellent) and even such simple dishes as hamburger and fish and chips and club sandwiches, which is directly across the street from the Radisson Fort George in The Great House hotel--about a two-block walk north from the Diamonds International complex. Do not hesitate to ask anyone for directions, as everyone in Belize is dying to help out the tourists! Taxi drivers will take you there if you want, but really it is only two short blocks walking. It might be very hot, however . . . . The food at the Radisson is pricey, not as good, and in general the kitchen is MUCH slower to respond to orders; but the decor is interesting if mermaids and fountains are not to your taste and monkeys are. Both are clean; SM has a very nice cat named "Mr. Skido" who may beg you for fish scraps while you are eating: Mr. Skido will not bother you if you are not allergic to cats--he stays pretty well-fed and so he is not too importunate. Smoky Mermaid does display what may be the worst painting of fantasy mermaids ever painted, but it was executed by the owner's daughter, so it will probably hang forever . . . . Now she has written a book as well, which you may purchase on site if you wish. Just concentrate on the food, as it is very good--even the french fries! :D

[nolaAlive]

Looks interesting...

 

May have to check out next time..

 

http://www.smokymermaid.com/

 

Don't see anything that looks like typical Belize-ian fare, like stewed chicken with rice and beans (actually pretty good), if that is what one is looking for.

[driftwood]

. . . of the website you have given (which is certainly the place) look suspiciously to me like rice and beans (as a side dish) with either chicken or the also excellent red snapper fillet. Rice and beans at the Smokey Mermaid are not so "beany" as in some locations, but they taste as authentic. The beans are NEVER sweet, and they must be seasoned by you to be spicy (with various homemade onion/habanero/vinegar concoctions, or Marie Sharp's variety of habanero sauces) or anything else. They do usually have ketchup, and if they have french fries they are good--never greasy or overdone or underdone. Rice and beans is the main dietary staple in Belize, eaten for food value rather than as haute cuisine; but there is certainly nothing objectionable about the dish. The "authentic" countryside rice and beans and (almost universally thigh meat) chicken are prepared by individual cooks around the country in small places probably engineered to cater for the cruiseline trade, in a daily batch, and when it is gone you will go hungry. As the tour operators will also go hungry when the food runs out, they often will suggest dining just BEFORE a particular adventure begins, perhaps around 11:30 or noon local time. Lunch is the major meal of the day for Belizeans, and food is NOT wasted! Your guarantee of freshness (away from the Radisson Fort George, where all bets are off and you may or may not see food within an hour of ordering it--and may lose your appetite when it arrives), is that every shred of food is consumed the day it is prepared. If you don't eat it, someone else will. :D

[nolaAlive]

If something is cruise line recommended, you can be sure it is somewhere to stay away.

 

This was more what I was thinking of

 

 

 

No doubt Smoky Mermaid serves good (and safe) food, but I would think in the same price range would be Harbour View which is on the waterfront.

 

Currently available on Lan Sluder's website are couple of FREE ebooks you can download, including one on Belize's Best Hotels and Restaurants.

http://www.belizefirst.com/

[ronrythm]

The duty-free area, owned and operated by Diamonds International (where have you heard that name before?) is the largest and cleanest complex of its kind that I have seen, and the two bars already mentioned are very attractive and appear very well stocked. If you want to dine, however, the most dependable and least expensive place is The Smoky Mermaid, a semi-al fresco courtyard restaurant with sheltered areas for rainy days, which offers an excellent variety of seafood (Caribbean lobsters are in season right now, and the snapper is excellent) and even such simple dishes as hamburger and fish and chips and club sandwiches, which is directly across the street from the Radisson Fort George in The Great House hotel--about a two-block walk north from the Diamonds International complex. Do not hesitate to ask anyone for directions, as everyone in Belize is dying to help out the tourists! Taxi drivers will take you there if you want, but really it is only two short blocks walking. It might be very hot, however . . . . The food at the Radisson is pricey, not as good, and in general the kitchen is MUCH slower to respond to orders; but the decor is interesting if mermaids and fountains are not to your taste and monkeys are. Both are clean; SM has a very nice cat named "Mr. Skido" who may beg you for fish scraps while you are eating: Mr. Skido will not bother you if you are not allergic to cats--he stays pretty well-fed and so he is not too importunate. Smoky Mermaid does display what may be the worst painting of fantasy mermaids ever painted, but it was executed by the owner's daughter, so it will probably hang forever . . . . Now she has written a book as well, which you may purchase on site if you wish. Just concentrate on the food, as it is very good--even the french fries! :D

 

. . . of the website you have given (which is certainly the place) look suspiciously to me like rice and beans (as a side dish) with either chicken or the also excellent red snapper fillet. Rice and beans at the Smokey Mermaid are not so "beany" as in some locations, but they taste as authentic. The beans are NEVER sweet, and they must be seasoned by you to be spicy (with various homemade onion/habanero/vinegar concoctions, or Marie Sharp's variety of habanero sauces) or anything else. They do usually have ketchup, and if they have french fries they are good--never greasy or overdone or underdone. Rice and beans is the main dietary staple in Belize, eaten for food value rather than as haute cuisine; but there is certainly nothing objectionable about the dish. The "authentic" countryside rice and beans and (almost universally thigh meat) chicken are prepared by individual cooks around the country in small places probably engineered to cater for the cruiseline trade, in a daily batch, and when it is gone you will go hungry. As the tour operators will also go hungry when the food runs out, they often will suggest dining just BEFORE a particular adventure begins, perhaps around 11:30 or noon local time. Lunch is the major meal of the day for Belizeans, and food is NOT wasted! Your guarantee of freshness (away from the Radisson Fort George, where all bets are off and you may or may not see food within an hour of ordering it--and may lose your appetite when it arrives), is that every shred of food is consumed the day it is prepared. If you don't eat it, someone else will. :D

Are you quoting from guide books(especially that first sentence) or do you write them?:rolleyes: Actually, this sounds more like a government tourism board:eek: Thanks for the info anyway.

Enjoy

Ron

[driftwood]

. . . among too many other things. There are plenty of things other than what I am telling you which I have observed, but as you will be in and out in a day, I think you can have a lot of fun. And of course you may heed me or not, as I don't get a nickel from any of this casting of verbiage to the winds. The BTIA in my opinion is doing an astonishingly good job of giving accurate descriptions in their publications, but that is what they are paid to do.

 

As to the Harbour View, yes it is on the water, it has an attractive interior with no visible cat, the view is good and I have dined there. Only once. And for several reasons I don't want to be sued for, I wouldn't recommend it to others, were it less expensive than in fact it is. Unknown to United States citizens in general, money isn't everything. There are plenty of places to spend big bucks--yes even in Belize--but I like value for money. But de gustibus non est disputandem, and best of luck to those who wish to try their luck. As it may prove.

 

I have found that if I keep my mouth shut and listen--and of course follow my own judgment--I can learn a lot even in two weeks. There is plenty I do not know--two weeks is two weeks, and I am not the sharpest tack on the block--but I would bet I have done more research on Belize in the past ten months in preparation for my trip, and tested more hypotheses--with the results I have been posting for you--than any six people taking a cruise. Fortunately I am retired and wasting time is now a full-time occupation, so have at me. :D

[driftwood]

Well, I have downloaded and admired the guide recommended by nolaAlive, and it is pretty good and would be dependable overall. I wish I had had it before I visited Belize. I did have about ten tour guidebooks, four of which I actually carried with me (one was only about wildlife, one was only about Mayan sites, but the other two were general), and most of them were pretty good and accurate in what they addressed--each, of course, having a slightly different angle, and each, of course, slightly out-of-date from publishing constraints. The 2008 BTIA tourist publication, free upon request, is now available, and as I noted above, although it is slick and perfect in a very Sunday New York Times Travel magazine sort of way (although printed on even more expensive paper), it is a very reliable source of information on everything they can think of to tell you about Belize. Obviously they do not review hotels, restaurants, politics, or tour services, although they list many of the resources throughout the country. The emphasis is on WHAT to do.

 

Those things I am making observations on took place over the past two weeks, ending when we flew home on Saturday, January 19th, 2008. And they are entirely subjective yet true, to the best of my knowledge and belief. And as you see pretty current.

 

But when you consider that Belize City is the New York of Belize, as Belmopan is its Washington, D.C., and there is a LOT of stretching to get ten restaurants to recommend in all of Belize City (pp. 18-19), you may get an inkling that this is not the haute cuisine capital of the world. We did dine one night at the Chon Saan Palace and the food was pretty good in an old-fashioned chow mein/chop suey Cantonese sort of way, certainly very good service,--but if you have only one day--usually a short one--I would have supposed you would not be looking for a Chinese restaurant.

 

Ambergris Caye is alleged to be developing a few chefs, but odds are you won't be going that far from your ship. We got no farther north ourselves in two weeks than Caye Caulker, so I know NOTHING firsthand about Ambergris Caye; and we dined very well on our one night in Caye Caulker, Sheila on lobster and I on a Red Snapper fillet; but at an outdoor place where the food does not begin cooking until 6:30 PM, and closes when the available food has been cooked and consumed. People began taking seats at the tables from 5:30 PM on--essentially, no seat, no food.

 

We did not visit the Diamonds International "terminal" until the morning of the day we were to emplane to go home--we breakfasted with Major Tom, and he wanted us to see it, as it is so new and clean. And if your idea of heaven is a clean bar and a hot sun, I think either The Wet Lizard or the Iguana Rama will be able to put you into a happy haze. Naturally the complex is a duty-free area with all diamonds and doodads imaginable, and naturally it is very much like the Diamonds International emplacements throughout the Caribbean, available from Sint Maarten to Belize. The whole thing was probably designed in Switzerland or Dubuque and has clearly proved effective for the big money interests behind it.

 

But suppose you perversely wanted, for example, to see the weensy lighthouse for yourself. You would leave the duty-free complex, turn right, walk quickly past the Harbour View Restaurant and on up Marine Parade for a little way until you reach the lighthouse. After you take ten or twenty pictures of it and of yourselves admiring it, if you continued farther up Marine Parade you would come to the street that provides access to the Radisson Fort George on the north side of the street, and The Great House, the bakery (pretty heavy and fattening stuff, but definitely fresh daily), and The Smoky Mermaid on the south side--as well as the rest of the Radisson Fort George. The Radisson Taxi Drivers Association sits on a bench on the south side waiting to indulge your humors, if you are not hungry and want to go anywhere in Belize--they are licensed tour guides as well--and with them is an elderly fellow, who with his brother, hand-carves, sands, polishes and sells objets d'art of hardwood. Many of them are the usual crowd-pleasers, seagulls and so forth, but some are fanciful and quite interesting, and all are carved with skill and sanded and polished carefully, most often from mahogany pieces left over from the huge logs which still form a significant part of the Belizean economy. [None of the penises and other embarrassing obscenities so popular in Jamaica, by the way: Belizeans generally are good, clean, honest people, who generally dress as well as they can afford to; usually the children are in neat clean school uniforms.] Every day a cruise ship is in, the old sculptor sets up two tables early in the morning, one to display their carvings, and the other to display jewelry hand-made from black coral (for which he has a license to vend) and other attractive substances. Then he sits patiently all day long waiting for a few tourists to come trickling along, perhaps on their way to or from lunch at the Smoky Mermaid. His prices are fixed but seem to me very reasonable--Sheila now has a beautiful pair of earrings and a matching necklace, and I am out US$26. (As my father was an artist and sculptor, there is almost literally no more sculpture display space available in our home.) You should see his work for yourself--and probably BEFORE you begin shopping at the duty-free area. And BEFORE you see Angela Gegg's masterpiece in the Smoky Mermaid . . . .

 

Just another subjective opinion, however.

 

Belize is running up to national elections at the beginning of February, and as their incumbent government is almost as corrupt with nepotism and cronyism and graft (and theft from social security funds, interestingly enough) in little as ours is in large (theirs in millions as ours is in billions of dollars, naturally), the opposition expects a landslide in their favor. The government is PUP and the color is blue; the main opposition is UDP and the color is red. Tourists are of course pretty much ignored politically, although treated well universally in Belize; I only mention the color thing in case you do or do not particularly want to make a political statement during the next few weeks with the cap you choose for protecting your head from a very unforgiving sun.

 

Off-topic again. Good morning! :rolleyes:

[nolaAlive]

Actually if on NCL, their Shark Ray Alley excursion (or whatever they call it) takes you to Ambergris Caye for an extended lunch stop.

 

Shark Ray Alley & Ambergis Cay

Belize City

At famous Shark Ray Alley, snorkel the crystal-clear waters of Belize's Barrier Reef. Reef fish, including snappers and jacks, dart about the graceful stingrays and inquisitive nurse sharks. After lunch in town, you will have time for a little shopping along the sand streets of Belize's most famous tourist Mecca.

Rollover for Activity Details:

 

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Level 2

 

Tours with this symbol involve a considerable amount of physical activity such as substantial walking over uneven or cobblestone streets, climbing stairs or steep terrain. They are not recommended for guests with walking difficulties. Comfortable, sturdy shoes are recommended. (Unless, of course, you're swimming.)

 

 

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Meal

 

Mmmm - these tours include meals.

 

 

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Age

 

These tours have specific age requirements. Participants under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

 

 

Adult Pricing From:

 

$104

Duration:

 

7 1/2 hours

[driftwood]

. . . and you are a snorkeler or scuba diver (or want to try snorkeling), the Ambergris Caye visit given above would be a tremendous bargain. My jpeg files are each way too big to attach here (I wanted to be able to blow them up to a maximum size), but on location the water is like glass along much of the reef, and the sunlight so brilliant that underwater photography can be VERY gratifying, even if you do not have a flash on or attached to your camera. (The flash is most useful if a fish decides to hide within the coral beds, or if there happens to be a heavy cloud cover, which is seldom the case for long).

 

Guides on these tours are in VERY good physical condition, however, and you may get a little more exercise than you bargained for. They may ease up a little for cruise ship passengers--I don't know. For your sake I hope so. I would have been content to settle into any one of the three locations we were taken to and just float around observing the very active fauna, but our guide was anxious that we see everything--and he went looking for everything, fairly successfully, with us strung out in his wake. Do not try too hard to appear to be keeping up--it only encourages the guide to keep moving ahead. Do not try to "shortcut" to catch up with your guide--FOLLOW EXACTLY THE ROUTE HE TAKES--I hit the reef very lightly with knee and elbow on one occasion when I thought I could swim over it to catch up, and was rewarded with some dramatically bloody but very superficial wounds. My wife didn't think I could swim so far--and neither did I! (After a few minutes she returned to the boat and spent most of the time sunning herself, as she is not a very strong or confident swimmer, and I happened to be with two other much younger people who were, unfortunately for me; tanning of course is always an option). PLENTY of sun! :D

[OttoCal]

So driftwood, I take it you had an enjoyable trip?? I'll peek around the posts and see what tidbits you have left for us to enjoy. Glad you enjoyed the Smoky Mermaid.

 

Thinking of heading to Honduras this fall to visit a friend, and are leaning towards a return trip to Belize with a shorter Honduras add-on :cool: .

[driftwood]

Yes, we enjoyed ourselves immensely, and the only speculative objective we didn't get to was Caracol, which proved "a bridge too far." We did visit Altun Ha, Xunantunich, Cahal Pech, Tikal and Lamanai; we did spend a night and went snorkeling the next morning in Caye Caulker; we did go cave tubing with Major Tom! I was also able to visit the beautiful, animal-friendly and well-stocked Belize Zoo and the Museum of Belize, which I highly recommend for almost all ages. The upstairs is currently devoted to an exhibition of Mayan art, jewelry and ceramics from across the Belize, and the presentation is worthy of any of the best museums in the world. Can't take pictures, though! Don't know why--all the colors used a thousand years ago by the Maya are pigments, and they will never fade. But not allowed. So.

 

Right now admittedly we are both rather the worse for wear, suffering probably from heat exhaustion, dehydration, overexertion on a number of occasions, a slight encounter with the coral reef (in my case), three more doses of malaria prevention medication to go, and perhaps a few other as-yet-unindicted co-conspirators (as they used to refer to the elder President Bush during the Iran-Contra heyday). But I do expect we will slowly recover and live long to annoy many more prissy Cruise Critics!

 

Thank you again for your advice--WE CERTAINLY FOLLOWED IT--with thirteen nights in Belize City (one on Caye Caulker), The Smoky Mermaid is not just a decent restaurant, IT IS A LIFESAVER! Mr. Skido and the plants and the two large turtles in the pool help to mitigate the overall effect of the curious, if not wholly inexplicable, decor, I am happy to find ["Every Man's Fantasy" indeed--what hubris!]. . . and of course the bar there is quite good also. Kudos to Belikin for producing Premium, by the way. Of their other beers I was not so fond, but generally I don't drink much anyway. :D

[nolaAlive]

As long as we are off topic, most shark/ray alley tours from Belize City (cruise ship or otherwise) don't go to Ambergris Caye but to Caye Caulker which is ok, but I prefer Ambergris Caye.

 

One used to be able to fly round trip from Belize City to San Pedro for about $100, but I don't know what the current price of oil has done to that.

[sag1804]

Hello all out there. There will be anywhere from 4-24 of us in the age ranges of 20-27 on this island on a Thursday March 6th off the Carnival Valor. We will have some who are on their spring break and really want to get wild. That means they will want to do a lot of drinking. So I was wondering could you tell me some places in belize to hit up a bar / have some fun. Also could you tell me the beaches we should go to? I think there are other ships tendering at the same time we are at this island. Either way I am trying to plan the cave tubing as the excursion and since no one will pay before hand what should I do? I mean we can split up but I want yall to answer me these three things.

best bar / place to drink and chill in the sun or not

beach beach for laying out for the girls and water sports/snorkel

beach excursion for our age range!

 

Thanks a lot in advance and if you want you can email me at sag1804@yahoo.com to make it easier. Hope I get some insightful answers. Take care.

[driftwood]

My subjective impression--after two weeks on the ground--is that Belize is not a nation of heavy drinkers by any stretch of the imagination, and the slick tourist bars are as you might imagine nearest the cruise ship pier--there are two bars on it, Iguana Rama and The Wet Lizard. Most of the others are located in neighboring restaurants--at the Smoky Mermaid, for example, and inside the Radisson Fort George. But Belize City is NOT CANCUN OR COZUMEL, and you might want to make damn fools of yourselves at some other port along the way, or on the ship, rather than in Belize City. Just a thought. Belizeans are by and large very serious people, very interested in advancing the level of their education so as to make the world a better place . . . .

 

"WHAT!" you may say, "Then why tourism?" They have millennia of Maya history around them, an incredible number of sites within their borders; incredible natural resources, including the longest coral reef in the Western Hemisphere; and they need the money pretty badly--education doesn't grow on trees in the tropics, as the fruit does . . . . And then too their leaders for these last ten years have stolen nearly all their public money--sound familiar? I donated a little money to the public library in Belize City, and to one of the schools, when I was there--but it was a very little--but I think it was a good idea. One small step. You have no idea what hard workers they are. It is nice to meet people like Belizeans surviving in the modern world. As you may discover if you leave the bar. And as you will certainly discover if you tour with the responsible and sober Major Tom.

[OttoCal]

sag- what driftwood said. :cool:

 

But you might have more fun if you took the water taxi out to Caye Caulker- you can walk around and have beers there. It is not a party scene by any stretch of the imagination. Sorry to dissapoint, and I don't want to imply that you can't find a way to waste away your day, but it is not the party port that you might be looking for. Try to convince your friends that the Cave tubing is the way to go there.

 

Belize is also not an island. There are small islands called Cayes (pronounced Keys) that are often accessible by plane or water taxi, although most Cayes are uninhabited and only accessible by a private boat.

[sag1804]

cave tubing is what we might do. However for those downplaying the party scene ANYWHERE during this time...

 

here is the list of schools on spring break if you were wondering if you were going during a peak week... a lot of these people will cruise. I think we can have some fun at the bar after cave tubing. I have looked at the bars pics and looks wild to me.

 

http://www.tripsmarter.com/panamacit...sbcalendar.htm

 

March 3-7, 2008 (Mon-Fri)

College / University

Enrollment

 

 

Aurora University

4,400

Austin Peay State University

9,105

Barry University

9,324

Beloit College

1,200

Bennett College

607

Bethune-Cookman College

3,090

Bishop's University

1,764

Boston College

14,500

Bowling Green State University

23,338

Cambrian College

3,326

Campbell University

10,471

Claflin University

1,800

Clark University

2115

College of Charleston

11,320

College of the Holy Cross

2,700

College of William and Mary

7,501

Columbus State University

7,600

Covenant College

1,007

Creighton University

6,716

Dalton State College

4,349

East Tennessee State University

13,389

Fairfield University

5,100

Florida A&M University

13,064

Florida Atlantic University

26,000

Florida Memorial University

1,947

Georgia State University

27,000

Greensboro College

1,145

James Madison University

16,546

Kennesaw State University

17,799

Lebanon Valley College

1,650

Lehigh University

6,600

Loyola College, Maryland

6,100

Loyola University, Chicago

15,100

Macon State College

6,243

Malone College

2,304

Michigan State University

45,520

Moore College of Art and Design

573

North Carolina State University

31,000

North Carolina A&T

11,098

Northeastern University

19,541

Pellissippi State Technical Community College

8,608

Pepperdine University

6,053

Rocky Mountain College

1,000

Rice University

4,367

Saint Cloud State University

16,000

Saint Joseph's University

7,300

Schoolcraft College

10,213

Silver Lake College

913

Stetson University

2,200

Tennessee State University

9,038

Tennessee Tech University

10,321

University Laval

28,902

University of Detroit Mercy

5,601

University of Evansville

2,676

University of Memphis

20,379

Université de Montréal

55,791

University of Notre Dame

11,479

University of North Carolina at Wilmington

11,911

University of Toledo

19,480

University of Virginia

20,397

Valparaiso University

4,111

Villanova University

6,335

Virginia Tech

27,572

Virginia Western Community College

9,001

Western Carolina University

9,100

Western Michigan University

24,841

Wingate University

2,041

 

 

TOTAL

672,333

[driftwood]

. . . as far north as Ft. Lauderdale for our opportunity to spend Spring Break in a jail. Let me congratulate you on your contribution to the cruise shipping industry and the American economy on your way to the Hattieville Radisson! How selfish and self-indulgent our generation was! How deserving of our present government! :D

[OttoCal]

Yes, you can create a party anywhere. Yes, US & Canadian college spring break starts in late Feb. and runs through early April.

Our point is that Belize is not party central. :rolleyes:

 

 

Driftwood, what did you think of the Raddison, aside from food there?? Were you happy to have based your stay in Belize City?? Probably will try to go back to the Green Parrot in Placencia if we go back.

[driftwood]

The Radisson Fort George is nicer and far more attractive than the Swampland Radisson that went bankrupt was. All the employees are thoughtful, industrious, effective and friendly, and it was a pleasure staying there. If I ever have occasion to go to Belize City again in my life, I would stay there, and probably want the same room, 324 in the Club Tower. It may be generally known in the tropics, but insects hate to have to walk upstairs, so only the first two floors of any facility enjoy their visits. I discovered that when I was a third-floor resident student at the University of Miami in the early nineteen-sixties, and it is a lesson I never forgot!

 

The Club Tower has "the only glass elevator in Belize," I understand; it is a slow one, and used most often as a service elevator, as the Club Tower is six stories high and the amount of linen moved daily is astounding. Everything is clean as a whistle, pretty near spotless from ceiling to floor, and each room has a full complement of fresh towels, washcloths, bath towels, soaps, shampoos and stuff that one would expect--unless one expects bathrobes--full bath/shower combination, granite bathroom, normal flush toilet that can take anything a US toilet can, nice fixtures. We had a kingsize bed with separately-inflatable sides, so both of us were quite comfortable the whole two weeks. Service daily (actually twice, if you count delivery of comforting messages, weather report for the next day, and Hershey's kisses in the evening. There are two sets of cement stairs to the ground floor, one sheltered and one open; all entrances to the hotel have security, and I infer every other room has functioning room safes--ours was broken, and it couldn't be fixed or replaced, so every time I wanted to put something away or get something out I had to go to a safe-deposit box in the office. In fact I don't think anything in any room is insecure, but if YOU are, the safe-deposit boxes are free--unless you lose the key, which will then cost you $75 US.

 

The sink and the tub drained slowly, as hair goes down the drains and tends not to go away. It is about the only angle the Radisson hasn't figured out yet.

 

Even the bar is quite good if a little surly of service. As to the dining room, it is too bad that nothing can be done about the kitchen, as the service staff is excellent. The "chef" is a cheerful German, but the time for preparation is impossible, and one is I think really expected to dine from the buffet or go elsewhere . . . . :rolleyes:

[OttoCal]

Sounds nice, glad to hear it. That is really the only hotel in Belize City which gets consistently decent reviews.

 

We weren't really impressed with the Chateau Caribbean which was right next door.

 

Digs down Placencia way were a bit more rustic, yet still charming- odd mismatched towels, hangers and the like, but the service was amazing. When we arrived, we ran out to the beach and had a cocktail, and short while when we returned, the housekeeping staff had put away all of our clothes, and found amazing nooks and crannies for all of my suff, including arranging my jewelry on top of our mini-fridge. (All tropical costume stuff, of couse, no need for the fancy things in that heat!). Also did laundry for us mid-week, great since we were planning on 2-3 wearings for many items.

 

Bartender and resort manager learned our names immediately and used them all week, even though we numbered 11 total in our group there.

 

I really liked the folks there- everyone we met was very nice, and even the grumpy ones didn't leave too much of an impression. :cool: