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