Matachica ?

[belhysys]

Hello

My first post here so be gentle

My wife and I planning a trip this August. First trip alone in 16 years.... (ie without our son) and aiming for a great dive holiday with some luxurious relaxing time. We are both beginner, AOW but with 20 dives

We are still looking at different options (like philippines) but Belize is on our short list. It seems that Matachica is a very nice play to stay in the Ambergris Caye, however the only posts about it are very old. Anyone has been there recently ? and would you dive with their local dive center or not ? It seems that the recommended dive centers are in the city and quite far from the resort.

thanks

 

[salth2owannabe]

We haven't stayed at Matachica, only eating dinner there while staying at a nearby resort.
It appears to be an upscale resort that offers some diving, so it depends on what you are looking for in a vacation experience. The lack of comments from members here might support that. I can tell you that it is a very nice place, just maybe not a place divers go to dive. If your goal is to mostly relax, have access to Ambergris activities, "luxury" dinning, and dive on the side it might be a very good option. If your goal is primarily diving, and have close access to pretty darn good diving, you may want to look at some other options. We've stayed and snorkeled on Ambergris, but never dove there. From looking at many of the posts, it appears those that stay there prefer the diving on the outer atolls, which we have done. Check out Turneffe Island Resort and see if that is something that might interest you, we've stayed there a few times. Three dives a day with a mid-week night dive, and a trip to do the Blue Hole and Half moon Caye.

 

[belhysys]

Thx I was looking at TIR based on this forum, ie like you said lack of answers / references. How is the resort, is it adequate / rustic / nice / luxurious.... and to be perfectly honest I was hoping to do 1 or 2 days of fly fishing so might be a winner

 

[salth2owannabe]

How is the resort,

We really like it. I wouldn't call it a luxury resort and definitely not on the same level as Matachica in that regards. It is very nice however, and the photos on their web site are pretty representative. The food has been well above average, and is always one of the things we mention when talking about the overall stay experience. They provide a good variety of dive sites, most of which are a 5-10 minute boat ride away, and we've always enjoyed the staff. I'm a fly angler myself, but have never fly fished from Turneffe. Talking to some of the clients, the fly fishing is pretty good there. We've stayed there a few times the same time as a couple who has returned something like 15-20 times to fly fish the flats exclusively for Permit.

 

[belhysys]

Just wanted to thank you, we went to TIR and we had the best holiday ever. An example of our dives .

 

[salth2owannabe]

Glad it worked out for you. We are heading back this winter to do another 10 day stay at TIR. We've stayed at a number of locations in the Caribbean and TIR keeps drawing us back. A few places we've been edge it out in certain areas, but for the overall location, staff, food, service, diving and relaxing vacation, TIR works for us.