Trip Report to Ambergris Caye, Belize

[pilot fish]

Trip Report to Ambergris Caye, Belize July 8th to 15th.

8 o’clock flight to Houston for connection to Belize got cancelled but an alert supervisor at Continental was able to switch us to the 7 o’clock at the very last minute, or else we would have had to overnight in Houston. We made our connection there and got to Ramone’s Village Resort as scheduled.

Ramone’s Village Resort: It was picturesque but noisy, busy and security at the beach an issue. Because of its proximity to town the town’s people use its beach as a path north and south, a lot of people traffic. Some stop and sit in the chairs at the beach, many stop to swim in front of the resort, some with their street clothes on. A few people looked as if they were casing the guests to snatch belongings when the guest went into the water. My wife was never totally comfortable that she would not have something taken if she fell asleep or went into the water. After a few days other guests told us that is how they felt also. The beach directly in front of Ramone’s Resort is public but that is NEVER mentioned in any of their brochures. A lot of guests from other resorts use the chairs and pool at Ramone’s also, making it a bit too crowded. There was a day or two that no chairs were open to sit on. The security guard did nothing but hang out.

There was also noise from Jerry’s Crab Shack, just outside the resort, from their music speakers till late into the night.

The room: Smallish and not very comfortable. It would be very good for one person but not two adults. It had ac but no TV, which is fine.

Food: OK but nothing special. Plenty of good, affordable places to eat in town, San Pedro.

The dock and pier at Ramone’s: Very nice looking but, like the beach, public. Dozens of town children were hanging out, diving and jumping from the gazebo into the water so snorkeling was a bit dicey that one of them might jump on top of you in the water.

Everything considered, I would never go back to Ramone’s Village Resort. You do not get what you pay for.

Ramone’s Dive Op: Very good. None of the boats were crowded and DM’s were good, let you dive your own profile if you had a computer. Helpful staff that sets up your tanks and even makes the switch to new tank for second dive. Back roll in and BC’s off in the water to hand up at the end .A few days we had 5 to 6 foot swells so that was very helpful.

Dive Sites. Did 12 dives in 5 days. Nitrox for first dive and air second and third. Sites I dove, Borderline, Cypress Canyon, Devil’s Canyon, Cypress Tunnels, Dos Cocos, Hol Chan, 7 Channels, Tackle Box, Victoria’s Canyon, Mermaid’s Lair, Rocky Point and Ramone’s Canyon. I did not do the Blue Hole because it was a 3 hour ride there and 2 ½ back in a boat, $195 USD , 5:30 am departure time, small head for 8 divers and what I heard about it, that it was ok but not spectacular .The next two dives at Lighthouse were, I was told.

Flight back: Left Ambergris on time but flight out of Belize City was cancelled due to mechanical problems so we missed our connecting flight and had to overnight in Houston. All planes were a bit delayed so the trip home was long and exhausting.

I would go back to Ambergris Caye to dive, but stay at another resort, not Ramone’s. Think I would head further south and stay on Turneffe Island next time.

 

[Kevin4diving]

Sorry to hear about your trip home.

The dive ops tried to limit bottom time to 45 minutes. I usually had 800-1000 PSI at end of dives. Everything you said is right on.

Was great diving with you.

Kevin4diving

 

[pilot fish]

Sorry to hear about your trip home.

The dive ops tried to limit bottom time to 45 minutes. I usually had 800-1000 PSI at end of dives. Everything you said is right on.

Was great diving with you.

Kevin4diving

Was great diving with you as well. Sorry for the grope but it saved your life

 

[pilot fish]

The diving: All dives were treated as drift dives. The vis ranged from 50 ft, on a bad day, to 80 ft on a good day. I imagine the vis was affected by the storm and rain? If the vis had been that of Cozumel, 100 ft, it would have been the best diving ever. Still, it was very good diving. I have seldom seen such great reef formations and configurations.

Not a lot of schooling fish, or abundant fish life in general. One site we dove, Cypress Tunnels had a long, 70 ft, narrow swim thru, you could not turn around in it, that made me a bit anxious. You could not see the end of it and it was dark, with a few nurse sharks swimming with you. I got thru but wondered why the DM did not warn us ahead of time what it would be like and suggest we take lights with us.

The water temp was a consistant 84*/85* I used a skin for a few dives then switched to dive shorts and tee shirt. Even the ladies were diving in bathing suits. I recommend the diving.

 

[pilot fish]

Oh, and a lot of nurse/reef sharks and spotted eagel rays observed.

 

[Dive Bunny]

This sounds just about like my visit In October. I know where Ramone's Village is, we stayed at Banana Beach Resort which is right down from there. We walked past Ramone's many times going to town. We were told it was safer to walk down the beach than to go through town. I know what you mean about the crowds and the feeling that you were not really safe. You didn't really miss anything by not diving the Blue Hole. It is more hype than anything. We did it, but it is not something I would care to do again. It literally is just a whole with a few formations, hardly any fish or life, just some reef sharks. The diving off of the Atolls was great though. If I went back I would stay at one of them. The diving there was much better than Ambergris. It was a good trip though.

Trip Report to Ambergris Caye, Belize July 8th to 15th.

8 o’clock flight to Houston for connection to Belize got cancelled but an alert supervisor at Continental was able to switch us to the 7 o’clock at the very last minute, or else we would have had to overnight in Houston. We made our connection there and got to Ramone’s Village Resort as scheduled.

Ramone’s Village Resort: It was picturesque but noisy, busy and security at the beach an issue. Because of its proximity to town the town’s people use its beach as a path north and south, a lot of people traffic. Some stop and sit in the chairs at the beach, many stop to swim in front of the resort, some with their street clothes on. A few people looked as if they were casing the guests to snatch belongings when the guest went into the water. My wife was never totally comfortable that she would not have something taken if she fell asleep or went into the water. After a few days other guests told us that is how they felt also. The beach directly in front of Ramone’s Resort is public but that is NEVER mentioned in any of their brochures. A lot of guests from other resorts use the chairs and pool at Ramone’s also, making it a bit too crowded. There was a day or two that no chairs were open to sit on. The security guard did nothing but hang out.

There was also noise from Jerry’s Crab Shack, just outside the resort, from their music speakers till late into the night.

The room: Smallish and not very comfortable. It would be very good for one person but not two adults. It had ac but no TV, which is fine.

Food: OK but nothing special. Plenty of good, affordable places to eat in town, San Pedro.

The dock and pier at Ramone’s: Very nice looking but, like the beach, public. Dozens of town children were hanging out, diving and jumping from the gazebo into the water so snorkeling was a bit dicey that one of them might jump on top of you in the water.

Everything considered, I would never go back to Ramone’s Village Resort. You do not get what you pay for.

Ramone’s Dive Op: Very good. None of the boats were crowded and DM’s were good, let you dive your own profile if you had a computer. Helpful staff that sets up your tanks and even makes the switch to new tank for second dive. Back roll in and BC’s off in the water to hand up at the end .A few days we had 5 to 6 foot swells so that was very helpful.

Dive Sites. Did 12 dives in 5 days. Nitrox for first dive and air second and third. Sites I dove, Borderline, Cypress Canyon, Devil’s Canyon, Cypress Tunnels, Dos Cocos, Hol Chan, 7 Channels, Tackle Box, Victoria’s Canyon, Mermaid’s Lair, Rocky Point and Ramone’s Canyon. I did not do the Blue Hole because it was a 3 hour ride there and 2 ½ back in a boat, $195 USD , 5:30 am departure time, small head for 8 divers and what I heard about it, that it was ok but not spectacular .The next two dives at Lighthouse were, I was told.

Flight back: Left Ambergris on time but flight out of Belize City was cancelled due to mechanical problems so we missed our connecting flight and had to overnight in Houston. All planes were a bit delayed so the trip home was long and exhausting.

I would go back to Ambergris Caye to dive, but stay at another resort, not Ramone’s. Think I would head further south and stay on Turneffe Island next time.

 

[Hank49]

Interesting observations Pilot Fish. I would rate San Pedro about opposite of what you said. To me there's great accomodations, good food and only so so diving. But, I've lived in a bamboo house with no air conditioning.....Belize has better diving than there for sure. Hank

 

[pilot fish]

This sounds just about like my visit In October. I know where Ramone's Village is, we stayed at Banana Beach Resort which is right down from there. We walked past Ramone's many times going to town. We were told it was safer to walk down the beach than to go through town. I know what you mean about the crowds and the feeling that you were not really safe. You didn't really miss anything by not diving the Blue Hole. It is more hype than anything. We did it, but it is not something I would care to do again. It literally is just a whole with a few formations, hardly any fish or life, just some reef sharks. The diving off of the Atolls was great though. If I went back I would stay at one of them. The diving there was much better than Ambergris. It was a good trip though.

Hi Dive Bunny. We had lunch one day at Banana Beach resort -nothing special. I got the impression that Banana was the same as Ramone's but not as nice looking? Yup, that's what peole told us, they were advised to walk the beach from their resort to town, which meant a lot of foot traffic in front of Ramone's . Many of the people walking by would stop at Ramone's and sit on the chairs and go in the pool and no one would know the difference. It just wasn't private and restful enough at Ramone's, although it looked great in the ads and brochures

What you said about the Blue Hole is identical to what I've heard from a score of divers that dove it. Glad I did not suffer through a 3 hour boat ride at 5:30 in the morning to do it.

 

[pilot fish]

Interesting observations Pilot Fish. I would rate San Pedro about opposite of what you said. To me there's great accomodations, good food and only so so diving. But, I've lived in a bamboo house with no air conditioning.....Belize has better diving than there for sure. Hank

San Pedro, the town, was ok and did have good places to eat. There were also nice accomodations on Ambergris, Ramone's was not one of them. Yes, I've heard that better diving is south of Ambergris. I'll bet that's true. The diving on Ambergris was very good so I can imagine how great it must be down on the other islands south.

We did have AC in our bamboo hut

 

[likelite]

Hm. We stayed at Sunbreeze Resort, right down from Ramon's, and had a great time from July 2 - 10, right before y'all were there.

We did the day trips to Turneffe, also Lamanai, the cave tubing and Belize Zoo, all of which were fantastic.

I loved the huge groupers and the very friendly nurse sharks, which were almost like pets....they kept following us around. I miss them, but I'll be back.

We dove with Aqua Dives, which was great, although I would recommend SeaRious Adventures for the mainland trips. AD takes little bitty boats for the trip to Belize City, and it's a rough ride in a 25' or so boat.