Maya Beach Hotel Placencia

My boyfriend, Chad, and I stayed at Maya Beach the end of June earlier this year. Placencia was our first stop in Belize, and couldn't have enjoyed our stay more at Maya Beach. The staff and owners are low-key and go out of their way to create a memorable experience. Service is top-notch, the owners turn out unbelievable food and drinks. Conch ceviche at sunset, fruity afternoon rum drinks at the bar, and intimate candlelit dinners with an oceanview are a couple of the MANY reasons to stay at Maya Beach. Our room, the Coconut Room, was spotless and comfortable, with a semi-private deck on the beach. There is a small reef within kayakable distance from the hotel, and the town is charming- however not within walking distance. We definitely enjoyed the secluded and peaceful setting- what more can a traveler ask for? Thanks for an amazing time John & Ellen!!! We dream of returning soon...

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! The rooms are nice and clean, the location fabulous, the staff genuinely interested in making your stay special and the food is off the chart. While there take the kayaks to False Caye for some snorkeling and relax in the hammocks. You'll never want to leave!

This is the kind of place you wonder if you should reccommend to others for fear it will become so popular getting a reservation will be impossible on a return visit. The staff is exceptional- the owners, delightful! They are friendly, attentive and caring. The accomodations are simple, comfortable and exceptionally clean.

The food was marvelous. I can't compare their cuisine to any other place on the peninsula because we chose to eat all our meals at the resort. They make a snapper dish that is out of this world, as is their chocolate souffle and memorable homemade cinnamon buns.

The bar is a gathering place for guests and residents alike and there is a small lounge with a library, TV and games available to guests.

You can walk for miles on the beach. The shells aren't great but pumice stone, coral and driftwood abound. You can kayak off shore to a small Island and snorkel. The resort arranged day trips we requested to the Jaguar preserve and a 1/2 day sail-snorkel trip. Very accommodating! What a great stay we had.

We very much enjoyed the staff and location of Maya Beach. I would definitely recommend the Coconut room as it has the best view (and a more than sufficient A/C). Ellen did a great job getting us set up on excellent tours and John and the staff producted wonderful food. In our opinion, Maya Beach is probably the best value in the area.

The owners Ellen and John were so accomadating. The food, 5 star gourmet! The staff, so enjoyable and pleasant to sit and talk with, and so professional and friendly. We hated to leave our new friends! The living room/library area was so cozy, relaxing. We read a few books, while the kids were on the computers. Kayaked a mile to False Isand and snorkled, and took the monkey river tour (arranged by Ellen.) Biked on the bumpy dirt roads, drank Pina Colada's at the bar and enjoyed the bartender's Garafuna flair, the Mayan staff and the spirit of the place. If you want Belize, peace and quiet, beautiful beach and pier cabana with hammocks...slow down and stay here! It was awsome!

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Rustic Accomodations

Best Restaurant in the Area-Never wanted to leave it!

Awesome Bar and Menu (Making their drinks at home now)

Friendly Atmosphere, Free Kayacks for your own snorkeling adventure.

A fun hotel in harmony with local culture and nature. Not a Ritz-Carlton but more like a grown up youth hostel where you'll meet interesting people, dine like a king (inexpensively). Run by an ex-corporate couple from Denver who really know cuisine, drinks, and travel. They make you comfortable and show you around Belize. John and Ellen (the owners) know everyone in the area and can arrange pretty much everything.

Good culture, beach, and tours....but far enough from the clutter and tin roofs in Placencia...We will return!

Maya Beach Hotel is fantastic! The owners, Ellen and John are very welcoming and helpful. The accommodation is comfortable and the food excellent... best on the peninsula. Really recommend the honey and coconut ribs and the five onion shrimp dish, which has a robust tomato sauce, but all the food was excellent. The beach is really clean, quiet and unspoilt....amazing sunrises! We stayed at a few places on the Placencia peninsula and this was definitely the best. Can't wait to visit again! Don't look any further ....just book it!

Stayed at the Maya Beach Hotel for 10 days in February. Would highly recommend it to those looking for a small place with clean, comfortable rooms just steps from the water. The rates are reasonable and it's in an area that is laid-back even by Belizean standards. Don't stay here for the ameneties - there was no TV or phone in the room, no pool, no spa, no coconut bowling or crab races for entertainment. We are fans of local guesthouses and small hotels, and this one fit us perfectly.

What makes the Maya Beach so special is owners John and Ellen Lee and their wonderful staff. They're friendly, extremely accomodating and make it easy for you to be as busy or as relaxed as you want to be. We used their services to set up tours to the Jaguar Preserve (didn't sight a Jaguar, but had a fantastic ride down the river on tubes), the ruins at Xunantanich (absolutely amazing with a knowledgeable and informative guide), a trip down the Monkey River (Ralph, our guide, made sure that we saw Howler Monkeys, when none of the other groups on the river that day did!) and a snorkeling adventure at Laughing Bird Caye, where we were in the water with sharks. We used kayaks the hotel provides to paddle out to a nearby caye to snorkel one day and to visit some nearby resoirts another. We rode their mountain bikes to town and back one afternoon. We also spent time hanging out on the beach in the comfy beach chairs and lying in the hammocks under a palapa on the private pier, watching the pelicans and sipping drinks.

The other thing that makes this hotel stand out is the Bistro. The food was fantastic and the presentation delightful. There's a selection of enticing items on the menu for each meal - we always found something to tickle our fancy. Guests from other hotels and resorts as well as locals ate breakfast there and nearly filled the small dining room almost every night. We never minded the occasional Caribbean pace of the service, as there was delicious warm bread with dipping oil and a glass of wine to keep us happy -the reward for the wait was always worth it. Having traveled extensively in the Caribbean, we found the service was faster than many places we've been. But be forewarned, the Bistro is closed on Tuesday nights, so you'll have to eat elsewhere!

If we had one regret on this trip it was that we didn't rent a car. We flew into Placencia and were picked up by the hotel. Maya Beach is several miles from the town of Placencia down a very dusty, rutted, red clay road, so walking or biking was not that appealing in the hot sun, and taxis are somewhat expensive due to the road conditions and the price of gas (as we were informed by the drivers). However, the owners are happy to give you a ride to town if they're headed that way, and several of the local resorts will pick you up and drop you off if you dine at their establishment (we did this on several occasions). The tours get pricey after a while, and a car would allow for more freedom of exploration. However, being our first trip to Belize, we're glad we took tours instead of going on our own- we felt we learned a great deal about the culture and history of the country with our guides, who often went out of their way to show us things that weren't necessarily part of the tour (like stopping in the middle of the road to watch Toucans in the trees or quick tour of the capital city). The Maya Beach staff know the right guides to hook you up with to make your tours the best they can be.

We had a fun and relaxing vacation, and have placed it in our top 10 Caribbean experiences. We will definitely visit the Maya Beach on our next trip to Belize!

We didn't book a room here because we wanted to have satellite TV, and they didn't have it, so we stayed at a nearby B&B in Maya Beach. Had dinner here once and the food was EXCELLENT! Service was a bit slow, as it is at all places in the general area, but it was worth waiting for. The salsa was the freshest I've ever tasted (even in the States or Mexico), and the food portions were the largest of all the places we ate during our 1 week stay. Good variety on the menu, but limited wine selections. Don't know if they'll send a car to pick you up if you have meal reservations as we were within short walking distance. Reservations highly recommended as they can seat only 30 at the tables, 6 at the bar. Casual to ultra casual attire and prices moderate to slightly high but worth every penny.

This little beauty is a real treat.

The owners are friendly and keen to make sure you have a good time. The setting is picture-perfect Caribbean paradise, probably the best beach in Placencia.

The hammocks provide a comfortable respite from a hard day of snorkelling, kayaking, beachcombing and eating icecream.

The restaurant should be opening in October '04. The food we had for breakfast was delicious.

It's your choice to get away from the world or remain part of it. The hotel is equipped with internet access that you can just as easily ignore......