Salamander Hideaway San Pedro

Fantastic holiday at Salamander for two weeks. It lives up to its dream of being a perfect hideaway on a wonderful tropical island, with beach outside your cabana, lush foliage surrounding the small group of individual bedrooms. Its intimate atmosphere was supported by friendly staff and excellent food. The separate dining and sitting areas were filled with interesting people, games and books. All the guests commented how lucky we were to share such a place, it became a large family gathering with fascinating people from all over the world.

My son, daughter and her friend (all in their mid-twenties) chilled out, sailing, canoeing snorkelling, spear fishing, and swimming near the reef. Spiced with one or two visits to San Pedro town. The scuba diving close by was exciting and well rewarded with interesting marine life on the reef within minutes of the shore.

It was voted by the everyone as one of best holidays ever. Had everything we all wanted including time to relax. Definitely need to get back again soon to refresh the soul, and meet up with local friends we made nearby. Its one of the world's best kept secrets!

The Salamander was a little slice of heaven to me and my husband. We were so sad to leave. It is exceptionally beautiful and offers so much more than I expected. I do believe that it attracts a certain type of person- It is definitely focused on people that love the outdoors.They have kayaks,snorkle gear, wind surfing, sailboats- right on the premises. Because of it's remote location, it is powered by solar and they are very cautious of their water supply, so it is kinda like a step up from camping with a great restaurant next door. It you are the type that likes a resort feel with wait staff running around, this is not the place. I felt like I was staying with friends on a private island who were accomdating when we needed them. After talking to the owner we did realize that it had only been open about a year and they are still trying to improve in certain areas. But it was amazing in our eyes! Photo8

Hi, we just stayed at Salamander Hideaway 11 Miles North of San Pedro and we had such a lovely and wonderful vacation: After a 20 minutes boat ride along turquoise water we reached one of the most special places we've ever seen: Lovely cabanas, a wonderful personal and emotional service, gorgeous food and cool people. We had a perfect introduction by the guy who's in charge of Salamander (Hans, we like your new hair colour!) were introduced to some more staff members and immediately felt like a "special guest in a family" not any hotel guest in a Belizean lodge. The bar offeered delicious smoothies, the best Pina Colada we ever tasted (thanks Roman) and cool music - not the Caribbean "I-feel-happy-stuff" that you hear everywhere - it's special music like the whole place is so special.

Juan Carlos - the tour guy- did some great sun-downer-cruises with us and we loved the every-night-degustation-dinner with a lot of very nice Belizean specialties (thanks Elsa - you're such a wonderful cook!), with gorgeous salads, seafood and the real Italian pasta (I still dream of "penne putanesca" hhhhmmmh!) and these delicious deserts.

The cabanas were very clean and allow you the best views ever early in the morning when the sun get's up (we had a jungle cabana with 2 balconies - one heading towards the ocean the other towards the jungle).

Fishing is free at Salamander and even maintenance staff go fishing with the guests (thanks Mike). The reef is easy accessable by the sea kayaks and we even could swim towards the reef (but there's pretty much sea grass in the ocean). We loved excursions on the hobie cat and the around-the-island-tour - a full day of pleasure and adventure with some snorchel stops.

Salamander is the perfect hang-out place with hammocks on the beach, a big swinger and a sun bed tied on ropes. We had a massage in the Tipi on the beach and enjoyed the fresh coconuts that we were offered by Salamander staff. It's a loving atmosphere at a loving place and we surely come back soon.- Thank you all you beautiful people at Salamander Hideaway! :-)

A beautiful island hideaway but let down by a variable standard of customer service and lack of cleanliness in the rooms so it fails to live up to the dream. Problems started at San Pedro airport, when there was no-one to meet us at first and then Stuart, the boatman made us wait for an hour in the blazing sun before he would take us up to the hotel and only got going because we complained about being kept waiting. At the hotel, the cabana was pretty but stank of moth balls as did the towels and sheets. The en-suite shower did not drain as it was blocked with hair and the salty shower water made it impossible to enjoy the shower anyway. Bad weather on our second day (not the hotel's fault!) tested the cabana design as its open slat windows let the cold wind in all night and we froze. We did though enjoy a camp fire on the beach and a fantastic snorkel only a few 100 metres offshore. But to cap it all, on our return to San Pedro, Stuart left the hotel nearly 30 minutes later than scheduled so we nearly missed our flight and thought it was OK to dump us with four other passengers at the jetty in San Pedro with all our luggage and leave us to find our own way on foot to the airport.

A new manager had just started when we arrived - let's hope he can help Richard (the owner) and the team to get a grip and pay more attention to running the hotel for the guest's convenience rather than the staff's.

I spent a week this past February at the Salamander Hideaway on Ambergris Caye. It was fabulous! Our 13-year-old daughter pronounced it her best vacation ever. The grounds are beautiful, with just 8 rustic but elegant little cabanas along a white sand beach. Surrounded by a warm lagoon to the east and jungle on the other 3 sides, we felt as if we really had got away from it all. A week without radio, television, or cars was absolute bliss. The small staff are warm and personable, and we were on a first name basis with all of them. There were also never more than a dozen and a half guests at any one time, so we felt as if we knew everyone there. Our children (ages 4, 7, and 13) had the run of the place and we never worried about them, nor did we ever lock the door to our cabana.We spent most of our days sailing on the resort's catamaran, paddling in kayaks, and lounging around the beach. We did book a couple of outside diving and snorkelling excursions, which were fun, but we were happiest just loafing at the resort.

The food was fantastic. We ate fresh fish caught in the lagoon every day. The conch ceviche was a real standout, as were the oven-baked snapper, the chicken burritos and the fresh fruit smoothies.

The Salamander has a nice bar, and the spacious common area by the bar and dining area is a pleasant place to hang out and get to know the other guests and the handful of locals who like to drop in. The resort is a good half hour by fast boat from San Pedro (the main town on Ambergris Caye), so if peace and quiet isn't your thing, you might not enjoy Salamander Hideaway as much as we did. Also, if you're phobic about bugs etc, you might not like being that close to the jungle. In the week we were there, there was one snake sighting and one scorpion sighting. (The snake was returned to the jungle, and the scorpion was dispatched.) Cabanas are equipped with a can of insecticide, just in case; but we never needed to use ours.

All in all, I can think of no better place to relax in a hammock, paddle or sail on the lagoon and really unwind.

My young son and I stayed at Salamander for the second time last month having stayed in Jan 04 previously. As before we found a very relaxed atmosphere with friendly and helpful staff. The owner Richard, Stuart, Jaun Carlos, Mr Flowers in the Kitchen, Rachel, Marian and Mr Mike could not do more for the guests.. and then there is Tattoo.

This place is worth the effort of finding. It is completely chilled.

We were sad to leave and hope to be able to return again this year

Richard and staff went above and beyond in accomodating us and another couple during our stay.

We were very pleased with the customer service experience. They made arrangements for excursions and took us into town when requested.

The daily meals were fresh, healthy and met our expectations. The seviche was to die for!

A great place to relax and get away from the daily grind.

Not a typical chain hotel; personable and friendly - we highly recommend Salamander Hideaway as a fantastic value.

I've been to Salamander Hideaway three times since it opened. My family and friends enjoy the peaceful and tranquil essence of its location. Being off the beaten and dusty path of the rest , it yields your mind, body and soul the serenity of a relaxed tropical paradise. There's something about being in the middle of nowhere and having all the conveniences of home. My sincere thanks to Richard, Maria, Stewart, Juan Carlos and the rest of the staff for putting up with my clan and friends. But most of all thank you for providing the rest and relaxation we all deserved and needed. I urge anyone that needs rejuvenation to try it .You won't regret it and you certainly won't forget it.

Just returned from Salamander. The place is a dream come true. Peaceful.... Quiet.....Beautiful. Meals were caught or gathered only hours before we ate. Fish were caught, Conch was gathered for ceviche, Cocunuts gathered for sauces!! Very simple fare with a gourmet touch. Cabanas were great with breezes. Very natural. Very affordable. Went into town once and couldn't wait to get back to the resort. BUT, Richard and his staff saw to every need and many times saw the need before we did. Never had such attention and care given to me as a guest without me even realizing it! Could go on and on. Have already booked the entire place for friends to come along next year!!!! Jeff Jones

Everything seemed perfect at first....I called the resort and received a warm & helpful greeting from Gordon, the resort manager. Everything was so laid back, Gordon didn't want a credit card and said we'd do the paperwork when I arrived. He even gave me a physical description of himself or the other guy who'd be meeting me at the San Pedro airstrip for transport to the resort.

Well, a week before my trip I emailed just to re-confirm, and I was told by the owner, Richard, that Gordon never wrote any of it down, the resort is booked and I am out of luck. I asked Richard for at least some recommendations for new accomodations, and NOTHING - NO HELP whatsoever. Look, I can imagine how hard it would be to have a bad manager who didn't do his job and screwed up the reservations, but what about us CONSUMERS who have paid for flights and could have potentially end up in San Pedro with no where to go.

BUYER BEWARE - I have no confidence in how this place is run - What a mess!