island boat pier — Ramon’s Village Dive Center

Back in July I traveled (again) to Belize.

Getting to the Resort

First and foremost, the main airport in Belize (BZE) is SO easy to navigate! BZE is top notch and Tropicair is by far my favorite airline. We got to BZE ahead of schedule and breezed through security. When we arrived at the check-in counter for Tropicair they asked us if we wanted to get on an earlier flight - amazing! The flight to San Pedro was GORGEOUS! Make sure you get a window seat.

When we landed, we grabbed our luggage and were picked up by resort staff on a golf cart. Total time from the San Pedro airport to the resort was maybe 3 minutes.

The Diving

The setup of the resort/dive center is fantastic. The tours offered were great. Within minutes we arrived at the local reef diving. So many sharks, sharks for days! We also dove Turneffe and the Blue Hole - highly recommended. The corals were bright and colorful at Turneffe. The Blue Hole stalagmite and stalactite formations were out of this world. And oh yeah, many many sharks. In total, we counted over 80 sharks.

Ramon’s Village

The resort does not serve liquor (only beer and wine) but there is a convenience store outside of the resort that sells liquor. The beach is not immediately swimmable, you have to walk down the pier to an area blocked off for swimming, but the swimming area was nice.

The main appeal of this resort is the massive pier with many dive boats. The dive pier is perfectly setup for large groups going to many different areas for diving.

The resort is cute and really feels like it is secluded. The Belize theme is carried throughout the resort and the sand is immaculately groomed every day. There are hammocks on the beach, fresh coconuts daily, and friendly staff.

HOT SAUCE and Food

I really enjoyed the hot sauces in Belize! Habanero magic. I brought back several bottles of “Marie Sharp’s” Habanero Pepper Sauce. You can find several different varieties of hot sauce in Belize. Generally, I love spicy food, but even I found myself sweating while trying several of these hot sauces. Proceed with optimistic caution.

We went to a restaurant that is walking distance to the resort called “Elvi’s.” I cannot recommend this restaurant enough – phenomenal food. I had the spicy veggie curry with a mojito, I felt like I was REALLY on vacation.

Overall Review

While there were issues with the group checking in, overall, the resort was good. I’m not a fan of the dive operation management at Ramon’s Village, very difficult to work with, didn’t answer emails ahead of time, and seemed to have a bad day every day.

I would give Ramon’s Village 3 out of 5 stars. The food at the resort was decent, and the rooms were clean. The issues with check-in and with the dive center management made for some unnecessary stress.

I don’t plan on going back to Belize, but I did enjoy the trip and all my wonderful friends!