The Palms Oceanfront Suites

We stayed at The Palms Oceanfront Suites in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. When I was actually booking this trip, I did quite a bit of research to make sure we were staying at a decent place. And I chose The Palms for a few reasons: price, ratings, and location. It's located close to the main part of San Pedro Town and it's a 3 minute walk from the airport. It's a condo-style hotel with fully equipped kitchens and in the low season, it's about $150 per night. It's clean, well-maintained, and the staff is amazing. And if you pop over to Trip Advisor you'll see that it has great reviews.

So first, here's a shot of the hotel from the beach side. We were in the unit on the ground floor (#14), which I loved because it was easy access to the beach.

We stayed in a two-bedroom unit; one room had two twin beds and one room had a giant king-size bed. Each bedroom had its own air conditioning unit and television.

We also had a full bath and a half bath. The bathrooms looked recently renovated - clean and shiny tiles. The full bath had two access points, one from each bedroom.

The kitchen and dining area was spacious. The kitchen had a full size refrigerator and the hotel provided us with a 5 gallon jug of purified water and a little jug to keep in the fridge. They provide guests with 1 gallon for stays of 3 nights or less and a 5 gallon jug for stays that are more than 3 nights. Additional jugs of water can be bought for $5 USD. The condos are individually owned so the furniture and appliances are dependent on the owners but I think in general, all of them are well stocked. We had a toaster, blender, coffee maker, plenty of pots and pans, knives, cutting boards, plates, flatware, spatulas, casserole dishes, all that good stuff. And of course, there was an air conditioning unit in this area too.

The living room had lots of seating, a big television, and a lovely view of the beach.

Each room's patio/balcony has hooks for hanging a hammock, which is awesome. I spent a lot of time reading my iBook, which was purchased specifically for this trip. I read The Book Thief which was so good. I would definitely recommend it.

There are lounge chairs scattered throughout the hotel property for guest use as well as a barbecue. Oh, and our cleaning lady (who is the nicest person ever; she's called Nella) gave us a bottle of "fish spray" which you can spritz around your patio to help keep the mosquitoes away (and it works).

The Palms also has bikes available to borrow from 7AM to 5PM. They provide you with a bike chain and lock as well. We took advantage of these quite often and I'll share a biking post here soon. I'm not sure if it was the low season or if people were just always sunning on the beach but there were always bikes available when we wanted them, which was awesome.

There's also a pool. It's on the smaller side but most people are out on the beach or away on excursions so it was rarely occupied (which again, could've just been the fact that it was low season). I felt like my sister and I were the only ones to use it on a consistent basis. I loved the pool and the way it was set up. There are trees and plants all around so it feels like a secluded alcove and it's well-shaded so you're not burning up in the hot sun. Plus, the water was so lovely and cool. The beach water was quite warm, which is nice, but not v. refreshing. It almost felt like warm bath water and it was often loud because of people jet skiing and motor boats speeding by. In contrast, the pool was a lovely oasis.

The hotel also provides you with a little laminated card that gives you 10% off (not including beverages) at seven different restaurants. It's a pretty good deal and gives you a bit of incentive to try a few different places.

I thought I'd also share a bit of the what the weather is like. There were three days where it rained really hard - with plenty of lightning & thunder - for an hour in the morning and then all of a sudden, it would clear up and the sky would start to turn blue. The difference is apparent in the two photos below, which were taken about 20 minutes apart.

If perchance, it is raining while you are in Belize, you just need to find things to do inside for an hour or two. Our unit had a puzzle, so we were able to occupy ourselves, which was awesome. And of course, watching Food Network is a great way to pass the time.

The last thing I want to share is the view from our hotel. Amazing, right? The beach isn't too big, but there's still space to catch some sun. The water is really blue and gorgeous and because of the barrier reef, the water is really calm (no big waves). However, also because of the reef and the calmness of the water, there's quite a bit of seagrass. The hotel next door, Ramon's, has a pier that extends out into a clear area free of seagrass which is buoyed off. Staying within the buoyed area is important, since there are boats and jet ski riders who may hit swimmers by accident.

We all really enjoyed our stay at The Palms. Our suite was so comfortable and the staff were all really lovely and kind and accommodating. I highly recommend it.

Cheers.