Belizean Dreams Resort — Hotel in Stann Creek District

“Casual elegance set among exciting adventure” is their motto and 1000% accurate. I’m so glad that we booked our Thanksgiving break at Belizean Dreams as an all-inclusive vacation. As the designated vacation planner for the family, BD made my job so easy! I exchanged one email and then sent our deposit. Then literally settled up today on our way out and it was a fantastic value for a dream vacation. We will never forget Belizean Dream! I hope that we can come back and I’m FOR SURE recommending it to family and friends! Whether looking for a honeymoon, group trip, or family getaway with kids, this place delivers. They truly WANT to serve, so if anything isn’t 5-star, tell them and they’ll do what they can to make it right. For instance, the shampoo/conditioner in one shower smelled bad. Housekeeping was on it and cleaned out the dispenser with bleach and refilled it.

With 17 and 15 year old boys who want to “do stuff” on vacation and not go to museums and look at architecture, this was the ideal vacation! While you can surely be a beach bum at the resort with drinks and food delivered to your hammock, you can also pick from tons of adventures nearby. Hopkins town is just a 5-minute bike ride away as well (free bikes from the resort). So if you need to hit the store for anything or you really want to try the local spots, it’s totally easy.

If you’re concerned that the resort doesn’t have a gym, don’t be. Hopkins has a good 5km of paved north-south asphalt, so you can get in a great 10k run right from the front door (I posted it to Garmin if you look). Open water swimming most mornings (when it can be glass flat) between the two nearby docks. And if you really need some weights, the town gym is right across the street! Be sure to grab a peanut butter chocolate bar on your way out.

Their all-inclusive package was a great way to go for my family. Meals and drinks and bar snacks and one excursion were included. Concierge / Activities coordinators Delcie and Stephanie made it their personal mission to get us in for absolutely every adventure that we could throw their way, even when I showed up at 5pm curious about going on ATV’s the next day! Plus, they got us in for Discover SCUBA dives upon request and chose a great dive outfitter just down the beach.

To start our vacation and get all relaxed, we had massages on property which were some of the BEST that we’ve ever had (and we get them regularly).

All of the resort staff were excellent and truly are empowered to make your vacation the best ever. Even the maintenance guys were nice and said hello every time we saw them (they rake the beach daily) and they’re constantly doing little projects as the sea is tough on the property. The property is in immaculate condition.

Do inquire about their very reasonable laundry! We sent all of our laundry to be done the day before we departed and had it back, folded, and ready to repack. My wife was so happy to look forward to going home without facing loads of vacation laundry.

Using BD as our travel agent made life so easy. They arranged our transfers from/to BZE via local airline - which was an adventure in itself! And Kevin was waiting at Dangriga airport with the van and a head full of tour guide info to give us the lay of the land during our 45minutes drive to the resort.

For SURE book your tours through the resort as their guides will drive you to/from, provide towels and water and cookies, and make certain that everything goes smoothly! They’re like your little liaisons. Jose and Big-D took everyone from the resort on Monday to go ziplining and cave tubing.

A few logistical notes for those new to Belize: they speak English. You can flush TP. Everyone accepts USD and most places take credit cards and even Apple Pay. But bring lots of $5’s. We didn’t have any issues with bugs or mosquitoes (but we brought Deet for the jungle adventures).

We kept referring to the resort as “the island” because it felt like we were on a private island…. Yet we had access to all of the fun of being on...

I would rate my stay here fair, not great but not horrible. I went to this resort for one week with my family as a getaway to explore and try new things in December, during the supposed dry season. Long review short: service and excursions were great. Activities, food, and amenities less so. Would recommend if you truly desire a weekend away from reality, but be cautious. Read more below.

Pros: -Belizean Dreams is in a great location right up against the water with a gorgeous view, an easily accessible pier, and a beautiful central green space. -Everything was clean and well-kept; nothing seemed run down or out of place. -The service from the staff and management was fantastic; they were always available to arrange an excursion, provide more towels or room service, or answer questions. -The excursions we went on - the snorkeling trip, ziplining, and water rappeling - were very fun and easy to get to. All were led by experienced guides who kept us safe and entertained the entire time. Be warned, though, the water rappelling can be scary and difficult for small children or non-climbers. -None of the tours felt overbooked or crowded. The resort itself felt very personal, and we ended up making friends as we went.

Cons: -Dry season does not necessarily mean dry weather. It rained almost half the days and for the last two days, it rained almost constantly from waking up to going to bed. Obviously, this is not something the resort can control, but I will say the amenities for during rain were lacking. There were a few board games, a small lounge, and a covered eating area, and that was it. Even the bar was closed for most of the day. -We arrived on a Monday. Starting Wednesday evening, we had no wifi for the remainder of our trip. We were repeatedly told that it would be back any time now, and that they had no control over the wifi, but given that it's a pretty important amenity we were surprised that it was missing for the majority of our trip. We were eventually given a small 3G substitute, but given the low bandwidth it was a sorry substitute for what we were promised. -On top of the lack of wifi, our TV was broken for much of our stay as well. This was thankfully fixed the last night, but from Tuesday to Saturday, our remote didn't work and there were common glitches. When one is lacking wifi, without a working TV, and stuck inside with the rain, there are only so many board games one can play before they go mad! -The food was not great. There are four options a night most nights, usually with a vegetarian option, but none were of large portion size and many felt like copies of previous meals. I would say that shrimp was always a good choice and land meats always a bad one. If you are vegetarian or vegan, prepare for your options to be quite limited. There are reports that some people have gotten Salmonella here too, but we just experienced mild stomachaches from a chicken dish one night. -The beach itself looks nice, but the shoreline is quite often covered in trash and the sand is very hard on the feet. My family and I ended up with blisters and sores from walking along it and had a hard time playing beach games without taking breaks.

All in all, the trip left some things to be desired. I would have probably had a better time if not for the weather and faulty wifi, but I have a hard time pointing a finger at a specific source. Again, It comes down to personal preference and what you anticipate your vacation...

My wife an I chose Belize for our Honeymoon as we wanted to have a trip filled with amazing scuba, eco-adventures, and, when not out in nature, relaxation. We could not have been happier with our choice of Belizean Dreams to meet these desires. It is a small, beautiful resort offering the benefit of getting to know the staff throughout our stay. By the end, everyone seemed to know our names and we knew theres! The service truly was outstanding.

Another great example of balance, we loved being able to hang out at the bar at night, enjoying included, delicious drinks, while also being able to get plenty of sleep for our dives and adventures the next day as the bar closed at 11 every night.

Our room was amazing with a beautiful ocean view. We loved falling asleep and waking up to the sound of waves and chirping insects.

On top of all of that, the food was exceptional. There was a different menu every night for dinner, a large menu for lunch, and plenty of options for breakfast. Everything we had was great and we never got tired of the food or lacked for variety. Although, I must say my favorite "meal" of the day was probably the bar snacks. Those nachos and jalapeño poppers paired with a drink from the bar really hit the spit after a day diving, hiking, or laying on the beach. As we booked the honeymoon package, we were also treated to a private dinner on the beach on one of the nights of our stay. Not only was it romantic to have dinner under the stars with waves rolling in mere feet away, the food was, once again exceptional.

Of course, the reason we came to Belize was for the opportunity to get into nature. with the exception of scuba, we stuck to the tours offered in our package, but there were many others that sounded amazing for a relatively small fee. The snorkeling was fantastic (we saw spotted eagle rays!), the ziplining and cave tubing tour was fascinating, and the waterfall hike was both beautiful and refreshing. We even extended our eco adventures by snorkeling off the shore of the resort and exploring the extensive seagrass bed that is just a few feet deep. I definitely recommend asking the front desk for some snorkel gear and exploring that very cool ecosystem if you are staying at the resort.

The only thing Belizean Dreams lacked was their own diving boat. However, it was very easy to schedule dives with operators in Hopkins and the front desk was super helpful in making sure our dive were scheduled and happened. We highly recommend checking out Happy Go Luckie if you want to dive while at the resort.

All-in-all, our stay at Belizean Dreams was absolutely perfect. We would recommend it to anyone looing to stay in the Hopkins area and would definitely stay...