It is quite difficult to pin down why Banyan Bay was so disappointing. The room was fine (2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, (beware, most seem to have one queen and one king..in each room no twins) We had a perfectly nice sea view room (although their beach is currently sandwiched between 2 half built piers... one had gentle construction work (soon to be a huge dive shop) and the other had no sign of life, just a little scaffolding and a slighly derelict air). The pool is fine... a few tiles missing but set in pretty gardens. The restaurant is terrible (we had breakfast there once but it was so bad we didn't bother again) Within moments of arriving we had a gentle sell on timeshares there (it did not happen again but it was not a good start)

But on the plus side, i think there are many places like this in Ambergris and perhaps this is one of the better ones. You can walk into town (about 20 mins) the beach is sandy and well looked after, the airconditioning is quiet and the place is spotless) I did not visit it but according to some other travellers, Victoria House is the place to stay (fully booked when we tried).

San Pedro itself is reasonably charming in a halfbuilt sort of way. Everybody is incredibly freindly and you don't get any feeling of being threatened or feeling like a rich tourist among poor locals. The reastaurants are great (we loved Wild Mango) and the snorlkling is sensational. The sea grass is not a problem as long as you accept that you cannot snorkel straight off the beach (just because you won't see anything) You need take a 10 minute boat trip but you will be rewarded with turtles, rays, holding nurse sharks, and every other tropical fish you have ever dreampt of.

Overall perhaps Banyan one of the best of a bad bunch but it felt rather unloved to me.

Amazing Trip! Lovely accomodations. Best place to stay on the Island. Clean, super friendly staff, great restaurant (Rico's) on the property, dive shop that books wonderful tours, snorkeling, day outings, fishing etc boats pick you up at the dock out front!
Beautiful view of the ocean, nice beach, great location to all restaurants, shopping in town!

Family, Spring Break trip for 3 College age children 19 to 23. My husband, myself and best friend from Anchorage, AK along with her 18 year old son. We all had a trip of a lifetime... LOVED every minute we were there, didn't want to leave!

Nice location, fun pool, spacious rooms, not a lot of personality. You are definitly in a time share - photos of someone's family all around our room. very clean. Since you can't drink the water, it would have been nice to have one small bottle of water in the room upon arrival, but you have to purchase from the front desk.
OK staff (the cleaning staff was lovely). Timeshare sales attempts very annoying.
Checkout at 11 am and we weren't allowed any extra time.
Helpful concierge. Snorkel with a private tour instead of with the company recommended by the hotel. (we loved Grumpy and Happy so much!!!)
Eat away from the hotel - which is very easy - so many wonderful choices.

I write this review from the lobby of Banyan Bay and I only have good things to say of the hotel, actually condo and the staff who are very friendly and helpful. My one disappointment is not about the hotel but
rather the beaches of Ambergris Caye. The sand is beautiful, white powder but ironically there is such an abundance of sea grass along the water line it prevents the beautiful Caribbean turquoise color. This is true for the entire island and trust me I've checked it out! If you go diving or snorkeling you can experience the crystal waters but at any beach you may not experience this. You can see the beautiful blue offfshore but not within hundreds of yards, oh well I suppose there are bigger problems in life however this is my complaint. One other note about the Banyan Bay resort dive shop. My two sons booked an all day dive. The night before one son became ill with a fever, so much that we were forced to leave a restaurant early.
We returned to the hotel and asked them to call Eli, the manager and let her know we were forced to cancel the trip. The trip departed at 5:30am the next morning. In the morning I immediately went to the dive
shop to return some equipment and asked if they had gotten the message
the night before. "Yes" was Eli's reply , followed immediately with
"You owe us $370.00" Now being on vacation, I kept my cool, actually I was partly shocked at this callous rude reaction, and I had offered to reschedule and we had already booked a dive prior. Notwithstanding the customer is always wrong here, I calmly told her, "Thank God for American Express" My son was sick and I don't think the PADI manual suggests diving with a fever! She then informed me that I could speak with the owner who proved very illusive and we never talked. The hotel
manager Laura intervened for me and settled the affair with a resulting no charge, I truly appreciate that. We are booking our other
dives at Ramon's Village and they are terrific.