My wife and I just returned from a week at the resort. I am a diver and she just wanted to relax and read novels (and snorkel a few times). Everything was fantastic and we will definitely return. The island is beautiful, the dive operation was very professional and well-run, the food was delicious, the rooms were very comfortable, the outdoor shower was a nice novelty, and the other guests were interesting and friendly. We really enjoyed being on a secluded island away from the "real" world where there is not much else to do but relax.
We just want to mention a few things that may not have been mentioned in earlier reviews:
- There is very little shade on the beach, so we spent a lot of time reading on our room's screened-in porch, which was covered and had shade for most of the day. We were lucky that our porch had full lounge chairs with cushions. If this is important to you, you may want to ask about the type of chairs your room will have when you make your reservation because only a few rooms had full lounge chairs on their porches - many had shorter chairs. We were in room D (Superior Guest Room) and it seemed that all of these rooms have long chairs.
- The Hobie cat and kayaks are functional, but not in great shape (for example, there were only cushions for two of the kayaks).
- Coordination of events that are planned at the last minute, such as a spa reservation or alligator spotting trip, tend to not be great.
- Internet is available on a computer in the gift shop. The gift shop is open from around 8am-4pm and Internet access costs $1/min.
- Tipping is done through a tipping sheet at the end of your stay so that you can add tips to the final bill, although you are free to give tips directly to staff members if you choose to.
- We never had to use cash once we were on the island.
- There are no keys to the rooms, although there is a safe and the resort will give you keys if you want them. However, we felt very safe on the island and it was great to not have to carry anything around with us.
- The boat back to Belize City got in just after 9AM local time. There is not much to do in Belize City and the airport is not a particularly comfortable place to wait around, so you may be better off getting as early of a flight as you can after 11AM or so. We had originally booked a 3:30 flight, but were able to change to a 12:30 flight when we got to the airport.
- The beach if fairly short and there is not a path to wall completely around the island.
All of these issues are minor. We have visited many dive resorts in the Caribbean. While the diving around TIR is good, but not great, the resort itself is the very best we have stayed at and we can't wait to go back.
- Turneffe Island Lodge
