Our family of five stayed in their family suite and had a wonderful time. The living room and kitchenette made us feel like we were living large and at night (or any time we needed a quiet moment) we could close the pocket doors into the restroom and get some peace.
Our kids had a wonderful time exploring the courtyard and playing in the pool--even sending off banana palm leaves into the surf, all without my husband or I having to worry that they would range out of sight. The homey atmosphere and the gracious helpfulness of everyone ranked this hotel at the top of our list. If we had wanted to, we could have walked to the nearest restaurant or ridden bicycles into Placencia, but we had a rental car. (Highly suggest taking the water taxi into Placencia and renting something there rather than driving the turnoff to Placencia until the road construction is finished.)
Roger is great, but Gail is an angel in disguise! My neck had gone out and Gail helped arrange for the local Thai masseuse to come to the room to work on my back, and she took the time to visit with my kiddoes and even do crafts with them.
We plan on moving to a different area of Belize, but Gail and Roger's resort will still be our number one vacation pick.

As soon as my feet touched the sand, I felt like the crazy stress of my daily life evaporated. This is a place to unwind, slow down and re-energize. It feels as if you've gone back in time to a slower paced more balanced and healthy way of living. The hotel is owned and run by an American couple, Roger and Gail, who are almost always on the property, they are very sweet and responsive to anything you may need from an early breakfast to transportation to the airport to booking amazing tours in the area. It really feels more like you are staying with family than at a sterile, unfriendly hotel. The rooms are clean and comfortable with AC (which is a must in the hot weather), they also have a very nice pool, hammocks on the beach and a restaurant so you never need to leave the property. The hotel is literally built on the beach so in 5 steps you could be in the ocean. There is a charming dock to fish off of and the owners have games and small non-powered boats you can take out exploring. There is also beach volleyball which is fun at sunset. And...in case you need to stay on top of your endless email, they have wireless internet as well, free of charge. I will definitely be coming back to the Nautical Inn every time I visit this magical place.

about the room you are booked into.
We traveled late Dec in Belize. Two adults and our 11 year old daughter.

This is a re-write of my original review which the owner contacted me about. I do feel that Gail is wonderful and she will try to meet your needs. She does want guests to be happy and was always on the go. She even let us borrow her personal bottle opener for our Belikins. :-)

We came here for 2 nights after a wonderful jungle experience. They were kind enough to book us for 2 nights even though it was high season and because they were full we ended up in a room that has not been updated yet. Since we didn't see any other rooms we assumed that they were all in poor condition. But, I guess that is not the case. Be sure to ask if you are in an updated room. The older room was in need of some repair.

The setting is beautiful. A private beach. Beautiful sunsets. The pool was a little worse for wear due to recent rain. We didn't swim in it.

My biggest complaint is that it was a holiday weekend and the cook was not available to make meals. The bar and kitchen are closed and you have to preorder meals. But, when we arrived Gail had been upable to reach her cook so we could not order dinner. The following day we were out on a boat all day but we didn't get any message saying that the cook had been located so we missed the opportunity to order any meals for the next day. Make sure you ask about the availability of cook and don't expect a bar.

All in all I did feel safe and we had a place to rest our heads but wished we had a better experience.

We stayed a week at the Nautical Inn and had a very good experience. The owners Roger and Gail were very hospitable and attentive to our needs. We ate almost all our meals there and the food was great (authentic Belizian). The rooms were very clean and what minor problems we encountered were taken care of immediately. We felt very safe here. If given the opportunity to go back to this area of Belize, I would stay at the Nautical Inn (now called "in His Palms") again.