Our recent stay in Belize was full of adventure and time spend both inland and along the coast just north of Placentia. We elected to stay in a villa near the resorts which was well-reviewed and had incredible photos to accompany the reservation.
Sadly our coastal trip was less than pleasant overall and relaxation was not significantly easy given some issues with the rental.
Having traveled across the country and across the world, we had an idea of what to expect regarding insects, cleanliness, heat/ac, and living conditions outside the norm of living elsewhere.
The villa was unkempt and upon arrival there was no water pressure thus we could not shower or wash our faces. The plant life which was a part of the stay’s ambiance was mostly dead and the soil was full of ants; mostly small harmless ones all along the walls, but the fire ants in the bed were making a home in plants as well. We killed several large cockroaches in the stone shower and in the kitchen. Texas sized roaches and one dessert plate sized spider making a home downstairs. This was initially accepted as perhaps the villa didn’t have any recent occupants. However... when we had FIVE separate geckos crawling on the ceiling above the bed from sundown to sunrise, it’s a bit much. Yes house geckos are a thing, but five is excessive. They at one point fought and fell off the ceiling directly down onto us. Needless to say it didn’t lead to restful sleep.
Throughout the stay the villa had water issues. We were unable to shower for half of our near week long stay. We were told the island was having issues, but the residents and larger stays were operating well and reported having low water pressure for a singular day which they were notified of. There were no notifications from the management company as everything was reactive instead of proactive.
First two days of our stay the in room hot tub was not operable and had not been filtered or cleaned in sometime. We didn’t expect our jungle stay to be a more relaxing experience than living in a much more populated and up kept area.
Overall Placentia was amazing and a vast change from living inland off the grid, but the villa was disappointing. Very little of what is promised came through.