Sally's Villa is located in the #1 spot of all Sapphire Beach Resort. It is steps away from the beach with picture-perfect views. My husband and I rented the villa for a month as we wanted to take advantage of "work from anywhere" so we did and worked from Belize for a month in Sally's Villa. There was stable enough internet to accommodate our Zoom calls and Netflix addictions.. My husband worked from the table in the back porch looking out at the beach as I worked from the Kitchen table looking out at the beach. Our work back-drop never looked so good.
The Villa Itself - Adorable, very clean, and spacious. It has a great loft for the kids to sleep in and 2 master bedrooms. A full-service kitchen, washer machine and dryer. The only thing I wish it had was a few tubberware containers since we always had some sort of leftovers because we cooked at least half of the time.
Sapphire Beach Resort - It is not your typical resort. It felt like a condo community with 3 pools and a pool bar. The main office is an intake room, don't expect your traditional lobby. The restaurant the Gem, has a limited menu but the food was very good. The security guard and ground keepers were super nice and kept the place safe and immaculate. Also be aware, you will be expected to pay an additional 15% resort tax upon arrival, this is not included in your Airbnb total. It did say there was a 15% fee, but I thought, like all the other fees it was included in my total and it was not. Sally was awesome in helping me resolve this once I was onsite.
Location - Sapphire Beach is located on the North side of the island. Be prepared that this will take you 45-60 minutes to get to town with your Golf Cart. The roads are pretty bad. Sometimes it was fun, others it made an already timely commute worse. Most tours are from the main land and that is an hour and 45 min water taxi and when you add a 45 min Golf Cart ride you are 2.5Hrs in and your tour hasn't started. When you land from the airport in Belize City, you must take a 25 taxi to the water taxi, then the water taxi is 45min and then the golf cart ride is 45min. Keep this in mind when you are booking your flights home. Make sure you coordinate it with either the Water Taxi schedule of the inter-Island flight schedule. I have to say, with all that, I would still stay here again. I just wish I really understood the location better as I would have been better prepared.
The Beach - The beaches were not what I expected of Belize. They were full of Sargasmn (seaweed). Apparently, May is the season. I am a beach person and I did not go in the water the entire month I was staying 20ft away. The smell was pretty awful at times. We sort of got used to it. The groundsman were out there from 6am - 3pm every day removing what they could. They never really won the race. However, If you took a boat just past the seaweed, the water is stunning. All in all, I have to say - I LOVED my time at Sally's place.
If you have any doubts if Belize is safe. It is. I never for a second felt that it wasn't. The people are friendly and pleasant!