Our stay at Areca House was great! We spent the 1st part of our vacation in the "jungle" region and then headed down to Hopkins to "beach it". Check-in was easy. The house is very nice and has everything needed! There are plenty of nearby places to get groceries and/or to go out to eat and drink. The beach across the road is very nice and the water was nice and warm! We ate lunch at the Jaguar Reef restaurant our first day and then went right outside to the beach for the afternoon. We didn't use the pool .... felt funny using it since we weren't staying there. We did 2 local tours: the bio-luminescence trip on the river at night and a snorkeling tour; both were pretty good. It is great that Areca House provides beach towels and 2 beach chairs and that there is a washer and clothes line. There is one tv in a bedroom and we had WiFi without any issues. I would definitely recommend Areca House. Next door the employees did laundry for the resorts across the street, but it did not negatively affect us at all. We were very pleased with our stay and would stay here again!!