My family - myself, my mother, husband and two young children - stayed at Casa Paradiso in July for 10 days. The house is great and Terri was an excellent concierge. (Terri is the concierge, while Gail is the owner, who lives in the States). There is also a caretaker who lives in the guest/carriage house. It was reassuring to have him available should anything have happened to the house we needed help with.
Terri is an excellent concierge. We chose to take the ferry to the island, and she arranged the cab ride and ferry tickets for us. When we arrived in San Pedro, she was there to pick us up in the golf cart we rented, (that she also arranged for us), and gave us a tour of the town. She brought along Wes who followed us to the home with our luggage. A golf cart was great for us when we needed to get into town, drive to Secret Beach or just to explore some of the island.
Terri booked a full day excursion with a local-owned tour operator. They are Belizean and had so much knowledge to share with us on the history of Belize, the sea, the land, etc. We swam (at a respectful distance) with a manatee, (twice!), visited the most beautiful stretch of beach where Joel and Aron cooked delicious fish and lobster for us. Their rum punch was also quite tasty. Shark Ray alley, and the iguana sanctuary were also stops on our tour. We enjoyed it so much, we took a second trip to snorkel at Hol Chan with them. This is where we saw our second manatee, where he was swimming through the channel in the reef.
Casa Paradiso is in an excellent location. About a 15 minute ride from town, it is also near enough to walk to the Truck Stop, Marbucks and Tres Cocos for a bite to eat. You can walk the long stretch of beach in both directions. Beaches are public, and piers are available to use from 6am - 6pm. The beach in front of the house was not swimmable during our stay due to the seaweed. But, some of the piers stretch out into the clear, blue water, and you can swim inside the buoys. We didn't do this, but it's an option. There's also an Urgent Care and pharmacy up the road, about 7 or 8 minutes away.
The house is spacious, and had just enough room on the couches for the 5 of us if we ever wanted to relax inside. But really, the pool and porch is where we spent most of our time. Both have beautiful views, and the porch was a great place to sit and read, or have a drink and enjoy the view of the moon over the Caribbean and breeze at night.
The pool was a hit with our two kids (7 & 8 y.o.). Opposite the stairs, the pool is shallow, maybe 3 inches deep. With VERY close supervision, I think it could be a great area for younger kids to splash around. Another favorite of the kids' was finding little hermit crabs outside the house. When we needed to cool off from the intense heat, we headed inside where the AC cools down the house quickly. There is an AC unit in each bedroom and the living room. We didn't cook while we were there, so can't say much about the kitchen. For anyone who needs to stay plugged in - the Wifi worked great. Would definitely recommend Casa Paradiso!