The Ramada Princess Hotel has its own shuttle that you have to book in advance for $15 USD or BZ $30 (BZ= Belizean dollars). At the moment the exchange rate is about 2 BZ per every 1 USD.
Or, you could take a taxi for $25 USD each way or BZ $50. Either way its not that bad.
Now that we have that out of our way lets move on to the review of the hotel.
The Ramada Princess Hotel is also a casino. Which I did not know booking it. I booked it onbooking.com. It was the cheapest option at $91 USD. I chose it because it was in Belize City. I figured if I am going to have a layover in Belize, I might as well explore the city and have some fun while I’m at it.
The Room:
The room is a normal room. It was cheaper for me to book a room with two beds than a single bed. Therefore I had plenty of bed space to choose from. I could bed hop in the middle of the night if I wanted to. Why not?
It had a TV set with the comforters tucked underneath it. I don’t watch TV therefore, I don’t care if hotel rooms have one or not.
The view was nice. It was an ocean view.
It did not have a snack bar, or beverages other than two bottles of water.
The restroom was basic but it had everything I needed. The shower was stained and somewhat dirty. It had hot and cold water.
The best part? AC for every room. I immediately lowered the AC to its lowest setting and kept it at arctic.
The Hotel Itself:
The hotel has an enormous pool. Shaped like an ‘L.’ I thought I would go out and swim a few laps but the water is so opaque I couldn’t see directly in front of me. It actually freaked me out. It made my worse fantasies about dying in the ocean feel like it was going to happen to me, here, in the pool. I only swam for about 15 minutes before calling it quits. The pool is about 3 feet at its deepest and 1.5 feet at its shallowest.
The hotel also has a restaurant, two cafes a bar, a spa and a gym. Good amenities I think. They also threw in free breakfast.
The restaurants menu was minimal and the food was only so-so.
To be completely honest, I thought the hotel was a dump. I payed $90 USD for privacy and AC. Thats how I rationalized it. I did enjoy my ‘alone’ time after spending 7 days in hostels though.
Let me break it down for you:
Ramada Princess Hotel $90 a night for a double bed.
Pros:
- AC
- Private room
- Private restroom
- Nice view
- Big pool
- gym
- spa
- cafes
- restaurant
- free breakfast (it was good)
- bar
- wifi
- nice lobby
Cons:
- Pool was too cloudy
- expensive
- restaurant was so-so
- wifi sucked and literally dropped every 5 minutes inside your room
- dirty restroom inside your room
- One bed is more expensive for one person
- Menu is minimal
Would I stay here again? No. I don’t want to pay $90 for something that I could get for a lot cheaper at a hostel.
However, this really made me understand Claude’s (the boyfriend) way of travel. He’s a luxury travel geek. If have you have to pay more for something but you get amazing things out of it, then its worth it. Otherwise, its not. I did not feel like it was worth staying here.
