Matachica Beach Resort and Spa ★★★★

The resort is beautifully maintained - a lot of love and care is put into making the beach, the pool area, the lawns etc look as good as possible. The rooms are also beautiful and were cleaned to a high standard everyday. On our final night, the hotel did a ‘movie night’ under the stars - we thought this was a nice touch! The reception would also ensure that things were fixed for us very quickly (for example, there was a storm on our first night, meaning the wifi in our room shut down - however this was fixed immediately by the resort team). The food was also really great and varied - for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

There should be a minibar in the room - this seems like quite a basic thing to have and it would have been nice to have a drink in the room or on our veranda without ordering it from the bar (when we asked about room service, we were told they didn’t really do room service). Also, the hotel is quite oriented around American tourists - for example, we found that there was a bit of an American tipping culture, where we would have to sign a receipt for every single thing we ordered (as opposed to being given one single bill at the end). This meant that 12.5% service was added to everything (even small things like bar drinks, which we wouldn’t have had to pay if there was a mini-bar in the room) and quite a few times we felt slightly pressured to leave a tip on top of the 12.5% charge. The service was never bad and the staff were polite so we didn’t mind, however this is clearly geared around American culture and is quite alien to British and European visitors! Finally, there are two restaurants - the fine dining one and the bistro. Both do great food, however the bistro was still quite expensive, and we thought the fine dining one could have felt a bit more special (for example, they had the same dining furniture and wine menu, and our server didn’t do some things like ask if we wanted to taste the wine / accidentally mixed up an order / took away one of our plates while the other one was eating etc.). This is a small complaint - the food was still delicious. We also thought that the ‘Breakfast Included’ option was a little misleading - we were told that the only breakfast included in our room rate was the ‘continental breakfast’ which is basically two pastries (everything else in the menu you had to pay for).

The attention to detail and the well-appointed finishes. THE STAFF

My only negative would be that the kitchen ran out of a few menu items and were never replaced the whole week. And Mambo restaurant didn’t have a fish special on a Saturday night.

The hotel is beautiful... understated cool with nice furniture, relaxed ambiance and fantastic service. the food was exceptional, and the concierge did everything to make our diving trips perfect! It was a treat to come back to the beautiful resort and have a nice drink and meal after a full day of diving! Definitely want to come back!

This property was absolutely stunning. Everything was beautiful, nice , cozy and well maintained. I honestly can’t praise this stay high enough. Everything from the beds to the shower were well maintained and felt luxurious.

The restaurant was a bit pricier than we anticipated, but we were very impressed by the food. There is a 15% additional charge ( that I think gets divided between the staff monthly ) when you order anything which can be a bit confusing at first to see your bill layed out with the total , 15% charge and then tip optional area.

Design

Everything! So chic, fun and warm atmosphere.

Breakfast was complimentary with our booking and was fantastic. We traveled to quite a few different restaurants and bars and this one was 10/10

It is a bit far from town which has more going on. We rented a golf cart and to the center it was ~20-25mins. Not a fault of the property but be aware that you will most likely want a golf cart if you intend to explore.

very peaceful, friendly staff, beautiful casitas, excellent food, activities (snorkeling was amazing! I was nervous as I’m not a strong swimmer but felt really safe with the staff)

I wish they enforced the quiet rules. there was a lady loudly FaceTiming at the pool for an hour and then later a group of old drunk people came to the pool and were extremely loud. as for the sargassum yes you couldn’t really swim in the water but it’s not the hotels fault. I stayed in other parts of Belize and Mexico and it was far worse.

They pay attention to details. They have everything available for you that you would need to make your stay very comfortable. The place was clean and the staff was great. Both friendly and professional in every way. The food was good and the amenities were nice. I would definitely recommend this to all of my friends and family.

The amount of seaweed that was washing up on the beach every day. No fault of the workers there. They worked from 5:30 in the morning till 6:30 at night. Trying to clear the beaches but it was just too much for them to keep up with. Other than that everything about the place was amazing

Excellent

No bank machine on site Far from town with no cart to rent