I was looking for everything BUT Marriott/Hyatt style luxury for this short trip to Belize. I wanted comfort, peace, laid back style and basic boutique type luxury....and boy did I win the lottery by choosing MATA ROCKS!.

Despite having problems with my room comfirmation, the staff was able to quickly sort things out and offered me to view three available rooms for the inconvinience. Though room 11 and 6 for nice, I was also offered to view S6, which I fell in love with. Both S6 and S3 (the latter upstairs) were basically small suites facing the ocean!. I paid the room upgrade and enjoyed a fantastic looking room with magnificent ocean views, really out of this world. outstanding!!

Staff at Mata Rocks smiles all the time and are 100% accomodating to their customers,all in a laid-back athmosphere. The palapa bar, which also serves as breakfast area, concierge, information, front desk, bar, lobby, all you can think of...... is manned most of the time. Breakfast was adeaquate and delicious but more so was the coffee.

Back in the room all was very clean, all was fresh and everything worked great: AC, bathroom, kitchen..etc. great balcony area with breath-taking views and piece. Towels were fresh and clean, so was the bed nice and comfortable. the local bath soap was outstanding so I purchased four bars for my family.

Access to the resort is very good though the property is not in the San Pedro city center. But you know what? that was exactly what I was looking for: peace, quiet, relaxation. You can rent a bike for free (need to be back by 5:30pm), you can rent a gas-golf cart, or you can take the taxi, which will average you $10 BZE.

The beach area in front of the resort is very nice as well: towels always available, palapas, hamacs, beer...yes delicious local beer. Grounds always raked; small and lovely pool area. Because of the resort's size and feel, all guests seem to act is if they were part of a big family; the place is such that is condusive to conversation.

You could see the staff maintaining and cleaning the property all day long. They were so proud to be working at Mata Rocks, you could feel they owned the place. There was a security officer on the premises all night long, which also adds to the good feeling of this resort.

I was lucky to experience a beautiful sunset on 1/20 and an even more gorgeous sunrise on 1/21 from my room's balcony. Clearly an everlasting experience.

Recommendations:
If you can, stay in room S6 or S3; still all rooms viewed are fantastic. Walk to El Divino for a good ceviche. Definitively take the SEArious snorkeling tour.

Pro's:
Boutique style resort that looks and feels like being in a family villa in Santorini, Greece. Do I need to say anything else??

Con's:
Nothing....for some people it may be the distance to town.

Quiet. Hospitable. Clean. Great staff. Small. Private. Cozy. Highly recommended. Chose it because of Tripadvisor reviews. A bit far to walk to town without good shoes, but cabs are always available for 5 bucks.

The rooms were clean and comfortable--nothing super fancy, but nice. The resort is lovely--reminded me of something you would see in Greece. The small beach was great to sit on, and the beachside bar was perfect. The staff were all wonderful--nice and very helpful. There aren't a ton of rooms, which is great because it is on the quieter side, and we had no trouble finding chairs to lay out on. It's about a 30 minute walk into San Pedro along the beach, but again, this is nice because it's a little quieter. I would definitely stay here again.

We stayed at Mata Rocks Jan. 5th-12th for our 10th anniversary and had a wonderful time. I would definitely recommend staying here if you enjoy the more quiet, out of the way places where the people are more mellow and laid back.

I read MANY reviews for many different places on the island and the common themes for Mata Rocks held very true: Resort is small but very well kept, the rooms and grounds are cleaned daily. We stayed in a junior suite off the pool and didn't have any issue with noise. We did have to keep the blinds closed for privacy which took a little away from the experience as we didn't get to enjoy the ocean views out of the window while in our room. Next time I would definitely stay in one of the balcony rooms closest to the water, great view and the most privacy (S6 and S12 I think). The pool is small but in the entire week we were there I never went in and only saw one other person go in. I think if we went when the weather was warmer I would have been more likely to jump in to cool off.

We found the staff to be very friendly and really enjoyed hanging out at the bar talking to them as well as other guests. But I am the type of person who enjoys talking to people and asks a lot of questions to get conversations going. I was very curious about local life on the island so I loved listening to the bartenders tell personal stories. The only time I saw them get somewhat distant was when the guests were being obnoxious or overbearing.

We had our excursions arranged by the staff and everything was great. We snorkeled out at Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley and went to the Mayan Ruins at Lamanai. We wanted to do another snorkeling trip out to Mexico Rocks but the weather wasn't cooperating. We only rented a golf cart one day so that we could explore the entire island. We went across the bridge to the Palapa Bar and had wickedly strong rum punches, or maybe that was just because it was only 10am, haha. The other days we used the bikes or walked. The walk to the edge of town is not bad, only about 30 minutes or so, but then it took another 10-20 minutes to get really into town to some of the restaurants and stores we wanted to visit. Riding the bikes was easiest, and if you head south there's really not much there but a nice quiet ride.

It was very windy every day we were there so we had no issue with bugs of any kind, and didn't see any ants or other bugs in our room during our stay, but from other comments we were prepared with bug spray. The first couple days we were there the water was fairly clear so we could go out for a wade (can't really say swim since it's not that deep). I wore water shoes and had no issue with the sea grass. After that the weather churned up the water and it got very murky so we didn't go out. The next dock over goes out into deeper water and has a ladder to climb down into the water. The sea grass did become a problem onshore as the weather got worse during the week, but the guys worked everyday to pitchfork it into wheelbarrows and cart it away.

The food we enjoyed the most were the small places - Robin's Kitchen had the best jerk chicken we'd ever tasted, The Reef had awesome fried whole fish, Pupusaria had great ceviche and pupusas, El Divino next door also had awesome ceviche. We found Elvies to be just ok and were disappointed we spent $50US on lunch there - that could have been 8 jerk chicken plates at Robin's!

Overall our stay at Mata Rocks was a wonderful getaway from the hustle and bustle of American life. The culture on the island is so friendly and relaxed, we would love to come back and would definitely stay at Mata Rocks again!