My wife and I stayed for an extended long weekend ("babymoon") recently and I cannot say enough wonderful things about this hotel. The rooms are big and clean, as are the beds. Not your traditional concrete mattress that you usually encounter at a resort. The resort is cozy with only a few guests; a departure from the traditional "you and your closest 2000 friends all inclusive". Food and drinks are not included and while more expensive than in town are not daunting (still cheaper than dining in Canada or the US). The owners are delightful and have a real energy about their resort and what Belize will become. The staff is tremendously friendly, the food is fantastic (especially fresh fish). You can either relax with a book by the pool, on the dock or in a hammock or enjoy many excellently priced activities, i.e, Scuba diving, fishing, Mayan ruins tour. We will go back.

My wife and I spent six nights at the Portofino in the week of Thanksgiving 2012.... and we must say it was great! The part that truly sets the Portofino apart is the staff. We can't commend them enough, all the way from the concierge, to the boat driver, to the restaurant servers, to Orville the bartender, to the on-site dive shop, down to the wakeup knock guy. All of them seemed happy to have you staying with them and it seemed almost like family.

The Portofino Restaurant
Almost all of the food at the restaurant was very good to excellent. My wife and I mostly favor the seafood dishes when on tropical vacations (and what other kind are there?), and each and every dish at the Portofino was very good. Service was generally good to very good. Prices are reasonable considering the fact it is a resort and a tropical location.

Action Divers and Adventures
My wife and I, while being somewhat novice divers, have dived at numerous dive shops around the world. We must say this was one of our favorite dive shops we have ever dove with. The dive guide was very professional, while being personable and fun! We ended up going to the Blue Hole with another dive shop, and we did not feel this was in any way better than the two dives we took with Action Divers. Highly recommended.

Last thing is we had left our dive gear to hang and dry behind the Action Divers shop. While there, someone (possibly a local fisherman) stole one of our wet suits. We do NOT blame the dive shop operator for this happening. We must commend the Portofino for following up with us on this event, offering to pay for the cost of the wet suit, and ultimately reimbursing for this cost. This is highly noteworthy for a resort to go to these lengths.

After a failed taxi ride and a long day trying to get to the hotel we had reservations at, we were dropped off at the Portofino. The staff there was incredibly nice and they arranged for a free taxi service to our hotel (that would not have sent a boat for us without paying an extra fee!). While we waited they served us a nice cold beer, and Orville, the friendly bartender, offered us a nice dip in their beautiful pool. Jessica in reservations arranged our water taxi and called our hotel for us so that they would meet us on the dock. The next time I head to San Pedro, I'll be calling Jessica to see if they have a room open for us. Their service and assistance was stellar, and the facilities were gorgeous.

My husband and I just returned from Portofino and we had a great time. The staff were very nice and helpful. We did open water referral with Dive Master Roberto at Portofino right at the hotel dock; he was a great teacher and very knowledgable. He took us out, just me and my husband, which was really special. It was fun and we learned a lot. He tolerated my nervous behavior with a great deal of patience. We also did a snorkel at Hol Chan and Shark alley which was really fun. Thanks Roberto! The bartenders were funny and nice (Rafeal and Orvelle). The waiters were great (cant remember all names except alex). And the ladies at the front desk were very helpful and friendly (yolanda and ?cant remember her name). Even the other guests seemed to be extra friendly here (hi to Bob and Marianne if you are reading this, hope you got the heavy duty bug spray I left at your door! and thanks for the nice note). Also, when we first arrived, we got a fantastic welcome from Kentucky! The cabana we stayed in was perfect, great big king bed. We had to move after the first night due to being in the cabana close to kitchen and were woken up at like 5 am to cleaning sounds. But they moved us right away so no other issues. Slept great after move. I only gave this resort reluctantly a 4 rating because I did not like the food here. There are limited food options close by so it is pretty much necessary as part of staying at Portofino to eat there as well. Some of the guests liked the food so maybe I just had bad luck. I had a shrimp dish that was very over cooked and flavors off. I had chips and salsa one night for a snack it was really embarrassing how awful it was (broken crushed chips and salsa tasted really old and sour). I couldn't eat it. Eggs in the morning were never as I ordered but it was not the waiters fault because I heard him ask the cook correctly. The only good item I ordered was the quesadillas however to be fair I did not try most of the food due to a couple bad experiences. In town, there were some good options for meals. We didn't have any bad food in town. Mata Chicas is walking distance about 20 min walk south on beach. Fish tacos there were very good for lunch. Jamaican place 10 min walk south had really delicious wings (you could easily miss the place)! I wish the resort had BIKES to use or rent and also "to go" snacks available to purchase (although the nicest girl at front desk offered to give me her own granola bar one day which was very generous). We didn't have any trouble catching a free ride into town with Mo the boat captain and never had to pay the water taxi. We just looked at the boat schedule on the black board in the morning to plan the day. Mo pick us up and dropped us off at the airstrip at arrival and departure with no extra fee and was no problem. Overall, I would recommend this place mostly because the people here are so very friendly!