Hi

I can only speak of Placencia as I have not had the pleasure of visiting the others.

My wife and I have visited Placencia on numerous occasions. We have stayed at Rum Point, Nautical and Serenade Island.

RG is probably the best small resort in Placencia but somewhat pricey..but nice.

Rum Point is great and they have a good dive operation in the resort that operates a 42' jet drive dive boat...the biggest and best in Placencia. Pricing at RP is somewhat less than RG.

Both of the above are located on the beach just north of Placencia Village.

A little farther North, past Seign Bight, you will find Nautical Inn. This was the first place we stayed when we first visited Belize / Placencia and we loved it. It is also on the beach.

The biggest, but not too big,drawback to the above is that they are a bit out of the village and you will need to arrange transportation via bicycle, taxi or walk, if you want to visit Placencia Village.

All of the above have pools and AC. Nautical also has their own dive shop on the resort.

The other choices you mentioned, Serenade Island. These folks have a guest hose in the heart of the village, Serenade Guest House, that has just been remodeled after the hurricane....low price, clean, friendly no pool...but they are only a few steps from the beach. They also have a private island resort called Serenade Island Resort. This is a small island located directly on top of the barrier reef. They also have a dive shop, clean cabana's, great meals included, beautiful views and the most friendly staff.

SoulShine is a small resort sitting on what is described as a private island but is really just a small area that has been carved out of the mangrove. 3 cabanas on the canal and I think a couple more along the mangroves. You have to cross a small canal to get to the resort. They do have a small pool but it leans to one side. Lodging, meals, drinks, etc. were much more expensive than we had expected. They also advertise a beach but the only thing we found was a somewhat sandy area that had been placed over the reclaimed mangrove area. Swim at you oun risk in the canal as boats zoom up and down all day and night.

Our favorite....well remember that this is our own prefference but we liked the islolation of Serenade Island Resort.

Fishing, snorkeling, diving, visiting the other cayes on snorkeling tours, eating FRESH lobster, fish, conch, etc that we had just caught was great...especially the conch ceviche'.....scrumptious.

Hope you enjoy Placencai as much as we did.