We just returned from our 1st trip to Belize. It was great. We satyed at the Mata Rocks Hotel. South end of the island, about a mile from town.
The hotel has about 14 or so rooms. NICE, clean, nice beach, beachfront bar, very friendly people, both staff and guests.

We had a suite with a kitchen, that was good to have. We went to the local supermarkets and picked up some bread, cheese, beer , soda, ect. Nice to have in the room when you just want to chill out and have a snack. Ask how much things are first alot of items were not marked. The Larger supermarket in the south end, I can't rember the name overcharges for the beer. You can get it for 1.50 less in the smaller local stores. Just compare prices and you will be OK.

The hotel offers free bikes, a great thing. We rode everywhere. We rode from the south end of the island to Journeys end on the north.and back I was told it was about a 14 mile round trip.
We rode on the beaches and paassed all the other hotels. It was really nice.

At night we walked along the beach into town, went to several bars and ate in a different place every night Prices were reasonable, food was good people were very friendly.

We went over the hand ferry and were amazed, you have to see it to believe thing like this exist. That kid has a tough job.

We looked into the Banana Beach, Tropica and several other hotels, but setteled for the Mata Rocks ,for several reasons, one qwas Lans comments. We were glad we did. The banana beach is like any other hotel big,rooms were many not all had a good view, was more costly, had a bulkhead for a beach, was more crowded. At night and in the morning the were people from the banana at the Mata Rocks they said they felt more relaxed in the smaller beachfront setting. If you go to the Mata Rocks even just for a few drinks ask for Erika, the manager, shes a doll.

We took several snorkling trips, the best was Shark alley/ Ho chin, the Mexico Rocks wasn't anything special, nice boat ride but not as nice ,fish and coral wise as the south reef area.

The town of San Pedro was a thrill. Sand streets nice people ect ect.

Hope I wasn't to long winded but we had a really good time and we will be going back

Thanks to all that post here it allowed us some foresight when we were in the planning stage of our trip.

GO YOU WILL LOVE IT.