Turtle Inn, after a complete rebuild following damages from Hurricane Iris, is supposed to open later this month. From what I've seen it will be very nice -- sort of a Bali-style resort with a lot of thatch. It has a really nice location just north of Placencia village. The original Turtle Inn, operated by Skip White, was a neat laid-back place. After Coppela bought it, some improvements were made, but it wasn't in the class of Robert's Grove. Now the new Turtle Inn should be more competitive, though it will have to go a long way to beat Robert's Grove.
Blancaneaux I've stayed at several times. The villas are pricey but fantastic, some of the nicest accommodations in all of Central America. The regular cabanas are fine, too, but don't compare to the villas. The setting in the Mountain Pine Ridge is beautiful, with landscaped grounds (even a croquet field) along the Privaison River. The loss of many pines due to the Southern Pine Beetle didn't help, but Blancaneaux has done a good job of working around that problem.
--Lan Sluder
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