18 days in Belize - suggestions?

Your itinerary sounds pretty good.

Yes, Placencia likely will be quite busy at Easter, but so will other coastal resort areas such as Hopkins ... and also probably Tobacco Caye. I would not show up without reservations, but you could try now to see what is available in your price range.

Note that while Tobacco Caye and Southwater Caye are on the reef, Thatch Caye is not. The resort there does offer dive trips, but it is not directly on the reef.

--Lan Sluder

Thanks Lan for your help. I will try to find a place on Tobacco Caye or Southwater Caye...

Regards

Pablo

You have planned to travel from San Ignacio on Saturday 7 April.

Be aware that the Holy Saturday Cross Country Cycling Classic is on that day. Competitors start in Belize City at 5 or 6 am, race to San Ignacio and return to BC, finishing at about 12:00 noon.

Traffic on the highway will be very slow moving during this time. Try to get an early start from San Ignacio so you don't get caught in the traffic on the way to Belmopan where you change to a bus heading south.

Or, hang around SI and watch the cyclists enter the town and leave, but traffic will be congested for about the next hour.

Excellent information Misterbee!

one option could be to leave San Ignacio on Friday... but to do that I should reduce the TIkal overnight expedition for a single day one... in your opinion, it's worthy to do the overnight option or not?

Finally i've decided to stay 3 nights in Tobacco Caye... do you have good references for Reef's End Lodge? they offer a Dive Package with meals at a reasonable price.

THanks a lot for your help

Best Regards

Pablo

one option could be to leave San Ignacio on Friday... but to do that I should reduce the TIkal overnight expedition for a single day one... in your opinion, it's worthy to do the overnight option or not?

Leaving SI on Saturday shouldn't be a big problem if you leave early, before 8 am -- it's not too far to Belmopan, and the bicycle race won't affect your travel after Belmopan.

An overnight at Tikal is a good option; so is spending time on Tobacco Caye. If you want, can you keep the overnight in Tikal, but reduce the number of days in San Ignacio?

On Friday (Good Friday), not much will be open in SI. What are your plans for that day?
It might be a good day to travel, but buses might not be as frequent.

Hi Misterbee!

I was thinking to do a Cave Tubbing excursion, maybe on Nohoch Che'en Caves... you think that on Good Friday the tourist agencies will not be working?

I've made a reservation for 3 nights at Reef's End Lodge, so I will stay the days 6 nights originally planned at SI, and I will sleep at Dangriga on Saturday, after travelling from SI.

Another question (I promisse it will be the last). My flight arrives at Belice at 15:40... do you think I have enough time to visit the Zoo before heading to SI ?

Best regards

You won't really be able to do the zoo on that limited time frame imo. They won't admit you after 4:30 according to the website.

Hi Hopefulist! yes, I realized that after I wrote my previous message. The only option to visit it would be to change my itinerary from SI-Dangriga to SI-Belice Zoo-Belice City-Dangriga, but I think that is not worth such effort.

Thanks for your message!

Regards

Pablo

You wouldn't have to go clear to Belize City. The zoo isn't that far from Belmopan as I recall; you could hop a bus back to Belmopan and fly or bus to Dangriga from there. In any event I figure whatever I miss this trip will just be an excuse to go back. I'm headed back this summer for a 3rd visit (3-4 weeks each) and still won't have seen Caracol and MPR - it's almost shocking!