Just returned from 3 weeks in Belize – here is my quick trip review.
We started in Caye Caulker – great little island, great people, great food. I highly recommend Fran’s for dinner!!
We did a lot of diving while on Caye Caulker. We dove with Belize Diving Services – they had almost brand new equipment, every diver gets a dive computer, great service and divemasters. Any dive shop that provides dive computers to all divers for safety is top notch in my books. However, BDS does not do trips to the Blue Hole, therefore we did a 3 dive trip with Big Fish to dive the Blue Hole. Loved the Blue Hole and Lighthouse Reef is by far the best diving we did in Belize. Diving in Belize is a little different than anywhere else I have been. We learned that the divemasters/instructors are all required to be Belize Citizens. Belize culture is super laid back and chill and I really think the dive shops could benefit from some enthusiastic expats who are excited about what they do and where they are.
We traveled down to San Ignacio. I would highly discourage anyone from staying at Cahal Pech – it was insanely noisy! We met up with other travelers who complained about the same thing! Parrots Nest is a great family run place to stay, surrounded by a river you can tube down.
ATM tour is a must, as everyone says.
Tikal is spectacular. We stayed at Jaguar Inn, which is super close to the park entrance. Tikal is definitely worth a couple days. Don’t try and do it with a day trip!! By the time you would get there, the park is packed with people and the sun is unbearably hot. If you buy a park ticket after 4pm – it is valid for the following day as well. We went and watched the sunset on our first day, then watched the sunrise the next day. Sitting on top of Temple IV, hearing the howler monkeys and birds wake up in the jungle, and then the spectacular sunrise is a once in a lifetime memory, don’t miss it!! We also did the Canopy Zipline Tour while in Tikal and it was a blast!
Next we went to Placencia for a little beach time. William from Williams Shuttle Service drove us from San Ignacio to Placencia. William is a great guy, he is more like a tour guide/travel agent/shuttle service. He helped us find great accommodations and we stopped at the inland Blue Hole on our way, it is beautiful! We stayed at Lydia’s in Placencia, and it was great. They say Placencia is the best beach in Belize and it is beautiful! However, I may just a bit of a beach snob, but I found the sand to be extremely coarse which is uncomfortable to walk on and lay on. It wasn’t the idealic soft white sand beaches that I was expecting (it was still beautiful – I just don’t want people to be disappointed!). Placencia also has a lot of sand flies.
In Placencia, we found Belize Sailing Charters. Captain Rob sailed us from Placencia up to Caye Caulker stopping at lots of little cayes for snorkeling along the way, Tobacco Caye and Southwater Caye were our favorites! It took 4 days 3 nights and was the absolute highlight of the trip! Seaker, the 42ft catamaran is beautiful boat, with kitchen, private rooms, bathrooms, kayaks, tons of deck space to sun tan. To save money we didn’t do the all-inclusive charter, we brought/caught all our own food, which was perfect for us! We had originally wanted to do Raggamuffin and sail down to Placencia, but the timing didn’t work for us. Belize Sailing Charters, in my opinion is a much better value since you get a private boat and can stop whenever and wherever you want. I believe the charter cost us $500/night. For 4 people Raggamuffin would have cost us $1200, we paid $1500 for a beautiful private boat! Belize Sailing Charters – highly recommended!!
So much for a quick review…. We had an amazing trip! Belize is a beautiful country!!
