Thank you very much for you advice!
We are trying to see if we can go from the airport straight to Tikal, allowing us an overnight in Tikal and a full day looking around! ;)
We are actually considering dropping AC from our trip and just doing Caye Caulker, largely around the cost factor but also, it seems like Caye Caulker is more my scene in terms of a laid back unpretentious places!
When does your flight land? The options for getting there are on this cool Belize transportation website.
Tropic Air has a 4:41 flight listed to Flores that would work, or you could hire a private driver to take you through. The public bus options won't really work that late in the day imo (it gets dark by 6 or 6:30). You could easily make it to SI, though, and head over early the next day and spend the night, heading back to Belize after a sunrise and/or morning visit to the site.
To really enjoy Tikal you need 2 nights, at least! A day trip from SI is just a waste of time.
Trust me, it's worth it, stay in the park!
Take the 2 nights from AC.
Head to San Ignacio and spend the first few nights and then a couple of nights at Tikal.
Hi Gyselle,
1) You don't have enough time budgeted for San Ignacio and Tikal. These are all day trips, dawn to dusk. I would imagine that you might want to eat, sleep, maybe relax a bit and brush your teeth.
2) Remember that every time you change accommodations it takes a good part of the day just packing, moving, getting settled and eating so on travel days it is not a good idea to chill in the morning. Boats leave for Tobacco Caye in the morning. You can chill when you get there.
3) There is no need to go to Ambergris and Caye Caulker. Just go to Caye Caulker. You can trust me on that.
4) You will need to cut out something. Fifteen days is not that much time. You can do three overnight locations comfortably. If I was going to cut out one thing besides Ambergris, it would probably be Hopkins.
Hey you,
I can recommend going from Belize City to Flores in Guatemala and visit Tikal, probably "better" Maya ruins than in Belize. It's easy to take a shuttle from Belize City to Flores, stay there a night and do an early morning tour to Flores, stay another night and take the 5 am shuttle back to Belize City. The shuttle will take you to the water taxi station where I'd recommend taking a water taxi to Caye Caulker. Islands are always more expensive than the mainland but Caye Caulker is still one of the cheaper options and it's a really great place with an awesome Caribbean vibe. Great snorkeling and diving options that you can just book a day in advance. Stay on Caye Caulker for about 5 days and do another island if you like, e.g. Ambergris Caye (a more expensive version of Caye Caulker).
Read about visiting Guatemala on my blog: Guatemala travel guide
For beach, I think either CC or Hopkins + Tobacco. If you are concerned about decompression days, why not fly/drive/bus directly to Hopkins and chill for a few days, then move over to Tobacco.
Tobacco has great walk in snorkeling and easy access to dive sites where you won't see another boat, but the island itself gets a little stale after a while, thus Hopkins for beach and village life. Rather than tobacco, look at South Water Caye. IZE now accepts reservations from the public (rather than just research/educational groups) and they may be able to offer you an attractive package that includes dives. You can reverse the Hopkins-Caye order, depending on whether you want to dive or chill first.
After Tobacco (or SW) Caye, bus to San Ignacio, then over to Tikal for two nights. Tikal is not worth the trip unless you spend a minimum of one night, I would spend two and stay at the park, rather than Flores and have to take the shuttle back and forth. My preference for tour guides is to just go with one of the local guides at the entrance to the park, but you do need a guide for a half day anyway, the place is huge.
After Tikal you can fly directly into the Belize International airport from Flores or take the express bus to Belize City and taxi to the airport. It depends on your flight time, which one is better for you.