Hello there! Just wanted to provide my travel report, as I've been back home for about a week now. My friend and I just spent about 8 days in Belize (mostly diving in Caye Caulker), and then 4 in Costa Rica. We landed in Belize City, and took a cab to the water taxi to immediately travel to Caye Caulker. In Caye Caulker, we stayed at the Tropics Hotel (about halfway between the water taxi terminal and the split). We paid $15/person per night, and really liked staying there! The Tropics was painted a really colorful orange and yellow, and our room was quite clean with tile floors, clean bedding (2 queen beds), and a shower with really hot water. We stayed there for five nights as we did quite a bit of scuba diving, and I'd recommend it wholeheartedly. Some travelers were having trouble getting the same room rates when they were looking for same-day accommodations, so I'd recommend reservations in advance and a bit of bargaining.
We did four days of diving (with my friend taking her Open Water Certification) with Belize Diving Services. I can't say enough about this operation. I've been diving in many places, and was really impressed with the professionalism, safety-consciousness, and knowledge of the staff and divemasters. While BDS doesn't take trips to the Blue Hole, I ran into a number of other divers complaining about the other dive operators overpacking boats with divers and molesting sealife. Anyway, we loved BDS and the dives we went on with them were spectacular. My friend really enjoyed her open water course, and felt that they were thorough and really informative. While dives ranged in price, I paid somewhere between $80 - 100 U.S. for a two-dive trip including equipment and lunch for some locations. Turneffe Atoll and Spanish Reef were my favorites.
We also did a half-day snorkeling trip through Frenchie's dive shop. In this trip, we snorkeled in three locations, including the infamous Shark-Ray Alley. I really enjoyed the other two sites, but I recommend skipping Shark-Ray Alley. I'm fairly environmentally conscious and don't believe in feeding fish or sharks in order to "create" an attraction, and am especially concerned when I see tour operators and tourists handling underwater life like they are in a petting zoo. Shark Ray Alley involves snorkelers swimming in about 5-10 feet of water while tour operators feed tons of stingrays, grab them, and let tourists "hold" them and "give them a hug". Up to you, but I'd skip it and snorkel in the many other beautiful locations around Caye Caulker.
We had grand plans of traveling more inland, but due to delays caused by a tropical storm and our own poor planning, we decided to stay on one more day for diving. After that, we traveled back to Belize City to get ready for our flight to Costa Rica the next day. We stayed in the Bellcove Inn, which is right near the water taxi terminal (walkable distance...about two blocks away over the swinging bridge). We found the Bellcove to be quite clean, safe, and nice. For $15/person, we had a private room with a shared bathroom down the hall. A nice fan cooled the room down, and we could use the back porch, which got a really nice breeze in the nighttime. As we were a bit nervous about bopping around Belize City at night, we had dinner at a restaurant right next door to the left of the hotel - it's the only one so you can't miss it. It was incredibly inexpensive and they had the best tortillas and stew chicken I've ever eaten in my life.
After that, we were off to Costa Rica for some surfing and fun. I look forward to returning to Belize to see more of the country! Hope this is helpful for you in your planning.
Happy travels,
Sarah
