Ambergris Caye OR Caye Caulker

[uglyredshoes]

Hi all its me again, ive decided to spend all my time in Belize and give Cozumel a miss this December.

For those who know the place, i intend to be in Belize for 2.5weeks.

I am a student and basically, i gonna be choosing the cheapest of all accomodations.
I will also be travelling alone (my buddies ran out of me this time!).

With this, which of the places would be a better place for me to do nothing but dives?
Ambergris Caye or Caye Caulker?

Or would it be worth it shifting down to Placencia after a week for diving?

Hope i can get some help with this, thanks!!!!

 

[vondo]

Hi all its me again, ive decided to spend all my time in Belize and give Cozumel a miss this December.

For those who know the place, i intend to be in Belize for 2.5weeks.

I am a student and basically, i gonna be choosing the cheapest of all accomodations.
I will also be travelling alone (my buddies ran out of me this time!).

With this, which of the places would be a better place for me to do nothing but dives?
Ambergris Caye or Caye Caulker?

Or would it be worth it shifting down to Placencia after a week for diving?

Hope i can get some help with this, thanks!!!!

Disclaimer: I've never been to Ambergris, just heard about it. I did spend a week on Caye Caulker.

Accomodation will be cheaper on Caulker. As a student, I think you'll like it. There is even a backpackers which looked like a cool place to hang out. It has a very relaxed feel to it; I liked it a lot. I understand that Ambergris has more of a resort feel to it which is not my style.

And if you want to do things other than dive, you can do that too.

I can't answer about Palencia, but if you are going to hang out in either Caye for more than a week you will certainly repeat dives. That may or may not be an issue for you. IF the Ambergris operators are going somewhere really special, you can always get them to pick you up or head over there for a night. I think it is only a 30 minute boat ride.

The Wikitravel page: http://wikitravel.org/en/Caye_Caulker might help too.

Enjoy!

 

[dna77054]

Hi all its me again, ive decided to spend all my time in Belize and give Cozumel a miss this December.

For those who know the place, i intend to be in Belize for 2.5weeks.

I am a student and basically, i gonna be choosing the cheapest of all accomodations.
I will also be travelling alone (my buddies ran out of me this time!).

With this, which of the places would be a better place for me to do nothing but dives?
Ambergris Caye or Caye Caulker?

Or would it be worth it shifting down to Placencia after a week for diving?

Hope i can get some help with this, thanks!!!!

Caye Caulker is great. I was there for a week and from my research everything is cheaper there than in Ambergis. Caulker is small, with no motorized vehicles. You can walk everywhere in 10 minutes. YOu will have no problem finding diving/drinking buddies. I would recommend Belize Diving Services on the back side the island. Also be sure to do the snorkle tour, with 3 different stops. Cost $10 a few years ago and you go to shark-ray alley 100 yards from shore. You get to snorkle in chest deep water with nurse sharks and sting rays.

Also I think most dives in that area can be done from either Ambergris or Caulker.

As for Placencia. I was there for a few days. The reef is much farther from shore, so you have a 40+min boat ride out to these tiny keys where you will lunch and do your surface intervals. Was like something out of a movie. Accomadations in Placencia are also quite cheap. Placenia is a bit more spread out than Caulker, but certainly walkable. It might be a bit tougher to hook up with other people there, as it is a bit more spread out and draws fewer tourists than Caulker. Bus ride down there was less than $10.

I would suggest hitting Caulker first, and if you get tired of it, head on down to Placentia. Another option would be to take 2-3 days in Cayo (SAn Ignacio?), in western Belize, with a day trip, (conducted tour) to Tikal, one hour over the border in Guatemala. It is truely stunning. IN only two weeks a friend and I did Caye Caulker, San Ignacio/Tikal, and Placencia. You will certainly have time for all of that. Also at no point in this vacation did we spend more than $15 per night for a hotel ROOM, not per person.

 

[uglyredshoes]

Caye Caulker is great. I was there for a week and from my research everything is cheaper there than in Ambergis. Caulker is small, with no motorized vehicles. You can walk everywhere in 10 minutes. YOu will have no problem finding diving/drinking buddies. I would recommend Belize Diving Services on the back side the island. Also be sure to do the snorkle tour, with 3 different stops. Cost $10 a few years ago and you go to shark-ray alley 100 yards from shore. You get to snorkle in chest deep water with nurse sharks and sting rays.

Also I think most dives in that area can be done from either Ambergris or Caulker.

As for Placencia. I was there for a few days. The reef is much farther from shore, so you have a 40+min boat ride out to these tiny keys where you will lunch and do your surface intervals. Was like something out of a movie. Accomadations in Placencia are also quite cheap. Placenia is a bit more spread out than Caulker, but certainly walkable. It might be a bit tougher to hook up with other people there, as it is a bit more spread out and draws fewer tourists than Caulker. Bus ride down there was less than $10.

I would suggest hitting Caulker first, and if you get tired of it, head on down to Placentia. Another option would be to take 2-3 days in Cayo (SAn Ignacio?), in western Belize, with a day trip, (conducted tour) to Tikal, one hour over the border in Guatemala. It is truely stunning. IN only two weeks a friend and I did Caye Caulker, San Ignacio/Tikal, and Placencia. You will certainly have time for all of that. Also at no point in this vacation did we spend more than $15 per night for a hotel ROOM, not per person.

This is great! hmm.. the accomodations of $15 a night, did u book them online or did u just go there and straight? really hoping to get similarly priced accomodations, would make it much easier on my budget.

All these information is really useful, to others who have any thoughts on this do drop me more advise. Thanks!

 

[uglyredshoes]

By the way, for the deep Blue Hole dive, is there a need to be 'deep diver' certified?

 

[vondo]

By the way, for the deep Blue Hole dive, is there a need to be 'deep diver' certified?

No, they take anyone with an OW cert.

I just looked at some of my e-mails and info on Belize. Things are no longer as inexpensive as the previous poster suggested. I think snorkeling is up around $20 now, but it is a good experience. If you've had enough of power boats, take the Melinda, I think, a sailboat that makes a day trip instead of a half day (but to the same sites, and hence smaller crowds).

Diving locally was about $75-90/day with rental gear. You can probably negotiate a discount if you bring your own gear and everyone will give multi-day discounts. The Blue Hole trip is close $200 since you have to pay a park entry fee. Again, discounts are available.

I dove with Frenchie's mostly, a friendly outfit. Went to the BH with Paradise down, which has a more professional feel to it (run by an American). I went on one trip with Big Fish and did not get a good vibe. I had no interaction with Belize Diving Services, but they appeared to be a class act. They met their clients coming off the water taxi, which is a good mark in my book.

Hotel rooms can be had on the island for $20 or less, but they may not be on the beach and will not have AC. We were fine on the beach with no AC in May, so if you can catch a breeze, you'll be fine. I couldn't find a number for Tinas Backpackers, but that may be one of the cheapest and coolest places on the island.

You can always book a room for a few days and then look around for something better.

 

[Jeff88]

Check out www.ambergriscaye.com lots of info to be found there. There is also a local messageboard there where you can find alot of info. My wife and I are going to Ambergris Caye (San Padro) on 11/19 for a week. We are planning 3 dive days. 2 days of local diving and then a day trip to turneffe elbow.

 

[dna77054]

This is great! hmm.. the accomodations of $15 a night, did u book them online or did u just go there and straight? really hoping to get similarly priced accomodations, would make it much easier on my budget.

All these information is really useful, to others who have any thoughts on this do drop me more advise. Thanks!

Not knowing what to expect, we pre-booked the first couple of nights in Caulker, our first stop. Upon arriving, we discovered that prebooking was not necessary as there are a plethora of hotels, and in San Ignacio and Placentia, we just arrived and found hotels. I would not bother prebooking unless you have a specific hotel you want, or unless you are going there during the holidays or Spring Break.

And concering the Blue Hole, althought I have not dived it, from my research it seems like a lot of money and travel time for VERY little bottom time with not much to actually see while at depth.

Also when you get in the international airport, take/share a taxi to the water taxi terminal, and take the water taxi to the islands, cheaper and more interesting than the pond hopper planes.

 

[vondo]

And concering the Blue Hole, althought I have not dived it, from my research it seems like a lot of money and travel time for VERY little bottom time with not much to actually see while at depth.

If it was just the Blue Hole, I'd certainly agree with you. 8 minutes bottom time to swim by some stalactites at 130 ft.

However, parts of the rest of the trip are really nice. Sitting under our boat while the San Pedro operator chummed the sharks was cool (and I didn't have to feel guilty because I wasn't paying someone to do it). The other two dives of the day were very nice 60-70 ft reef dives with lots of fish. Even the stop-over at the boobie preserve was decent, especially if you like birds.

So, expensive, yes, but I'm glad I did it.

 

[drbill]

I stayed on Caye Caulker for a week asnd spent some time on Ambergris as well last year. Caulker will definitely be cheaper and I liked its quiet pace compared to Ambergris. If you need more excitement, Ambergris may be your preference.

I found inexpensive accommodations (about $10-12/night in my own room with shared bath in another building but I don't have the name of the place handy). Weather wasn't great so we never dove outside the reef, but I had just spent 6 weeks diving all over Belize and Honduras.