Belize, any advice ?

[Scuba Tom]

I went Diving with Frenchies in Caye Caulker and they ahve a great big and confortable boat. To dive the HolChan reserve there is the "Biggest of the Small Dive center"...;(don't remerber teir name: very nice guy.

 

[Clammy]

I just got back from Belize after 6 days of diving. I stayed in San Pedro at the Banana Beach Inn. It was cheap but after going around town in a golf cart and checking out some of the nicer resorts, I realized that in the off season, you can stay at 5 star resorts for not much more. The drawback is that they may be far from town, the northern resorts like Captain Morgans (beautiful resort with a casino), which is across the toll bridge and about 30 min by golf cart due to horrible roads, has water taxis that will take you to town in less than 10 min. Due to everyone having a little dock at their hotel, you don't need to choose based on proximity to a dive shop. If you do go with San Pedro, eat at Elvi's in town. It's definitely one of the best restaurants in town. If you go south of town, there is a little shack called "Robin's BBQ" that is DELICIOUS. He serves his BBQ until he runs out. Well worth getting there. I was in a group of 53 and nearly all of us visited both these places multiple times.

As far as dive shops... I dove with Amigos del mar. Their dive masters were excellent and a whole lot of fun... however... their owner was a complete dick and essentially tried to swindle us several times. We gave the man 47 divers for 6 days and he would not budge on any concessions due to whatever unfortunate mishaps that caused some people to miss days of diving. On the day those of us scheduled for the blue hole were supposed to go, their big boat broke and we could not go out. We, did not dive that day because we had paid for the blue hole and everyone else paid for Hol Chan Reserve. He tried to say that it was our fault for not going to Hol Chan instead and tried to keep our money. Nevermind that Hol Chan was 50 bux and the Blue Hole was 200. We also paid for, in our agreement, all park fees initially but he collected park fees from us ANYWAYS! We had to fight to get all that returned. When we did go on a rescheduled trip to the Blue Hole, it was on a day that we had already paid for 3 reef dives. He tried to keep the money for the reef dives we had to miss due to HIS BOAT BEING BROKEN and us going on ANOTHER day!! Again, the DMs and boat captains were nothing but awesome. They work for an ass though. So yeah... go with someone else.

As far as the Blue Hole, whether you think the dive is worth it or not, the dives afterwards at the lighthouse reefs are great! I dove Truneffe Atolls and the reefs along san pedro, but the post blue hole dives trumped them all in my opinion. Also, you stop for lunch at Half Moon Caye which is a nice little island with a red footed booby bird reserve which is decently cool to see. I was trying to go again just for those dives but the boat was full.

 

[vladimir]

As far as the Blue Hole, whether you think the dive is worth it or not, the dives afterwards at the lighthouse reefs are great! I dove Truneffe Atolls and the reefs along san pedro, but the post blue hole dives trumped them all in my opinion.

Yes, the Lighthouse Reef dives are among the best. But when the current is up at The Elbow, on the southern tip of Turneffe Atoll, I think it is the best dive in Belize. The one time (out of ~6) I dived it with no current, though, it was a pretty bland dive.

 

[sidemount]

I am going to Belice for one week in december. Any tip's to dive with and hotel to stay ?
Thank you.

Chuck and Robbie's, without a doubt. Small groups, personal, safe, fun. Other operations on San Pedro are cattle drives. We stayed at Caye Casa, and would recommend upgrading to the casita. It's on the beach just down the (sand) street from Chuck and Robbie's, and just behind it is a great bakery where we got breakfast each morning.

Edit: C&R is too small to take people out to the Blue Hole/Turneffe/etc., but they will book you through Amigos Del Mar. Those are awesome dives and I'd recommend doing them. Amigos is not bad, we still had a lot of fun.

 

[Edward3c]

You could always do something different from the normal tourist diving, check out Reef Conservation International, they operate in the far south.

 

[peterbj7]

Chuck and Robbie's, without a doubt. Small groups, personal, safe, fun

Yes, they have a good reputation.

Other operations on San Pedro are cattle drives

Not so in most cases. I can think of several "smaller" dive centers that run very far from cattle operations. In fact in the sense that the term is usually used, there are no such operations on Ambergris Caye or Caye Caulker, and I can't think of any in the whole of Belize. Please quote any operations you regard as worthy of that moniker.

 

[Ralph Capeling]

Well said Peter! Every so often someone comes on this board (usually anonymous) and starts shooting before aiming! We probably have as many boats as anyone at Splash and none of them would be considered cattle boats and we have never been criticized for that.
Regards
Ralph

Yes, they have a good reputation.


Not so in most cases. I can think of several "smaller" dive centers that run very far from cattle operations. In fact in the sense that the term is usually used, there are no such operations on Ambergris Caye or Caye Caulker, and I can't think of any in the whole of Belize. Please quote any operations you regard as worthy of that moniker.

 

[sbroh]

I used Chuck and Robbie's as well and found them to be a good, safe, fun operation. If I was staying on Ambergris, that is who I would recommend.

 

[johna65]

Huracan Dive Resort on Long Caye is without a doubt one of the best places I have stayed to dive. It is close to the Blue Hole, all the best dive sites are minutes away and the accommodations are fantastic. Check out their reviews on Tripadvisor.

 

[New Scuba Guy]

My wife and I recently came back from a 9 day vacation in Southern Belize; Placencia to be exact. We stayed at The Inn At Roberts Grove and they have an absolutely first-class dive operation on premises. They were great to dive with. We had booked 2 days of Whale Shark Diving and 1 Reef Dive. The Inn was gracious enough to allow us to alter our dive trips so as to maximize our chances of seeing Whale Sharks. As luck would have it, we had the only 2 Whale Shark sightings at Gladden Spit for the week of June 4th-10th. We had a 35 footer on our first day and on our final day, a 20 footer right by the boat, that we were able to snorkel with. Awesome experience! Thanks to our Divemasters, Doran and Elmo! There is excellent reef and wall diving available at Laughing Bird Cay, Glovers Reef, and Silk Cay to name a couple. I would highly recommend Roberts Grove for your stay and the dive center is only about a 150 yard walk from the resort. Excellent vacation!