Belize, any advice ?

[joshr502]

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.

That sucks about the owner of Amigos del mar. My wife and I did about 20 dives with them, to include the Blue Hole and they were fantastic. Never had any dealing with the owner though. We did get a nice discount since we bundled a bunch of dives together. I wanted to do a night dive while I was there, but not enough people signed up. Juan, our DM came in on his off time and took me out with some of his friends. it was awesome. Also, on the Blue Hole dive, Juan hooked me up with a steel 120 for the dive. He was probably the best DM I have dove with.

 

[calicant]

I have yet to do better dives than Half Moon Caye and The Aquarium, although I have only been to Roatan and Bonaire other than Belize. These were the two dives following the one at the Blue Hole on our boat trip from Ambergris. If I went back to Belize, it would be on a liveaboard.

Would I repeat the Blue Hole dive down to the stalactites? Probably not. I would gear up with my buddy and do a shallow dive around the edges where no doubt we would find something interesting to look at.

 

[lenny26]

Just got back from Belize couple days ago. We stayed at st georges caye. The resort is only a 20 min boat ride out of Belize city. Diving was absolutely great, we did wall dives, 20 min boat ride and took a trip to Tenerife (sorry if I misspelled).
The pricing might be more then in ambergis caye diving operators but the guys are not clock watchers and service is great, day one they picked up our gear and on the last day brought it back clean and dry, it would be already setup on the boat for us every morning.
Luxurylink dot com always has promos for the resort.


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[kara.mcnair]

Where did you stay on Glovers? We're headed to Belize end of Nov/early Dec and want to spend a week there.

 

[vladimir]

Just got back from Belize couple days ago. We stayed at st georges caye. The resort is only a 20 min boat ride out of Belize city. Diving was absolutely great, we did wall dives, 20 min boat ride and took a trip to Tenerife (sorry if I misspelled).
The pricing might be more then in ambergis caye diving operators but the guys are not clock watchers and service is great, day one they picked up our gear and on the last day brought it back clean and dry, it would be already setup on the boat for us every morning.
Luxurylink dot com always has promos for the resort.


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Turneffe. Tenerife is in Africa; one of the Canary Islands. Hopefully you dived The Elbow, off the southern tip. It's my favorite dive in Belize. Take a look at the Turneffe Island Resort for your next trip.

 

[PrairieChicken]

i just came back from a trip to Belize. went specifically to see whale sharks (NOW is the time to be there for that) and i was one of the few who DID NOT see one. bummer. however, the dive crew really tried hard for me, and hats off to them. did get to see a hammerhead and one day some dolphins dove with us for several minutes. we stayed at Robert's Grove in Placencia and really enjoyed the stay. good service, clean rooms. it's the second time i've been to Belize and the first time was spent reef diving, also at Placencia. a brief word about whale shark dives: you may not see them. mostly you will see other divers and a lot of blue ocean. it's a chance you take.

we went to two ruin sites, and sadly, i would be hard pressed to remember which ones now. i keep a travel log, but have neglected to document the names. the sites were pretty disappointing (not much to see - machu picchu has ruined me), however, our guide was the real gem. he took us to his farm for lunch and his wife cooked while he gave us a tour. they should make THAT a trip, but, hey, i love that sort of thing. we did not do any other excursions and spent the rest of the time diving.

personally, i like a three tank day, but there was no opportunity for that because it always takes "about an hour" to get out to the reefs. LOTS of moray eels, several of them swimming and not just poking their head out of a hole. turtles, nurse sharks, eagle and southern rays, spotted drums, trunkfish, porcupine fish, goliath grouper... some sites have very good coral and other sites look sort of beat up, sometimes within a short distance of each other. quite a mixed bag. i'd be curious to see what a liveaboard here would be like.

 

[lostcajun]

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

A very broad question. There is so much to do in Belize. There is quite a difference between experiencing the island life on one of the many Cayes (keys), to inland adventures. If you dive out of Belize City use Sea Sports, John and Linda Searles are great. If you like horseback riding check out Banana Bank Lodge near the capital of Belmopan. If you like Liveaboards there are the Belize Aggressor III and Sun Dancer II. Most of the diving is very close by your lodging along the coast and most certainly on any of the Cayes. You can explore Mayan ruins. And communication is never a problem, and the exchange rate is simple.