Belize vs Hawaii

[chillyinCanada]

A tough call.

To be upfront, I have not personally been to Belize but I planned a dive trip with my buddy's but had to cancel at the last minute (they went) Also a good friend of mine who is a diver lives there permanently.

I've been to every island in HI - some more than once. Dove every island but Oahu..

So taking cues from your post

Belize diving is decent or better from Ambergris Key. It's also possible to daytrip to the Blue Hole from there. The Atoll resorts are closer to the better diving but being atolls there's no other activities excpt snorkeling or the beach.Also most only exchange guests once or twice a week.

We planed a trip to Placencia in Southern Belize. The ,majority of the dives are as much as 60-90 minutes by boat, One reason we went is in late spring/early summer you can Dive with Whalesharks - about tghe only place in the Anericas you can reliably do that. It;s also the starting point for hiking, Mayan Ruins tours, cave tubing and both the Howler Monkey and Jaguar Preserves. In fact Splash Dive has a sister co that does all that. Check out the Hamanasi website they do most of them.

Lastly Southwest flies there direct from their hubs, closest to you is probably Denver. From Belize City, Troic or MayanAair do the regional flights. My friend that lives there only goes thru Belize City when he has to.

Nexy post: Hawaii

Actually by far and away, the majority of dives from Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, Belize are only 5-15 minutes from shore.

If the divers were to choose to stay on the mainland, then Belize City is not the place to stay. Those catching a liveaboard will usually do an overnight there though before catching the liveaboard boat.

Down near Hopkins, there's Hamanasi Dive Resort or down to Placencia, there are a number of nice places to stay and at Placencia, where I recommend diving with Splash Divers.

But it's true that the dive sites from Hopkins area are around 45 minutes out and Placencia, at least the same amount of time.

An ideal itinerary for Belize is to go inland, near San Ignacio and enjoy the jungle, do the ATM cave and check out some Mayan ruins etc., etc., then head back to the seashore for diving portion of the holiday.

There's lots of ways to do these things and lots of price points.

To spend a week in Belize at a price point of 4500-8500, you'll have the very finest of accommodation.

But you can still be quite comfortable beachfront for $1500/week on Ambergris Caye. Just for example, checkout Mata Rocks Resort.

Dives are around $80 for a two tank and there are a number of fine dive operators on Ambergris.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Sorry, that I wasn't as specific as I should have been... I spent $4,500 for a week for two people

Air to BZE: 650x2
Puddle Jumper: 125x2
Condo/5d scuba: 750x2
Blue hole: 280x2
Groceries: 400?
Dinners/beach bars: 400?

That's close to 4500.

Another inside tip, you can take two bottles of liquor into Belize duty-free, and unless you want to drink Belizean rum, the alcohol can be pricey

@OP - PM me your email address and I will forward you the last package email i received from Reef Adventure when i researched a return trip.

MC

Yep, Ron has a nice condo for his guests and Ched's a good guy!

Cap'n Ron can probably put together an excellent deal for the pair.

Local beer and local rum prices are pretty good but the advice to pick up a bottle or two, if you're into that kind of thing, at the duty free at airport is excellent. It's the least amount of money I've ever paid for a bottle of vodka anywhere, even duty free other places. This may have changed as I rarely bother with it.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Roatan is a decent recommendation too. West End is a great place for new divers! The diving doesn't get much easier and it's a great little village, beautiful island. Again, a range of accommodation prices though there are more small hotels with much lower prices and slightly more comfort than the least expensive places on Ambergris Caye. I have no idea if there's hiking and I'd be nervous about that there anyway.

Again, December the weather could be an issue.

So, again, I'll recommend Grenada. Accommodation is a bit pricier but my gosh, what a beautiful island. Shouldn't be as impacted by the chance of a norther in December and there's all kinds of hiking though I'm not able to point out the actuals. I do know someone who can probably give me great advice to share, if that is desired. My friends hike there a lot.

 

[diversteve]

Actually by far and away, the majority of dives from Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, Belize are only 5-15 minutes from shore.

Actually I Never mentioned the distance...

 

[diversteve]

some Roatan/Utila impressions.

We stayed in the West End and also dove with Coconut Tree Divers with side trips to AKR and Batrefoot Caye. Also ate dinner one night at AKR while afriend took a chamber ride. OK food but a lot of stairs up to it.

There's a lot of decent, affordable housing there. As cheap as the hostels to as anice as Xbalangue or the new one Ibagari?

I rented a 3br house on east Half Moon Bay - nice house waterfront but no beach. They do a lot of dive training so things are usually fun at night in the bars - which can get loud. Most of them are near the water taxi dock slightly to the west.

Some of my friends rented small cabins from Coconut Tree, singles around $40 nt. 2btr $85. The 2BR had a small living room and full-sized appliances in the kitchen. But there;s a lot of options - the two Posadas, the Yellow house (that may be the name) Half Moon Resort, Inn of Last Resort - Cocolobo is really nice.

Boat Dives run around 10/$350 and all are short rides to the reef.AKR is about mins by cab and you can walk-in to do the dolphin dive.Cocoview is another popular option on the south side. Barefoot Caye/Divers is more upscale on the SW side - it;s near French Harbor where the big markets are. There's all sorts of diving - reefs, wrecks, swim-thru's - Mary's Place is a signature dive 5 mins off Barefoot's dock.

Utila is a smaller version of Roatan - much of he island s uninhabited with no roads. The AI resort there - Utopia Village does everything by boat. I only remember seeing one truck all week, most travel is via ATV or bike.

There are also some rental houses on the West End - all access is via water taxi and some have no access at night.

Lots of shops in town - many do DM/Inst. training. Lots of cheap housing in town also and all the restaurants/bars.

One area a little west of town (10 mins) has a few resorts and rental houses - I know one of them - Coral View resort. They have a shore dive plus boat dives and a pool.

If you plan to combine islands, there are several options. One is to fly commercial to Roatan then either puddle jumper or ferry to Utila - which only runs some days. The other is to fly into San Pedro Sula then puddle jump over to either. Worldwide Travel on Utila can book the local flights.

Utla is prety small and flat - the center of the island is a large Mangrove lagoon. You can do hikes around it but there's not much else to do there except dive.

There's a couple larger hills on Roatan and also areas where you can hike thru the jungle - one a preserve a little south of AKR. Several ziplines also.

If it matters there are A LOT of bugs. Sand Flies at dusk, they bite. Mosquitoes and on Roatan the Malaria plan is a good idea. Every beach on either island we tried also had sand fleas - except Half Moon Bay beach or Barefoot Caye's but they rake/spray it.

BFC is as nice as it looks and not all guests dive so my group had a boat to ourselves one morning.

Do not get an un-scrreened property. We accidentally left tthe patio door open about a foot, that bight we had to fog the room with DEET

A/C is also a good idea as it's always humid with standing water. Rained almost daily - we were on both islands in spring.

 

[drrich2]

I am not certified yet, if that helps. I will be by the time we do it of course.

Dove out of Belize by live-aboard. Haven't been to Hawaii. A few observations:

1.) If you're U.S. based, I'm guessing that plane trip to Hawaii will be long? You guys been on long continuous flights before?

2.) As you see from this and other threads, weighing options amongst the Hawaiian isles looks daunting if you're out to pick the 'best' option. The diving, shore diving, topside...and those foreign-sounding (yes, I know it's a state...) names throw my mind off. The topside beauty is legendary - a friend went and brought back topside photos of beautiful natural scenes and dried lava masses. Oh yeah, and then there's Pearl Harbor? Some of the species you may see diving are endemic.

Considering the expense and hassle to get there, the complexity of navigating the options/choices and the unique offerings above and below water it offers, Hawaii deserves to be a deliberately chosen and well-researched and planned trip (especially if trying to squeeze the best experience out of a limited budget)...ideally after you've been diving a bit and are comfortable diving so you can get the most out of it. Hey, you might never make it back!

Not a 'Oh, look, Cozumel's out. How about Hawaii?' destination

3.) For a 1st dive trip for a novice (I don't know whether your Dad's certified yet), Belize or Roatan could be fine. For that matter, so could Curacao, Bonaire, a number of other places. But to keep it simple, going to one of the very popular, mainstream dive destinations makes sense.

Some Roatan options offer topside excursions. Anthony's Key Resort sometimes runs specials where 2nd diver is cheaper. If you've got 10 days, time on Ambergris Caye then some at Placencia perhaps for land-based activity? On a cruise stop at Belize we did excursion up the New River to Lamanai (means 'submerged crocodile'), walked in the rainforest, visited 3 (& climbed atop 2) Mayan ruins (Mask, Tall and Jaguar Temples); pretty neat!

 

[mcohen1021]

I never said I did. But since you know Belize so well, you are probably aware of the fact that this country ranks number 4 in the world by per capita murder rate?

I am sure now that MacAfee doesn;t live there, the country is much safer lol

 

[Jcp2]

^^^^ post is going to go viral.

 

[tarponchik]

I am sure now that MacAfee doesn;t live there, the country is much safer lol

The times are a-changin', aren't they? Violence got much worse in Central America since 1998, thanks to...(here I stop for fear of being moderated for getting political but I am sure you know what I mean). I'm not exactly a pansy, I do not mind coming face to face with a Tiger shark on a solo dive but I do not feel easy in places where soldiers with M16s and spec-ops types in bullet-proof vests are as common as mailmen and taxi drivers. If you do, good for you, but we do not, and although we do not avoid places like this overall, once there we prefer to stay in some gringo resort and get around the country with a guide.

 

[lamarpaulski]

Belize is far more like Cozumel than Hawaii. For a newly certified and inexperienced rookie diver I think you’ll be happier in Belize. I’d recommend you spring for your own guide/dive master for first dive(s). Getting in a great first time scuba experience is easier in the Caribbean in my opinion (clear calm warm water and white sand)

My wife is only an occasional diver and she dove very happily in Belize from a caye. ( with her own DM) but never quite gets it together in Hawaii.

Hawai’i ‘s best diving tends to be more challenging ( deep diving or surf/rocky entry ) and Winter can bring large surf. ( I live in Hawaii btw. ) Not as rookie-diver friendly imho. Clearly, thousands of people choose Hawaii for scuba certification so it’s not impossible or even difficult to have a great time. Hawaii has obvious advantages of being part of USA and has lot’s of non-diving stuff too. Great hiking in Hawaii too..

However, you would probably have a great time in either place. Both have plenty of land options. If you choose Hawaii I’d pick Maui ( at least as first Island). Maui seems to have easier, wider variety of shore dives and also Molokini crater plus nearby Lanai’i. Whales winter in Maui. I also enjoy hiking Haleakala. (Hawaii shore diving basically requires hard-soled booties due to lava, coral and urchins for most beach dives.)