Booked my trip to Belize!

[Leejnd]

After staggering amounts of research, I have booked my upcoming trip to Belize in July. We're spending 5 days in Caye Caulker, and 5 days inland in the jungle near San Ignacio.

I ended up having Belize Diving Services handle the entire Caye Caulker portion of the trip for us. They have a 7-day dive/accommodation package, but we made a few changes to it and dropped it down to 5 days. We're diving all five days, doing the following dives: Blue Hole, Hol-Chan Marine Park, Caye Chapel Canyons, Turneffe North, and Spanish Bay.

We're staying at Costa Maya Beach Cabanas, which are right on the beachnear the split. We're in Cabana #5, which has A/C and a kitchenette.

So far the gals from Belize Diving Services have been wonderful. I can't wait for our trip! :yl2jump:

 

[seadoggirl]

I just got back from Belize this weekend. Stayed on Ambergis Cay at Ramons. Had a blast, you'll love the people. Everyone is so wonderful. I dove Blue Hole, Hol-Chan Marine Park, Turneffe North and Land Cay. I did 15 dives and loved them all. You'll see a ton of sharks, turtles, spotted eagle rays. Be careful with the Rum Punch but have a blast!

 

[beachcomber]

Where is the best place to stay while dving Belize...Ambergis Cay? Is it possible(advisable) to stay in Belize City? Sorry to ask such elementary questions. Thanks!

 

[Doc]

Where is the best place to stay while dving Belize...Ambergis Cay? Is it possible(advisable) to stay in Belize City? Sorry to ask such elementary questions. Thanks!

Not so much elementary as they might be ill advised.

The search feature here on SB will answer miriad of questions.

To ask which "is best" is an absolute unknowable. There is no one "best" for everybody. You have to understand what you want and need- then find the venue that will suit.

Belize City and Ambergis are only a few miles away, yet worlds apart.

 

[peterbj7]

If your object is diving, staying in Belize City makes no sense, if only because you'll have long and expensive boat trips every day. If you look at a map of the country you'll see that the barrier reef is much closer to the northern cayes than to the mainland further south. There are a few isolated cayes near the reef in the south, such as Tobacco Caye, otherwise anywhere south means long trips. Staying on one of the three atolls is possible, but generally very expensive and of course you're a captive customer, with all that that implies. If you want to dive Glover's Atoll you can't do that from the northern cayes - too far. Many people choose Ambergris Caye as a compromise between good local diving with the opportunity for some atoll trips (Lighthouse & Turneffe), with non-diving options also available to them. Caye Caulker has similar benefits and is a lot sleepier than AC - some people love it for that, others quickly get bored. And of course there the main liveaboards - Aggressor, Peter Hughes, Nekton.

It really comes down to what YOU want to do. But basing yourself in Belize City would give you most of the disadvantages with few compensations.

You can get more specific information from http://ambergriscaye.com/ and its sister site on CC.

 

[beachcomber]

Thanks for the help!

 

[jdubdiver]

I just got back From a week in Belize yesterday I stayed at Ramon's village and thought it was very good. Everywhere I went I had wonderful food and friendly people. I did not once feel unsafe, and Ramon's has security out 24 hours a day. i did diving in the local Canyons outside the reef in front of Ramon's, Lots of Nurse sharks, Groupers, Spotted Eagle Rays, and lots of other things, I did a night dive at Hol Chan and also did a dive there during the day, it is a shallow dive and I recomend it. Night and Day are completely different. Lighthouse Reef is a spot I recomend also, Blue Hole was anticlimatic but I would do it just so you can say you have, Go see the Boobies at Half Moon Caye, Half Moon Caye Wall and Long Caye wall were spectacular, I didnt do Turneffe I was told the Elbow was hit and miss, opted to instead do two dives at Hol Chan, One in the Cayon and one in the Cut and then Ramon's let us use our boat and crew to go to Caye Caulker for the afternoon. Hit the I&I Reggae Bar on Caye Caulker it is an experience, very friendly people, I lived on Belikan Beer and Rum punch (after diving of course)