Diving at Caye Caulker

[pdelannoy]

Hello,

I am planning a trip to dive at Caye Caulker, Belize and want to know if anyone on this board has been there and can share some details. Also, while we are not going there for the beaches--we want to be sure that there is a beach with water. This may sound stupid but I saw a post-not here-that said that there were not beaches on Caya Caulker. I have a daughter that needs a beach when we are not diving. Can anyone elaborate on this issue?

Pete

 

[peterbj7]

There are some nice beaches on Caye Caulker. Not everywhere - there are also mangrove areas. Depends where you are on the island. There were three dive centres on Caye Caulker, and I gather a small fourth has just been added. The only one I would even consider diving with is Belize Diving Services, which is professionally run.

 

[enteruseridhere]

Hi Pete. I spent 2 weeks on Caulker last year. There is a single "beach" that is located at the split where the place was torn in half by a huricane some years ago. I took my girls there swimming and they did fine. There is a lot of debris deeper down (metal sheet roofing, cinderblocks, bottles etc)

With a snorkel set it is quite fun. Stay out of the grass. Don't let her touch any of the metal piers either. You get a rash from both.

From the beach we saw a small ray, an eel and some lionfish.

It is swimmable. But it is not sand. It is broken up shells. I was told that San Pedro had better beaches. But was far more expensive.

I am returning to Caulker on the 26th to take a crack at the blue hole and maybe a couple other spots. This time without the family.

Here is my youngest showing her stuff at the beach last year.

 

[drbill]

I second Belize Diving Services. I dove with them around 2005 and did a video on the marine life there for them. It has changed hands since then I believe, but I've heard it is pretty well run. And the information about the beach at the spit is good. I didn't swim or snorkel there.. only saw it from the dive boat... but there were plenty of people using it while I was there.

 

[yippeekyaa]

I left Caye Caulker on Saturday after 9 days there. There is more than 1 beach but the "split" at the north end is the only one that I saw being used by the public. The others were very small private beaches. Be warned though that the split is commonly trolled by the local single male residents of the island trying to pick up tourist girls. Don't leave your daughter there un-chaperoned. I went there twice and it wasn't pleasant to me. In their defense I wasn't looking for a "party" atmosphere which the split is. If that's your thing then by all means have fun. During the week I did witness a barge offloading sand to create a new beach area halfway between the water taxi dock and the dock where Frenchies diving is located. Looks like it will be a nice spot when finished.

As for the diving I'll third Belize Diving Service. I spent 8 consecutive days diving with them and have not one single complaint. They have a large well equipped Newton dive boat. All dives are dive-master led by a very competent mix of DM's, and instructors. I brought my own gear and they stored it for me each night so I wouldn't have to carry it back and forth to the house I rented on the south end of the island, a 20 minute bicycle ride one way. Most all their dives have you meet at the shop at 8:30 am for a 9am departure. The blue hole dive days are much earlier at 5:30 am. I highly recommend making dive reservations. There was a waiting list daily for dives. I booked first 2 days with them online, then after seeing their operation in person the first day, booked the rest of the trips.

As for food, I didn't have a bad meal there. Dined from the high end to the food carts and all were great. The "enjoy bar" ended up being my favorite spot. It doesn't look like much but was close to dive shop and 12 bucks US, got me a Belikin beer and a great meal.