Most Affordable Place To Stay In Belize For One Person?

[ReefHound]

I consider the Blue Hole to be a "logbook" dive. It's something you want to be able to say you experienced. It is the "signature" dive of Belize. Anytime you tell people you went to Belize the first thing they will ask is if you went to the Blue Hole. It would be like going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower. We did BH even though we knew before that it was over-rated. The other two atoll dives on the trip were much better. You can get a 3-tank trip to those outer atoll dives for less than a BH trip.

 

[Downing]

But if the OPs goal is to dive BH and Lighthouse, what are the odds of that from the Placencia area?

Good point. I know Splash will take people there but there has to be some sort of minimum so that could be risky if you're by yourself. They will also do an overnight trip, if there's enough interest, and dive their way up to the BH and back.

My wife and I did the Blue Hole three times from Turneffe Island Lodge/Resort. The trip takes only about an hour. Each time, there were divers with us who elected to sit it out and wait for the fantastic diving that follows. Some were "been there done that." Some didn't have the necessary experience or training. And some just didn't want to go that deep. Personally, I really enjoy it but to each her own.

 

[cleung]

Does anybody know out of the dive ops based in Ambrigis and Caye Caulker, which ones seem to have the most success in getting enough divers to run Blue Hole and outer reef trips on a fairly regular basis?

 

[ibj40]

I have no personal experience with the Blue Hole but others have posted you have to go deep to get below the rim plus the sharks are often near the bottom which I believe is around 300'

I don't think it;s worth the time or effort. You can dive Blue Holes off Nasau or Andros and they're shallower and 20 minutes away, One on Andros you can drive to. Ive dove two in the Outer Islands, In both cases the dive around the hole was better than the hole itself,

I do have personal experience with the Blue Hole, we dove it in 2007 from the Turneffe Flats Resort. It is certainly a bucket list dive, although we would dive it again if we could. The dive is pretty straightforward, you simply drop over the edge and go straight down. The sharks are at about 100' (not 300'), and just hang out in the middle. The real attraction is the stalactite/stalagmite complex at about 130'. It is hard to realize, and I think few appreciate that these formations occur in air, so what you are experiencing (much like the cenotes of the Yucatan) is clear evidence of geological events of the past, and a significant change in sea level.

Does anybody know out of the dive ops based in Ambrigis and Caye Caulker, which ones seem to have the most success in getting enough divers to run Blue Hole and outer reef trips on a fairly regular basis?

I would suggest you contact Amigos del Mar on Ambergris. We did not dive with them when we were there in May 2018, but we understand that many of the other dive shops will steer their divers to Amigos if they want to do the Blue Hole.

In terms of places to stay, we rented a condo unit, as we love to cook, but there are plenty of less expensive places to stay. I think we walked by at least one hostel, and there are some bargain hotels on the caye, as well.

Good Luck with your search, and feel free to PM me if there is anything I can help you with.

 

[diversteve]

As I mentioned I have Not been there. My friend who lives in Dangriga has multiple times, He's the one who told me the sharks are deep.

 

[salth2owannabe]

It's been discussed at length here, but the Blue Hole is what it is. If you dive it for what it is, a fairly unique formation, I think it's a great dive. We've dove it 4 times and will dive it again in December. TIR, and most outfits, do a three tank dive that day. I've never been limited on dive time on the 2nd and 3rd dive as a result of doing the Blue hole. The dive master at Hurican heard we had done the dive a few times so we dove the north side (my direction it's East) with them, and it has a horse shoe cave swim through you can do. The Stalagmite features on that side are not nearly as prominent though.
Amigos del Mar has had a boat there 3 of the 4 times we were there. One time the weather was particularly bad and few other boats showed. The sharks were shallower that dive however, and two guys doing their deep dive portion of a cert had a great experience with them. The second dive off of Half Moon has always been great.

 

[Downing]

On at least one of my Blue Hole dives, we had Nurse Sharks closely circling us once we had ascended to the lip at 50 feet. Pretty sure someone had been feeding them as they appeared to be looking for a handout. I'm sure it would be thrilling for a novice, but you can hardly go diving in Belize without coming across a Nurse Shark or two on nearly every dive. I even had one come up from behind and knock me out of the way as he rushed past to snag a LionFish I had just speared. Took it right off the spear. That was pretty wild.

I've seen quite a few Hammerheads on the Blue Hole dive somewhere between the lip and 100 feet, but they were always well off towards the middle while we were hugging the wall.

 

[Stoo]

@Stoo really likes Huracan Resort out at the Cayes and I'm sure it's a bit more affordable than Turneffe. No Aircon though.

Huracan diving has a very minimal single supplement (which I have encouraged them to change since it's such a small place). I don't know how their rate compares to AC, but I can tell you without reservation that the diving on the outer cays is VASTLY superior to Ambergris, which in itself is pretty good. We've never cared about the lack of air conditioning, but appreciate that some might. This place is an eco-lodge in practice, not just words.

If the BH is big on your list, Huracan is only 12 minutes from the Hole. You'll be finishing your dive just as everyone else arrives. There's no surcharge, other than the park fee. Generally, we have the entire place to ourselves which makes for a much better experience.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Does anybody know out of the dive ops based in Ambrigis and Caye Caulker, which ones seem to have the most success in getting enough divers to run Blue Hole and outer reef trips on a fairly regular basis?

Amigos del Mar out of San Pedro Town on Ambergris Caye

 

[chillyinCanada]

@cleung, your request to not be able to hear any bar activity etc. At your preferred rate, has caused me a quandry. I shall need to do some research.

Definitely do not go to Pedro's LOL