One day in Belize City, what to see

[PhilC]

Because of flight schedules our trip to Blackbird Caye next month will finish with an extra day in Belize City. We had our choice of overnighting in Belize City or overnighting in Houston and decided we'd rather spend that extra afternoon doing something fun. So, now I've got to decide what we actually want to do with that time. I've looked at all the standard day trip ideas and nothing is really jumping out at me as the one thing that I have to do.

So, if you have time to do one thing as a day trip what would it be? Cave tubing, animal sancturary, ruins, other?

 

[Downing]

If you've never seen Mayan ruins or even if you have but you're really into ruins, then I'd recommend Altun-Ha. These aren't the greatest ruins but it's still a pretty decent way to spend a half-day. Depending on the timing of your departure, you could maybe even work this in on the morning of your flight out. That's what we did two years ago after we spent two weeks at Turneffe Island Resort (then "Lodge") and our flight out was in the mid-afternoon. The ruins are about 45 minutes or so past the airport and are good for a couple of hours of leisurely strolling around and clambering on.

If you're into wild animals and don't mind cages, the Belize Zoo is another good way to spend a few hours. It was founded and still run by an American, Sharon Matola. The enclosures are for the most part very large, and you'll see a bunch of different exotic animals that you'll almost certainly never be lucky enough to see in the jungle. I spent the better part of a day there on the same trip referenced above. For a zoo, it's pretty cool.

We're headed back to TIR this summer, and we'll arrive in Belize City a couple of days ahead of time to do a couple of the other mainland activities: cave tubing, which my wife really wants to do, the Baboon Sanctuary, which I really want to do, and the Lamanai ruins, which is a full-day trip and something we'll both really enjoy.

But unlike your situation, we're dealing with the process of elimination. Had we done the cave tubing and Baboon Sanctuary last time, then we'd probably flip over and do Altun-Ha and the Zoo this time. And chances are we'll do either Altun-Ha or the Zoo again, probably the latter because we've seen a lot of ruins, the morning of our flight out again. We prefer to do almost anything to avoid sitting all day at the airport.

I guess the bottom line is I don't think there is any one thing that really jumps out at me, either, except for the Lamanai trip and that takes a full day, which is the main reason why this time we're arriving two full days before we board the TIR boat.

 

[hopefulist]

If you can fit in the Lamanai trip you'll pass through some interesting agriculture areas, then spend a few hours on a jungle river (think crocodiles, lots of birds, monkeys) before arriving at the ruins where you'll have a good traditional Belizean lunch before exploring. The ruins are wonderful (even for me, a ruins junky) and the setting on a lagoon is beautiful. Then you reverse to get back to BC. I love the zoo, too - they basically carved paths out of the jungle and put up netting - hard to tell who is in the enclosure sometimes. The signs are informational and all hand painted. Check out my photo collections with blog/travelogue links. Happy trails!

 

[BTravlin]

Lamanai was a good trip and can easily be done in a day. And there is nothing worth seeing in Belize City proper.

 

[Downing]

And there is nothing worth seeing in Belize City proper.

Well, I wouldn't go quite that far, but on the other hand I have to admit that I may be in the minority on this one.

I walked around downtown Belize City the first afternoon we were there and again the following morning and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was disappointed that the Swinging Bridge was never swung, but I enjoyed checking out the hustle and bustle of the market area as well as St John's Cathedral, the Governor's Mansion, the Supreme Court Building and the Ft George area.

It may be a bit of an understatement to say Belize City is pretty rough around the edges, but the place has kind of an impoverished Third World vibe that was both interesting and at times a little unnerving.

As others have said, it's a port city, not a tourist city, probably best seen in large groups and definitely only in broad daylight.

 

[BTravlin]

Well, I wouldn't go quite that far, but on the other hand I have to admit that I may be in the minority on this one.

I walked around downtown Belize City the first afternoon we were there and again the following morning and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was disappointed that the Swinging Bridge was never swung, but I enjoyed checking out the hustle and bustle of the market area as well as St John's Cathedral, the Governor's Mansion, the Supreme Court Building and the Ft George area.

It may be a bit of an understatement to say Belize City is pretty rough around the edges, but the place has kind of an impoverished Third World vibe that was both interesting and at times a little unnerving.

As others have said, it's a port city, not a tourist city, probably best seen in large groups and definitely only in broad daylight.

To be fair, it sounds as if you covered more of Belize City than we did but our group of four was unanimously unimpressed. It was more third world than anyplace I had been before other than some areas in Ecuador.

 

[ibj40]

Well, I wouldn't go quite that far, but on the other hand I have to admit that I may be in the minority on this one.

I walked around downtown Belize City the first afternoon we were there and again the following morning and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was disappointed that the Swinging Bridge was never swung, but I enjoyed checking out the hustle and bustle of the market area as well as St John's Cathedral, the Governor's Mansion, the Supreme Court Building and the Ft George area.

It may be a bit of an understatement to say Belize City is pretty rough around the edges, but the place has kind of an impoverished Third World vibe that was both interesting and at times a little unnerving.

As others have said, it's a port city, not a tourist city, probably best seen in large groups and definitely only in broad daylight.

My wife and I had to overnight on the in trip, and then had half a day to kill on the out trip, and so our experience was a mixture of what had been reported here. On the "in" day, we walked from the Radisson into town, across the Swing Bridge, looking for some items that we thought we had forgotten while packing. We found the experience to be very safe, and representative of the cities we have visited in other diving/tourist destinations.

On the "out" day, we hired a driver (actually the resort arranged it for us), and we took a tour of Belize City (the older historic governmental buildings are interesting, as well as the impact that moving the governmental seat to another city) and then headed out to the Belize Zoo. We were very impressed with the zoo, and especially the care and attention to the natural environment that the animals enjoy, and knowing that the majority of them are "saved" specimens complimented our visit. Our driver, on the return trip to the airport, stopped at a traditional Belizean road-side cafe for our lunch (it was next to a river, sorry, can't recall the name of the place or river right now), which we thoroughly enjoyed, both atmospherically and gastronomically (and my wife is a vegetarian).

We didn't have the time to visit any of the Mayan sites, but next trip down, our "out" day is actually going to be three or four, so that we can, at least, get our passports stamped in Guatemala!

 

[redgym]

I would have picked Houston. Great restaurants, museums, parks. Belize City, not so much. We did the zoo on our way to the airport from SI and enjoyed it.

 

[Ralph Capeling]

Too late for this trip, but the best solution is to not need to be overnight in Belize City. If you do your diving from Placencia (the caye you can drive to), you will find lots of attractions nearby. About 40% of Belize is covered by protected areas. Almost all of these are in the southern half of Belize. Placencia is a great place to dive from and these are all accessible from Placencia. Two very popular attractions are the Monkey River tour and Cockscombe Jaguar Preserve. Monkey River is a 30 minute boat ride from Placencia through Mangroves which is fun in its own right and sometimes you see manatees (or at least manatee noses sticking out of the water) followed by a trip up the river where you see crocodiles, some huge iguanas, lots of birds. Part way up the river you hike into the rain forest to see howler monkeys. Cockscombe has the worlds highest concentration of big cats (you probably won't see them, but perhaps they will see you). Cockscombe has some great rain forest/jungle hiking and can be done with or without a guide. There are some interesting Maya ruins in the south as well as caves. Another advantage of Placencia is that you can do these kinds of things on days where the weather makes diving a little tricky or if you just want a day of doing something else. Splash does inland tours as well as runing a first class dive operation. Check us out at Splashbelize.com

 

[DeputyDan]

To sum up - Belize is really a two week vacation destination. Just to hit the high spots!