Planning a trip to Belize... Questions

[av8er23]

I am strongly considering a visit to Belize next year. It seems that place has a lot to offer along with the great diving. Could I please get some imput from the questions below from you all that have visited the area.

Where are some of the recommended places to stay?

Are there any shorediving?

What is the best time of year to visit?

Besides all the diving I plan on doing what else is a must see?

Do I need to rent a car?

 

[REII]

I went to Placencia Belize in May and stayed at Roberts Grove. It was an amazing place and a great resort. However, there is nothing to do in Placencia which is the southern tip of Belize, other than diving. I went to Placencia to dive with Whale Sharks. Reefs, walls etc. Lots of great diving. Also, the people of Belize are very friendly.

I would look at Ambergris Cay in central Belize too.

TOM

 

[WOODMAN]

If you research this forum a little, and also look at the central america forum, you will find most of what you are looking for. As for my $.02 worth, diving of any sort is pretty much nonexistant from the mainland, at least around Belize City. You need to either travel out to the island resorts, or get on a liveaboard for this. There is some nice shore diving from a couple of the resorts, and others will have much to say on this if you look around here a little. As for what else to do, there are a lot of non-diving adventures to be had on the mainland, and I strongly recommend that you save some time for this and explore the country a little. A rental car is the easiest way to do this, but they are rather expensive, I am afraid. You might also have a look at THE BELIZE FORUMS, as they are obviously dedicated to Belize travel and have a large section for divers. There is a huge amount of material available there, and registration is free. Do your homework, and you should find all you need. Good luck- Woody

 

[gangrel441]

What's your budget? If you can afford it, take a trip on the Belize Aggressor. No shore diving, because you are on the boat all week, but up to 5 dives a day, meals covered, and you get to see the best of what the atolls have to offer.

 

[dashark]

Definately , the best diving is on the outer Cayes.
Amberguis is the most frequently travelled, and a great jump off point to start with for a few check-out dives. You can also charter day trips to the Blue Hole and Turneffe elbow ...We opted for Turneffe over the Blue Hole and were not disappointed. It was by far the best diving we did in Belize. We didn't get rave reviews about the Blue Hole dive itself, however, the other two spots they take you to on that trip are supposed to be some of the best as well. We stayed at Ramon's villiage, and liked it. Good, convenient dive operation....
We also went to southern Belize. We stayed at Hamanasi. Beautiful hotel, mediocre dive operation.
As far as other things to do besides diving.....If you have the time, do the overnight trip to Tikal in Guatemala. If you want to see wildlife and ruins, this is the trip. It also allows you a chance to see a lot of the interior.
Also, the cave tours are amazing, but, not for the claustrophobic. Check out the ATM cave...
We did not rent a car. However, Hamanasi was more than glad to charge us a hefty some for a roundtrip airport transfer. Other than that , all of the interior tours included transportation.
If you want to spend some time in the rainforest, we stayed at Chaa Creek...It was amazing...Good jumpoff point for interior tours...
Bring lots of money...Belize is expensive!

 

[rainmaker]

I spent a week on Ambergris Caye in June, made 12 dives with Protech (they were great). The barrier reef is about a half-mile offshore. I didn't see anyone shore diving (it is not recommended because of all the boat traffic). I didn't rent a car, everything I needed was within easy walking distance (I'm not sure you can rent a car on Ambergris Caye, but golf-cart rentals are readily available). I stayed at Ruby's (Oceanside), which I'd recommend only to seriously budget-minded travelers.

My trip report is located here:

http://www.trailquest.net/scuba.html#belize06

 

[Hank49]

I went to Placencia Belize in May and stayed at Roberts Grove. It was an amazing place and a great resort. However, there is nothing to do in Placencia which is the southern tip of Belize, other than diving. I went to Placencia to dive with Whale Sharks. Reefs, walls etc. Lots of great diving. Also, the people of Belize are very friendly.

I would look at Ambergris Cay in central Belize too.

TOM

Placencia is not the southern tip of Belize. It's on the tip of a penninsula.
http://www.belizeit.com/map.htm
Cars are real expensive to rent here compared to the USA and gas is over US$5 per gallon.
There is no shore diving off San Pedro, Caye Caulker or the mainland.
A "must see"? The Hummingbird Hwy has some beautiful views and nice things to do. Caves Branch, the (other) Blue Hole. And the mountain Pine Ridge is pretty also. 5 Sisters Lodge is a nice place.

 

[Valwood1]

We enjoyed Belize, but you should do a LOT of research. It is not easy to get around the country on land unless you rent your own van (we did) or like unairconditioned buses (we don't), and the short plane trips on Mayan Air and Tropic Air, while convenient, are not cheap.

We visited Tikal prior to Belize; it's a good spot if you're into Mayan ruins. The Tikal Inn is in the park which is convenient since you'll need about an hour drive from the hotels that are not in the park. The downsides to the Tikal Inn are that (1) it is not air conditioned (really, not a problem until 10pm when the ceiling fan goes off (see next), and (2) electricity only runs from 6-8am and about 6-10pm; it can be "exciting" trying to dress and pack in the dark for a sunrise ruin tour at 5:30am!

The zip lines through the trees (canopy tour) outside of Tikal were good.

The drive from Tikal to San Ignacio, Belize is a bit rugged, since the last fifteen miles or so in Guatemala are dirt road. I did not like the house that we rented in San Ignacio (Kumquat Cottage -- the name should have been a giveaway!) because the ventilation was just awful -- no breezes at all through the windows; it did have a/c in the bedroom, and that made it tolerable.

As mentioned, one cave tour out of San Ignacio is the ATM (Actun Tunichil Muknal). It's an interesting trip, involving a one hour drive from San Ignacio (the last 30 minutes on dirt road), a 45 minute jungle hike with three river crossings (not a bad walk, really), and 2+ hours swimming and wading through water, climbing over, under and around boulders and up one very tall ladder to get to the "Crystal Maiden". Maybe I'm just old (Hell, I AM old!), but I'd recommend that anyone on this trip be in decent shape, and not too obese. All those caveats aside, we were the only two people in the cave when we visited, and that was pretty neat.

Mayawalk Tours in San Ignacio can arrange cave and ruin tours in Belize and, I believe, for Tikal. I thought that the people there were very nice.

In short, there are a lot of things to do as well as dive, but I wouldn't try to do too much in a short time

 

[Darnold9999]

Pretty much found that there is something interesting to do and see everywhere in Belize. Do the research you will find something that interests you. Echo Belize is not a "cheap" vacation.

Hummingbird Highway was a very nice drive. We stayed on a "farm" near St Ignacio, was interesting, the trip down the cliff to the river was the highlight for me, my partner thought the horse ride to the top of the cliffs was the highlight. She likes horses I like water

Dive from one of the cays or a liveaboard. The diving down south (from my limited experience) is a long boat ride to see pretty much the same thing that you can see half a mile out from Ambergrise. Did one trip out from Placencia. Have done one lifeaboard and a half a dozen or so dives from Ambergrise

Did not do Tikal, probably should have, did not do caves - I do hear it is a great trip. THere are lots of other "ruins" that are worth a trip if you like that sort of thing. The Zoo is worth a stop if you are going by, small but interesting.

My only disappointment was Belize City. Can't get out of town fast enough.

 

[hopefulist]

Here's a link to our travelogue from 2003 - we loved everywhere we went and everyplace we stayed:

[L=trip report]http://www.belizeforum.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=000362[/L]

The snorkeling and diving from shore was incredible at Glover's Atoll.