Where to stay in Belize

[dashark]

Belize is very expensive no matter where you go. We did a weel at Hamanasi resort in Hopkins. very nice,but, we didn't care for the dive operation.We also did 4 days in san pedro. If i were to do it again, I would skip amberguis and go to cay caulker. It is more like amberguis used to be.
Look into Kanantik in the south.
as far as inland stuff, we did several days at an inland resort called chaa creek. Amazing place. very good jump off point for inland excursions. they also have a great spa. For wildlife viewing and ruins, you can't beat Tikal. It is over the border in Guatemala. Most of the resorts inland do day trips and overnight trips. we opted for the overnight and it was well worth it. If you aren't fmiliar with Tikal, it is one of the most famous ruins in the mayan empire. the wildlife there is amazing.The jungle lodge id rustic but comfortable and allows you to stay within the park at night. we booked all of this throught chaa creek and a guide drives you there and stays with you the entire time. the guides in belize are all very knowledgeable about the history and wildlfe.
The other inland excursion I would recoment is one of the caves. we did one and the inside was full of stalgtites, stalagmites and mayan pottery.
either way, I would split my trip between a dive spot (preferably an outer caye) and an inland resort.
If you don't need civilization, the ideal trip would be to dive at the turneffe resort, which has the best diving we sw there. and chaa creek. you can add an overnight to tikal from chaa creek and leave your stuff there.
you can PM me if you want more info.
Enjoy!

 

[weedycdragon]

Thanks for the info dashark.

We are thinking now of doing a week on glovers or turneffe...i cant decide ,and cay caulker.

definitely going to do the tikal overnight... the sunrise and wildlife did it for me. Any idea what time you have to check out in the morning. is there other stuff to do if we stay 2 nights?

I found cha creek it looks fantastic especially the tree houses may be a bit too costly though will check it out thanks.

 

[Leejnd]

Thanks for that great info! I'll look into Chaa creek as well.

 

[dashark]

I only saw the resort at turneffe from the boat. it looked nice. very remote. the diving was fantastic just off the resort. and the turneffe elbow dive is world class.
As far as Chaa creek, there is a lot to do there. you can also book all of the inland tours through them.
When you overnight in Tikal, they leave all of your gear at the resort and pick you up in the morning. you go into the ruins that afternoon with you driver/guide and see the main part. you will go back in for the sunset and see other parts (the place is huge) you will go in one more time for the sunrise, and once again, tour a different area of the site. The guid stays with you the entire time.
believe we left around midday and still had time for a zipline tour just outside the park.
as far as doing more than one night there, I thought the overnight was the perfect amount of time.
On to Chaa creek. lots to do here. they have beautiful stables and excellent horseback riding. they alo have canoes to use at you leisure to go up and down the river (very nice). we also did a cave tour. awesome, but, only for the adventurous. there are several caves to choose from. some of them you can float tube through.the most famous of the bunch is the atm cave. lots of artifacts in here and it even has a mummified skeleton (oxymoron?)
If I had enough money to go back, I would split my stay between turneffe for the diving and chaa crek for the inland stuff with an overnight to tikal in the middle.

 

[ACAS1207]

I was looking at Belizean Shores Resort and it looks like they do thier dive packages through "Scuba Belize". Has anyone used them or know anything about them? Thanks,
Anthony

 

[H2ODoc]

I was looking at Belizean Shores Resort and it looks like they do thier dive packages through "Scuba Belize". Has anyone used them or know anything about them? Thanks,
Anthony

Anthony,

We stayed at Belizean Shores (great place), did most of dives with ProTech and Ecologic, but did one dive with the operation at Belizean Shores. It was a last minute idea for an afternoon dive, so maybe they don't always work this way, but I wouldn't use them again. The DM (?) was a very young guy and overly casual in my opinion. We took his boat out to the reef (no boat captain, just him) and tied up to a bouy. He dove with us, took us newbies to 85 feet, a few swim throughs, then it seemed like he got bored and basically swam in a few circles, then back towards the boat. He surfaced well before we did and hopped in the boat.

It was not near the attention that we hoped to have as new divers (we did inform him of this).

 

[kimchicowboy]

just to throw it out there: if you really want to get away from it all and it's not touristy, check out tobacco caye. the diving isn't excellent, but it does sit right on top of the reef and is about a 40 minute boat ride from dangriga, stann creek. if the weather's good and there are a couple other divers, you can probably hit up turneffe or glover's. which wasn't the case when i was there (late july 2006) as i was the only diver on the island at the time.

loved the ambiance of the island though! the locals were great too (i went by myself).

 

[peterbj7]

Unfortunately, although Tobacco Caye is very convenient for the atolls it's often the case that there aren't enough people to run trips. That's not unique to them.

Dashark is right in saying Belize is expensive. This isn't because of fat-cat dive and tour operators, but an inefficient and corrupt government that places its own interests above those of the country. The result is ever increasing costs that operators somehow have to cope with. Unfortunately, with near recession in the US, American travelers are being much more careful with their dollars and visitor numbers to Belize, at least to my area (Ambergris Caye, in the north) appear well down on previous years. Not only that, but they are being much more careful what they spend. I don't know where it'll end, but at present Belize is starting a downwards spiral.

For the time being operators are competing intensely, and so long as there are enough guests to put on tours there are bargains to be had. In the longer term (I'm talking months, not years) some of these businesses will go under. That's not good for anyone, because as visitors you'll end up with tours run with an eye to price only, not quality. Great opportunities for those few rich operators who can afford to trade at a loss and watch the competition fade.

The only way out of this is for an effective government to take charge in Belize and start putting things right - initially to put its own house in order. I'm not holding my breath.

Do I sound cynical?

 

[sdreefers]

Man, I am going to Belize in 3 months and this concerns me. I wonder if it's better to stay in another country. I don't want to have problems when I get there and I have heard a lot of issues with the Belizean government lately. What would you recommend peter, will I be ok traveling in June or should I pick another spot?

 

[peterbj7]

No, SDR, you need have no concerns. What's going on is primarily of concern to local businesses and you'll probably end up getting better deals as a result. The only possible concern, and this is not directly related to what I said, is that if visitor numbers are well down than there may be insufficient people to put on particular trips or activities. That's not unique to Belize - I was in Playa del Carmen (Mexico) a few months ago wanting an afternoon dive. I failed, not because the operators didn't want to go out, but because most visitors didn't and there weren't enough to justify putting the boat out.

Again, although many people here have major issues with the government, the one thing that matters to them (the government) is maintaining visitor numbers and quality of service to those visitors. Granted they don't always get it right, but that's more an issue of "laissez faire" than active intervention. Although there is regulation and control in Belize, it's much less than in many other tourist areas and this holds pluses and minuses.

Come here and enjoy yourself.