Recently I had a friend reach out about planning a trip to Belize and asking for any recommendations or tips. As I was recollecting my trip, I realized that I never shared it so here you go…
Belize in one word: UnBELIZEable! This was another solo trip that I did over Thanksgiving 2017 and it was totally awesome! I have a long list of places I want to visit so it’s very rare that I ever consider going back to a country before knocking off a couple of others but Belize is totally one that I will repeat!
Why Belize? So. Many. Reasons.
- Location! A lot of Americans vacation in Mexico or the Bahamas for an easy getaway. Well it is just an extra hour or two of travel to get to Central America and you get to experience a different culture where the official language is English! But definitely make sure to talk to a native that speaks Creole! Oh, and Southwest flies there now so, if you are a SWA fan then that’s definitely a bonus! Overall, flights are pretty reasonable depending where you are traveling from.
- Speaking of Culture… The culture in Belize is so unique because it is basically a mixing bowl with their ancestors being Mayan, British, Hispanic, Caribbean and of all things, German Mennonites! With so many cultures molded into one there is a great variety of foods, crafts, and cultural experiences.
- Adventure Land. For being a relatively small country (about the size of New Jersey), there is certainly a lot to do and various climates. But it’s pretty easy to get around. On the mainland I hired a driver and its a short 15 minute flight to Ambergris Caye which doesn’t allow vehicles but bicycles and golf carts are plentiful. From visiting Mayan Ruins, to the howler monkey sanctuary, to tubing or kayaking in the jungle, to diving the Blue Hole, you will not be disappointed. One thing that might be a little surprising is that Belize is not necessarily known for it’s sandy beaches. On the Caribbean side it is surrounded by barrier reefs (actually the second largest in the world) which provide protection to the land and is home to an abundance of wildlife with over 100 species of coral and more than 500 species of fish!
Here are some snaps of my week long trip to Belize. I will for sure be going back!
Belize City
I flew into Belize City which is the largest city in Belize. I took a taxi from the airport to my hotel which was driven by a crazy Creole-speaking character that looked a lot like Dennis Rodman. I was surprised to get in the taxi to find a Canadian couple in the backseat already and none of us really knew what was happening! Is this how the movie Taken started? I was just glad that it appeared that I could outrun them both if needed 🙂 I stayed at a hotel call The Great House which was a pleasant hotel, clean, in a good location and free wifi (always a bonus when traveling out of country). It is within walking distance to the seaboard that I enjoyed running each morning, several restaurants and the iconic Belize sign (literally right around the corner).
The hotel was really great in helping me book a full day tour to see the Altun-ha Mayan Ruins and go cave tubing. I went on a Sunday morning and it was raining on and off and really had quite an experience as I was the only tourist at the ruins. My pics turned out pretty awesome with zero people in them! The tubing was pretty tame but it was kind of cool to go through the caves and experience complete darkness. Link to video here.
Ambergris Caye
From Belize City I took a private flight to Ambergris Caye which was the total highlight. I was definitely glad I got to see some of jungle and city life but when I go back I will probably head straight to AC! The fly over is about 15 minutes and the views of the water and reef system are amazing! I hopped off the plane in San Pedro and walked across the street to The Sunbreeze Hotel (tip: the golf carts WILL NOT stop for pedestrians!). I will be honest, from the street view, I kind of started freaking out because I thought I had totally been hotel catfished but once you walk in through the lobby you can see the ocean, a pool and bar area and the street noise is long forgotten. Since I got there around noon, the receptionist helped me book a last minute reef fishing trip. I had heard Belize had amazing fishing and I had not a minute to waste!
Day 2 and 3 in A.C. I spent doing one of my favorite things in the world, diving! OMG, was it amazing. On the flight into Belize I sat next to this awesome couple from San Antonio and they were also going diving in A.C. for the first time so we exchanged info and ended up scheduling the same dive excursions which was kind of cool to see a familiar face on the boat! I wish I had good underwater shots to share but there were some technical difficulties and poor advice and essentially all of my GoPro footage was unusable. I will be better prepared next time! But I saw so many sharks, cool fish, gigantic lobsters and crabs, spotted eagle rays and super freaky and kind of aggressive moray eels. They were scarier than the sharks! The whole point of going to Belize was to dive the Blue Hole but the more I read about it I felt like maybe I wasn’t ready for that deep of a dive so at the last minute, I chickened out and didn’t go to the Hole. After the first day I was kicking myself, because we dove down 97 ft so going another 40 ft. would have been nothing. So, now I have a major reason to go back! FYI, for hefty price tag you can skydive into the Blue Hole and then dive to the bottom… I think, YES! lol
Also, here is a link to a dive video I made with what little footage I was able to salvage. Spoiler Alert: there is a shark!
So very quickly I can jam pack a vacation with no time for rest. In fact, I usually have to schedule my “rest” or “free day.” For this trip I spent that on a party catamaran with Island Dream Tours. There were many U.S. tourists and people from other countries like Canada, Germany and Alaska (just kidding, but there were people from Alaska there). We spent the day snorkeling in some shallow and deep water, pulled up to a sand bar for lunch and the drinks were endless. I met an awesome couple from Huntington Beach and we ended up enjoying Thanksgiving dinner together gorging on seafood at an overwater grille after the excursion.
I truly cannot say enough how great this trip was. The food was good, not too weird, they love bacon and cheese over there (thank you Germans) so I didn’t have to venture too far from my eating comfort zone. And minus one scary incident in an alley in Belize City that ended up ok (story for another time), I felt pretty safe traveling as a single female. The sign below says it all:
