Hey everyone,

Will be going to Belize on my honeymoon this April/May, and I was wondering if anyone had spent any significant amount of time there. I'm initially thinking spend a few days in the northern cayes, a few days on the western side of the country to see the ruins, and then maybe a day and a half in Belize City. If anyone has any recommendations of things to do, places to stay, places to eat, etc, please, I'm all ears. Thanks.

Diving/snorkeling at the coral reef outside caye caulker (u can prolly go from belize city too) is awesome. Would also recommend a caving trip if you can, cant remember the name of the city we went from, been a while.

Cool, thanks for the reply. If you think of the city, definitely let me know.

Any other responses appreciated.

i don't remember the name, but there was a cave tubing company that picked us up from the airport. do that, then go over to caye caulker for some *amazing* snorkeling. road trip across the country to San Ignacio, and make a day trip from SI to Tikal in Guatemala.

Belize city is (was 4 years ago) a complete ****hole of crime. skip it.

Cool, thanks for the reply. I've read about some of the caving stuff, so I will definitely have to look into it. Caye Caulker is getting much love, and I definitely want to see the reef. Would you recommend spending like 3 days or so in Caye Caulker and going to a different Caye, or just spending like all 6 days in the same Caye (Caulker)? As for the trip into Guatemala, do you think that the ruins near San Ignacio, like something that starts with an X, and Caracol, a bit further south, are worth it to see as well, or is Tikal just so amazing that I should go there regardless of if I do the other stuff?

Very interesting. Will have to see if this is still the case. Thanks a lot for the feedback.

You might get bored if you staye at caye caulker for 6days unless you wanna beach bum for a few days. This is the cave we did: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...opan_Cayo.html you shouldnt be in terrible shape if you wanna do this one as you have to walk into the jungle for a bit and theres climbing in the cave.

Our group split up and few went to a different one a wet cave which is easier but still really good according to them (also you can do river tubing there, dont know the name though but you can prolly find it through google).

I did my Cave Tubing with "Major Tom" - my tour guide was the son of the owner. cool kid. we got lucky and didn't have others in the group, so we were able to screw around and have a lot of fun. we brought some weed we'd picked up, and asked for a spot to smoke it in private - he brought us to a cool spot off the tour, with human skeleton remains - a real cool place to light up.

If you're staying in the area, i'd prefer to stay on Caye Caulker. you can ferry over to.. uh... whatever the Caye that La Isla Bonita was about... i forget the name... but Caulker was just real chill and laid back - i loved it. I didn't go further south where there are supposed to be some real pristine beaches.

The ruins i went to near San Ignacio were kinda cool, but had nothing on Tikal. don't skip Tikal if you can make it.

i've been to belize umpteen times over the last 15 years, most recently was last march. we have stayed on ambergris caye on every trip, but have also stayed in placentia and belize city, which are two places you could skip imo.
we have been to caye caulker on many day trips, but i like ac much better. cc is ok, but much smaller and less populated than ac. you will have many more choices for lodging and retaurants and bars on ac. ambergris would be the more expensive of the two. you can do snorkeling, diving, fishing and mainland trips from either caye. we have done a few mainland trips from ambergris caye (lamanai and altun ha ruins) but it is a pretty long day. i have spent most of my time fishing, snorkeling, and drinking.

if you want to do tikal, you would probably want to stay in san ignacio for a few nights. you could then do any other jungle tours much easier from there.

check out ambergriscaye.com...lots of info about ac and all of belize

Agreed that Belize City is a horrid place. I spent 2 nights there and it wasnt entertaining. Casino was ok though. I stayed on Caye Caulker for 10 nights, there is literally nothing to do but sit in a hammock and read books, food is fantastic on the Caye though.

Id say Tikal is a long way to go for a day trip personally. Probably best finding somewhere inbetween for an overnight stop off. Maybe go that little bit further and spend a night or two in Flores?

Cool, thanks for the link. I'll look out for the other caving/river tubing trip. Good to know also that it might get boring after 6 days on Caye Caulker, I'll think about moving to maybe Ambergris as suggested below.

I feel like "major tom" has been mentioned in some of the stuff I've looked at, so I'll check it out further. When you say further south, I assume you mean to a different caye to check out some of the other real pristine beaches, not just further south within Caye Caulker? Is that right? Also, thanks for the clarification on Tikal.

I'll definitely check out that site on Ambergris Caye, thanks for that. How much more expensive are we talking about on AC? And would that be for pretty much everything (lodging, food, etc)? I think we are definitely going to stay in San Ignacio, since we want to do the ruins around there as it is, and it looks like Tikal will probably happen as well. Thanks a lot for the post.

Good to hear again that Belize City can get skipped. As much as I would like to go to the casino, I can't imagine the wife is going to want to have any of that. Also nice to hear that the food on Caye Caulker is fantastic. Did you stay on any of the other Cayes and have the food there? Just as good? It seems like Tikal is like, at least a couple hour drive from San Ignacio, but worth it. I know the future wife wants to see it really badly, so, yeah, we'll probably make our way out there one day.

lol @ your sn

this site has some good info: http://www.travelindependent.info/am...ral.htm#Belize

Glad you got a chuckle out of it

Nice site, thanks very much for passing it along.

I didnt see anymore of Belize than Caye Caulker and Belize City, I was at the end of my travelling so I literally was happy to relax before heading home. I can tell you though that the other poster didnt mean moving further south on Caulker as it literally is a small island easily walkable from one side to the other. Only activities on Caulker is off shore fishing or diving.

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I knew these islands were small, but didn't actually know how small.

Bump.

For the guys who responded about Ambergris Caye, have you ever stayed at MataRocks or Sunbreeze Hotel/Resort? Any hotel recommendations on the island? If you've stayed at those two specifically, I'd really like to hear your thoughts. Thanks.

it has been a while, but i have stayed at mata rocks two times. from what i remember the rooms were ok, clean and somewhat smallish. the whole place is rather small, maybe 25 or so rooms. there are two beach front suites that are larger and are right on the ocean. the pool is also really small but okay to cool off in. i like their beach bar and drink there often. the beach area in front of the hotel is decent enough and you are just a few hundred yards south of a larger very nice beach. no restaurant on site, but i think they furnish a comp continental breakfast.(at least they used to) i think they offer some sandwhiches and/or hot dogs at the bar. there is a pretty good restaurant right next door at banana beach that serves all 3 meals. it is about a 20 minute walk to the town center.

never stayed at sunbreeze but the restaurant there (blue water grill) has been very good over the years. this is a much larger property and is right in town, actually right across the street from the airport. possibly noisy if staying in the front. from what i recall the rooms are arranged in a courtyard type configuration. not sure if they have ocean front rooms or not. the restauant/bar is right on the beach and the pool is near there also. the people who own/run the place also have another hotel (the phoenix) which is kind of high end, and two other restaurants.

Good info about MataRocks, thanks. As for the beach area in front of the hotel, do people actually like sit out there? The stuff I've been reading has made it seem like that beach area is for walking to town, not actually hanging out there and relaxing. What about the larger beach area nearby that is larger, are people lounging there? I feel like I don't just want to sit by the pool all day every day we are there (not that doing it at the beach is much different, but it sort of is).

As for Sunbreeze, do you think that staying near the airport is going to be annoying as far as getting sleep. Like is it especially noisy? Do you think the tradeoff of staying right in town (near shops, restaurants, and probably still the beach) is worth it if it's a little noisier, or would 20 minutes away but quieter(/better) be worth it. I'm concerned also that having to walk 20 minutes twice a day (lunch/dinner) is going to be a bitch. As for the Phoenix, it's like 300 a nite, so we won't be staying there.

mata rocks beach has some lounges and hammocks that i see people using. there is a fair amount of foot traffic that cruises by, probably much more in the evening. the other beach is much larger/wider and i have seen people hanging out there during the day, and locals with kids in the late afternoon and evening.

i would guess airport noise at sunbreeze would be the worst in the morning...starting around 7 a.m. not really sure though as i never stayed there. they really don't do any/much flying from sundown to sunup. it might be more convenient to stay closer to town if you want to try alot of different bars and restaurants. there are any number of places really close to sunbreeze. i don't remember much about their beach area, but there is a nice beach a little south of there at ramons. supposed to be good snorkeling around ramon's pier. i think there is a tour operator on that pier also...catamaran trips, diving, snorkeling and others.