Belize vacation ideas

[soulcougher73]

Has anyone been to Belize before and have any recommendation on cool places to stay that may also be reasonably priced? Never been before, but looking for a beach vacation week to unwind and relax with the wifey. Hopefully something beach front. Possibly all inclusive, unless its in walking distance to some local restaurants etc.

 

[dank69]

Stopped by Belize for a few hours on a cruise about 13 years ago, so I can't help with recommendations. I do remember it being pretty nice, I'm sure you'll have a blast.

 

[dullard]

I haven't been to Belize, so I'm mostly here to learn.

When I do travel, the first thing I do is go to Google Maps and zoom in on anything darker green. Doing that in Belize came up with this:

Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Mountain Pine Ridge Belize - 6 must do activities!

Are you looking for adventure in Cayo District Belize? pack your bags! Here are 6 mountain pine ridge adventures that you must embark on!

belize-travel-blog.chaacreek.com

Looks like a great excursion, especially if you have a full week.

I'm personally not into the all inclusive thing. I much prefer a small B&B or similar: chat with a friendly local, see how they really live, get the scoop on the good restaurants (that won't give you digestive distress), what secret things to do and when to go, etc. This way you can do all the best things without the lines of excursions and at a small fraction of the price. A quick search on Booking.com and Hotels.com shows lots of great beachside places in the $40 to $120 per night range within walking distance of restaurants. Note: I only checked the Placencia and San Pedro areas, other great beaches may be more pricey.

 

[DigDog]

.. is what we call a Level 3 country - inadequate medical facilities. Just make sure you have a valid travel insurance policy that includes MEDEVAC...

 

[ponyo]

I would like this info too. But I don't need all inclusive.

I was looking at Belize and Costa Rica. I chose Costa Rica over Belize but then canceled Costa Rica this week and instead booked Dominican Republic for a week to check out the new Live Aqua resort in Punta Cana.

 

[purbeast0]

Just got back from 8 nights in St. Thomas. I'd highly recommend there or if you want less people hit up St. John. We did a day trip to St. John where you take a car ferry so you can take your rental car with you to explore the island. There are nice beaches on St. Thomas but even nicer on St. John. There are also no cruises porting in St. Thomas now so you have less than normal crowds, especially at places like Magen's Bay.

You also don't need a covid test to come back because it's US territory so that was one big reason we picked there too. We went with our 6 year old and 9 month old so we wanted to deal with as little of that as we could. We did need one within 5 days of entry though or you can't go into the country. It was also very nice to not really worry about mask wearing since we were outside like 95% of the time. Mask wearing is required inside still though and even had temp checks at grocery stores.

But ... if you are only looking for all inclusive then that I can't help you much with. I'm not even sure if there are any on the island.
Here's the last pic I took from our balcony today right before we headed to the airport.

 

[soulcougher73]

Just got back from 8 nights in St. Thomas. I'd highly recommend there or if you want less people hit up St. John. We did a day trip to St. John where you take a car ferry so you can take your rental car with you to explore the island. There are nice beaches on St. Thomas but even nicer on St. John. There are also no cruises porting in St. Thomas now so you have less than normal crowds, especially at places like Magen's Bay.

You also don't need a covid test to come back because it's US territory so that was one big reason we picked there too. We went with our 6 year old and 9 month old so we wanted to deal with as little of that as we could. We did need one within 5 days of entry though or you can't go into the country. It was also very nice to not really worry about mask wearing since we were outside like 95% of the time. Mask wearing is required inside still though and even had temp checks at grocery stores.

But ... if you are only looking for all inclusive then that I can't help you much with. I'm not even sure if there are any on the island.
Here's the last pic I took from our balcony today right before we headed to the airport.

Looks nice. Hadn’t thought of those places. All inclusive isn’t a must unless someone has a really good recommendation on one. I’ll research a bit tomorrow on those islands.

 

[zinfamous]

Oh, I just saw this.

I went to Belize back in , uh, 2014 or so? Lovely place. It's very cheap and easy to get around, as they take the US Dollar for all transactions.

I liked it because it wasn't a yuppie fake beach destination, like the majority of the Caribbean or places like Cancun or whatever. It's easy and cheap to get around in a car, which I recommend to do as soon as you land in Belize City. Main issue, that you must head and must remember, all the time: the speed bumps in Belize are demonic. They are all over the main, 2-lane expressways the cross the country, especially near the roundabouts. They aren't really speed"bumps." They are actually miniature walls that will remove an axel from your car if you try to drive over one at more than 20 mph. You HAVE to be warry. It is no coincidence that nearly every roundabout you come across will have a wheel and tireshop a few feet away and yes, at one of these junctures, we got out of the car near a speedwall (on one of the main highways), and discovered that the warning sign had been sawed off at the base. Almost certainly by the owner of the nearby wheel shop. So yeah...be careful, lol.


If you are into the yuppie douche stuff, however, then Ambergris Cuay is very popular; though maybe more of a "mid-level resorty place" compared to that part of the world. It has the second largest reef structure in the world, is an annual migratory destination for whale sharks, and there is a giant hole out in the ocean.

I visited Belize City, Belmopan, St Ignacio, and Corozol, so I never really ventured into the south. I really dig old Mayan ruins and everything related, and there are few better places to check out all of that--especially a lot of newly-discovered, actively studied and re-emerging ancient city-states, than Belize. St Ignacio is probably the better starting off point, if that sort of thing interests you. There are quite a few ancient cities nearby, and you can easily visit a handful within a day, with very decent museums, with guided tours. There are some old burial caves, that require wading through caves and rivers to investigate (also guided), that is one of the most popular things to do there. From St Ignacio, you can also hire some guides to take you into Guatemala and back, for a day trip to Tikal. Highly, highly recommended. (You can visit Yavin IV!--but yeah, not sure what the border issues are like right now, with the pandemic and other issues. You'd have to do some research on that).

My favorite Mayan city was Lamanai, which is one of those that is emerging. I think we set up this tour through Corozol--a hotel manager gave us a contact to a family that organizes a ~1.5 hour river trip in a boat, each way, to the ruins (only accessible by boat), where they will introduce you to some nearby monkeys, point out the insane compound that was constructed by the sociopathic nutcase John McAfee, (His compound, where all that went down, abuts this river--I was there not too long after that happened, so maybe that's why it was on everyone's mind), and then you get to explore the massive city that was Lamanai, and they fed us a home-cooked dinner when we returned, and ate at their boat landing. I can't recommend that enough.

The food isn't super spectacular, but it's pretty good and reasonable everywhere you go. In my experience, it's a pretty safe place to explore, but Belize City can get very dicey in certain parts, at certain times...but there also isn't much to do there, anyway, (form my perspective).

 

[Remobz]

Oh, I just saw this.

I went to Belize back in , uh, 2014 or so? Lovely place. It's very cheap and easy to get around, as they take the US Dollar for all transactions.

I liked it because it wasn't a yuppie fake beach destination, like the majority of the Caribbean or places like Cancun or whatever. It's easy and cheap to get around in a car, which I recommend to do as soon as you land in Belize City. Main issue, that you must head and must remember, all the time: the speed bumps in Belize are demonic. They are all over the main, 2-lane expressways the cross the country, especially near the roundabouts. They aren't really speed"bumps." They are actually miniature walls that will remove an axel from your car if you try to drive over one at more than 20 mph. You HAVE to be warry. It is no coincidence that nearly every roundabout you come across will have a wheel and tireshop a few feet away and yes, at one of these junctures, we got out of the car near a speedwall (on one of the main highways), and discovered that the warning sign had been sawed off at the base. Almost certainly by the owner of the nearby wheel shop. So yeah...be careful, lol.


If you are into the yuppie douche stuff, however, then Ambergris Cuay is very popular; though maybe more of a "mid-level resorty place" compared to that part of the world. It has the second largest reef structure in the world, is an annual migratory destination for whale sharks, and there is a giant hole out in the ocean.

I visited Belize City, Belmopan, St Ignacio, and Corozol, so I never really ventured into the south. I really dig old Mayan ruins and everything related, and there are few better places to check out all of that--especially a lot of newly-discovered, actively studied and re-emerging ancient city-states, than Belize. St Ignacio is probably the better starting off point, if that sort of thing interests you. There are quite a few ancient cities nearby, and you can easily visit a handful within a day, with very decent museums, with guided tours. There are some old burial caves, that require wading through caves and rivers to investigate (also guided), that is one of the most popular things to do there. From St Ignacio, you can also hire some guides to take you into Guatemala and back, for a day trip to Tikal. Highly, highly recommended. (You can visit Yavin IV!--but yeah, not sure what the border issues are like right now, with the pandemic and other issues. You'd have to do some research on that).

My favorite Mayan city was Lamanai, which is one of those that is emerging. I think we set up this tour through Corozol--a hotel manager gave us a contact to a family that organizes a ~1.5 hour river trip in a boat, each way, to the ruins (only accessible by boat), where they will introduce you to some nearby monkeys, point out the insane compound that was constructed by the sociopathic nutcase John McAfee, (His compound, where all that went down, abuts this river--I was there not too long after that happened, so maybe that's why it was on everyone's mind), and then you get to explore the massive city that was Lamanai, and they fed us a home-cooked dinner when we returned, and ate at their boat landing. I can't recommend that enough.

The food isn't super spectacular, but it's pretty good and reasonable everywhere you go. In my experience, it's a pretty safe place to explore, but Belize City can get very dicey in certain parts, at certain times...but there also isn't much to do there, anyway, (form my perspective).

I live in Belize, I wish I knew you were coming. Would of given you better tips and advice.

Do you still have any questions lingering in your mind about anything from your Belize trip?