Tips and Tricks for Belize (As Of 2011)

Caye Caulker:

Getting There – Leaving from Playa del Carmen: You can make it all the way to Caye Caulker in one day if you leave very early in the morning, by about 5am. The bus to Chetumal (the border town) cost us 344 Pesos for the two of us. From Chetumal, you can get a bus straight to Belize City for 120 Pesos. Once you’re in Belize City, take a taxi to the river taxi pier, which will run you about 5 BZ. We luckily had a guy hand us a 10% off ticket for the water taxi and ended up paying 31.50 BZ each for a roundtrip ticket. The price varies if you are heading to Amergris Caye or only buy a one way ticket.

Staying – We stayed at Yuma’s right on the beach. Suzanne is great and runs a tight ship. It’s a good place to meet people but there are enough rules enforced to make sure you can get some sleep at night as well. It was 25 BZ for a dorm bed per night.  

Eating – Most of the places here are pretty expensive by backpacker standards, but you can eat at the fast food place right next to the basketball court for cheap. Average meals are around 7 BZ.

Getting Around – You can walk all of Caye Caulker in about 45 minutes, so obviously you don’t need to worry about anything here.

San Ignacio: 

Getting There – It’s pretty simple to get to San Ignacio from Belize City. The bus will cost you 7 BZ.

Staying – The cheapest place we could find that was pretty clean was at Hi-Et. We had a double bed with shared bathroom for 25 BZ. It’s nothing to special, but it’s clean and has good wifi.

Eating – The place we had dinner at was right around the corner from where we were staying and has a sign out front that says “Beliezean Food”. We ate for 6 BZ each. There’s also some cheap burritos right next to the bus “stop/terminal” if you need a bite to eat while waiting for a bus.

Getting Around – San Ignacio is pretty small as well. Honestly, if you’re not doing any tours it’s not a high priority stop unless you just want to break up a couple of travel days.