Belize First Timer April 19-26

[Budgirl]

Hi...

My husband and I have our trip planned for April 19-26. We are staying at the Palms and are diving with Chuck and Robbies Dive Shop. We are planning on diving everyday plus one night dive. We are going to arrange a day trip to the southern reefs. We are trying to decide if we want to spend the money for Blue Hole or if we would be happier doing Glovers Reef, Lighthouse instead. Not really sure how those trips work, so any feedback would be good.

I have a couple of questions: We are flying into Belize City, should we book our flight with Mayan or Tropic in advance or when we get there? Is there a baggage limit with these airlines?

Should we rent a golf cart or are we close enough to walk to restaurants, grocery stores, etc?

Any recommendations on restaurants would be great...we love to eat (almost as much as we love to dive!)

Should we bring a lot of cash or do most places take credit cards, also do we have to convert American money or do the merchants prefer U.S. dollars?

Has anyone stayed at the Palms? Any comments would be good.

Also, what kind of afternoon activities should we do while we are in Ambergris Caye?

Thanks, Sharon

 

[Valwood1]

Amigos del Mar was a decent dive op to the Blue Hole etc; it's an all day adventure, the boat ride being 2+ hours. Blue Hole was a better dive than I thought it would be, but not as great as some people say. The other dive while on that excursion was better, I thought.

You should book on Tropic or Mayan now. I don't recall the baggage limit, if there is one.

I'm not sure where the Palms is located. We had no problem at all walking around the "downtown" part of Ambergris Caye.

We had no problems using USD dollars.

Remember that Belize has a departure tax ($30US?)that must be be paid in cash, perhaps with US dollars.

 

[GatorCT]

Yes, definitely book the flight ahead of time. Both Mayan Air and Tropic are comparable, and have "terminals" (if you can really call them that) on opposite sides of the runway. I don't remember there being a limit on baggage. We carried three bags (his, hers, and dive gear), without any problem.
The Palms seems pretty close to the center of town, but you might want a cart to explore. Check into renting a bike for a day or two also. You can get to places on the bike that you can't via cart. Riding along the beach was pretty cool.
Lots and lots of good restaurants. We'd dive the mornings, and save the afternoons for idle time. I can't sit too long in a beach chair, so I often explored the island via bicycle.
A couple of restaurant recommendations:
Blue Water Grill
Wild Mangos
Hidden Treasure - ( we like this one so much, we went twice!)
Caliente
Il Divino

I should point out that we tried to eat the local cuisine as much as possible. It just didn't seem to make sense ordering a Rib-Eye or a pizza on the Island. Oh, on the subject of Pizza -- Pedro's Sports Bar might be the exception. It's a well known local hangout, and serves excellent pizza. Just don't ring the bell hanging above the bar, or you'll obligate yourself to buying a round for the entire bar.

USD is accepted everywhere, and credit cards are not a problem either.

Check out this site for maps and local info on AC:
Belize Vacations, Tours, Resorts, News, Hotels, Travels, Flights, Weather, Maps, Real Estate
There's a bulletin board on the site that is particularly useful. Look for the "messages" link.

Have fun!

 

[Thatch Caye Belize]

Lighthouse Reef is where the Blue Hole is but there are many far more spectacular dives out there than the Blue Hole. I doubt that you will find any dive operation to take you all the way out there and not do the Blue Hole, however, so you may have to do it and notch it under your belt. Glovers is not considered normally doable from San Pedro on a day trip and it is geographically at the outer stretches of even being possible as a San Pedro day trip at all no matter what boat you used. If you want to do Glovers, stay someplace down south for a couple of nights and do it from there.

 

[Budgirl]

Thanks for the responses. I didn't realize that Glovers was that far out. I am curious about the blue hole and we will probably will do it for the "notch in our belt" dive.

 

[Gaz]

Hi

My husband and I have our trip planned for April 19-26. We are staying at the Palms and are diving with Chuck and Robbies Dive Shop.

Palms is very nice and right close to town and Robbie is a great guy who you will be diving with tell him Gaz says Hi.


We are going to arrange a day trip to the southern reefs. We are trying to decide if we want to spend the money for Blue Hole or if we would be happier doing Glovers Reef, Lighthouse instead. Not really sure how those trips work, so any feedback would be good.

As has been mentioned getting to Glovers is not possible from Ambergris Caye so your best bet is to do the Lighthouse Reef Blue Hole trip. the diving at Lighhouse reef is superb and the Blue Hole is an interesting dive I have written several article on the Blue Hole as its a controversial topic as to whether its worth it or not, you can see it at my website.

I have a couple of questions: We are flying into Belize City, should we book our flight with Mayan or Tropic in advance or when we get there? Is there a baggage limit with these airlines?

Since the airlines deal with hundreds of divers they are quite good on baggage if for any reason they are overloaded they will bring it on the next flight and since flights depart every hour it works well.

As far as booking the flight depends on what time you are arriving in Belize late in the day can be hit and miss on getting a flight although its not many times they are full.

Should we rent a golf cart or are we close enough to walk to restaurants, grocery stores, etc?

Absolutely you should rent a cart to get around although you are close to most things however definately a day to go exploring is a good idea.

Any recommendations on restaurants would be great...we love to eat (almost as much as we love to dive!)

Capricorn is an excellent restaurant located North of the cut as is Carambas in middle street also Elvis is good as is Blue Water Grill

Should we bring a lot of cash or do most places take credit cards, also do we have to convert American money or do the merchants prefer U.S. dollars?

Yes brings lots of cash lol no really a mixture should be ok most merchants accept Credit cards and Us dollars although you might want to bring travellers checks for your own protection just in case you lose the cash/

Has anyone stayed at the Palms? Any comments would be good.

I am sure you will be very happy there very nice units a a great location although can be noisy at times due to late night partyers heading home

Dive Safe

Gaz Cooper
Dive Belize and Belize Dive Vacations

 

[Gen San Chris]

Wow, all this about Belize, I was there in the British Army in 1996 as there was a spot of trouble with a neighbouring country!
There were only 2 small hotels in the country and no divers! San Pedro was our base for Island Survival Training as it was sourrounded by Mangroves, there were not many people there and no power!
There was everything in the water in huge quantities, you could not walk in the sea without stepping on conch and it took only minutes to get a drum full of lobster! The Fish life was amazing also!
I remember that 1 bottle of rum and 4 cokes cost 1 Belize Dollar and there were 4 Belize Dollars to 1 us dollar!
The local Belikan Beer was Ok Also! I bet things have changed a bit by now!

 

[tiggrr]

Budgirl,

I thought the most interesting thing about the Blue Hole dive was the sharks that came over to check out the divers. Very cool. Its a relatively quick dive as your bottom time is 8 min and they bring you right back up afterwards. The other 2 dives make the long trip worth it IMO. They were simply amazing!!! It has been awhile but, they take you to a protected island for lunch. Anyhoo, the dive you do right there off the island is fantastic!! When you drop in, there are conch everywhere and if you look across the sand you will see a TON of garden eels.

Have a great time on your trip and be sure to come back and share you experiences with us in a trip report!!

Wow, all this about Belize, I was there in the British Army in 1996 as there was a spot of trouble with a neighbouring country!
There were only 2 small hotels in the country and no divers! San Pedro was our base for Island Survival Training as it was sourrounded by Mangroves, there were not many people there and no power!
There was everything in the water in huge quantities, you could not walk in the sea without stepping on conch and it took only minutes to get a drum full of lobster! The Fish life was amazing also!
I remember that 1 bottle of rum and 4 cokes cost 1 Belize Dollar and there were 4 Belize Dollars to 1 us dollar!
The local Belikan Beer was Ok Also! I bet things have changed a bit by now!

Wow!! Yea, its changed a bit since then. I heard they 'paved' the downtown area with brick. I was there in 2000 and it was nothing like you described. Progress always moves too quick in places like that.

 

[Gaz]

Wow, all this about Belize, I was there in the British Army in 1996 as there was a spot of trouble with a neighbouring country!
There were only 2 small hotels in the country and no divers! San Pedro was our base for Island Survival Training as it was sourrounded by Mangroves, there were not many people there and no power!
There was everything in the water in huge quantities, you could not walk in the sea without stepping on conch and it took only minutes to get a drum full of lobster! The Fish life was amazing also!
I remember that 1 bottle of rum and 4 cokes cost 1 Belize Dollar and there were 4 Belize Dollars to 1 us dollar!
The local Belikan Beer was Ok Also! I bet things have changed a bit by now!

I arrived on Ambergris Caye in 1992 and it sure has changed a lot since then, when I arrived there were just 2500 people living on the island now there is 20,000 or so and while Rum has always been cheap I cant remember it being 1 Belize dollar I think thee drank too much of the stuff laddie

Ambergris Caye is still a great destination although development brings change sometimes for the better sometime for the worst depends who you ask

I prefer the old San Pedro but its still great