Non-diving activities in Belize

[alan_pires]

Hi,

I plan to go on the Belize Aggressor Easter 2022. Does anybody recommend Non-diving activities in Belize?
I will have 4 days spare either side of the trip and will be based from the City before/after the trip.

Thanks in Advance.

 

[Ayisha]

Hi,

I plan to go on the Belize Aggressor Easter 2022. Does anybody recommend Non-diving activities in Belize?
I will have 4 days spare either side of the trip and will be based from the City before/after the trip.

Thanks in Advance.

Absolutely!

You can do cave river tubing, dry caving, ziplining, go to the Caves Branch Jungle Lodge, go to the Cockscomb Wildlife Sanctuary, go on a rainforest medicine trail, hike, etc.

But you might need more than 4 days!

If you have more time, you could go to Placencia and dive off Glover's reef, which was my favourite in Belize. Lots of big life and colourful reef.

We loved going across the border overnight to Guatemala and visiting the Tikal Mayan ruins. They were awesome!

We spent one week between San Ignacio, Guatemala, and Placencia, and one week on the Belize Aggressor III.

Previously, in 2006, we spent a week based out of Ambergris diving, with day trips to the Blue Hole and Lighthouse, Turneffe by the Elbow, and then 4 days at Caves Branch Jungle Lodge.

We didn't spend any time in Belize city, it was just a plane destination. We got in, we got out. For both of the trips. Belize city wasn't that inviting a place...

I'll add some links...

 

[Damselfish]

There is tons of great non-diving stuff to do in Belize, I'm sure you've looked some up, it's all pretty good and depends what you're interested in. We enjoyed cave tubing, whitewater kayaking, a day trip to the ruins in Tikal. And the zoo which the boat arranged for the last day when back in port. Also cave canoeing which we hadn't even planned to do but heavy rains had made some other things inaccessible that day. Our friends also enjoyed ATM and ziplining.

Is there a reason you plan to base in Belize City? It's not an especially nice place to vacation, and people don't usually do that. A night before or after the boat is one thing, but I wouldn't stay there for a longer visit. I recommend basing someplace in the San Ignacio region, which is much closer to many of the land/jungle activities. (Many of the roads to the places you'll want to see are not so good and it can take some time to get to them, even when you're staying relatively close and not driving all the way from Belize City each time.) If you don't want to rent a car, getting a transfer out there is easy - the place we stayed arranged it, then back to the airport at the end. They also arranged tours to all the places we wanted to go. Much easier as far as we were concerned, plus I wouldn't have wanted to drive many of those back roads.)

I would normally say try to plan things that are popular cruise ship activities (for example cave tubing) on days they are not in port which you can find online, probably not an issue right now but maybe by next year who knows.

Some people also like down south around Placencia, it is sort of a compromise location where it's possible to do both diving and land stuff. (Compromise because the boat trips are long compared to some of the other diving options and the drives to a lot of land stuff will be longer than some of your other land options.) But when pairing a land stay with a liveaboard, especially if it's your first time in Belize, I think it makes more sense to focus your land time closer to the attractions.

 

[Ayisha]

Here is my 2019 report with pics and links:

Belize and Guatemala April 2019

Hopefully these are visible on Facebook:

Belize Aggressor III:

Facebook

Belize and Guatemala:

Facebook

Here are pics from 2006 from Ambergris Caye, Lighthouse, Turneffe by the Elbow, and Cave's Branch Jungle Lodge:

Facebook

 

[Seaweed Doc]

Get out of Belize City. Go up to San Ignacio and see the ruins at Xunan Tunich, or any of the other great ideas @Ayisha has.

But there's not much to do in Beluze City.

 

[Hank49]

Hopkins is a good place. Canoe in Sittee River. Lot of wildlife. Hike up in the National Jaguar Reserve. Maya Center. Or Bocawina. A little more challenging but worth the trip.

 

[Fishyhead]

I enjoyed a day trip to Lamanai. A short flight from San Pedro to a strip on the mainland then a river boat ride and lunch at the ruins. I was the only passenger on the plane ride home so Maya Air sent a brand new Cessna - pretty swanky!

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

We stayed on AC but took a ferry to the mainland and did a day of zip lining and the cave river tubing. It was a great day and lots of fun even though we weren't diving. I really was expecting to "Bah Humbug" the day because I'd rather be diving but it was lots of fun. So much fun....I'd do it again.

I'd never repeat that so let's just keep it a secret.... and I'd still rather be diving... but it was absolutely worth doing it. The caves were great, zip lining was lots of climbing in jungle level humidity, but was stilll a great day.

Safe travels,
Jay

 

[alan_pires]

Absolutely!

You can do cave river tubing, dry caving, ziplining, go to the Caves Branch Jungle Lodge, go to the Cockscomb Wildlife Sanctuary, go on a rainforest medicine trail, hike, etc.

But you might need more than 4 days!

If you have more time, you could go to Placencia and dive off Glover's reef, which was my favourite in Belize. Lots of big life and colourful reef.

We loved going across the border overnight to Guatemala and visiting the Tikal Mayan ruins. They were awesome!

We spent one week between San Ignacio, Guatemala, and Placencia, and one week on the Belize Aggressor III.

Previously, in 2006, we spent a week based out of Ambergris diving, and then 4 days at Caves Branch Jungle Lodge.

We didn't spend any time in Belize city, it was just a plane destination. We got in, we got out. For both of the trips. Belize city wasn't that inviting a place...

I'll add some links...

thanks Ayisha, where did you stay in Placencia and who did you dive with?

 

[alan_pires]

Thanks everybody for the quick replies. I was thinking now of continuing the diving and do Glover Reef. Has anybody stayed onthe actual atoll or just dived from Placencia?