Cstrickland05 said:

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We are thinking about going down sometime this summer and have never been, but lots of people have recommended. What would y'all do for first time trip? A lot of people have said Ambergris Cay.

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It's a great starting place for a first trip. There is something for everyone there.

BSD said:

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Will the whale sharks still be in Placencia in late June? If so, that is worth a visit. I've done the swim off Isla Mujeres with them and it is worth every dime.

That said, we chose San Pedro (Ramon's) for the beach portion of our trip since it seemed family friendly. We have plans to snorkel every day and fish every other day.

We chose San Ignacio because of its proximity to Mayan ruins (and to jump over to Tikal), the town, and the jungle adventures just outside of town.

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Ramon's was great, we stayed there in Feb, my only complaint was they had beer and wine only. Something about the beach makes me want a pina colada. Their restaurant was great, and you can walk down the beach to the Blue Water Grill as well.

I love San Ignacio as well, before going to Xunantunich stop at Benny's Kitchen for some Pabil, it's excellent. Located about three blocks south of the hand cranked ferry. Pay a guide, they are great and it helps the economy. We haven't pulled the trigger on Tikal yet, next trip.

JSKolache said:

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My buddy from Jr High runs Blue Water Grill in Pedro - good joint on the water

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Blue Water Grill his high on our list - and 5 minutes from the place we're staying - we'll be there for sure

We are actually doing a morning tour of the X-ruins with our hotel's guide before hitting the San Ignacio farmers market. I'll see if I can get him to stop before the ferry for us. Then we'll head off to do some cave tubing. The next day will be Tikal with Pacz tours. The third day is undecided but our flight to San Pedro is at 3:00pm so we won't have time for an all day adventure. Well for sure do the Iguana sanctuary at the hotel. Maybe Cahal Pech.

Blue Water Grill looks tasty. I'll add that to the list.

V8Aggie said:

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nosoupforyou said:

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ok - i researched it and it looks nice!

We have 4 nights to stay in late June plus half a day on each end..
trying to understand what all to do - we want to see a lot, and we want to relax a bit also..

Any go-to recommendations of things to do that we don't want to miss? We want to snorkel - maybe dive if we can do a quick class and go (we're not certified but have done Snuba and it's amazing).

Food options - I plan to do Breakfast at Estelle's by the Sea and dinner a Hidden Treasure. Other

Would you stay all 4 nights at Victoria House? or take 1 night and check out one of the other Lodges that are in their package like Caves Branch Jungle Lode, Hidden Valley Inn & Reseve, Chaa Creek Jungle Lodge, etc.

APPRECIATE THE ADVICE!

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Honestly I'd stay there the whole time. Breakfast is free (continental - basically yogurt and bread). You can pay a little extra and have a nice dinner on the beach with your wife or current squeeze Remember we have rules around here.

I definitely recommend buying your bottle of booze at the duty free store in Belize City (I assume that's where you're flying into) because drink are expensive on the island. We bought a bottle of rum and wine. Bought the mixers at a local grocery store (still expensive).

That being said, Victoria House has free bicycle rentals you can take. There's a tiny shack just down the road that has awesome jerk chicken BBQ'd daily. Their fish is great as well. Try the local beer, it's not bad.

There's a taco place that the locals go to.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g291962-d5562770-Reviews-Neri_s_Tacos-San_Pedro_Ambergris_Caye_Belize_Cayes.html

You can feed an army for $5. We went at night and it's a bit sketchy but seemed safe (enough). Remember you're in a third world country.

We had plans to eat at a few nice places but decided to stay with local food. One place to go is Stella's wine bar for a sunset. Great! https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g291962-d8065442-Reviews-Stella_s_Smile-San_Pedro_Ambergris_Caye_Belize_Cayes.html
Be sure to bring a bottle of bug spray though.

For snorkeling we booked our own trip with Tuff-e-nuff tours. Good company. Went on 2 snorkel dives and then went to the island south of Ambergris Caye (pronounced key) to enjoy the shops and have lunch.

There's an infinity pool we hung out at during our stay and I spent most of my time finally reading Dune. We honestly were pretty lame that trip but just needed to go brain dead for a week to get away from work.

If you have more questions feel free to ask. Also - like someone else said go see the pupusa lady... those are delicious!!!

One last thing- Golf carts from Victoria House are expensive but it was just too convenient to grab one and go. Get a cart at least for one full day and just explore the small town and island. Pull over and run into shops to look around and try their ice cream with pineapple in it.

Don't forget to take the puddle jumper instead of the boat ride

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So Victoria House is the way to go? We are wanting to snorkel and go fishing at least once while in Belize. Do you need to get a fishing license? I've seen websites that say you do and some that say you don't.

Victoria House is pretty far away from the town where you'll want to be for food/drink. When we went, we walked everywhere with the exception of the one day we rented a cart to go to the other side of the island. You won't be able to walk to most places from Victoria House. That being said, we stopped by there and it was very nice.

This is our plan.. our AirBB condo is near town.. going to Secret Beach one day

Any other tips or ideas for us to be sure to do?

nosoupforyou said:

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This is our plan.. our AirBB condo is near town.. going to Secret Beach one day

Any other tips or ideas for us to be sure to do?

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This is a copy/paste of what I wrote on a thread in 2015:

Every place we ate was great. I don't think we had one complaint about the food. For breakfast, we ate at Estelle's on the Beach, and The Baker. We ate at The Baker 3 days in a row, and we always got food to take and snack on later. For dinner, we ate at: Pineapples, Elvi's, Fido's, and Rain. The stuffed shrimp at Pineapples was amazing, and it is a beautiful little patio overlooking the beach. The crab legs at Elvi's were good, but a complete mess to eat. The calamari and conch fritters were also good there. Fido's had very fresh and very tasty pico. Their fish and chips is made from fresh snapper. We only had appetizers at Rain, but they were great. Definitely sit on the rooftop if you go.

One night for drinks, we went to Wet Willy's. It is at the end of a dock, just a little south of the bridge. The drinks there were good and cost less than drinks in College Station.

BSD. If you want to fish, I would look into staying in shore. The offshore fishing is not good in Belize. June is the best month for tarpon fishing,

Good to know, although we already have both booked. I'll let y'all know how it goes.


Today we visited Xunantunich. That place is pretty cool. I suggest going very early in the morning to beat the heat and crowds. We had it to ourselves for about an hour.

We also visited Jaguar Paw for some cave tubing. That is totally worth it as well. Our guide told us Tuesday thru Thursday are the worst days to go, as cruise ship excursions make the place packed. Again, we had it to ourselves today.

Love Xun and jaguar paw. We were fortunate to go when cruise ships weren't there and it was great.

Good luck on the fishing

I love Belize, my favorite activities there are snorkeling and going to the ruins

Dwjdvm said:

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I love Belize, my favorite activities there are snorkeling and going to the ruins

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Which ruins tour? Takes all day?

Which tour is this? Did you stay on Ambergris Caye and water taxi there? We want to do a cave tubing but not sure which your to take?

nosoupforyou said:

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Which tour is this? Did you stay on Ambergris Caye and water taxi there? We want to do a cave tubing but not sure which your to take?

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Jaguar Paw is a great cave tubing experience. Xunantunich is a ruin site just 10 minutes outside of San ignacio. I'd really suggest staying in that town for a night or two to easily reach these places.

And then there was a day trip to Tikal!

Help! Wow.. it looks like 50-80% chance of rain every day this week and next week.. we arrive next week.. is this expected?? Yikes!

Our forecast said that too. We'd get 10-15 minute rains on some of those days but nothing where the whole day was a washout. You'll probably need to dig deeper and see what kinds of storm systems may/may not be in the area.

One cool thing, it did rain on us as we walked the 20-30 minutes to the cave tubing entrance. It is a rainforest so it added to the experience.

Went to San Pedro two years ago and it was one of the best vacations I have ever taken. We stayed at Caye Casa and they hooked us up with a snorkel/fishing guide who lived next door. Pretty amazing having a private guide for two of us to take us and show us the fish around the reef and also swim with the sharks. Definitely rent bikes or a cart. I preferred the flight to the island versus the ferry because you could see more. Lamanai Mayan Ruins was also pretty amazing if you have time for exploring the mainland.

SoupNazi2001 said:

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nosoupforyou said:

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Help! Wow.. it looks like 50-80% chance of rain every day this week and next week.. we arrive next week.. is this expected?? Yikes!

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Pretty much every tropical place shows significant chances of rain everyday but typically it is a 5-10 minute shower and doesn't change your day. Don't check weather unless there is a tropical storm/hurricane coming.

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Username brother, this is true! We have been here since Monday and only got rained on once and that was while snorkeling.. great weather after all!

And met a good old Ag at Bluewater Grill.. had class of 98 and 99 kids

Heading to Belize (Ambergris Caye) a week from today for 5 days! We haven't booked any excursions yet but plan to snorkel half a day, take a night booze cruise another, and maybe head over to secret beach.

We are staying in a house right on the beach 200m from palapa bar. Are there any other excursions we should look into?

Also, any tips on dining? We are all pretty good cooks and like the idea of taking our catches from our fishing trip and making a few meals at the house. Some of our friends have also recommended hiring a local chef to come cook some local cuisine. Thoughts?

nice! looks like you will be not far from where we stayed in our Villa - the Excursion people will listen to your plan and then set you up with the right tours.. Snorkel a full day was really great for us as we hit 4 different places - the first place let us spearfish! really cool experience that I would recommend.

Secret Beach is not to be missed - you just hang out for the day on the most incredible, still water ever -they have food and drinks and shade.. get there by 11 or so for the best photos... later in the afternoon the sun glare on the water doesn't show the true beauty.. they also have motorized water scooters, paddle boats, floating chairs, etc - it's really great - on the Lagoon side, north of where you are staying - golf cart to get there.

Excursions - Snorkel, and there's the Mayan Ruins stuff - we did that and Cave Tubing (think Comal River, but you float through Carlsbad Caverns - it's pitch black dark in there! - was fun) and Zip Line.. it's a full day but was neat.

Food - YES! So many options - Bluewater Grill was our favorite - right on the water - very american feel. We went to Caramba's where they have the seafood out front on a cart - you pick the fish you want (we chose Lion Fish) and they prepare it. Lots of options there but the chef to prepare your own food sounds really cool.

My Tour company was Belize Diamond - Norma is the owner - She came to our Villa, listened to what we want, made recommendations, and set everything up for us. I don't know any others but she was helpful and even picked us up and dropped us off in her Golf Cart which was really cool. https://belize-diamond-adventures.business.site/

Let me know if you have questions!

If you're halfway fit, I recommend the ATM tour.

a few shots from our trip to Belize - it's beautiful!


view from the backyard of our condo we rented in San Pedro - very near the Airport


View from the top of Xunantunich Mayan Ruins


I didn't take this - this is from artist Peter Lik - but it's just like our day spent at Secret Beach


Snorkeling was great - this is Conch Graveyard


Not my photo but I saw things like this on the snorkel trip

ttt -researching Belize!

Can someone share about Caye Caulker vs Ambwrgris Caye?

We stayed in San Pedro but considering a return to Belize and open to a change, though we did enjoy our stay, secret beach, etc

Howdy Ags, headed to Belize tomorrow. Staying in ambergris for 5 nights. I'd like to go fly fishing. Fly fish in Colorado annually but probably a learning curve on salt. Any fishing guide Rec's? Thank y'all in advance.

roycoy82 said:

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Howdy Ags, headed to Belize tomorrow. Staying in ambergris for 5 nights. I'd like to go fly fishing. Fly fish in Colorado annually but probably a learning curve on salt. Any fishing guide Rec's? Thank y'all in advance.

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In advance??

roycoy82 said:

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Howdy Ags, headed to Belize tomorrow. Staying in ambergris for 5 nights. I'd like to go fly fishing. Fly fish in Colorado annually but probably a learning curve on salt. Any fishing guide Rec's? Thank y'all in advance.

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I'll be there in August and the VRBO I am using set me up with these guys

https://noworriesbz.com/

I haven't used them yet but they seem good if you don't have a place to go to

My sister has lived in Cay for over 5 years now. She know everything u need to know

Ended up using a couple guys. Alex was the best. Grandfather helped start Pescador and he worked there himself many years. Here's his number if anyone heads down there. Great flyfishing guide.

+501 637 2418