Guata-Belize Diary
Went to Belize for 12 days. Went to Ambergris Key and San Ignacio in Belize and Flores and Tikal in Guatemala. Here's what you need to know.
Ambergris Key is relatively expensive for Central America but bargains can be had. You can rent a bike for $5US/day or a golf cart for $45US/day. You do that math.
Best food was at Wild Mangos. Always booked for dinner and not cheap but not pricey either. Terrific value.
Casa Picasso was good but watch out on the specials. Our "specials" were twice as expensive as anything on the menu. Not worth the money.
Caliente, El Patio and the Jambel Jerk were good food and less pricey places for everyday meals.
Dive shops were a little spacey and would cancel with no notice if they didn't have enough divers to go 5 minutes out to the reef. All dives were supervised by a staff diver that went down with you. Diving was good to great.
The water taxi that leaves from the Marine Terminal is cheaper than the San Pedro/Belize Express. Just as fast. Express buses also terminate at the Marine Terminal.
All buses are operated commercially and there are multiple companies on the same routes. Local Buses are just about as fast as the express buses and are way cheap. Not a single bus that we rode had air-conditioning no matter how much it cost. I'd go with the local buses over the express if you are going to Guatemala.
We got discounts on some tours and bus prices by haggling.
There's a great Zipline Canopy Tour outfit just outside of the Tikal Archeological Reserve.
Flores is a wonderful little town and the lake tour will take you to a few other neat places on the lake. San Jose and San Andreas looked like sleepy little places with nothing to do but swim, tan and rest.
San Ignacio was dusty and unpolished but good air conditioned rooms were available at Casa Blanca on Burns St. for $50US. Across the street, Hanna's was the best Belizean style food we had. Absolutely the best $4.50 meal I've ever had... beans, rice and pork. PACZ Tours was a helpful low pressure place to book trips.
Have Fun.
Ambergris Key is relatively expensive for Central America but bargains can be had. You can rent a bike for $5US/day or a golf cart for $45US/day. You do that math.
Best food was at Wild Mangos. Always booked for dinner and not cheap but not pricey either. Terrific value.
Casa Picasso was good but watch out on the specials. Our "specials" were twice as expensive as anything on the menu. Not worth the money.
Caliente, El Patio and the Jambel Jerk were good food and less pricey places for everyday meals.
Dive shops were a little spacey and would cancel with no notice if they didn't have enough divers to go 5 minutes out to the reef. All dives were supervised by a staff diver that went down with you. Diving was good to great.
The water taxi that leaves from the Marine Terminal is cheaper than the San Pedro/Belize Express. Just as fast. Express buses also terminate at the Marine Terminal.
All buses are operated commercially and there are multiple companies on the same routes. Local Buses are just about as fast as the express buses and are way cheap. Not a single bus that we rode had air-conditioning no matter how much it cost. I'd go with the local buses over the express if you are going to Guatemala.
We got discounts on some tours and bus prices by haggling.
There's a great Zipline Canopy Tour outfit just outside of the Tikal Archeological Reserve.
Flores is a wonderful little town and the lake tour will take you to a few other neat places on the lake. San Jose and San Andreas looked like sleepy little places with nothing to do but swim, tan and rest.
San Ignacio was dusty and unpolished but good air conditioned rooms were available at Casa Blanca on Burns St. for $50US. Across the street, Hanna's was the best Belizean style food we had. Absolutely the best $4.50 meal I've ever had... beans, rice and pork. PACZ Tours was a helpful low pressure place to book trips.
Have Fun.
posted by ironcross11 | 11:02 AM
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