Ambergris Caye, Belize

Trip date: November 2024

Last year I thought I was going to Belize for Thanksgiving. I booked the trip for the 3rd Thursday in November and was really surprised at how inexpensive the flight was ($537.30 RT in Premium)! And that's when I realized that Thanksgiving is always the 4th Thursday, not 3rd! 

Well I was still really excited about going to this small Central American country on the Caribbean and having a relaxing and fun girls trip with my friend Gail. I wasn't however excited to be at SeaTac at 6am for our direct flight on AlaskaAir. And I REALLY wasn't excited to hear the announcement while waiting to board that our flight was canceled due to Tropical Storm Sara. Back home we went to wait for updates. Long story short we were re-booked for the next day but BZE ended up closing so we were finally able to fly out 2 days later.

*Pro tip: Lyft/Uber in Seattle are incredibly expensive and I burned about $150 to and from the airport. Luckily I had just purchased yearly travel insurance from Allianz as it was required to travel to Antarctica and I was refunded before even landing in Belize! I'm now buying this insurance yearly.

Because our 6-hour flight arrived in Belize City after the last water taxi to Ambergris Caye left, and I was afraid to fly out to the island in one of the small planes, we spent one quick night at the Harbour View Hotel. They have a restaurant across the street which was fine for a quick dinner and breakfast the next day, and they didn't charge us for having to change our reservation due to the storm. But in general I would recommend heading straight out to the island.

*Another pro-tip: there is a duty free shop at BZE next to baggage claim with much better options than you will find in the local shops.

It was an absolutely gorgeous morning when we took the 1½ hour water taxi to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. Everyone on the island gets around on golf carts so I had reserved ours in advance with C&S. They met us at the dock, helped us with our luggage, and drove us to their office which was conveniently attached to a grocery store. Golf cart and groceries procured we made our way to the Marriott Alaia where we had an oceanview 2 bedroom suite. I had found an offer called Belize-A-Little-Longer where we got our 6th night free and a cabana for a day.

The pool cabanas were so comfortable and once we found out they were only $100 we reserved another day. Having an entire day just spent at the pool is like heaven for me. And it didn't hurt that the spa was just steps away, so I also had a lovely massage one afternoon. 

The food and drinks at the pool were really great, I'd say my fish tacos were some of the best on the island! And sometimes a bottle of rosé from our kitchen just happened to find itself in an insulated water bottle and in the beach bag, hitching along to the pool.

Of course I did leave the resort and did some super fun stuff over the course of the week via golf cart, plane, and boat!

One of the things I've always had on my bucket list was to see the Great Blue Hole. You can either take a boat, which is 5 hours round trip + time spent snorkeling/diving or you can take a 1 hour flight and look straight down on the mysterious underwater sinkhole. 

There are only 2 local airlines that provide flyover tours, Tropic and Maya, I went with the latter. It was $230 for the hour flight and the schedule was filled solid when I booked. I chose to go on my first day just in case it was canceled because of bad weather, that way I'd have a few more days to try to book in. 

The tiny plane seats just 10 passengers and the pilot. The co-pilot seat is also available at a higher price. I actually have a pretty solid fear of small planes like this and before coming on the trip had been discussing if I would do the flight or not with a two good friends, the answer was OF COURSE so I took ½ a xanax and got on board!

Although Tropical Storm Sara hadn't left much of a trace on the island, there had been a lot of flight cancellations and the airline was still catching up. So our tour left 1 ½ hours later than scheduled. We flew over the Great Barrier Reef, Turneffe Atoll, and a very cool ocean freighter wreck before arriving at the Blue Hole. The pilot then did a full 2 revolutions of the hole on each side of the plane so that everyone had amazing views. 

                                        

The Great Blue Hole is roughly 1000-foot wide and 400-foot deep! It was an incredible site! But all of the scenery we flew over was really incredible! The clarity of the water is stunning!

On the way back we ended up landing in BZE to pick up some folks whose other flight was canceled and then dropped them off at the teeny airport on Caye Caulker before returning to Ambergris. Taking off and landing multiple times in about 5 minutes really was trying my phobia! 

Another day Gail and I drove our golf cart out to Secret Beach. It's about an hour each way and the rough dirt roads are really rough! There were potholes that you could drown in! A few times we waited for another cart to attempt a pothole crossing before forging ahead!

Secret Beach is a big stretch of beach clubs, all with their own vibe. We chose Maruba Beach Klub (yes, with a K) because the music was a decent level and the loungers looked comfy (& they were). We parked the cart and were shown to the beach where a server set up our chosen loungers and got us menus. 

Even though it was a warm blue sky day, winds from the tropical storm were strong! The normal clear water was murky and rough! There would be no swimming or eating at a table in the ocean or playing on any inflatables. But we had a great day with margaritas, and nachos, and a serious match of giant Jenga!

There's no charge to enter the club but there is a food & beverage minimum which gets you your wifi, loungers, games, etc. 

We also did a ½ day snorkel trip from the Alaia dive dock to Mexico Rocks. Belize's barrier reef is the 2nd largest in the world and it lies just 1/2 mile off of Ambergris Caye. Being such a short ride out we were just in a small dive boat and when we got to the site there was a park ranger who met us in his boat to collect the park fees. Because these reefs are protected areas, a divemaster is always with snorkelers and divers, this is great as it makes Belize a place that I would travel solo to as I would still be able to snorkel!   

When we jumped in I was shocked at how warm the water was; it was like 80F! There were tons of rays, conch shells, tropical fish and amazing coral heads- which I had never really seen before. It was fantastic and the divemaster was really good!

Another day we did a full day out on a catamaran with Seaduced by Belize. It was an early start with just 10 others onboard and plenty of room for everyone as they had comfy bean bags on the bow. It's an older boat but in good shape with a great crew. 

We hadn't been sailing for more than 15 minutes when a large pod of dolphins came up beside us to race! Then a big turtle swam on by! Fantastic!

Our first stop was Hol Chan National Reserve; 160 square miles of seagrass beds and coral reefs. This reserve started off as only 3 square miles in 1987 when it was established!! This time the park ranger had their own floating office and we pulled up to pay our fees.

Then it was in the water for one of the most amazing snorkeling excursions I have ever been on! We had beat the other excursion boats and had most of the reserve to ourselves for a while. We followed our divemaster and saw barracuda, trumpet fish, huge schools of snapper, rays, tons of conch, a nurse shark, and an eagle ray!!! Not to even mention all the amazing coral. Wow!!

From here it was on to Shark Alley. This section of the reef use to be where fisherman would clean their catch and toss the scraps into the water, attracting nurse sharks and rays. We got in and tread water a safe distance away while the captain tossed some chum in. Because sharks have been used to this and it isn't changing their behavior, it is allowed in the reserve (vs in places like South Africa where chumming attracts great whites while people cage dive!). It was pretty crazy both in the water and onboard watching!

We continued sailing to Caye Caulker where we had a couple of hours to explore on our own. This little island is just 5 miles long and 1 mile wide so it didn't take long to see most of it! I had conch fritters for lunch at the Rainbow Grill, then Gail and I did a bit of shopping. All the roads here are sand and pretty much everyone was on a bike. There were quite a few oil-drum bbqs with lobster, fish, and shrimp kabobs along the road and picnic tables to eat at- I'd do that for lunch if I was there again.

It's a cute little place but I was very happy that we were staying on Ambergris! 

Our sail back was just stunning, the water is so clear, and so many shades of blue, the reef easily visible below. What an outstanding day!

As Belize borders Mexico to the north, there is an interesting mix of Caribbean and Mexican food. While we didn't have any "oh my gosh amazing" food moments we really liked our lunch at Elvi's Kitchen so much we also had dinner there one night!

At Caramba you pick out your fresh catch of the day and the owner encouraged me to get a whole lionfish which is invasive to the reefs. It was a delicious fish! So juicy and flavorful! I had to get a couple of stone crab claws too as you never get those on the west coast.

As for drinking, ee had late afternoon cocktails on the dock at Wayo's on our way back from Secret Beach. There are quite a few of these palapa bars around the island, this one was very friendly and lively!

And one night we had a spectacular sunset while sipping on some cocktails on the dock at Hula Bar. There were even rays swimming in the water below us!

Ambergris Caye is so relaxing and chill, I really liked it!

All Belize photos here