Central American Paradise

Stroll around the streets of Belize city or catch a water taxi out to the many beautiful islands called Cayes.

Quick Tips:

Best Way To Get Around:

Fly to Belize City take one of the many taxis into the city. Negotiate prices up front because most taxis aren’t metered.

All rooms have private baths, hot and cold showers. Some rooms are Air Conditioned. This is a very nice and clean hotel close to the beach area.

Tropical Star Hotel is located right on the main street on the beach. They offer courteous and professional service at a reasonable cost. They can arrange all tours that you need. You can have a nice day just relaxing on the sandy beach area or snorkeling to the beautiful reef. You can swim off the pier or you can go Scuba Diving.

Oceanside Bar and Restaurant is a lively, popular hang-out on Caye Caulker with punta, traditional Boom and Chime Belizean music, country music - live by songwirter and entertainer Dennis Wolfe - and every Saturday night Karaoke by Patch and Punta and dancing until 3 am. Local Belizean food is cooked home style by 'Elita's Kitchen.'

I’ve always said that if you want to have the time of your life, just buy a plane ticket to some remote place and show up without any plans.

We arrived at Belize City airport in June of 96. After catching cab into Belize City we found a nice guesthouse along the wharf. We booked a room and began asking the locals where a nice place to eat was, we finally settled on a small restaurant in walking distance from our room.

Belize was a British colony and lacks the beautiful Spanish architecture of most Latin American countries, but has a personality of its own. Pirates made up most of the population centuries ago and the city is somewhat in shambles. We met some people at the guest house that had just returned from the islands off the coast of Belize and suggested we take a boat out to the Cayes as their islands are called.

We decided to explore around the city the following day and then catch the boat for the islands. We hired a cab for a flat rate and our cab driver gave us the tour of the city. I have found throughout Mexico and most Latin American countries cab drivers are the best tour guides as well as make good friends for the future. The following day we hired a boat to take us to Caye Caulker, one of the smaller less visited by tourist islands. What a pleasure! This small island was about two hundred yards wide and four miles long. We found a nice room along the beach and spent four wonderful days exploring, sailing, fishing and scuba diving. We had great food at local prices and made many friends.

Belize has the second longest Coral reef in the world next to Australia. There is an abundance of wildlife below water and above. Our whole trip at the time cost less than US$700.00 including airfare. Unfortunately due to American tourists I have found that the prices have gone way up and soon instead of small local owned hotels and $5.00 Lobster dinners it will be an all-inclusive tourist trap with prices and crime to match. I have plans to visit Guatemala and Honduras soon and hope to find the island paradise without the crowds.. I will keep you posted.