Quickie in Belize

Belize is a country the size of Vermont with only 300,000 registered citizens. It's located south of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico about 300 miles south of Cancun. Formerly a British colony, it's the only Central American country with English as the official language.

There is great diving in Belize. It's home to one end of the second largest coral reef in the world. (second only to Australia's Great Barrier Reef.)

There is also pretty good fishing. Locals tell me that Belize is the largest single importer of lobster to the United States.

Belize City is pretty low in altitude, and quite prone to flooding (see my photos) during heavy rain. In fact, Philip S.W. Goldson International airport is only 15 feet above sea level!

The currency directly mirrors the United States dollar. One U.S. Dollar is equivalent to two Belize Dollars.

Quick Tips:

Remember that Belize is still a third world country. Be careful, especially in Belize City, which is quite slummy when compared to United States standards. Most tourists do not visit Belize City itself, and end up going to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, where there are more tourists and expatriates from the US and Canada.

It's probably not a good idea to visit Belize during rainy season, which they say is from July to October. In the photos I took, the water is quite brackish. The rainfall and increased water levels in the rivers churn up silt and make the rivers brown. The brown streak extends out to the harbors as well. Locals went to great lengths to tell me NOT to EAT the lobster during this time.

It's a tropical country, so yes, it's humid. During rainy season, bring mosquito repellent. These days, it's probably a good idea to get all of your travel immunization shots.

Best Way To Get Around:

The best way to get to Belize is by air. The only international airport is Philip S.W. Goldson International airport located just outside Belize City. It's served by American Airlines, with daily flights to and from Miami and Dallas-Fort Worth, Continental Airlines from Houston, US Airways out of Charlotte, NC, and Delta out of Atlanta. TACA flies to the US on a Continental codeshare to Houston.

There is a separate municipal airport in Belize City served by Maya Airways for national flights inside of Belize.

For taxi transport between the international airport and Belize City, it's USD. The rate is published on a fare card inside the taxi. Make sure the taxi driver doesn't tell you otherwise. There is a bus line, but it's unreliable. So other than taxi, really isn't any other form of ground transportation.

The roads are pretty bad in Belize. Large potholes are everywhere, some roads are only partially paved. While traveling, you could tell that some roads were paved at one time, but were covered over by dirt and gravel from lack of maintenance. The area around Belize City is pretty flat and very close to sea level, so some parts of the roads were flooded. Even though it was a British colony, everybody drives on the right, much like the United States.

On Ambergris Caye, a resort island area in the north, there are few cars. So you are left to rent a golf cart or putting one foot in front of the other.

I heard the best place for foreigners to stay in Belize City was the Radisson Fort George Hotel and Marina. It's located in the Fort George area of Belize City. I'm guessing from the rusted out 16th-century cannons pointing out to sea that Fort George was a fort defending against pirates.

It's a 30-minute cab ride to the Radisson from Philip Goldson international airport. (cab fare is $25.) The Radisson's exterior isn't much to look at. The lobby is fairly nice, with natural stone flooring and counters, if a bit small. The desk staff were quite nice but not too fast on their feet.

I was issued room no. 308. The bellhop took my bags and guided me to the room. The hallways are exterior hallways that overlooked a building called the Great House, which I later visited.

My room had two double beds. It was smaller than your typical Radisson room found in the United States. There is carpet present, and the entryway is made of paver stone. The bathroom was fairly nice. The electrical outlets are the same as the United States. The windows have a view of the marina. There is an air-conditioner sitting under the window, which worked quite well! Whew!

There is a desk, small fridge, coffeemaker, and a bottle of complimentary water. There is a TV cabinet with a 19-inch TV sitting inside. The alarm clock is on top of the TV instead of the nightstand, which I found a bit irritating. I noticed the TV's satellite feed featured local news from Denver, Colorado!

There are two restaurants, one outside by the pool and a sports-bar-type restaurant. There is a small gift shop by the lobby and a concierge desk that arranged activities and tours.

Our check-out process was fair. There was a hotel employee that had to come up to our room to check the fridge to see if we used anything from it. Our rate was $130 per night for this room. It's supposed to be the nicest place in Belize.

The Stonefire Grill is a restaurant inside the Radisson Fort George Hotel & Marina. It's actually outside by the hotel pool next to the poolside bar. We stayed at the hotel and dined here on July 12, 2006.

The seating here is next to the pool and poolside bar under the cabana. There was only one other couple dining at the time. It is Belize's rainy season, so there weren't too many people at the hotel anyways. The staff were quite attentive, since there weren't many other customers. The menu was fairly small, but contained some seafood dishes, pizza(!) and mostly local fare such as tacos and what we in the United States would consider "Mexican food."

We ordered a Pina Colada and my friend ordered a glass of wine. For our entree we ordered the steak and shrimp dish. Our server took our order and brought us salsa and chips. The salsa was very good, as it was made fresh in the bar. We watched a few of the staff prepare our meals at the poolside bar a few feet away.

In about ten minutes, the server brought us our entrees. Both entrees were served in large rectangular trays with a large heated stone in the middle. The heated stone actually grills the steak and shrimp. Hence the name of the restaurant, Stonefire Grill.
The server told us the meat was medium rare now, and if we wanted it cooked more, we needed to flip the food and grill it on the stone a bit more. There were veggies on the rectangular dish to either side of the heated stone.

The food was okay. While the stonefire concept is pretty neat, the meat does tend to get a bit dry as it stays on the heated stone. The veggies were very fresh, and the shrimp were delicious.

The total bill with 2 steak and shrimp entrees, 2 cocktails, and 2 bottles of water came out to $43 US, or $86 Belize dollars. The Stonefire Grill is not Morton's or Ruth Chris, but I was told beef was a bit hard to come by in this part of the world. I'd recommend this because it's conveniently located in the Radisson and it's a unique dining experience.

The Great House is located in Fort George just across from the Radisson Fort George Hotel & Marina. The locals told me Great House is a nice place to shop and get "things done." The Great House is actually an inn, but I didn't stay there, I just shopped there, so that's why this is a shopping review.

From what I’ve been told by locals, the Great House is one of the oldest colonial buildings in Belize City. It’s currently being used as a “business house.” It’s a place providing the use of computers, telephones, meeting rooms, and restaurants for local businessmen, as well as being an inn. Kind of like a high class FedEx/Kinko’s with meeting facilities and rooms I guess.

I wandered across from the Radisson (where I stayed) to the Great House. I only wandered around the ground floor. The first floor has nicely finished dark wood flooring, and whitewashed walls, giving you its original old colonial plantation feel.

On the ground floor is a souvenir shop which has slightly better pricing, but much larger selection of items than the souvenir shop at the Radisson Hotel. I bought a few souvenir Belize shot glasses here for $3 USD each.

There is a cigar shop on the ground floor as well that specializes in cigars from Cuba. I wandered inside and looked around at the cigars. They have a wide selection, including Romeo Y Julieta, Montecristos, Cohibas, and a few others. The shop employee was quite nice and knowledgeable about the selection of cigars. I would never violate United States Customs laws and import such prohibited items into the U.S., but if I were a Cuban cigar aficionado, I’d shop here.

There is also a travel agency which also assists in researching and booking various activities in Belize. There are also two restaurants which seem to serve some nice seafood fare and local (similar to Mexican) food on the ground floor. I didn’t visit these restaurants due to lack of time. For transportation, there is a taxi union stand outside. I would recommend it simply because it's near the Radisson and the only place I could find that offered cigars.

Just like Madonna's Song "La Isla Bonita" which goes..."Last night I dreamt of San Pedro," everybody that visits Belize's San Pedro falls in love with this magical place. San Pedro is the main city on the island of Ambergris Caye. The best way to get there from Belize City is to fly the local airline, Maya Island Air, to San Pedro.

We arrived via Maya Island Air. Our little propeller driven commuter aircraft was quite cozy, seating about 10-12. The flight to San Pedro was about 45 minutes and quite scenic. You could see the nice aqua blue waters off the costline and the lagoons on the opposite side. We landed at a small airstrip adjacent to San Pedro.

San Pedro is a pretty small town. There are three main streets, Front Street, Middle Street, and Back Street. There are a few cars in Belize, a lot of the locals use golf carts and bicycles too. The roads aren't the greatest, some parts of the roads aren't even paved yet. But I did see some improvements, for instance, they're slowly building a bridge north of San Pedro over the San Pedro River. Currently, the only way across is a hand operated ferry.

Once we arrived at the island, we checked into a privately owned condo we had rented via the Internet. There seems to be a lot of small condos popping up around San Pedro. From talking to some of the locals, a good number of these condos are purchased by investors and rented out as vacation condos, like the one we stayed in. The remainder are owned and occupied by locals, especially expatriates from the USA, Canada, and other countries.

It's not too humid on Ambergris Caye. Being an island, there are nice breezes from the ocean that make the humidity quite bearable. It was about 75-80 degrees during the daytime.

One of the main attractions to San Pedro are the marvelous natural features. Snorkeling and diving are the main draw. There are 185 miles of unspoiled Barrier Reef just off Ambergris Caye. An abundance of wonderful marine life calls this reef home. There are plenty of snorkel and dive shops in San Pedro which can take you out for guided tours of these beautiful sights. We paid $35 for a quick one hour snorkel. They have day trips with lunch for $100. The tank dives are about $45-$60, but I'm not certified to dive, so we didn't do that.

We signed up for a guided snorkel tour at one of the many guided snorkel shops in San Pedro. We took the boat out to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, which is a few miles south of San Pedro. The water is very clear and warm. We got in and started out guided tour. We are kept on track by swimming along a rope attached to the boat. We saw manatees, stingrays, and all sorts of strange and wonderful fish as interesting other marine life and coral.

There are also nice relaxing beaches. Immediately outside our condo is the beach! It's nice to have a quiet tropical beach to lie out and read a book sometimes. Next to our condo, also beachside, is a small outdoor bar and pool. We chatted with a few of the people at the bar about where to go eat dinner. The local cuisine is basically Mexican, due to Belize's proximity to its northern neighbor. We did find a host of other restaurants run by both locals and expatriates. I wanted some Italian, so we dined at Pasta la Vista. It was a really fun experience as the owner and staff were very friendly and chatted with us about the local gossip. (Separate review.)

After dinner, we were quite tired, so we retired back to our condo. (One note, there are a lot of mosquitoes that come out at night. Bring mosquito repellent with DEET.) I was amazed at how quiet it is at night. The gentle waves coming ashore helped me to fall asleep.

Unfortunately I had to leave the next morning for Belize City. But I will always remember my time in San Pedro. I do plan on returning in a few months. I can see why there are so many expatriates in San Pedro. It's a place people can escape the hustle and bustle of the city and live amongst the natural beauty and wonderful climate. Now I can see myself dreaming of San Pedro as well. Ambergris Caye really is "La Isla Bonita."