Know Before You Go To Belize

Brady Bigalke here and I heard you're headed to Belize. Well, my fiancé and I went to Belize for 12 days at the end of 2018. We booked a trip shortly after we met, because we both love travel and a good adventure and picked Belize of all places. But why Belize? Well, I had never been to a maya site and Belize has so much diversity: Mayan ruins, mountains, caves, jungle, reef, and seemed like a really interesting place that no one I really knew had been to. Lonely Planet's travel book was a huge help for us planning everything, but there was still quite a few things that would have been great to know before we went. Lucky for you, I have 23 things for you to know before you go to Belize. I really like traveling during the shoulder months a lot of places I go I've noticed it's a great time to travel there's a lot less tourists but still not too much rain or cold or whatever negative factor there maybe wherever in the world you're going the high season for tourism and Belize is typically December through April and the low season May through October we went from November 26th through December 8th and it was really nice there was a lot less tourists around it was really cool being the only ones on the tour when we visited places like via grano Reserve and San Ignacio and the local Chocolate Company we basically had a private tour to ourselves for the same cost and the Maya sites are also a lot less crowded unlike most places in Central America and Belize you can walk up to someone and start speaking English it's a perfectly normal thing and this took me a while to get used to I kept wanting to speak Spanish to people but they expect you to speak English the locals do have their own sort of English Belizean which is it's kind of a slang it sounds like a mix of Jamaican and Creole I don't know what it is but you are perfectly fine walking up to someone and speaking English to them that's what they expect you to do we flew into Phillip SW Goldson International Airport outside of Belize City where most people fly in if you're into wine get wine duty-free from the airport you will not really find it anywhere else in the country especially for the cost it is very hard to find the poison of choice in Belize being a Western Caribbean country is of course rum so if you're into wine get quite a few bottles from the airport the crime rate in Belize City isn't particularly great and we avoided Belize City at all costs and safety concerns aside there's nothing special about Belize City in my opinion it was never a place we even considered stayin or hanging out and we were booking our trip I recommend heading straight to San Ignacio placencia or one of the K's we were able to visit all three of those areas within 12 days Airbnb surely you know Airbnb has a ton of good options in so many countries now and we Airbnb Devery where we stayed in San Ignacio Guatemala placencia and caye caulker bullet tree road in san ignacio has some great Airbnb s with really good reviews Wi-Fi ok yes a lot of places will have Wi-Fi but don't expect it to be the same Wi-Fi that we have in the States it is much much slower even at a really nice resort we went to a really nice resort and the Wi-Fi was still not that great just expect it to be a little slower than you're used to car rental renting a car might be the most expensive thing on your trip having a car in a third-world country is a luxury and well well worth it we were so happy that we had a car and we were free to do whatever we want we couldn't decide between what car rental company to go with and after doing a lot of research we found crystal auto rental and it looked a little iffy but there totally legit and they were one of the only companies I think the only company that can issue a permit ahead of time for you to cross the border to Guatemala and trust me you definitely need to rent from them if you're going to Guatemala to visit to call four-wheel drive if you are planning on driving off the main highway and exploring some of these other roads that are not paved Caracol barton creek cave anyplace that's off a main highway you will definitely need four-wheel drive it's always a good thing to have in a durable country if you can spend the extra coin however if you don't have four-wheel drive and you want to get to a Maya site like coracle that's off the beaten path you can always sign up with a tour company do a tour so you don't have to drive yourself getting to Suriname Tunis to one of my favorite Maya sites very easy to get to you don't need four-wheel-drive speed bumps many of the speed bumps are actually called pedestrian walkways but a lot of them are not marked often you'll see people selling stuff on the side of the road and they're usually at one of these speed bumps and there will be signs sometimes that's a pedestrian walkway ahead but don't let one of these speed bumps sneak up on you when you're going too fast because it could ruin your car this is one reason I don't recommend driving at night the speed bumps would be really really challenging to see we were always waking up before sunrise in Belize and pretty much back to our Airbnb by sunset or maybe downtown San Ignacio you would be fine driving around downtown San Ignacio at night but you don't want to be having to drive long distances and the dark money money's an easy two to one ratio for every two Belizean dollars it's one American dollar pretty easy to figure out currency which is very convenient so twenty US dollars forty belizean and you get used to that pretty quick but try not to have to withdraw cash on payday which is every other Friday in San Ignacio I don't know what it is for the rest of the country but the line could be significantly longer if you want to get cash on everyone's payday the hummingbird Highway is one of the most beautiful roads I've ever been on and I think it's the best road and Belize it is by far my favorite road to drive on and it cuts right through the Maya mountains with a new view around every Bend plan on taking a little longer to get from point A to B on this gorgeous road because you don't want to feel rushed Blue Hole National Park is off the hummingbird Highway and Billy Barr Qadir National Park I recommend planning a stop at the peaceful Park a deer waterfall it's part of a tranquil stream that provides water to three villages nearby but only take the 20 minute hike to the falls if the tenant is there to watch the car it also helps to have a walking stick for crossing certain parts of the stream on the hike off the hummingbird Highway we visited that waterfall we also visited blue Hall National Park where we went into Herman's cave which is great because you don't have to sign up for a tour ahead of time it's a cave that you can just walk into 200 meters if you want to go past that you can get a tour guide but really really cool cave short right to it we also stopped at a farm which i think is just called the country farm and they make homemade ice cream and cheese right there on the farm it is absolutely delicious and one of the most popular places to stop on the highway as well caves a big part of visiting Belize but keep in mind the water levels are a factor and it's not about how much rain is happening in the area that you are it's how much rain is happening really far away that's the source of the river that's running through the cave so just because it's sunny where you are doesn't mean that the water levels may be low enough for you to go we found this out the hard way when we plan to go cave tubing at barton creek cave we came to a crossing that no vehicle could pass through the water levels were too high and I don't think the cave would have even been open had we made it across the river it was also a terrible idea for us to be on this road in the first place because we didn't have four-wheel drive and we barely made it back achtung tony chill McNall probably thinking what's up did I just say this is the famous ATM cave tour and it's probably the craziest and most haunting thing I've ever done in my life National Geographic has named this cave as the most sacred cave in the world and many people have traveled to Belize just for this tour it was by far the highlight of our trip and not for the faint of heart expect to be spelunking half a mile through a cave and in and out of tight spaces in the dark for at least a few hours make sure that you go with a reputable company because we witnessed a few other guides in passing that we're not near as helpful as ours our guide had been leading expeditions into this cave for over 20 years I recommend finding someone like that for this very interest tour it is definitely a safety-first scenario you'll also want to sign up for the ATM cave tour as early as possible because it will probably fill up it's a very very popular tour and if you have kids with you I don't recommend them going on this I don't even know if they're allowed to or what the age limit is but it is quite dangerous and it takes a lot for me to say that you'll also want a good pair of water shoes and I was able to find some in downtown San Ignacio the day before for about 12 US dollars very worth getting those shoes the San Ignacio farmers market plan on visiting this wonderful market in downtown San Ignacio for anything you could want to buy from merchandise to food there are a ton of vendors and the touristy gift shops will end up costing twice as much for buying the exact same thing at the farmers market for the water taxis in Belize City to get to one of the K's San Pedro que Kocher use the company called San Pedro buoys express water taxi we use the ocean ferry water taxi company but apparently their boats break down sometimes and you don't want that to happen they're just not as a reputable of a company so go with the other one while you're waiting on the boat at the terminal you can get a beer next door and drink it while you're waiting but you won't be allowed to take an open beer on to the boat whether you're in placencia or one of the k's try to find a catamaran tour instead of just a regular boat sailing is a much more enjoyable experience and it was one of the highlights of our trip being on a sailboat catamaran instead of a speedboat or a motorboat we won't with a company called day tripper it was wonderful I highly recommend them and Placencia and we ended up on a boat with some locals because we were there during the shoulder months and no one else had signed up so we ended up hanging out with some really cool locals for the day on the island of Kay cocker bicycles are definitely the way to go the golf cart taxis can be a little pricey like 20 US dollars just for a ride in the golf cart to get from point A to B and it's a pretty small island it's only two miles from front to back so depending on where you're staying on caye caulker if you're very centralized you could just also walk everywhere but it was really nice having a bicycle which was included with our Airbnb and that restaurant at the split where everyone goes is way overpriced get a drink there if you want but I highly recommend eating elsewhere save your money because it's not worth the food they have down there and those guys on the side of the road cooking up live lobster right there on the grill are totally legit and caye caulker reef sharks hot sauce it's so damn good you should definitely bring some back for your family and friends just be careful not to get a bottle too big and try to take it on the plane or when you're going through customs when you get back to your country it will get confiscated it's considered a liquid it's hot sauce and there's a ton of good options to buy hot sauce as you're leaving Belize in the airport but make sure you check the prices in each store on the airport because some of them are a little cheaper than others crossing the border to Guatemala what a process if you plan on doing this let me tell you a little bit about it we rented from crystal auto rental because they're one of the only companies that can pre-register your car to go to Guatemala so we had a permit but even with that permit it still takes about 45 minutes we showed up to the border they fumigate your car so you drive through this carwash thing they're spraying your cars but like for bugs or whatever and then you get out and there's a kid there that greets you boy that will greet you and start walking you through the process there might be another kid that's helping watch the car but you know you lock it anyway and you bring your paperwork from crystal auto rental with you and your passports go see one guy he does a bunch of stuff with your passport or paper or I don't even remember and for about 15 minutes there you're in limbo so you're not in Belize or Guatemala you were just in limbo so you need to make sure you have everything on you to get into Guatemala you'll wait in a couple lines show everyone your paperwork it has to get signed by like three different people there used to a lot of people saying they're going to tikal which is where we were going and where you're staying making sure that's the only place in the country that you're gonna stay and then eventually they will put a sticker on your car and you also want to exchange some money there so you get approved you get back in the car and you'll want to tip these kids five maybe like ten US dollars don't let them convince you to give them more they're good salesmen as soon as you get through to Guatemala it's also now all Spanish that was really wild going from somewhere where we could speak English and now all the Sun that's Spanish luckily me espanol simple Quito so I stopped en and then you're gonna end up crossing a bridge shortly after there will also be a small charge for the bridge and they will start asking you for it in Spanish so just know it's like 2 US dollars to cross that bridge but you'll be paying and Guatemalan currency to call national park now I know this is a part of our trip to Belize but it was a part of our trip because we went to Guatemala we were so close to instead Ignacio to to Collin Guatemala we just we had to do it we had to say look when are we ever gonna be back here let's go to call and stay in El Montay for one night we woke up the next morning very very early and made the drive up to to call no one will speak English there unless their tour guides and when you head into this National Park hidden deep in the jungle everyone is going to make you feel like it's a requirement to have a tour guide but it is not it is recommended to have a tour guide that you absolutely do not need to have one and we were totally fine with that one we're really really glad that we did not get a tour guide be sure to bring some water with you and some snacks for this absolutely giant national park that can take a whole day or even two to see we were only there for half a day and I felt like we saw plenty and it was great there is a restaurant and some people selling some food and water around the park but it's absolutely massive and I recommend also purchasing a map after you park so that you don't get lost I hope some of these tips were helpful and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have before you go to Belize don't forget to subscribe to my channel and check out my Belize Travel film for my whole 12 day adventure summed up and 45 minutes

Channel: Brady Bigalke

Views: 252,096

Rating: 4.8405666 out of 5

Keywords: belize, travel tips, know before you go, san ignacio, placencia, caye caulker, atm cave tour, travel guide, travel vlog, travel video, airbnb, guatemala, tikal national park, xunantunich, blue hole national park, top ten, jungle, barrier reef, adventure, travel info, maya, ancient maya

Id: 7etvcOj-HPI

Length: 15min 18sec (918 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 31 2019