UnBELIZEable -Trip to Belize: Ambergris Caye

Kristal
Jun 3, 2017
3 min read

Almost 2 hours after leaving the Belize City port, we pulled in to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. At the boat stop, we got the confirmation email from Hummingbird Suites that our room was ready! Hurray! While we were waiting for our bags, a guy came by and tried to get us to rent a golf cart for our stay in San Pedro. This is a small island so most people use golf carts to get around rather than renting a car. The guy was offering it for $100 for 2 days (which turned out to be a pretty good rate actually). However, we weren't ready to commit to renting a golf cart just yet so we hailed a cab from the port and 5 minutes and 10 Belize dollars later we were at our AirBnB.

We were exhausted from our travels, but since it was already late in the day we decided to go check out the beach right away. Belize has a lot of sea-grass and seaweed and when it is tourist season, or on the resorts, they have people who rake the beaches every morning. However, since we got there in the afternoon, the seagrass was pretty much everywhere and the beaches did not look super appealing. This is the thing about Belize that I didn't know. The main beaches on the mainland and Cayes are not the best for swimming since they use boats to get around so much that there is not really a lot of beach area. Nearly every hotel has a pier that has access for water taxis and speed boats, but not every hotel has a swimming beach.

The closest beach/pier in front of our AirBnB belonged to a hotel (Carribean Villas) and it had a spa and a bar--two of my favorite things! So we ended us getting a couples' massage (this place was offering it for $65 USD per person, but down the beach closer to town we saw ones that were around $35 per person). The massage felt so good after a long day of traveling. They offer deep-tissue, Swedish, or relaxing (I chose this one and fell asleep). You can also do an Aloe wrap here if you get too sunburned. After the massage we sat on the end of the pier and watched the boats go by. Also, there was a little splash pad situation at the end of the pier with a big slide and some bouncy inflatables and there was one very drunk man trying to bounce around so that was super entertaining to watch as well.

After sunset we decided to walk into town (about 20 minute walk along the road or 10+ min walk on the beach) and get some dinner. We found a place on Yelp (btw everywhere in Belize has good WiFi!) that had really good reviews for seafood and was right on the beach. It was super nice. Definitely a good start to the trip. It's a little bit of a nicer place so we were glad that we changed into something besides our bathing suits. The seafood was so fresh and delicious and it was right on the water which was so beautiful at night! We started with a tuna carpaccio and for the entree split a medley dish of snapper, scallops, shrimp and grilled veggies covered in a coconut sauce. It was amazing! One note though is that the sushi rolls were not the best. Admittedly, I'm a sushi snob but they didn't use sticky rice so it was kind of mealy. The sashimi was delish, but I would recommend skipping the rolls.