Belize with a Toddler!

We just returned from an adventure-filled trip to Belize and I can't wait to share all of our fun with you!  Where to start?!?  Well we (myself, Farhad and 2.5 year old Zarin), had originally planned a simple resort vacation on Ambergris Caye earlier in April. However, I finally came down with the dreaded COVID-19 and had to reschedule to the first week in May. At first I was slightly annoyed that I had to change everything around, but in retrospect I am so glad that happened for multiple reasons!

Having the opportunity to re-plan our trip was a blessing in disguise! We didn't have to pay any fees to change our flights (I had purchased flexible tickets that make it easier to change if needed), and the resort I had booked was refundable. And it was great for me that I no longer needed to worry about catching COVID-19 and getting stuck or feeling severely sick another country. COVID aside, it gave me a great opportunity to re-design our entire trip. When I originally planned this outing, I was needing some rest and relaxation. And while that always sounds good to me, I was feeling a bit more adventurous by the time I had to re-book everything. After reading online about the other interesting destinations in Belize, we came up with an awesome itinerary! I will say that I would have liked to spend more time in each place, but I am still glad that we got to see so many things in a short time and now know where we want to return on the next trip! Moving around this much could be hard for anyone, but I think Zarin did amazingly well for all of the traveling and complete lack of routine or anything familiar. 

The NEW Plan:

Arrive at BZE Airport

Pick up rental car and drive to jungle lodge for 2 nights (stay at The Rainforest Lodge at Sleeping Giant)Drive back to BZE airport, drop off rental car, take hopper flight to Ambergris Caye for 3 nights (stay at Coco Beach)

Ferry to Caye Caulker for the final 2 nights (stay at Weezie’s)

Hopper flight to BZE, then on to DEN 

HOW TO GET THERE:

BZE is the international airport in Belize, located in Belize City. It is smaller than I remembered from my first trip 12 years ago, so customs and immigration did not take as long as expected. With direct flights from DEN on Frontier Airlines, it’s a quick 4 hour journey. Although I haven’t spent any time in Belize City itself, most people say it’s best to skip it altogether. So where to first? You can rent a car, get a private transfer, or book a tour for a visit inland; or you can jump on a hopper flight to an island or somewhere further south. We chose to rent a car with Budget via Expedia. The rental office is just across the “street” from the airport doors. TIP: If you need a car seat, bring your own or be prepared for an old booster seat.

 

FIRST STOP: The Belizean Rainforest

I am so glad we added the lush rainforest to our itinerary! We drove about 1.5 hours southwest past Belmopan to the gorgeous property of The Rainforest Lodge at Sleeping Giant. I had found this property on TripAdvisor and booked directly with the resort. I knew it looked beautiful, but we had no idea what we were in for! For ~$250USD/night, we stayed in a luxurious Creekside Cottage. Although there were other cottages around, the dense and lush rainforest provided privacy and we felt like we had the property to ourselves. They have a gorgeous mid-size pool that was great for cooling down in the heat. The property itself has a farm, many animals, hiking and biking trails, free use of kayaks for use on the river, any maybe many other amenities that we didn’t even know about or have time to use. They have spa services and 2 on-site restaurants. The main restaurant was decent and we loved the garlic shrimp appetizer at the brick-oven pizza restaurant in the garden.  I absolutely recommend this lodge and will definitely be back myself!

I could post a million photos of this beautiful property!

On the way to and from the rainforest, we stopped a few times for some delicious food, beer and snacks. Near the lodge in Armenia, try lunch at Palapas (the dinner menu didn’t look as interesting). We loved the mini tacos and pulled pork sandwich (maybe best my husband has ever had???).  Closer to Belize City, stop at Cheers (look for the old Cheers TV show logo HAHA) for the best Belizean stewed chicken with rice and beans. And a little playground for kids to run around. And don’t forget the chickens for the kids to harass! We also tried a place called Amigos for breakfast, not too bad. In general, the highway wasn’t very busy and I felt very comfortable driving there (they do drive on the right side of the road). We did get stopped at multiple police check points, so be sure to have your driver’s license ready (and don’t accidentally pull over right before the check point to give a kid a snack, because it actually looks like you might be doing something devious, whoops). The police were kind and courteous and asked if we needed any help.

Chickens and roosters at Cheers

Refreshing drinks to cool us down at Palapas

The best stop we made was at the Belize Zoo! It is actually the reason we started looking to expand our trip inland. It’s not super large, but it is somewhat of a sanctuary where rescued animals are kept in relatively natural surroundings. I believe the tickets were $15USD/foreign adult and kids are free. No need to pre-purchase tickets. It’s worth a visit!

NEXT STOP: Ambergris Caye

Ambergris Caye (to be referred to as AC) is a larger Belizean island that can be reached by hopper flight (15 minutes) or ferry (1.5 hours). We chose to fly so we could get a bird’s eye view of the ocean and islands. After driving back to the BZE airport and dropping off our rental car off at the airport office, we headed inside to check in for our flight. Because I had expected the check-in and security to take longer, we were way too early for our flight. These planes only hold 10-12 people including the pilot, but if they aren’t full, they will try to get you on the earlier flight. They snuck us on the earlier flight at the last minute, and we chugged our fresh beers on the runway before we jumped on. They go about once an hour, and feel more like an air taxi than a big flight. I forgot to mention, there are two airline options: Maya Island Air and Tropic Air. They are similarly priced, we went with Maya Island Air and had no issues. Flights run about $80/person/flight.

The airport on AC is so small and cute, and the first hotel we booked was literally across the street. They kindly picked us and our luggage up and took us to our room. I won’t spend much time here complaining, but absolutely DO NOT book a room at Ramon’s Village. I thoroughly researched hotels on AC and Ramon’s has pretty good reviews. So let’s say this was out of the norm. But our first room smelled so strongly of mold and mildew that Farhad and I got instant and prolonged headaches and we could not let Zarin stay in there any longer. We were told there were no other rooms, then found another room that seemed better until the air conditioner kicked on and we had the same issue (although not as bad). We had to leave (went through Booking.com to get a refund for the remaining nights). Oh, and the pool was tiny and awkward and FRIGID, too cold to enjoy.

 

Golf Cart from C&S Rentals, love the flexibility to drive around the island!

So we rented a golf cart (many rental companies, rentals for approx. $35-50/day), drove to Coco Beach to make sure it was clean (where we had originally booked a week long R&R getaway). It was awesome! So clean, and we loved the pools! They are laid out to look and feel kind of like a beach where they gradually get deeper. They even have some beach loungers in the water. There weren’t very many people here, which we loved. Very laid back, decent restaurant with decent prices for a resort. Super helpful staff. One thing that could be seen as a downside or an upside is that it is about 15 minutes from downtown San Pedro (the main town on AC). But there are plenty of other hotels and restaurants around as well. Although this resort feels more commercial and less Belizean, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

 

LAST STOP:  Caye Caulker

Caye Caulker (to be referred to as CC) was supposedly given the name decades ago by fisherman who used to stop to caulk the boat leaks. Is it true? No idea. Sounds plausible and cute though. There are two ferry companies that go AC to CC: Belize Express Water Taxi (we used this company, about $20.50USD/adult, under 4 are free) and Ocean Ferry Belize. We booked our tickets online, but still needed to visit the ticket counter to get the tickets printed. No need to get there too early. The ferry ride was about 30 minutes and enjoyable. There was an upper with a nice view, but we chose to sit on the lower deck in the sun.

 

How cute is this little island?!?

We hadn’t arranged transportation to our hotel, but there was a nice taxi man there who helped us get our luggage and took us straight to Weezie’s. CC is pretty small, so I believe the going rate to mostly anywhere on the island is about $5USD. The taxi driver’s name was Derrick, and he seemed pretty laid back and offered to give us rides during our stay and even a tour around the island. We used him for everything, and he even brought his sweet little chihuahua Zakara around with him, which Zarin loved.

Our new Belizean friends, Derrick and Zakara

 

Weezie’s is further south on the island, literally next to the airport (although you would never know it, the small airplanes aren’t much trouble). It’s relatively small with a small pool, but the rooms were immaculately clean, well appointed and beautiful. I had inadvertently booked a garden room somewhere across the street (be careful booking, I do feel like the room photos were misleading), but we were able to get it worked out to where we stayed 1 night in a 2^nd story queen room with a beautiful view, and the second night in a gorgeous king garden suite on the beach (definitely recommend Room 14!!!).  There is a quaint restaurant on site that serves the best (coconut) chicken curry that my Indian husband has had since he moved to the US 7 years ago!!! So that’s something. He even ate it for breakfast on our way out to the airport!

 

Derrick took us on an island tour on day 2 and we enjoyed learning about it from a local. Zarin got the feed the tarpons, Farhad got a COVID test on the beach and we enjoyed some chicken stew. CC is a picturesque, sleepy town with friendly people and great food. We will be back, no doubt.

 

On our last morning we made it to the airport next door and hopped on the short 10 minute flight to BZE, just in time to board our final 4 hour flight back to DEN. Check-in did take some time, as the airlines are required to verify COVID testing/recovery, as well as each customer must complete a COVID affidavit. Security didn’t take long. The only thing left to do was have one last Beliken!

TIPS:

Here are a few things I found noteworthy about Belize that may help fellow travelers.

-Check out the sargassum situation before you leave if that is important to you. The beaches were full of it, so not much wading in the water. They try hard to keep it cleaned up, but it is impossible. It mostly piles on the beaches, snorkeling is still possible further out. There are some beaches on the west side of the islands without sargassum, they are pretty packed.

-Phone/Internet: My US phone carrier is Verizon and I was able to add an international plan for $10/day/line. Great service throughout, except deep in the jungle. The resorts had decent Wi-Fi, which was necessary for me to do some work while on vacation. 

- Sunscreen: be sure to buy some reef SAFE (not reef friendly) sunscreen before you come to help protect the reef!

-Snorkeling/water sports/tours: You might notice that we really didn’t get too into the snorkeling and water sports, which is why most people go to Belize. I hope to one day, but it wasn’t what this trip was about and we preferred to enjoy this trip with a toddler. Just came to say that Belize supposedly has some of the best snorkeling and diving in the world, don’t miss it! There is also tons to do inland, like visit the Mayan ruins and cave tubing. They are worth checking out.

-COVID:  As I write this, the US still requires a COVID test within 1 day of entering the US. There are CDC testing centers around, just ask your hotel (sometimes they have private doctors who will even do them at your hotel). There was 1 on CC for $75. Swabbed, waited and got the negative result quickly. Since I had recently recovered, I just had to show proof of a positive test and a letter of recovery from my doctor with clearance to travel. Also as of this date, masks are no longer required on US flights. The hopper flights still required them.

 

-Belize requires visitors to purchase their insurance for $18/person for 21 day coverage. It can only be purchased at www.belizetravelinsurance.com or at the airport when you arrive if you forget. I was never asked for proof of this, but I do think it could come in handy if needed.

 

-Drinking water:  I loved that most hotels had 5-gallon water jugs in our rooms. Bring a reusable water bottle with you and forget trying to find a place to buy bottled water. Cheaper and better for the environment!

 

-Exchange rate:  $1USD = $2BZD – super easy to convert in your head! I don’t think the exchange rate changes, I believe it is fixed (how does that work???).

 

-Drink ALL THE BELIKEN!!!

 

Have any questions? Comment below or email me at alaybour@gmail.com