Going to Belize in january!! Any suggestions on must sees?
 

I've never been to a tropical place ever so I'm pretty excited to be doing this trip. Tickets were booked today...woohoo!

So what do I need to know, do we need shots? Part of this trip is to look at land for possible investment opportunities, the rest is being tourists! Jason likes to hike more than chillin on a beach, I'm not in beach shape myself so this would be ok! But we do want to maybe try snorkeling, probably not enough time to do scuba training.

Looking for anything you guys can throw at me, what should not be missed?? Food, entertainment etc.

Thanks!

Where in Belize are you going?

It's easy to jump around to a few different places while your there. I'd look into San Padro on Ambregris caye for beach and snorkeling and maybe Orage walk for jungle and hikeing.
Check out Trip advisor for tips and tricks. We hav always found it a great resource

J

Talk to your Dr about getting Hep A and B shots
I needs to be done well ahead of your travel date

Not sure of exact destination, we fly into and out of cancun then will travel there and back. I was in the middle of a water change when he booked...lol

Shots - I will call tomorrow to get them set up. We also need to renew our passports as they expire before we go.

Will check out trip advisor as noted as well, Jason has gone out for a few hours so will get details when he comes back.

not all family doctors will provide vaccinations for travel. This is the travel clinic my wife and I used. Typically travel medicine is not covered by Alberta Health.
http://www.rsmed.ca/

there is a consultation fee that is not eligible under most health insurance plans, but the vaccinations (with DIN) are often eligible for out-of-pocket reimbursement for most drug plans (if you have one).

I've not been to Belize. Have been researching this resort: http://www.almondbeachbelize.com/

and their listed activities
http://www.almondbeachbelize.com/bel...urs-activities

keep us posted!

Good to know about the shots, thank you!

My daughter has an underwater camera I'm going to use, it's a point and shoot. I have a dslr, but I still suck at pics so might take my old point and shoot as well as it takes great photos.

I will post more details once I know!

I'm not worried about my tanks as my daughter has gotten good at taking care of them while we are away.

Well, this is not a suitcase trip I've learned, we will be traveling all over so will be looking for a good backpack. From the coast to the mountains. Jason pulled up his maps from when he went in the 90's so he knows where he wants to go. should be an adventure! I'm so planning the next trip, all our travels have been go go go, need a down time trip, but I'm not complaining, this will be great:lol:

yeah, I'm definitely going to hit you up for tips when you get back. take lots of pictures no matter what camera you're using!

Book an appointment with the Public Health Nurse, they will give you the information on which shots etc you need. In most cases they can give you the shots as well.

Hepatitis shots are over a 6 month period to get all the doses and be fully protected under the standard time line. You can ask to have a rapid dose schedule which can be done in 3-4 weeks time frame. Belize is considered an intermediate/high risk area, so make sure you get the shots.

Are you excited yet?

I'm looking at going with my wife in late 2013.

Here's what we're researching:

Fly Air Canada/United on a Saturday 6:40am departure, 1:20 layover in Houston, Belize City by 3pm.

Return United/Air Canada on a Saturday 12:20pm departure, 3 hr layover in Houston, back to Calgary after 9pm. (flights found on Expedia.ca)

Week 1, stay on mainland, perhaps at Almond Beach Resort.

http://www.almondbeachbelize.com/

TripAdvisor reviews and guest photos
http://expediaca.tripadvisor.com/Hot...k.html#REVIEWS

Check-out on the Saturday mid way, go get picked up by the another resort.

Week 2, stay on one of the atolls, at Turneffe Island Resort. We wouldn't want to stay on an island the whole time without seeing the real mainland Belize.

http://www.turnefferesort.com/

TripAdvisor reviews and guest photos
http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Hotel_Revi...ize_Cayes.html

Have a good trip! Make sure you take lots of pictures. Keep your ears open about anything you hear on these places, if you don't mind! Thanks!

Looking forward to hearing about your trip, and what activities you enjoyed!

Belize is very beautiful but very 3rd world and poverty stricken. Pretty well everyone speaks english - it used to be called British Honduras.

An absolute must see in Belize -
Jungle river & Lamanai ruins tour - is a MUST SEE!

If diving, anywhere along the barrier reef on the Ambergris Caye side.
I also recommend the "Blue Hole" - it's a full day excersion but well worth it - you can do a 3 tank dive on the trip.
I can give you dive shop recommendations and a few other tips as well if you want to give me a call.

Hep A shots done, we start everything else at the end of this week for malaria, traveler's diahreaha (sp) ect. Jason's passport came in this past week, mine should be here this week, both of ours were expiring and needed renewing.

We have a direct flight to cancun, we'll stay the night there, then either catch a flight to Belize city or take the bus, havent decided yet. We picked up traveling backpacks on boxing day, still have to sit down and figure out our itinerary.

Still a couple of weeks till we go, will spend a couple of days on the cayes, then into the mountains for some river caving, ruins etc.

I'll post more once we figure out more details. Getting a little excited yes but still lots to do before we go.

Hi Greg, I don't think we'll be diving on this trip, just doing some snorkeling. We will likely head to the blue hole, thinking of a heli tour over it.

Hopefully we have some details figured out fairly quickly, it's only just over 2 weeks away. :lol:

That is too bad you won't be diving but the snorkeling is good.
Lamanai is well worth a look.

came across these links in our research for must-do lists

http://www.chaacreek.com/belize-trav...-do-in-belize/

http://www.slickrock.com/belizethingstodo.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...es-Belize.html

http://belizedragonfly.com/2011/03/b...do-activities/

Some things stand out more than others to me... for example, Glover's Reef looks far more interesting to me than the Belize Zoo... but the zoo gets so many mentions... I'll guess it's a function of accessibility more than anything else. Hope this helps.

PS-I know you mentioned you may not have time to get scuba certification. I used to teach, it takes at least a full weekend to go through all the classroom modules and pool exercises, but that's for certification.

There is a course that is offered at most resorts around the world that is designed to be a "discovery" session. It involves a few hours poolside going over the basics, followed by a supervised shallow dive. Ask about it at a local dive shop in Belize.

Here's the "Discover Scuba" course.

http://www.padi.com/scuba/padi-cours...g/default.aspx

I would love to go diving!! But with the complete lack of planning and short time frame, there's not enough time for certification for this trip. Back in high school, we did all the in pool training and classroom work, but i never took it any further and that was a few years ago....:lol: If things go as planned this may be the first af many trips there. We will check it out when we are there, I believe we will be a few days at Ambergris caye and will see what is available.

We are sitting down later today to really plan things out. This may sound weird, but this is usually how we travel, go with the flow. Jason has been before and has a good idea of what he wants to do/see.

Reef geek, your links are awesome! Thanks for sharing, I'll be showing these to the bf!

Just got back from snorkeling, what an amazing time. Sharks, sting rays and swimming with the turtles. The reefs are stunning, all the fish, moray eel, trumpet fish, sea fans! And the corals! Wow! Got back to the dock and I was just sitting on the edge, look down and there's a beautiful orange seahorse grazing along the bottom!

Tomorrow we head to San Ignacio's (sp). I absolutely love it here!

Off to find some food!

you'll be glad to know the current temperature in Calgary is -6

It's a lovely 28 here today!

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...68db27db41.jpg

Hmm pics aren't working.

fyi this photo is very distracting for me to get my work done. at the moment I've got Jimmy Buffett on the home office ipod dock as I try to get work off my desk.

:lol:

Beautiful shot!
I am going to Belize in April - if you can recommend must sees then I am all ears.
Liz

I'm not a beer drinker but the Belikin beer is quite nice, drank lots yesterday and no hangover!

I will when we get back. I will say tho, get scuba training, the reefs are undescribable and a definite must see. I want to go again and didn't want to come back in:lol:

Finally stopped raining in the rainforest, of course on the day we are moving on. Haven't seen much for wildlife, but the howler monkeys are making a lot of noise! Is it weird I am loving the jungle more than the ocean??

hope you took pictures for the rest of us!

Alright I'm trying to post this pic one last time or it waits till we are home.

This is my most absolute favorite experience and one I will remember for a long time.

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...7dd91cbd15.jpg

that's very cool.

it's neat when they come up to check YOU out. Glad you got to see a turtle on your first snorkeling vacation.

I took this pic on a dive off Jupiter, Florida. This guy came in between three of us, with me taking the shot, turtle was right in the middle seeing what's up.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...7952_898_n.jpg