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

[intarsiabox]

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.

[Reef_Geek]

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!

[Snappy]

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.

[Coralgurl]

Originally Posted by Reef_Geek

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!

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.

Originally Posted by Snappy

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.

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.

[Snappy]

Originally Posted by Coralgurl

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.

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

[Reef_Geek]

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.

[Reef_Geek]

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

[Coralgurl]

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.... 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!

[Coralgurl]

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!

[Reef_Geek]

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