Travel Review: Belize 🏝️

After Christmas, Morgan and I went down to Belize for a quick getaway. I believe it was last October when we started spontaneously tossing the idea out of going somewhere after Christmas (work was crazy for both of us and a reset at the end of the year seemed like a great idea).

Turns out lots of other people do this too 😂. Finding somewhere to go for a decent price was nearly impossible. Luckily, I stumbled upon a site called SkyScanner which enables you to search from your departing airport to “everywhere”:

Which is how we landed on Belize haha people have been asking what prompted us to go there and truthfully, it was one of the cheapest yet most exciting options out there. Plus, after further research — Belize had a ton of things going for it:

• Southwest (our favorite airline) flies there and we had enough points to cover our flights (the flights still would have been pretty damn cheap like $350 a piece RT)
• Pretty easy to get down there, only 2.5 hours from Ft Lauderdale and it’s the same time zone (CST) so you don’t lose a ton of time traveling
• Second largest barrier reef in the world
• Two great islands off the mainland with plenty to do and beautiful beaches
• December is their Dry Season so not a lot of rain and the temp between 70–80
• The hotels on the island we were looking at (Ambergris Caye) were affordable too

So we booked it from Dec 29th - Jan 5th (like most vacations, in hindsight- one or two more days would have been ideal but still was a solid 5 days)

We booked our whole stay at a hotel called X’Tan Ha which is on Ambergris Caye (one of the two main islands/cayes pronounced “keys” off of Belize). We knew nothing about the place and since we were late in the game we just booked whatever looked decent. We paid $304 a night including all fees, taxes, etc so not too bad.

Getting to the hotel is a bit of a trip tho, you have to fly into Belize City (BZE) and then take a hopper flight from the mainland to the island. However, the airport at BZE is actually super dope and you can grab a Belikin on draft (the local beer) as you cruise around looking at shops. Then, they just put you on a prop plane and take you over to your destination which for us was San Pedro on the Ambergris Caye island. The flight took ~15 mins filled w/amazing sights of the ocean and island.

Once we landed, the hotel had transport waiting for us to take us from San Pedro to the resort. On Ambergris Caye, there are really only like 4 roads and one main one that goes N / S. The roads are mostly dirt with potholes everywhere so the primary mode of transportation is golf cart (which is kinda awesome). If any Midwesterners are familiar with Put-In Bay it really is like a bigger, more exotic PIB haha

Finally, we made it to our hotel and could not have been more pleased with it. We had a room right on the ocean and within a 30 second walk was the main palapa bar:

View from our patio, was convinced they gave us the wrong room

The rest of the trip (as you can imagine) consisted of mainly beach time. The beach was perfect and the sand was so soft. The water clear and bright blue at just the perfect temperature. Also, you could walk out the middle of the ocean and it still only be like 3ft deep.

I worked in the morning the first two days to knock a few things out but after that it was all chilling. For this trip, we made sure NOT to book any activities (even though I wanted to book some crazy shit like Mayan ruin tours, cave tubing, etc) and just unwind. But, we still did a few fun things around the island:

Eating Dinner w/Leo and his fam

Turns out my sisters boyfriends family had the same exact idea and were in Belize the same time we were. What’s even crazier is that they stayed on the same island in a resort <1 mi from ours so we were both on the northern tip of the island. Leo came and got a drink our palapa then took us to their spot in his golf cart for dinner where we enjoyed a feast (thanks again Cleary-Foellers!)

Dinner w/Leo’s fam…snapped the sunset from the back of Leo’s golf cart en route to their spot

Snorkeled Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley

The one activity we had to do was snorkel around the reef. We did a 1/2 day and went to one of the spots called Hol Chan. We saw coral, schools of fish, a barracuda, and so much more. After we snorkeled around Hol Chan, we went to “Shark Ray Alley” where they thew some chum to lure the sharks.

The gameplan from our guides for the sharks was literally “as soon as we throw this out of the left side of the boat, get in the water as fast you can from the other side and swim around to see them”.

Well, we did that and holy shit..there was no joke 20+ sharks flying in there and then tons of large tuna and stingrays and all sorts of stuff. They kept swimming under you too as they went towards the chum. It was both incredible and terrifying at the same time. At one point, I looked up and Morgan was swimming back to the boat haha don’t blame her one bit I was starting to trip a bit too but man that was awesome.

Riding bikes around visiting John’s Escape

We wanted to rent a golf cart one day to go into town but since they were out this day, we decided to take some bikes (that were super jenky) and cruise southwards towards town. No way were we going to make all the way into San Pedro but there were some fun bars and resorts along the way so we biked first to John’s Escape:

If you don’t know the story of John McAfee, you can read plenty about him on google. There’s also a fascinating documentary of him on Netflix — https://www.netflix.com/title/80148180

But the TLDR is that he’s a billionaire that escaped to Belize and got involved in the local crime scene and started running shit and doing research, etc. Now, he’s reportedly on the run from the CIA and tweeting all sorts of crazy (definitely worth the follow but fair warning, he’s fucking crazy).

Anyways, the spot was awesome and pretty funny to me as I’ve followed McAfee for quite a while. As we biked back from it, a random (maybe stray) Chow dog surpassingly chased after her on a bike but no damage done and we got away 😂. We stopped at a couple other bars on the way back (all on the water) and ate a Caribbean joint. It was awesome to just bike around in peace — avoiding potholes, and being able to stop anywhere and find a palapa on the beach. One of my favorite parts about the island is that it’s chill and relatively quiet. No spot is too crowded and nothing is really ‘touristy’. You don’t have cars speeding around and the most you gotta look out for is people passing you on a golf cart haha

Rented a golf cart, went to the Truck Stop and Secret Beach

We finally got a golf cart on last final day so we made way for a place called the Truck Stop. The Truck Stop is super cool cuz it’s like 4 shipping containers turned food trucks plus some bars right on the water. I enjoyed a frozen mojito there made by our new friend Amy. Amy, like all the locals was super nice which is another huge plus for Belize.

After the Truck Stop, we went to Secret Beach. Secret Beach gets a lot of hype and you’ll see it everywhere online if you research but really, this was the one spot we could have gone without. Apparently, it used to be a nude beach that was hard to get to AKA “secret” but now, it’s been built way up and just wasnt our vibe. Bar reps trying to lure you into their spots with drink tickets, overpriced drinks, and people always trying to sell you shit… My .02 — no need to go to Secret Beach if you’re on the island but we both admit we did get the best damn (and most expensive) mojito there.

On the way home, we stopped at a restaurant called Rojo that was our favorite spot of the trip. We got a pizza with shrimp and bacon which was legit one of the best pizzas either of us have ever had. It was also a very dope vibe, right on the water and laid back. We believe it was started by a couple dudes from NYC that just moved there but not for sure on that.

📷 More Photos

Morgan’s Christmas gift to us was a polaroid camera for the trip which was super fun haha I may have fucked a few of them of up but here’s the collection:

Upper left was the hopper flight we took in, the rest are the resort we stayed at and view from our patio

Doing a bit of work in the morning, beach chillin, bike ride

John’s escape, Morgan making random doggie friends, and me in the water with humans and sharks

Food truck, Caribeville where the population is HAPPY, and Secret Beach

Bike rides, Carribean BBQ

Kayaking, beach chillin

Ok, think that’s a wrap! I couldn’t recommend Belize enough and will 100% be going back. It’s the perfect escape that’s affordable and has everything you want — if you want to get adventurous and check out Mayan Ruins or go cave tubing you can, if you want to dive or snorkel one of the best reefs in the world, you can…our you can just sink your toes in the sand while drinking a Belikin, reading the Godfather like I did for most of the days 😎

I hope to be able to do another “end of year” trip. Something about being able to reflect on the year you had off the grid enables you to reset and get ready for the next year. Feeling recharged and ready to go after this trip so thank you Belize for having us 🙏🙏