Belize Travel Tips: Things to Know Before You Visit

Are you currently planning a trip to Belize and would like to learn more about the country prior to your trip? If so, then you’ve come to the right place. In this Belize travel tips post you’ll find answers to common questions about safety, language, costs, the best places to visit and how to get around the country using the different modes of transportation.

We spent two weeks in Belize and, as always, we did plenty of research prior to visiting. This mixture of research and our personal experiences will help us to answer some of the general questions you’ll probably have before your trip.

It’s important that you do your own research too and check official websites before you travel to Belize. Everyone’s experience in a country will be different, so also bear in mind that this is just what we experienced.

If you’d like to see what we got up to in Belize then you can watch our Belize Series on YouTube. (We’ve been getting plenty of love on it from Belizeans)!

Where is Belize?

Belize is located in Central America and is bordered by Mexico to the north, Guatemala to the south and west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east. In addition, Belize also shares a maritime border with Honduras. Based on land area, Belize is the second smallest country in Central America.

The capital city of Belize is Belmopan, which is located in between Belize City and San Ignacio. The country is also home to the Belize Barrier Reef, which is the second largest coral reef system in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

How to Get to Belize?

You can get to Belize via air, land or water.

Via Air. Most visitors arrive by plane at Philip Goldson International Airport (BZE) in Belize City. There are direct flights to Belize City from many US cities and Canada. Within Mexico, the only direct flight is from Cancun. You can also fly directly to Belize from Guatemala or Panama’s capitals. We use this website to find direct connections to our destinations.

Via Land. Another popular way to arrive in Belize is via land. This is more common with backpackers who are travelling through Central America and Mexico. You can cross the land border with Guatemala, which is how we arrived to Belize. A lot of visitors also arrive from Chetumal in Mexico.

Via Water. Another way to arrive to Belize is by boat. Most visitors do that from either Guatemala or Mexico.

Belize Travel Tips: Things to Know Before Your Trip

Belize Entry Requirements

However, you need a passport to enter the country which should be valid for at least 3 months after your date of arrival. It’s worth noting that some airlines could deny boarding if your passport isn’t valid for 6 months after the date of arrival. So, make sure to check your airline’s rules if you’re entering the country by air.

You will need to fill out an immigration and customs declaration form before entering the country. When we crossed the land border from Guatemala it was a paper form. However, from the start of 2025 they’ll be transitioning to a fully digital system, especially if you’re arriving by air.

You’ll need to know the address of the first and last accommodations you’ll be staying at in Belize.

You should also have proof of onwards travel which can be a flight, bus or ferry ticket depending on your next destination.

Note that if you want to leave Belize by land, or by water, you must pay a departure tax at the border which is 40BZD (20 USD). This tax is usually included in airfares if you’re flying to your next destination. 

In addition, you may be asked to show that you have sufficient funds to cover your stay.

Language in Belize

The official language in Belize is English. In fact, Belize is actually the only English-speaking country in Central America. (Even though you won’t need to speak much Spanish if you visit Costa Rica either.)

This is because Belize is a former British Colony, known as British Honduras until 1973. However, most Belizeans also speak fluent Spanish, as well as Belizean Creole which is an English-derived dialect. In addition, three Maya languages and Garifuna are also spoken in the country.

For this reason, Belize is actually a great country to visit if it’s your first time in Central America. You’ll be able to get by easily and connect with locals, who are very friendly and love to have a chat. We had many nice conversations with our hosts, taxi drivers, street vendors and restaurant staff during our trip, who told us about Belize and their lives in general. This made our visit to Belize even more memorable.

General Safety in Belize

Belize is considered a generally safe country for tourists. It’s probably ranked somewhere in the middle compared with other Central American countries. We personally never felt unsafe in Belize and found Belizeans to be incredibly friendly and chatty.

Whilst there are some gang-related crimes in Belize, these usually don’t target tourists. As a visitor, your main safety concern will be some petty crimes including pickpocketing and scamming, which can happen anywhere in the world. Our main advice is to stay vigilant and keep your belongings close to you when out and about. Always listen to your gut, and don’t wander around alone in poorly-lit streets or drive at night. Speaking of driving, if you do hire a car, never leave anything visible in the car to avoid break-ins. Be alert at bus stations if you’re getting around the country using public transport.

Check the Government’s website for up-to-date safety advice.

Have Travel Insurance

Don’t visit Belize without travel insurance. You never know what might happen during your trip. So, having good travel insurance that protects you in case of cancellations, theft, injury, and illness is more important than ever these days.

There are many different companies out there offering different levels of coverage depending on your needs. We personally use SafetyWing which offers coverage at a much more affordable price than most other insurances.

Our favourite feature of SafetyWing is that they allow you to sign up even if your trip has already started, which many other companies don’t allow you to do.

Currency in Belize

The official currency is the Belize Dollar (BZD). It is fixed to the US Dollar at $2BZD = $1USD, so calculating costs is very simple.

USD is accepted in touristy areas including tour agencies and restaurants. However, you may want to have some local currency when buying from local shops, street food vendors, or paying for taxis. We noticed that whilst local shops and restaurants obviously have their prices in BZD, most tour agencies show prices in USD. If in doubt, just double check if the price is quoted in USD or BZD.

You can either exchange some USD if you’re coming from the United States, or withdraw some BZD at an ATM. We exchanged our leftover Guatemalan Quetzales to BZD when we crossed the land border to Belize. You can do the same if you’re coming from Mexico too and usually get a pretty decent exchange rate.

Luckily, we really didn’t need too much cash as we could pay by card in most places. We always use our Wise card when travelling, which allows us to withdraw money from the ATM or pay by card at most shops and restaurants without getting hit by crazy bank fees.

Travel Costs

Just because Belize is a Central American country, that doesn’t automatically mean that it’s ‘cheap’. In fact, based on the cost of living index, Belize is ranked the second highest in Central America after Costa Rica. Yes, it’s still generally a more affordable country if you live in the USA, Canada or Western Europe.

Of course, affordability can look different to everyone. If you’re a backpacker living off a tight daily budget, then you might find the country very expensive. However, if you’re coming to the country for a vacation, these prices might feel similar to what you normally pay back home. 

After crossing the land border from Guatemala, which has one of the lowest costs of living in Central America, it took us a minute to get used to tour prices costing us over 100 USD per person.

However, with careful planning you can visit Belize on a lower budget. For example, we found San Ignacio to be generally more affordable than the Cayes. In addition, Caye Caulker is more backpacker friendly in terms of food and accommodation costs compared to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. There are many local markets selling fresh produce, as well as supermarkets where you can buy the basics if you have an accommodation with a kitchen.

Internet and WiFi in Belize

Most accommodations, restaurants and cafes will have complimentary WiFi. However, if you’re out and about, or planning on driving around Belize, we recommend having an eSIM.

We used to get physical, local SIM cards but it required us to have a phone that’s unlocked and we had to go into a store with our passports to purchase one. Now we just purchase an eSIM and activate it straight away when we arrive to the country. Easy-peasy.

We have been using Holafly’s eSIM’s for a few years now. They cover over 219 destinations, as well as offering 7 regional plans, which are great if you’re backpacking through Latin America and need data in more than one country. They also offer unlimited data packages in most destinations, which comes in really handy when we want to use our phones as hotspots.

Note. Most modern phones are eSIM compatible, but you can check if yours is here.

Best Time to Visit Belize

The best time to visit Belize is in the dry season. This is between December and April, when the chances of clear blue skies and pleasant temperatures are higher, making activities like diving or snorkeling around the Belize Barrier Reef, flying over the Blue Hole or going on the popular ATM Cave tour, more enjoyable.

As you would expect, this is going to be the busiest time to visit the country as it also coincides with both the Christmas and Easter holidays. So expect bigger crowds and higher accommodation prices in the dry season.

If you can, we suggest visiting in the shoulder season in either November or May. We were in Belize in May and the weather was still great for the most part, with bearable humidity and just the occasional heavy shower on a few afternoons.

Whilst prices are much lower in the wet season, expect muddy trails, high humidity, more mosquitoes and often closed attractions depending on the amount of rainfall. Hurricanes can also occur in this season.

How to Get Around Belize: Transportation Options in Belize

Since Belize is a small country, the distances between places are quite short. There are also many different modes of transport you can use to get from A to B.

Rental Car

One of the best ways to get around Belize is to rent a car. We appreciate that renting a car in a foreign country can feel intimidating. However, driving around Belize is pretty easy. The main roads were in good condition, apart from the one leading to the Caracol Ruins, which is why we suggest renting a 4×4 if you want to do that.

The hire car allowed us to stop at places where tours wouldn’t necessarily go, such as Billy Barquedier National Park along the Hummingbird Highway. Speaking of the Hummingbird Highway, it’s one of the most scenic roads in Belize and is definitely best seen out the window of your own vehicle.

In addition, most day tours in Belize cost between 100 – 150USD per person. So, for us, it was way cheaper to have a car for a few days than to take tours. We summarised everything you need to know about hiring a car and driving in Belize in a dedicated blog post.

Tourist Shuttle

Getting from A to B is also made easy with tourist shuttles. You can book both private or shared ones depending on your needs and budget. In the high season you may want to book in advance, although most tour agencies also offer shuttle services.

We booked a tourist shuttle to get to Belize from Guatemala, then to travel to San Pedro from San Ignacio. The advantages of using shuttles to get around Belize is that they are easy, convenient and basically provide a door to door service. For example, the shuttle dropped us off at the ferry terminal in Belize City as opposed to the main bus terminal, from where we would’ve had to get a taxi to the port to catch our boat.

Of course, booking a shuttle comes with a higher price tag and you’ll miss out on the true local experience of travelling on public buses.

Public Transport

We love getting around Latin America by public transport. You can get pretty much anywhere using buses and colectivos. It’s a good way to save some pennies, especially if you’re on a tight budget. Plus, you’ll get a great insight into the every day commute and lives of the residents.

Of course, the downside is that it’s much slower than a dedicated tourist shuttle or a hire car. Plus, they can often be packed with next to no air-conditioning. Travelling with a lot of luggage can also be a pain on public buses. You could also add some safety concerns, since gringos like us do tend to stick out more.

Even though we used a hire car and booked the tourist shuttle option most often, we did use the local bus to visit Xunantunich Ruins from San Ignacio. Our best advice would be to save taking public buses for when you don’t have all your big suitcases with you.

Top Places to Visit in Belize

Caye Caulker

Located less than an hour’s boat ride from Belize City, Caye Caulker is one of the most popular places to visit in Belize. This tiny island (about 8 km long and 1 km wide) is one of 450 cayes along the length of the Belize Barrier Reef.

Caye Caulker attracts more of a younger crowd because their food and accommodation prices cater more towards backpackers. However, you can go on many fantastic day trips from here, including snorkeling and diving.

The motto on Caye Caulker is “Go Slow”, which is a bit like the “Pura Vida” motto in Costa Rica. So, if you’re after a more laid-back vibe, definitely book a few nights on this island.

San Pedro (Ambergris Caye)

Ambergris Caye is the biggest caye and also the most developed. It’s attached to the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico, so it’s technically a peninsula and not an island. The main, and only, town on it is San Pedro.

Here you’ll find more resort-type, luxury accommodations as well as apartments, which are perfect for families. There are also a great variety of restaurants, bars and cafes, not to mention the great beach clubs on the ‘not-so-secret’ Secret Beach. Don’t worry, you can also do plenty of water excursions from San Pedro too, including swimming with nursing sharks, diving and snorkeling.

San Ignacio

San Ignacio is a small town in western Belize within the Cayo district, about 100km from Belize City.

The area around it is filled with Maya ruins, rivers, caves, waterfalls and wildlife. This means that you can do plenty of adrenaline-fuelled activities here, such as the popular ATM cave tour, as well as more cultural ones like learning about Maya history at the Caracol or Xunantunich ruins.

We spent an entire week in San Ignacio and it was without doubt our favourite area in Belize.

Final Thoughts on Our Travel Tips for Belize

We found Belize an easy country to travel around in thanks to English being the country’s official language. Belizeans were very friendly and we had many great conversations with locals. We never felt unsafe in the country.

Even though it’s a tiny country compared to its neighbours, our 2 weeks in Belize were packed with adventures, from visiting Maya ruins to driving along scenic roads and soaking up the Caribbean Sea breeze with a Belikin in our hands. Our favourite area was San Ignacio, where we had the most varied itinerary, from going on the ATM cave tour to cooling down in waterfalls after a sweaty jungle hike. However, visiting the Cayes was also a great way to sneak some relaxation time into our itinerary.

Have you ever been to Belize before? If so, what was your experience like? If not, then we hope that our guide helped you to prepare for your unforgettable trip to this stunning Central American country.