genfan19

First off, we are novice travelers. I bought a 7 night stay on Ambergris Caye in a resort condo from a friend and it sleeps 4. There will be me, my husband, and our two daughters ages 24 and 21. We want to snorkel but we are not super experienced. We would like to do cave tubing, visit ruins, have adventures and go to Tikal. We prefer nature vs bars and crowds.

Should we fly from SLC into BZE? --Can anyone give advice on how to plan our trip to be budget friendly and maximize our time? We also hope to have a couple of days to just relax. I would be most grateful for your collective wisdom and experience.

hopefulist

I'd grab a guidebook; even if it's a dated one from the public library it will have suggested itineraries and cultural/historical background to get you started. I'm fond of the Fodor's and Moon guides for Belize.

With that extra week you have time for 2-3 stops without feeling too rushed. Most folks would start with at least 3 nights in western Belize (Cayo District/San Ignacio area) to take advantage of caving and Maya sites. I would recommend an overnight to Tikal in Guatemala - such an impressive site it would be a shame to be so close and miss it imo. Another popular stop is Placencia; you could consider that or Hopkins Village for part of a week.

The Toledo District in the south is less visited but very awesome; we stayed there for the 1st time last summer (during our 3rd visit to Belize) and are heading back next spring.

My photos with blog and travelogue links on the main page of each collection are below in case you're interested - all my recommendations are embedded there. Happy planning!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyholeman/collections

Katie_Valk

Sounds like you have 7 nights in Belize and have booked 7 nights at the condo hotel. You can book day trips from the caye to the mainland to visit Mayan sites in Belize, cave tubing, zoo. Tikal would be an overnight trip. Grt snorkelling, diving, fishing, sailing and kayaking on the caye and wonderful spas and restaurants

Katie_Valk

Opps, sorry, right, you have two weeks. Visit Cayo and then head into Guatemala to Tikal for a night. Can also include sites closer to Belize City, Altun Ha and Lamanai and combine wit jungle and other actvities

Katzgar

"Should we fly from SLC into BZE? " how else would you get there? use kayak.com to look at flights and gmaps and youtube to look the area over.

genfan19

Thank you hopefulist, Katie and Katzgar. First stop, a guide book