Need itinerary help on madcap Belize trip!
 

I saw a ridiculously cheap flight to Belize City in January, and a friend and I jumped on it. $150 round trip! We'll be there from Thursday afternoon to Monday afternoon. Don't have a ton of time, but we took what we could, and I'm totally thrilled about going!

The only problem is that I have no idea what to do! This does not need to be relaxing. We're in our twenties and very active. We'd rather see more and sleep less. Should we stay in Belize City? Head for ruins? Rent a car? I saved enough cash on the flight that I can drop some on a few activities, but I'm looking to keep it cheap if I can. I'm reading and reading, but I wanted to post and see if I could gain any insight.

Help!

With only 4 nights I'd pick one spot and do day trips. If you don't mind moving around, then maybe 2 nights in a jungly place with a cave adventure in between (ATM cave?) and 2 nights on Caulker or Ambergris. Don't stay in Belize City - most of us get out of there as fast as we can. My photos and travelogues are linked below if you're interested. Happy trails!

http://flickr.com/photos/staceyholeman/collections

When I went to Belize it was also for a short vacation. I think we had five nights. We stayed at a family run place called Crystal Paradise in Cayo. It was perfect for us.. nothing fancy. We did great day trips.. one to a cave, ruins, and Tikal. They had canoes out back and one day we paddled into town and they picked us up. A great family..although this is going back about five years now. Even with your short time you will have three full days if you just base yourself in one spot. Enjoy

Crystal Paradise looks great. I'm looking into one of their packages - which include a bunch of day trips. Still checking out the scene. Thanks guys!

www.cavesbranch.com

very neat

www.calicojacksvillage.com

Placenia

Have fun

You might find something useful in our trip reports and pictures. We also stayed at Crystal Paradise 4 years ago or so and liked it. There's pictures from there, Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye.

www.alandsuejohnson.com
Belize link on the left

Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker offer snorkeling, laid back beach time (not great beaches though) and nice people. You can get to smaller ruins from either as day trips.

I'd stay in one place and do trips from there if it was me. You have enough time for a great trip but shouldn't lose too much of it moving around.

I'm a little confused about why Crystal Paradise seems SO cheap! Based on the rave reviews and the price, I'm looking into it a lot closer.

By the way - AIJ, I just about ate up the adorable little snow bunny on the front page of your site. Too cute!

Shirley,
Crystal Paradise is very reasonable. The bungalows are very basic and simple. This could be why. It's not close to town but we took the bus with the locals one day and didn't have any problems. One of the sons also took us out one night in town. As I said before it was at least 5 years ago that we went so I am sure things such as that have changed. For such a short vacation I don't think that you can go wrong.

Shirley

Click on her picture and you can see several others. We've taken more than a few.

The only inconvenience we had at Crystal Paradise was being 5-6 miles out of town. Like someone else said, we paddled a canoe down the river to San Ignacio and spent a few hours wandering around town. Worked out well for us.

We didn't have a car and let them ferry us back to town. Wasn't cheap but was simple. They dropped us at the zoo and waited before we headed to the airport too.