Caye Caulker, Belize🇧🇿

From Flores in Guatemala we went straight to Caye Caulker in Belize, which was pretty easy and only took six hours! There is one bus which leaves everyday around 7am, takes you to the border where you go through immigration before getting another bus to Belize City. At Belize City you can then get a ferry to Caye Caulker, which runs every hour and takes an hour to get to the island! Overall the cost of this transport was just under £100 for the both of us!

We went straight to Caye Caulker, but if you have the time, another recommended stop between the border crossing and Belize City, is San Ignacio. This town is very cute with more ruins to explore, colourful buildings, stalls and cafes, which is why people stop here briefly for a couple of days! Most people then spend between five to seven days on Caye Caulker depending on their time and budget. There isn’t a lot to do on the island but relax and live the slow life. However, if you are a diver, you could spend a few days either getting your PADI or Advanced and go to different dive spots. We spent five nights here and spent most of our time relaxing, playing with the stingrays at Stingray Beach and watching the football at the various bars. We also did a full day snorkel tour and Ned did a full day scuba dive tour in the Blue Hole and surrounding reefs, both of which were fantastic.

Caye Caulker

🏨Bella’s Hostel (party) / Go Slow Hostel / Caye Caulker Hostel

Bella’s Hostel is the main party hostel to stay at on the island. It is famous for its Sunday Funday, which includes hours of drinking, beer pong and volleyball tournaments, before ending with a sunset boat and then going back to the hostel for the after party! Sunday Funday tickets costs 40USD and includes unlimited drinks at the hostel and on the boat. The hostel itself is pretty decent with loads of dorm rooms, social area and kitchen, which leads back into the bar area.

For a more chilled experience, Go Slow Hostel is another place to stay at, only the next road from Bella’s. Here, you can have a mixture of relaxing with partying by going to Sunday Funday from there! It’s not as built up as Bella’s but does the job, with four man dorms or private rooms, aircon and a basic cooking area.

Explore the Island
The whole island is pretty walkable, with the hostels in prime location to all the main spots! Take a day to explore and pop into the different souvenirs stalls, boutiques and cafes to try incredible food or have a cocktail by the beach. If you don’t want to walk you can hire bicycles or golf carts, but they’re pretty expensive! Some spots where you can relax and sunbathe at, are Stingray Beach, Sip and Dip and The Split.

Snorkelling Tour or Dive
The main attraction is the half or full day snorkelling tours! You will get the chance to see some incredible wildlife, such as swimming with turtles, sooo many sharks and potentially manatees!

For our Snorkel tour we went with Salt Life Eco Tours and they were really good! It normally costs $95 USD but we got a small discount as we had a group of eight of us. Most tours are the same price, as the whole island agrees on similar prices for all food, drinks and tours so that it is fair for all businesses! Our company takes you to seven snorkelling spots instead of five and we also went a lot earlier than some companies, which allowed us to be at some spots completely by ourselves. We ended up swimming with three manatees, which is not as common with lots of people missing it! Highly recommend our Salt Life, they give you snacks, lunch and fruit punch with rum throughout the day!

If you want to do a dive as well, Ned went with Scuba Sensations and he highly recommends them. It was an all day tour, cost $360 USD, which included breakfast, lunch and 3 dives, with one going to the famous Blue Hole.

Another company offered 2 dives for $115 USD but only went to nearby diving areas, whereas Scuba Sensations took Ned to two incredible spots further out. The highlight of Ned’s dive was seeing a hammerhead shark inside the Blue Hole, which is so rare that even his guide was excited about seeing it!

Stingray Beach
Another highlight is Stingray Beach, which is a five minute walk away from the hostels! You can spend the whole day at this beach, however the sun lounges are only for guests who are staying there. The beach has hammocks and swings that you can relax in and every early evening, loads of stingrays come to the beach for you to see and touch. Some days they also feed them, which can be seen as unethical. However, we spoke to the guy running it and he said if he didn’t feed them, they would go to the nearby fisherman boats and get caught in the nets there, so he wanted to prevent that!

Sunset
Watch the sunset on the island at different spots like Stingray Beach, The Split and Lazy Lizard, Pelican Sunset Bar or the Tarpon Spot, which is at the end of the road near Go Slow Hostel.

Food
Our hostel had a kitchen, so we cooked a couple of times, however, there are loads of spots to eat at on Caye Caulker:

• Errolyns House of Fry Jacks.
• Next to Errolyns is a delicious Fruit and Juice spot.
• Kareems.
• The Magic Cup.
• Ice and Beans.
• Enjoy Bar and Lounge.
• Drive Through Fast Food.
• Caye Caulker Bakery.
• Sip & Dip.
• The Lazy Lizard.

Overall, Caye Caulker was a really nice place to relax, after a couple of weeks of fast-paced travelling! Sadly, when we went in July, it was peak Sargassum season (seaweed), meaning the shores were full of seaweed, that were rotting and smelt pretty badly. This made swimming and the overall enjoyment of the island quite difficult! The opposite side of the island, where Sting Ray Beach was, was alright, so we spent most afternoons here. The main highlight for us was the snorkelling tour and dive, so highly recommend doing those activities! If you are unsure whether or not to go to Belize, if you are into your wildlife, I would say its worth coming for a couple days just to do the snorkelling tour, it was that good!