[DigitalNomad]

About:
Belize is a former British colony which gained its independence in 1981. The official language is English, although most locals also speak Spanish and Creole, or a combination of all 3 at times. It offers some of the best diving in the world, great fishing opportunities, and nice weather year round. Safety on the islands isn’t much of an issue, especially in Caye (pronounced key) Caulker. It is the most expensive country in Central America, but still relatively cheap compared to other places in the world.

Where to stay
In San Pedro, your only real option for backpacking is Sandbar. Hot water and AC are a plus, and the bar has good happy hour deals on food. There will be a few options of foreigners to hit on, but there definitely isn’t an abundance on this island. It’s more of a couples/families destination. It is about $50 for a private and $18 for a dorm.

For Caye Caulker, I recommend Bella's Hostel. The one drawback there is that the local guys who work there are going to be taking at least 2 girls out of the dating pool every night, but the ratio was typically in your favor and the quality was particularly good for a hostel. They offer free canoes, cheap spearfishing, an open kitchen, and basically every night is a party there. They also aren’t too strict with guests. Privates are $30, dorms are $12, or $17 with AC. You can also do a hotel or Airbnb, should be able to find something in the $80-100 range.

Day Game
San Pedro- The best bet is Secret Beach. You could wander the city, but I don’t know how productive that would be. Alternatively just hang out at the bar at Sandbar. There is also a dock behind it where girls are normally laying out

Caye Caulker- Lazy Lizard or Koko King are great for day gaming here. Also just planting seeds at Bellas or trying to get a group together for a snorkel trip.

Things To Do
Both islands offer great snorkeling trips priced between $30 for a half day to $70 for a full day including lunch and alcohol. Half day covers quite a bit and it might be easier to convince a group of backpackers to come on. Diving is about $100/dive. One of the more spectacular things you can do is fly over the blue hole, but this will set you back $200+. Aside from that, just kick back and relax. Spearfishing is also a fun option.


Lobster season runs from June 14th- Feb 14th.. There is a lobster fest on both islands about one week into the season which is apparently a great time to be there.

Tourists
Canadians, Americans, Germans, Brits, and Scandinavians are the most prevalent. It’s pretty much going to be only gaming tourists in Caye Caulker, unless you like yourself a thick Carribean chick… but that’s not my scene. There are a few more local options in San Pedro, but I stuck with backpackers. Other parts of the country have more Mestizo and occasionally white people, but on the islands I didn’t experience much of that. The locals do go for tourists from what I heard from some local friends, but not necessarily at the clubs, more just inviting them straight over to their place… can’t confirm whether that’s true or not though.

Online Game
Not great, there just aren't enough people and the islands are small enough that you’ll bump into everyone eventually anyway.

Nightlife
Pricing- On both islands beers and rums will run you at about $3usd, however the beers are slightly smaller than normal. Any other well drinks will be about $5, and fancier cocktails around $8. Some of the late night bars charge cover, but it’ll be $5 or less in most cases.

Caye Caulker
This is easy- Lazy Lizard or Koko King until sunset, Sports Bar until midnight, and Reggae Bar until 2-3am. There pretty much aren’t any other options. The good thing is that since those are the only options, they tend to be busy most nights. The bad thing is it’ll be hard to avoid people you previously hooked up with or just don’t want to see in general.

Koko King- A boat leaves from the main island every 30 minutes out to this bar, which is what used to be the other half of the island, but was separated after a hurricane. As long as you spend ~$12 at the bar the boat is free, although they aren’t too strict about it anyway. You get free tubes and beach chairs here, and they only end up charging you for about 2/3 of the drinks you order. The full moon parties out here are a blast as well.

Lazy Lizard- A giant outdoor bar at the end of the island, there is a spot to swim, they host contests on the weekend, and a great place to hang out during the day time and at sunset.


Sports Bar- Arrive here around 10:30, they have a seating area, dance floor, and a big outdoor patio. It’s a really social bar, so plant some seeds here.

Reggae Bar- A bit loud, but a good bar for dance floor game. They also have swings next to the bar which are good to grab a drink with a girl and chat

San Pedro

I’ll break this one down by the days:

Monday- not sure
Tuesday- Hermit Crab Races at Crazy Canucks- fun crowd, and by the 6th race things get pretty raunchy. Maybe not the best for talent, but a good place to bring girls you already met
Wednesday- Ladies night at Pedro’s Inferno. It’s a wild time with mostly a local crowd. Great night out.
Thursday- Chicken Drop at Wahoo Lounge, this basically consists of a giant board with randomly labeled squares between 1-100. They drop a chicken on the board and the first one the chicken shits on wins the purse. Should have a few options here because everyone goes there
Fri/Sat- Find a busy bar to pregame at, I’d probably aim for the town square and just see what’s busy, maybe above Daddy Rocks or the bar on the patio of Jaguars, then at 12:30-1 head to Jaguars or Daddy Rocks. The outdoor bars can stay open until 2am on the weekends, and the clubs go really late.
Sunday- Spend the afternoon at Crazy Canucks for Sunday Funday. Or rent a golf cart and hit Secret Beach for the day

Final Thoughts:
If you are looking for a good place to spend a few days and recharge, while also having some decent talent around and sufficient nightlife, Caye Caulker is a pretty good spot. It's a bit quiet, but overall pretty easy to pick up, especially if you plant some seeds in the afternoon. San Pedro probably isn't worth your time.

[Sidney Crosby]

Just repped you surprised I haven't already, keep up the good work.

[Sisyphus]

Good writeup Nomad, very thorough. A couple things to add:

Bella's gets crowded pretty quickly so better to book in advance and in general all of the lodging gets filled up during high tourist times like Christmas-New Year's and spring break. If you get shut out of hostels you'll be stuck paying for one of the $80-100 hotel rooms you mentioned which I doubt are worth the price.

I stayed at the Tropical Oasis which is a bit further north. Prices are similar to Bella's, also open kitchen, friendly dogs and cats running around, hammocks, and pretty much anything goes. Very friendly vibe. Accommodations themselves are pretty...let's say Spartan...but why would you be spending any time in the room except to sleep anyway. The first night, I ended up going out in a big group with people from several different countries who I'd just met and my second night I went out with a girl from my dorm. Meeting easy going and outgoing people was very easy, and I'm a huge introvert. You'd have to go out of your way to not socialize.

Snorkeling is worthwhile. A half day is good enough for me - you get lots of rays, sharks, and a pretty diverse array of fish in the coral. There are many operators and I expect they're all the same. Although Caye Caulker is always described as laid back I found it to be pretty frenetic and loud. To get away from all of that I did some sea kayaking and went north a mile or two to the mangrove. You can paddle right through it and it's a great way to enjoy a unique ecosystem. Good shoulder workout too. Rentals are available near the Split, runs about $5 an hour.

I recommend avoiding the ubiquitous over-priced lobster joints ($25 for dinner) and just cooking something quick for yourself at the hostel. Keep in mind that there isn't an actual beach area on the island. You can jump and swim in the water but there isn't a big sandy place to lay out a blanket and hang out.

Just because there's so little to do I walked basically the whole area of the island. If you walk to the Southwest corner you can see where all the locals live. It's pretty run down but it's educational to see how the other half lives, and it makes an interesting juxtaposition with the touristy areas that are a half mile away.

They claim there are no motor vehicles on the island but you'll soon come to see that this is not the case. The frequent bike taxis get annoying too.

Sunset near the Lazy Lizard is also a good place to chat people up and the sunset makes for very obvious and natural openers.

The island is very small so two days was more than enough for me. If you have a flight out of Belize City, Caye Caulker is a much better place to stay. I had done only jungle stuff for my trip so even though I'm not a beach person it was nice to get a couple of days of ocean in to wrap things up and situate myself close to Belize City. There are frequent ferries - each way is about 45 minutes and round trip is $25. You end up near the Swing Bridge and there are several options for taxis in the ferry terminal along with some souvenir shops and breakfast places where you can get a decent meal for $6.

[wellrockthecity]

Was in San Pedro a few years ago. Bar the snorkeling was one of the worse place I ever been to.
Completely americanized and no hotties whatsover, just fat middle aged tourists. Beach was crap and water filthy, 10/10 would never go again.

We got smashed the last night and ended up throwing one of those golf cart in the sea my friend had to block his credit card he gave to rent it out the day after lol
Also the small plan to get to the island was fun a bit scary because there is only one pilot.