January 2022 Itinerary & Trip Notes

Overview: Belize City (2 days) > Placencia (2 days) > Belize Barrier Reef Sailing (7 days) > Bermudian Landing (2 days) with our friends the Chiappettas and Hoffmans.

The Bottom Line: Belize is all about being on the water, where snorkeling and diving the world’s second largest barrier reef with its spectacular marine life is out of this world, and the wonderful Belizean people who are proud but extremely friendly, welcoming and eager to share their love of the sea. Skip Belize City, hire a local skipper, and spend at least a week on the water.

We flew into Belize City for two days, meeting up with the Chiappettas, thinking it would be an ideal place to start before heading south. While our lodging was fine, we learned there is very little to do or see here. Worse, poverty is quite bad, panhandling and offers of “$5 shoe shines and massages” is pretty aggressive, and roaming off the main drags is a risky proposition. I would not recommend visiting here.

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We flew 50 minutes south to Placencia where we met up with our friends and sailing companions, Arthur and Jody Hoffman, at the house they had rented on the beach in Placencia. This place was sweeeeet! But aside from a couple nice dinners in the small, very laid-back beach town and waiting for our boat to be ready, the big highlight was two days of open water dives to complete my SCUBA certification! Highlights:

• Our VRBO rental house was fantastic, large and comfortable, right on the beach, and super convenient to both the airport and town. Golf carts, which can be rented, are the best mode of transportation. Best yet, we sprang for a chef to prepare and serve an incredible dinner with the best local flavors (unfortunately, I don’t have his contact info). Bug spray is essential in the back yard, especially near the beach.
• Getting my SCUBA certification with Seahorse Dive Shop. My instructor, Max, was terrific and our dives at Silk Cayes and Laughing Bird Caye were out of this world – swimming with nurse sharks, loggerhead turtles, moray eels, manta rays and tons of fish among the corals at 40-60 feet under. Unfortunately, no pics from those dives.
• Great local beers and decent food at Hobbs Brewery, built on an old decommissioned barge.
• Dinner at Rumfish y vino was pretty good, and the upstairs dining deck offers views of the street below. For a higher end splurge, we also enjoyed Mare at Francis Ford Coppola’s Turtle Inn, just down the road from our house.

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The centerpiece for this trip, and the reason we went, was this 7-day chartered sailing adventure along the incredible Belize Barrier Reef. Having our local skipper and seafaring soul, Dwayne Young, and cook, Miss Malou, made the journey extra special – and a licensed skipper is required to sail Belize. While we motored most places, given prevailing wind and prevalence of shallow reefs, we actually had good sailing a couple days. Overnight anchorages included King Lewey’s Caye, Glover’s Atoll, Tobacco Caye, Southwater Caye, Hideaway Caye, and Lark Caye. Highlights:

• Our yacht, a Sunsail 454 catamaran, was perfect for our three couples plus skipper and cook. Plenty of room, air conditioned staterooms, large lounge areas fore, aft and up top, and all the amenities one could want. We never felt crowded. If you sail, a catamaran is essential for navigating the reef due to its much lower draft than a monohull.
• Our skipper, Dwayne, was beyond incredible. A true man of the sea, he knew the waters like the back of his hand and took us places that we never would have thought of while steering us away from the overrated places. He was also a terrific fisherman, and we ate fresh amberjack and lobster that he caught daily.
• Snorkeling virtually everywhere was fantastic, as the reef is alive with colorful corals, fish, turtles and lobsters in crystal clear, warm water. Far superior to the BVI or anywhere else I’ve seen.
• King Lewey’s Island, our first night anchorage and only on-shore dinner, was kitchy but fun with its over-the-top pirate theme. Drinks and food were both great and it made for a great first night, before sailing on in the morning to…
• 2 days and 3 nights spent inside Glover’s Reef Atoll, a two hour sail outside the barrier reef with a huge anchorage protected from the ocean swell. There is a local dive shop, but the dive master was gone so we had to settle for awesome snorkeling and lobster diving among the patch corals on the interior. Virtually no other boats to be seen, we had this marine sanctuary to ourselves. The beach bar at the Manta Island Resort was a nice diversion with a beautiful white sand beach, completely deserted.
• Tobacco Caye was a great stopover, with a decent dive shop, a marine research center (I bought a shirt), and great beach bar tended by Kirk Westby, the Barefoot Bartender (I bought his book, which he signed).
• Cocktails on the stern or upper decks watching mind-boggling sunsets every night to the strains of Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffet and Bob Marley. Never gets old. Here is my playlist.

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With a couple days to kill after sailing and not wanting to return to Belize City, we called an audible, flying back to Belize and heading into the jungle 30 minutes drive from the Belize airport. Billing itself as an eco-resort, this place was small, rustic, family owned and operated (with no other staff), and we were the only ones there. Our hosts were friendly, though the vibe was a bit weird. Food was okay and beers were self-serve on the honor system. No bar. And never saw or heard a howler monkey. I’d recommend looking for a different place. Highlights:

• Boardwalk to the riverside cabins through semi-jungle and moderately kept gardens felt very authentic, and lots of pretty tropical flowers. 
• Took a boat tour with our host and his son up the river looking for wildlife. While the boat was nothing to shout about, we did see dozens of iguanas in the bush, a couple monkeys, and decent exotic birdlife.  
• It wasn’t Belize City.

Random Notes:

• We chose Placencia as our base for sailing because that’s where Sunsail is based, and we like them as an outfitter from past experience in the BVI. Consequently, we did not get to experience San Pedro and Ambergris Caye, the most popular destination in Belize with reputedly the best nightlife and dining ashore. Because of that and its proximity to Caye Caulker and hundreds of small islands inside the reef, we will probably go there next time.
• Plan on drinking lots of Belikin beer. It’s what you do.
• The exchange rate for the Belizean dollar is almost exactly 2:1 to the U.S. dollar.
• While we don’t have first hand knowledge, our friends the Hoffmans spent a couple days at an eco-lodge in the mountains called Gaia River Lodge, and they raved about it. “Face the waterfall” they say.