How to Get to San Pedro

Step One: Get to Belize City

International flights land at Philip Goldson International Airport (BZE), about ten miles outside Belize City. Direct services run from a number of United States hubs, from Canada seasonally, and from elsewhere in Central America.

Immigration and customs at BZE are straightforward. English is the official language of Belize, so there is no language barrier at any point in the process.

Step Two: Plane or Boat

This is where the two routes diverge, and the honest answer is that both are fine and the choice is about your specific arrival.

The two domestic airlines, Tropic Air and Maya Island Air, both fly the route frequently through the day. The aircraft are small and the flight is low, which makes it one of the better fifteen minutes in Central American travel: you go out over the reef and the water changes colour underneath you.

Step Three: Landing in San Pedro

The airstrip sits at the southern edge of town on Coconut Drive. It is small, you walk from the aircraft to the fence, and your bag arrives on a trolley. The water taxi terminal is right in the centre of town by the sea.

From either point you have three options: a taxi, your hotel's own transfer if they offer one, or your rental cart waiting for you.

We deliver free to both arrival points and to hotels across the island. Tell us the flight number or the boat time and somebody is there with the cart, the key and the paperwork. It takes about five minutes and you drive away in it. That is genuinely the easiest version of this, particularly if your hotel is north of the bridge where a taxi is a real fare.

Getting to a Hotel North of the Bridge

A lot of the newer resorts are north of San Pedro town, past the Sir Barry Bowen bridge, and some are a long way north. If that is you, work out the transport before you arrive rather than after.

A taxi up there is not a short hop, and doing it twice a day for a week costs considerably more than a cart for the same week. This is the single most common thing people tell us they wish they had understood earlier. Our comparison of the options puts numbers to it.

Coming from Mexico or Guatemala

There is a water taxi between Chetumal, Mexico and San Pedro. It runs on a limited schedule, involves immigration at both ends, and the timetable changes, so confirm it directly with the operator before you build a trip around it.

Overland from Guatemala or Mexico into Belize City and then out to the island is also common with longer trips. Budget more time than the map suggests: land borders in the region are unhurried.

Luggage, Money and Phones

Three things worth sorting on arrival day rather than discovering on day two.

Luggage. The domestic aircraft are small and they have weight limits, sometimes on the passenger as well as the bag. If you are travelling with dive gear or a lot of luggage, check the current allowance with the airline rather than assuming your international allowance carries over. The water taxi is more forgiving, but you carry your own bags on and off, along a dock, in the heat.

Money. The Belize dollar is fixed at two to one against the US dollar, and US dollars are accepted everywhere. That fixed rate means there is nothing to shop around for and no reason to change money before you fly. There are ATMs in San Pedro town. Take small notes: settling a fifteen dollar lunch with a hundred is a problem you have handed to somebody else.

Phones. Local SIM cards are easy to get and coverage in and around town is good. It thins out north of the bridge and at Secret Beach, which matters if you were relying on a card machine or a map out there. Most hotels and restaurants have wifi.

What the Airstrip Is Actually Like

Small enough to be disarming. A single runway at the edge of town, a modest terminal building for each airline, and a walk of about thirty metres from the aircraft steps to the road.

There is no jet bridge, no baggage carousel and no queue worth the name. Your bag arrives on a trolley. Wheels down to standing on Coconut Drive is usually under ten minutes, which after an international connection feels faintly unreasonable.

Going home, turn up about an hour before a domestic departure rather than the three hours you would allow internationally. Ask your hotel what they suggest for your particular flight, because it shifts with the season.

Entry Requirements

Most visitors from North America, the United Kingdom, the European Union and much of the Commonwealth enter Belize without a visa for tourism, with a passport valid for the length of stay and proof of onward travel.

That said, entry rules are exactly the sort of thing that changes without anyone telling a golf cart company. Check the current requirements with the Belize Immigration Department or your own foreign ministry before you fly. Do not take a rental company's word for it, including ours.

What to Do on Arrival Day

Keep it light. Travel days here are longer than they look because of the two legs, and the heat does the rest. Collect the cart, find the hotel, swim, eat somewhere close, sleep.

Save the reef for the next morning when you are rested, and see the things to do guide for a four day plan that starts from there.