Things to Do in San Pedro, Belize

1. The Reef: Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley

The Belize Barrier Reef runs the length of the island a few hundred metres offshore. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the second largest reef system in the world after the Great Barrier Reef. From San Pedro you are closer to it than from almost anywhere else in the country.

The standard trip combines two stops. Hol Chan Marine Reserve is a natural cut through the reef where the current concentrates fish into a channel, so you get big numbers of them in clear, shallow water. Shark Ray Alley is a sandbar where nurse sharks and southern stingrays gather. They are habituated to boats, they are harmless, and swimming among them is the photograph everyone goes home with.

Half day trips leave mid morning and early afternoon from the docks in town. There is a marine reserve entry fee on top of the tour price, usually collected by the operator. Take a rash guard rather than relying on sunscreen, because you are face down in equatorial sun for a couple of hours and reef safe sunscreen is both required and less effective than a shirt.

If you dive rather than snorkel, the same sites work at depth, and the wall dives further out are the serious draw. Certified divers should book directly with a dive shop rather than through a hotel desk.

2. Drive North Over the Bridge

This is the thing visitors underestimate. North of San Pedro town the road crosses the Sir Barry Bowen bridge and then runs for miles up the coast, past resorts, beach bars, empty stretches and eventually the turn off for Secret Beach on the lagoon side.

It is a genuinely lovely drive, and it is the single best argument for having your own transport rather than relying on taxis. You stop where you want, you leave when you want, and the bars along that road are half the point. Several of them have docks, swings in the water and no particular hurry about anything.

The bridge takes a small toll for carts. Every rental we do includes the bridge pass, so the run north costs you nothing beyond fuel, but check that whoever you rent from does the same.

Allow a full day if you are going as far as Secret Beach and stopping properly. The road surface varies and it is not a fast drive, which is fine, because nothing about the island rewards hurrying. Our guide to driving the island covers the route in detail, and there is a separate guide to Secret Beach including how busy it actually gets.

3. San Pedro Town Itself

The town is three main streets running parallel to the sea: Barrier Reef Drive nearest the water, then Pescador Drive, then Angel Coral. Locals still call them Front, Middle and Back Street, and so will anyone giving you directions.

Central Park sits in the middle of it and is where the town actually gathers, particularly at weekends and during festivals. Around it you have the older part of San Pedro, which is a working Belizean town rather than a resort strip, and considerably more interesting for it.

Give it an evening on foot. Park the cart, walk the three streets, eat somewhere, and get a sense of the place before you spend the rest of the week at the north end. Most visitors do this in reverse and regret it.

4. The Beaches

Here is the honest part. Ambergris Caye beaches are not the wide white sand you see in Caribbean advertising. Because the reef sits offshore, the water inside it is calm and shallow, and sea grass grows in it. Sea grass is why the water is clear and why the fish are there. It is also not what most people picture.

What this means in practice: most hotels have a dock, and you swim off the dock rather than wading in from the sand. The swimming is excellent. The wade in beach experience is better on the lagoon side, which is why Secret Beach exists and why it got popular.

Knowing this before you book a hotel is worth more than any other single piece of advice on this page. The beaches and snorkeling guide goes into which stretches are which.

5. Day Trips to the Mainland

If you have five nights or more, a mainland day is worth it. The usual options are the Maya sites, most commonly Altun Ha or Lamanai, and the cave and river trips inland. These are long days that start early with a boat or a flight, and you should book them through an established operator rather than off a beach.

The other common day trip is the Great Blue Hole. Be clear eyed about this one. By boat it is roughly three hours each way in open water, and at sea level the hole is a large patch of darker blue. The photograph that sells it is taken from a plane. If you are a diver with the certification for it, that changes the calculation entirely. If you are a snorkeler, spend the day on the reef instead and take a scenic flight if you want the view.

6. Caye Caulker for a Day

Caye Caulker is a short water taxi ride south and it is a completely different island: smaller, sandier, no cars at all, and a slower pace that people either love immediately or find limited by lunchtime. It makes an easy day trip, and the Split at the north end of the village is the swimming spot.

If you are still deciding which island to base yourself on rather than which to visit for a day, we wrote a direct comparison of the two.

7. Eating and Drinking

The food scene is better than a town this size has any right to have, running from roadside barbecue to genuinely good restaurants. Belizean cooking is worth seeking out specifically: stew chicken with rice and beans, fry jacks at breakfast, and whatever was landed that morning.

Lobster season runs roughly mid June to the end of February, and conch season is broadly the opposite. Anywhere offering lobster out of season is either serving frozen or doing something it should not be. The eating guide covers how it all works.

8. Doing Nothing

We are serious. A large share of the people who tell us they had a perfect week did two organised things and spent the rest of it on a dock with a book. The island is set up for this and there is no social pressure to be busy.

If you are the sort of traveller who needs a full itinerary, you will run out of island by about day five. If you are not, a week goes very quickly.