 | Caye Caulker Transportation | Tips 1 - 10 of 35 |  |
These boats are how you get from Caye Caulker to Belize City or to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. They run every hour or hour and a half, depending on the time of day, and cost $35BZ roundtrip, $20 BZ one-way. It's 45 minutes to Belize City, 25 to San Pedro.
Don’t worry, if a boat fills up, they'll take a second one, so everyone will get on and you don't need to reserve a space. The people-watching is good here, from locals commuting to the occasional cruise-ship passenger on a daytrip. You’ll likely share your ride with crates of fruit and other cargo going between islands and the mainland. Obviously the ride is windy, and there might be a few bumps, but it’s a lot more colorful and enjoyable than taking the cramped little prop plane. Leave a Comment
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Other than walking, bicycling is the most popular mode of transportation on the island. I’m talking old-fashioned, one speed bikes, where you hit the brakes by pedalling backwards instead of squeezing the brake on the handlebar. Many hotels have them for their guests to use for free, and numerous places rent them. You'll fit right in this way.
You'll see many people riding with a litle child on the handlebars - even children on bikes will have smaller children riding with them sometimes. Our hotel bicycles were a godsend to me, since I had recently fractured a bone in my foot about a month before this trip. Leave a Comment Theme: Bicycle
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Flying is the most time efficient way to get around in Belize and one of two ways to get to Caye Caulker. An advantage of flying is that it is quicker, and you can easily find out about flights at the airport. The disadvantage is that it is more expensive.
There are several airlines that fly to Caye Caulker, or from Caye Caulker to Belize City Municipal Airport or San Pedro (Ambergris Caye). The two Belize airlines are Maya Island Air and Tropic Air. Island Air also has flights to Caye Caulker
Tropic Air leaves from both the Belize City Municipal Airstrip and the International Airport. When we did it, in order to fly from the International Airport, we did a short hop from the International Airport to the Municipal Airstrip.
From the International Airport a one way adult fare is $54US and RT is $103US. From the Municipal airstrip a one way adult fare is $30.00US and round trip is $57.50US
They have flights from the Municipal Airstrip to Caye Caulker at 7:30, 9:30, 11:30, 13:30, 15:30, and 16:30 and take 10 minutes. From the International Airport the flights are at 40 minutes past the hour from 7:40 to 16:40 and takes 8 minutes.
Maya Island Air flights are $54US for both an adult and a child, and they go from the International Airport at 7:40, 9:40, 11:40, 1:40, 3:40 and 5:40 and take 15 minutes.
The other way to get to Caye Caulker is by boat. Boats leave from Belize City (so you have to get transportation from the International Airport which will cost something and also take some time) and cost US $15 for a round trip. It takes about 45 minutes. We initially thought we would go by boat, but we met a man on the plane from Belize who said that because of delays on take-off, the plane would land after the last boat left. Leave a Comment Theme: AirplanePhone: 1-800-225-6732 (Maya )Website: www.tropicair.com/ Other Contact: 1-800-422-3435 (Tropic)
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When we were in Caye Caulker the airport had been closed for repairs and maintenance to the runway for quite some time, but it reopend the day after we left. We did fly Tropic Air back and forth between the mainland and Ambergris Caye several times on our last trip to Belize, though, and were thoroughly satisfied with them. Flying from Philip SW Goldson International Airport in Belize City to Caye Caulker would be the most convenient way to go. It's only a half hour or less trip, and a round-trip ticket costs about $100US.
The water taxi, on the other hand, is much more colorful. It gets you out on the water, which is nice, and gets you mixing in with the locals, and is cheaper at only $17.50US round-trip. Leave a Comment
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There are two ways to get to the island. Unless you are an olympic swimmer... The rest of us have to take boat or plane. There are watertaxis leaving from Belize City and Ambergris Caye (San Pedro) almost every hour. It costs 10 USD one way, and 17,50 USD for a roundtrip. You can also take a plane if you prefer. It's a little more expensive, but it goes a bit faster.
The watertaxi takes about 45 minutes, and it's a great ride. On the way from Belize City you pass by many smaller cayes, some are just a tiny bit of sand sticking up from the sea with just a palmtree or two. I thought islands like that just exsisted in cartoons where someone got stuck alone after a plane- or shipwreck... ;) Leave a Comment Theme: Ship/Boat
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If the locals are not relaxing in their hammock, you might see them biking around. But as the motto of the island is "go slow", they could never be in Tour de France... ;)
Everything is laidback on the island, even the biking! Oh, what a paradise! If you also want to go slow but still want to see much of the island you can hire a bike in many places. Leave a Comment Theme: Bicycle
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There are actually taxis on this small island, in the form of electric golf carts. Usually there's one waiting at the dock when the water taxi arrives, and for other trips you can just ask your hotel to call one for you. I took the taxi twice, due to my foot injury, and they charged $3.50US each time. Leave a Comment Theme: Other
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There are just a handful of cars on the island, and there is really no point of having a car there. Many of the locals use electric golfcarts instead. The island is not so big, and it's a great way of getting around. Even the police have their own golfcart! It's one of the funniest things I've seen in my life... :) And of course the taxi is also a golfcart. If you want to try one yourself, you can hire it many places. Leave a Comment Theme: Other
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Our failure to catch a water taxi at the beginning of our Belize trip was rectified a few days later when it was time for us to leave Caye Caulker and head further north, to San Pedro on Ambergris Cay. The day had started with the first grey skies of the trip and was a bit cool as well, so it was a good day to leave the sunny beaches for the slightly more 'upscale' northern Cay!
I walked across the beach from our hotel to buy our tickets (US$10 each, credit cards accepted) for the 10 AM departure, giving us plenty of time to pack our backpacks for the short ride. It was not long before our departure time that we were standing at the end of the wharf with the other passengers waiting for the incoming craft. Upon boarding, the crew stowed the various backpacks under the seats and down a hatch inside the cabin while we grabbed a couple of seats just at the edge of the cabin in case it was a rough crossing. They have life-jackets aboard (check out the front window!) but none were required to be worn.
We were soon underway on what turned out to be a choppy sea, with the 3x200 HP outboard engines powering us along quite nicely. The 35 minute run to San Pedro stayed on the lee side-side of the coastal barrier reef to shelter us from the worst of the waves of the Caribbean Sea, so the ride was quite comfortable. As always on this vacation, the crossing time passed quickly as we compared notes with the other travellers and their adventures.
If you get the chance, be sure to take a water taxi ride at least once - they are fun, fast and cheap! Leave a Comment
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On checking with Delta Airlines a few days before our scheduled departure, I was informed that they had cancelled both our incoming and outgoing flights between Atlanta, Georgia and Belize City, cutting two days off our vacation (I had booked the trip months in advance). This meant that, on our arrival in Belize, instead of spending the first night in Belize City and then taking a morning Water Taxi out to Caye Caulker, we would have to leave immediately for our pre-arranged hotel booking on the island. However, the distance of the International airport from downtown meant that we could not catch the last water taxi run of the day, so we instead had to take a local island-hopping flight to Caye Caulker.
Tropic Air came to the rescue quite nicely with their regular shuttle to Caye Caulker and San Pedro on Ambergris Cay. It was around 3 PM when our flight landed in Belize and we were soon through Customs and booked our onward flight to Caye Caulker, not cheap at US$55 each (it costs about US$20 more to fly from the International airport than it does from the local city airport because of 'departure taxes'). Tropic Air had a full load of 14 passengers and 2 crew on the flight, only about a 10 minute hop to cover the 21 miles out to Caulker. By 4:15 PM, four of us had said good-bye to the airplane on Caye Caulker and the flight continued onward to San Pedro with the other passengers.
I had been placed two rows back from the cockpit, so had a good view of our approach to the island (second photo). The view also gives a good shot of the white line marking the very close off-shore reef that helps to calm the beach waters on Caye Caulker! Altogether, it was a great little flight and it allowed us to maximize our time on the beaches - where we wanted to be! Leave a Comment
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on February 27, 2005
on December 5, 2005
on November 10, 2004
on March 14, 2006
