Entry, Exit from Belize

McAfee's recent experiences aside, has anyone crossed into Belize in the last year, so as to give us a relatively recent report on how that goes?

 

Entry Exit to Belize

Hi, I was there from the 22nd Dec till the 2nd of Jan, reccomendations:

If you are going to drive over make sure you cross the border during Day Time the only reason to this is as follows.

You can cross the entire country in 5 hrs give or take, however the road does not proper markings or illumination for night time, and there are potholes that can cause a bad accident.
Average time from border to cities are as follows.
Border to Corozal 15 mins +/-
Border to Orange Walk 1 hr +/-
Border to Belize City 2 hrs +/-
Border to Belmopan 3 hrs +/-

If you are interested in going to any of the islands ie, San Pedro/Ambergis Caye you can do so by flying from Corozal or also if im not mistaken there is a water taxi from Corozal to San Pedro and from San Pedro there is for sure water taxi to Caye Caulker.

Flight costs The Airline of Belize - Tropic Air and Maya Island Air Airline In Belize

Belize is a beautiful country, however it is very small, if im not mistaken the population of Cancun is still more than what the population of the entire country of Belize is. Having said that i will tell you that all crime and all things happening in the entire country is know easily, there has been incidents in the last couple of weeks in the City of Belize related to Gang Rivalry causing the death of many innocent bystanders how ever this is usually on areas of the city tourist normally are not around but you will see information about it on news and maybe the occasional warning by the US etc... Again this has been only in the City of Belize, tourism is still going their normal way.

There is a fee to exit Belize of 37 BZE dollars (don't really remember about the exact amount)

If you require precise information about anything in particular, please feel free to ask I'm a Mexican/Belizean working in the tourist industry for more than 5 years now, so ill assist you as much as I can.

 

can you drive down, leave your car at the boarder and walk across. then catch a taxi to corozal to spend the nite and return.

jayg

 

Hi Steve:

Yes I have information first hand actually, the latest is this, they have not been able to get the permit to fly into Cancun the authorities have not given any time frame as to when they will get it so they are on standby. I will let you know once i have more info.

 

Hi Jay:

You can actually leave you car in plaza las americas in chetumal take a cab to the market, just tell him you want to go to catch a bus to belize and the bus will stop at the border wait for everyone to check in and drop you off in corozal or all the way to belize city if you want, however those buses are old american school buses so not really comfortable, i also know for a fact that ado goes all the way to belize city, dont know exactly about the modus operandi on that but i think it is purchasing the ticket thru the chetumal office.

 

just got back from corozal town belize. drove to chetumal and stayed at hotel nachancan just across the street from where the buses leave for belize. 400 pesos for a room and they have gated parking and will let you leave your car there for a couple days. the buses leave from mercado nuevo off avenida heroes. the mercado reminded me of mercado 23. the bus driver to corozal said the ride was 30 pesos but the guy who colected the money didn't give me change back from my 50 peso bill. have the correct money. the bus that is marked belize goes to belize city, the bus marked corozal goes to corozal. the guy that wouldn't give me change back told me, and others, that there was a 195 peso exit fee. shake your head no to this and when you get off the bus the first time at mexican immigration to have your passport stamped, and the bus guy says 195 pesos, ask for 'recibo oficial' and all of a sudden the exit fee goes away. they seemed to be looking at the expiration on your fmm and if it was close to expiring they were trying to get those people to pay. in corozal you can use usd or belizean dollars. on the street you get two belize for one usd. at the bank you get less than 2 for 1. in corozal we stayed at copperhorse inn just next to the bay and the cost was 35 usd per nite. exit fee from belize was 37.50 belize or 19 usd. they of course give you a receipt. bus trip from corozal to chetumal was 3 belize but when i gave him 2usd he gave me one of the dollars back. underlining was a mistake. first one ever.

 

Nice detail, jayg, just what people need when making plans for travel. Also nice move in asking for an official receipt. I have found demands for bribes to just melt away in the face of a request for an official receipt, just as it did for you.

Lots of hustle going on at the border on both sides, and there is no reason to fall for it. Being fully informed is part of being in a position to "just say no". There is the official Belize departure tax of 19 USD, which jayg mentioned, for which there will be no trouble getting a receipt!

ADO has daily, overnight service to Belize, leaving Cancun at 10 PM, arriving in Corozal, for example, at 4 AM, for 392 pesos, one way. To go directly on to Belize City takes eight hours, and costs about 100 pesos more, with an identical departure time (probably the same bus). (This may be a sleeper bus, but I didn't get that far into it.)

Autobuses ADO

Full details of the return are not available on the website, it says simply "one is able to get a return": full details are undoubtedly available at the bus station, Cancun.