You've referenced Belize a few times on here - do you have any hints for someone who might want to go for a shorter time than 2 months? Maybe 3 weeks to a month? Do you just hang out when there, where do you fly into etc?
Thanks
There is only 1 International Airport in Belize (BZE) which is located just north of Belize City at Ladyville. We usually fly into there (from Toronto) and then take the bus up to where we stay at Corozal which is 10-12 miles south of the Mexican border. There are also many transfer services and flights with Tropic Air or Maya Air but those options are way more expensive than our BZ$11. (US$5.50) each for the bus. We have flown into Cancun several times as the airfare there from YYZ is much cheaper. Going that way puts you at a 4-5hr bus or train (or rental car) ride from the Belize border but we make the trip part of our 'vacation' and spend a day or 2 in Playa del Carmen (which is closer to the Cancun airport than Cancun is).
As I mentioned, we stay in Corozal which is a small town of mostly locals but there are a lot of expats (American, Canadian & European) here either full time or snowbird like us. We have spent time over on Ambergris Cay (San Pedro) and Caye Caulker as well as further south on the mainland in Placencia but we found all of them (especially San Pedro) to be too 'touristy' and not much to do except sit in bars and drink which isnt our thing. The beaches and swimming is better in the cays and Placencia if you can avoid the boat (ferries & fishermen) traffic. There are not really any beaches in Corozal, just some grassy areas at the shore but we dont go in the bay here anyways as it isnt the cleanest with many rivers emptying into it along with garbage and who knows what else. We have also seen crocodiles in the bay here so we arent chancing anything! Lol
For entertainment in this town, depending on your interests, you could have something to do every day. DH plays darts 3X a week and I attend a 'Ladies Lunch' once a week. There is also Bingo, Trivia and many different card games and disc golf that I can think of at the moment. We have bicycles here and often our entertainment is a 1-2 hour bike ride around town. Since we started coming here in January 2016 we have made many friends and we also socialize with them. A couple of them have retired here and have homes with a pool that we can spend the afternoon in. One couple we met on our first winter here snowbird from a town about 2 hours from our home in Ontario so we see them over the summer as well.
When you arrive in Belize you are given a 30 day visitors visa stamp (no charge). If you stay longer than 30 days you need to go to the Immigration office in the town where you are staying, present a rental paid receipt for the next month (or however long you are staying) and a bank statement (acct # redacted) showing you have funds sufficient to support yourself for the rest of your stay. Sometimes we are also asked to show our return flight info. There is a fee of US$100. each for the next 30 day stamp. Since we only come down for 2 months now (started off at 3 mos., before we started using our condo) I make sure to count out the days for our visas very carefully so we dont end up paying another US$100. each for a few days until our flights. Also when on a visitors visa you must stay in a Belize Tourist Board approved accommodation. They are inspected regularly and must follow strict rules for type of accommodations including black-out curtains, bedding and other things.
I would be happy to answer any other questions you have.
~Diane
ETA, I forgot to mention rents. Rental rates vary quite a bit around the country and naturally the cays have much higher rates than on the mainland, especially inland. Some accommodations (even BTB approved) can be better furnished/equipped than others. Where we stay is basically equipped as far as kitchen items go so when we drove down I brought a bunch of stuff from our camper that we weren't using. I brought things like microwaveable bowls/casserole dishes, a non-stick fry pan, good cutlery, sharp knives, big coffee mugs and a gas grill that folds up. I cook over 90% of our meals so I like a well equipped kitchen, even though eating out is not very expensive here. Our landlady stores 4 plastic totes of our stuff plus the BBQ for us at no extra charge. Another friend (also a Canadian snowbird) stores our bikes in his house for us. We pay US$750./ month all but internet included. We could use the wifi from the hotel complex where our apt. is, but when there are a lot of guests it is slow, so we get our own (at about US$40./mo). The Belize dollar is pegged 2:1 to the US dollar and US bills are widely accepted here.
