After we had a few days to wind down in Placencia it was time to head north and over to the island of Ambergris Caye or San Pedro. San Pedro is the name of the main town that sits on Ambergris Caye.

Getting There
There are two main airlines for flying throughout Belize, Maya Island Air and Tropic Air. We flew Tropic Air and had a great experience with all of our flights. To get to San Pedro from Placencia we had to fly to Belize City first. All in all it was only about an hour between the two flights and the process was pretty simple.

Where We Stayed
Exotic Caye Resort

Location
Exotic Caye is a little south of the main area of San Pedro Town but you can easily walk, bike, or drive (a golf cart) to a lot of the restaurants and shops.

Accomodation
Our room had a bedroom with a double bed, a living area with a couch, table, and small kitchen. We had our own private porch looking out on to the beach. When we first arrived they almost tried giving us a room with two twin beds. When we explained we didn’t book this and simply chose “standard double” they were able to accommodate us and give us a better room (phew).

Amenities

Melt Café

This was a great little café that served breakfast and lunch. They had a great egg scramble with a pico de gallo and some the crunchiest and tastiest home fries ever! Their menu had a ton of great healthy options.

Crazy Cannucks
We were lucky to have a fun bar right at our hotel. It was definitely a little crazy as the name implies! We arrived on Sunday just in time for their Sunday Funday party that started at 3PM. They had live music, drink specials, and got pretty packed with both tourists and locals.

Yoga
One of the selling points for me about Exotic Caye is that they had a yoga studio on site. Well when we got there I was super disappointed to find out that it wasn’t running at the moment. With that said we did have access to a gym down the street so got some workouts in that way.  And of course practiced many handstands through out the week!
Getting Around
We pretty much walked everywhere in San Pedro up until the last day. On the last day we rented a golf cart which allowed us to see a ton of the island and get around a lot faster. You can rent them for $70 US for 24 hours.

Restaurants

Blue Water Grill
This was one of our nicer dinners we had. Blue Water Grill is in the Sea Breeze hotel right across from the airport. It’s big and airy and sits right on the beach for a great view both at night and during the day. The service was great and our food was delicious! I had a really unique dish of grilled Snook (a local fish) in a banana curry sauce.

Wild Mango’s
I got this recommendation (along with a ton of others) over at SanPedroScoop.com. We loved Wild Mango’s so much that we actually came here twice! Once we came from drinks and appetizers and then again for dinner. Andy had his favorite drink here and Mamey and Coconut Colada. Not sure what Mamey is but I think it is a local fruit. I told him it looked like a giant ice cream shake!

Waruguma
We wondered into Waruguma after quite a few drinks on Sunday Funday. We were being very indecisive and it was late so we decided to go the local food / cheap route. Well it ended up being an awesome meal and by far the best bang for our buck! I got shrimp fajitas that I swear came with about 20 grilled shrimp. Andy got a tres carnes burrito that basically looked like a heaping pile of yummy meat with a little burrito hiding underneath. This was our cheapest meal!

Elvi’s Kitchen
We came to Elvi’s on our last night after seeing signs that they had live music on Wednesays. It was an adorable restaurant with great food. It had an authentic feel, sandy floors, live Spanish music, and great local seafood dishes!

Palapa Bar
This was on my must do list from many recommendations. We saved it for our last day and it was the perfect way to end our vacation. Palapa Bar is a bit north of town and over the bridge. We had rented a golf cart on our last day so drove there, but you could also get a cab or the Coastal Express water taxi.

Palapa Bar is a two story bar out on a pier with an absolute gorgeous view and really fun atmosphere. The entire bar is covered in quirky signs, wedding coozies, memorabilia, and signed by every tourist who steps foot in there. After we had some appetizers and beers we headed down to the water to enjoy a cold cervesa in their tubes. The staff will even lower you down a bucket of beers. Now that’s the life!

Excursions
Snorkeling and Caye Caulker Day Trip with SeaDuced

This was one of the best excursions I’ve ever done! It was a day of the best snorkeling I’ve ever done and experiencing one of the coolest little islands I’ve ever been on. The guys at SeaDuced picked us up right on the pier in front of our hotel. We then headed out on their catamaran, equipped with bean bags and all, to the first snorkeling stop.

Snorkeling at Hol Chan Reserve and Shark Alley
Belize is home to the second largest barrier reef in the world (only after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia). For this reason it is a huge diving and snorkeling spot with a ton of wild sea life. As soon as we hopped in the water I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a giant sea turtle!! It was by far one of the coolest things I’ve seen. After that we saw some beautiful coral, a ton of fish, and even nurse sharks and sting rays! Those freaked me out a bit but I survived.

After Hol Chan we headed a little further south to Shark Ray Alley. As soon as the boat pulled up I looked out the back and saw about 50 sharks swarming around. I guess after years of these tours they know where to come to get fed. While our guides fed the sharks sardines, some of us got back in the water. I decided to be the photographer from above the water!

Caye Caulker Visit
Once we finished up snorkeling we headed south to Caye Caulker. Caye Calker is another island off of the coast of Belize. It is much smaller than San Pedro and stretches only five miles long. I fell in love with this place as soon as we stepped foot on it. It was all dirt roads, bright tropical signs, and a reminder to Go Slow.

We checked out some of the street art and souvenirs but then headed down to the split. I had read about the split and the bar that occupies it for a while and put it also on my must-see list. The Split refers to an area where a hurricane came through in the 60’s and literally split the island into two. A ton of people were hanging out on the rocks, the beach, and at the Lazy Lizard bar. We chilled out for a couple of hours here, listened to music, and jumped in the water. It was by far one of my favorite moments on our trip.

On our way back to the boat we stopped at the King Kebab stand and had some shrimp and fish kebabs that were delicious!

I absolutely loved San Pedro and Caye Caulker.  It is a beautiful place where you can really wind down, relax, but still have fun and get adventurous.  The people are really friendly from the locals to the many ex-pats that are flocking to this desirable destination.  I will definitely be back!