Hotels near Sir Barry Bowen Municipal Airport - TZA, Belize City

Belize City itself is not much of an attraction. It is a good place to stay overnice before or after and international flight, prior to moving on to other places in the country. Taxis should be arranged by your hotel for airport pickups and departures. Waling around at night did not seem especially safe. We walked to dinner, before dark, and took taxis back to the hotel. Have your restaurant call the cab. No Uber

Belize City is very commercial, industrial and rough around the edges at first glance but there are many things worth seeing in the area. Many of the residential neighborhoods are quaint and quiet. From Belize City, Altun Ha is just a short drive as well as The Baboon Sanctuary and the Belize Zoo. Smokeez Seaside Restaurant and Bar was our favorite spot, right on the water near the famous Belize Monument Sign”. If your up for really experiencing the culture of the country, you must spend a few days in Belize City.

Not a bad place for a tropical capital, (not like San Jose, Costa Rica) but hot, hot, hot. Bad taxi problem, rediculous prices and decrepid cars. Museum ($7) open but all the Mayan artifacts in storage, perpetually apparently. Craft market near the harbour (outside the purpose built one for the cruise ships, now shut and depidated) worth a visit but only one or two stalls, none had sold anything in days we were told (highly believable with steep pricing necessary for elevated cost of living locally). Much poverty and relatively high crime rate, a cop on every corner very attentive to foreign visitors. 3 banks in main square close the ATMs regularly to avoid paying out.

Belize is a good place. The people appear to be friendly. Food is good. It is a slow pact of life. I do feel the government should actively start looking at how to support and protect the domestic animals such as the dogs and cats as there are many stray animals roaming around everywhere. I also noticed dogs especially were tried up but in some cases I didn't see any drinking water basins supplied for them! As an animal lover I found this unacceptable. There was a dog at Caye Caulker that was tried up with no food and water so I had to feed it. I went to inform the police and the police asked me- "What do I want him to do about it"? I told him I wanted them to check it out as this is animal abuse as the dog was not being cared for. I told him I would check up at the police station later to find out what was done. He then said he would send a patrol out to investigate the situation. When I got back the dog had been removed, I don't know what happened to the dog. The man at the animal sanctuary said that lots of tourist come to tell him of these situation but he is full to capacity and unable to take any more animals. The government needs to do something as people can find this distressing and are hypersensitive these situation.

Belize city has a reputation that is not encouraging. Yet, I enjoy visiting the city as it has almost all that you can purchase in a North American City. There are areas that are considered "do not visit" zones but that is also characteristic of other cities. If you stay in the main part of the city you will be fine, but we should always be vigilant.

We were surprised that the main part of the city was a bit 3rd-world -- but that was a lot of the charm of it. And all the people are NICE, and seem TOTALLY HAPPY, which makes it great to do things there! We didn't eat anywhere but our resort. If you buy any excursions, make SURE you know EXACTLY where you will meet and what time BEFORE you get into town! And definitely take a river cruise -- the BEST!