Belize City: the port, the barrier reef and the road to the cayes

Evergreen city guide with quick facts, travel, business, and culture.

BelizeBelize

Overview

Belize City is not the capital — that moved inland after a hurricane — and understanding what it is instead, a port and a hub, is what makes the place work for a traveller.

Barrier Reef & the Cayes

The longest barrier reef in the Americas an hour offshore, with Caye Caulker's bicycle-and-golf-cart calm and San Pedro's busier resort town both reachable by water taxi.

The Swing Bridge & Old Quarter

A hand-cranked swing bridge still turned by pole, a cathedral built of ships' ballast brick, stilted wooden houses with shuttered verandas, and the Fort George seafront.

Maya Sites

Altun Ha's plazas an hour north, Lamanai reached by boat up the New River past crocodiles and howler monkeys, and Xunantunich across a hand-cranked river ferry.

A Six-Language City

English official, Kriol as the everyday lingua franca, Spanish widespread, Garifuna on the coast, Maya languages inland and Plautdietsch from the farming colonies.

The Blue Hole

A collapsed cave system over three hundred metres across on Lighthouse Reef, navy against pale shallows — a demanding technical dive, and a scenic flight for everyone else.

Rice and Beans, Fry Jacks

Rice and beans cooked together in coconut milk with stew chicken, fry jacks at breakfast, conch ceviche on the coast, and habanero sauces on every table.

History

Belize City grew at the mouth of Haulover Creek as the country's port and commercial centre, low-lying and built substantially on timber and fill. After a hurricane devastated it in the 1960s the seat of government was moved eighty kilometres inland to the purpose-built town of Belmopan, leaving the coastal city as the nation's port, airport and transport hub rather than its capital. Offshore, the barrier reef that shelters the coast is the longest in the Americas.

Culture

Rice and beans — cooked together in coconut milk, and quite distinct from beans and rice served separately — with stew chicken is the national plate. Fry jacks and refried beans make the standard breakfast, conch ceviche and grilled snapper come off the coast, and locally made habanero sauces sit on every table. Festivals: Garifuna Settlement Day (19 November), September Celebrations, the national season, La Ruta Maya river challenge (March), a four-day canoe race. Museums: Museum of Belize, in a nineteenth-century brick building, The Image Factory contemporary art space, The Old Belize exhibition west of the centre.

Practical Info

Safety: Ordinary port-city common sense is what is called for: keep valuables out of sight, take a taxi rather than walking after dark or with luggage, and ask your accommodation about current conditions, which is more reliable than any printed guidance. Taxis are cheap and fares are agreed before departure. The city is low-lying, and the wet season from June to November overlaps the hurricane season. Language: English is official — uniquely in Central America — and Belize Kriol is the everyday lingua franca. Spanish is very widely spoken, along with Garifuna on the coast, several Maya languages inland, and Plautdietsch in the farming colonies. Currency: Belize dollar, held at a fixed rate against the US dollar rather than floating, which makes conversion simple. US notes are accepted almost everywhere; cards work in hotels and larger restaurants, and markets, buses and water taxis prefer cash.
Travel Overview

Start with the correction, because the name misleads almost everyone: Belize City is not the capital of Belize. After a hurricane devastated the low coastal city in the 1960s, the seat of government was moved eighty kilometres inland to a new purpose-built town, Belmopan, and it has stayed there ever since. What Belize City kept is everything else — the port, the main international airport, the bus network, the water-taxi terminal, the commercial centre and about a fifth of the country's people. That makes it a hub rather than a destination, and treating it as one is the key to enjoying it. The city sits at the mouth of Haulover Creek, split into a north and south side joined by a hand-cranked swing bridge, with a small historic quarter of clapboard houses on stilts, a colonial-era brick cathedral and a seafront promenade around Fort George. It is worth a half-day and it is worth doing that half-day deliberately rather than rushing through to the boat. What lies offshore is the reason most people are here: the Belize Barrier Reef, the longest in the Americas and a UNESCO site, with the cayes strung along it — Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye reachable in under an hour and a half from the terminal in the middle of town — and, further out, the atolls and the great flooded sinkhole that is the country's single most photographed image. Inland, Maya cities sit within an easy day's reach.

Discover Belize City

The capital moved inland in the 1960s, to a new town built for the purpose, and that single administrative decision explains the character of Belize City today. Stripped of government, it kept commerce and connection: the deep-water port, the international airport, the terminus of the country's bus routes, and — most useful to a visitor — the water-taxi terminals from which boats leave for the cayes throughout the day. Around a fifth of the national population lives here, which in a country this small is roughly sixty thousand people, so the scale is that of a large town rather than a city. The practical consequence is that almost every trip to Belize passes through, and the question is only whether you stop. The case for stopping is a compact historic quarter you can walk in two hours and a genuinely good national museum; the case against is that the reef, the cayes and the Maya sites are all better and all elsewhere. A reasonable itinerary gives the city a morning at the start or end of a trip and sleeps somewhere else — which is what most experienced visitors do.

Frequently asked questions

No — Belmopan is, about eighty kilometres inland, and has been since the capital was relocated after a hurricane in the 1960s. Belize City kept the port, the international airport, the bus network and the water taxis, which makes it the country's hub rather than its seat of government.

By water taxi from terminals in the middle of the city, running through the day. Caye Caulker takes roughly forty-five minutes and Ambergris Caye — San Pedro — about an hour and a half. There are also short domestic flights if you prefer, and both islands are easy day trips as well as places to stay.

For half a day, done deliberately. The hand-cranked Swing Bridge, the ballast-brick cathedral, the Fort George seafront and a genuinely good national museum are worth the morning. The reef, the cayes and the Maya sites are better and are all elsewhere, so most experienced visitors sleep somewhere else.

Diplomatic missions in Belize City

2 embassies based in this city, grouped by region.