We reported back in August about the Belize Hot Card, a discount card one can purchase for US$50 and use for discounts and perks at numerous locations throughout Ambergris Caye and a few places in Belize City.

Liz and I took our Hot Card into San Pedro each day and took advantage of a number of opportunities to save money. From restaurants to diving and snorkeling, we were able to get a lot for a little bit less than advertised thanks to this discount card.

About the only challenge we had was remembering to use the card. The card comes with a nice little printout of all the places where the card is honored. We checked that frequently when looking for a place to eat, such as at the Jambal Jerk Pit and Palapa Bar and Gill and let it often help us decide where to go. It never steered us wrong, but if we forgot to give the card to the server, or mention the card to the clerk, it was our own fault!

There were many discounts we weren’t able to capitalize on, such as hotel and golf cart/bike rentals simply because we either had prior reservations or simply weren’t on the island long enough. The cart rental would have been great had Cocotal not offered free use of their bikes and we were staying on the island longer.

We did, however score BIG with the card at Ecologic Divers! The 15% discount offered when one pays cash helped us to do much more than we’d originally budgeted for. We did a grand total of four dives and three snorkeling trips between the two of us. We saved much more than the cost of the card; and had we stuck around in Ambergris Caye longer, would have dove and snorkeled enough to save much, much more!

Belize is a poor country. There is little industry, technology, and/or big business in general. From the perspective of the local nationals, Americans are infinitely more wealthy. Whereas they might have enough money to go grab a Coke or Coke Light one day, we seem to have bags of money that allow us to fly across the globe and stay in foreign lands for weeks at a time.

This circumstance leads to interesting interactions in Belize. Recall the car rental place from a few posts back. Liz and I were immediately “assisted” by a scruffy looking man with a thick accent who practically grabbed our bags out of our hands and tried to recruit us into one of the other rental car shops. He wouldn’t leave us alone; he kept leaving and coming back to the shop with status reports and commenting on how bad Belize Auto Rental was.

I pretty much knew that I was going to have to tip this guy. I didn’t want to and I didn’t think he deserved one considering he forced his services upon us. But he’s broke and this is clearly the way he made his money. And, lets not forget that I am the rich American with tons of excess cash.

Tipping became a source of frustration for Liz and I. We received very good service from Beulah and Robbie and Jen and Chris at the hotels. And we felt they should get tipped, beyond the service charge added to our hotel bill. And the guys at Ecologic Divers were great! But as Liz had mentioned before, it wasn’t something we’d fully budgeted for, and we made some generous tips that were larger than our pocket change could sustain.

This challenge and frustration hit its peak when we were at the Belcove restaurant on our last night in Belize. Jules is the son of the owner of Belcove. He was visiting at he time of our stay. He welcomed us and was very friendly and declared that he would help us with our bags. He clarified “this is my family’s hotel. It won’t cost you anything.” But I was so distressed and programmed at that point, that I didn’t know what to do. So I tried to tip him.

He refused and repeated his connection to the hotel. I never felt more like an ugly American than at that point. Granted, I might not have looked like it, but I felt that way. We were so razzled by the tipping that we no longer knew what to do.

Our lesson learned and the corresponding travel tip is:

Here is our itinerary. We likely won’t be able to post on any of these exciting activities while we’re gone, but you can follow along with what we are doing each day anyway. Hopefully we can post here and there, but for now, this is what we have.

Our Hot Card arrived today! We’re set for savings and maximizing our adventure return. We’ve identified several different places where we can get everything from 15% discounts to free cocktails.

I’m planning to capitalize on the 15% discount for cash exchanges as Ecologic Divers in particular. Lizzy and I have them booked for a Sunday snorkel and manatee encounter on Sunday. I’ll be diving with them on Monday and Tuesday. Those three bookings combined should total well over the $50 cost of the card. We’ll follow that up with a visit to a few of the area restaurants and bars for discounts and complementary wine and cocktail options each evening.

I got some really great advice about the self-guided tour to Xunantunich. Thanks to Trip Advisor Forums!

I asked “Can anyone recommend how to get to Xunantunich? We’re trying to do a self guided tour (adventure people, adventure!) and want to know if it’s possible to do it without a tour guide and how to get there. Also, we’re renting a vehicle and they don’t want it on anything but paved roads. Whats the closest paved point road that we could park before starting the trek toward Xunantunich?”

-“A guide will know the history and be able to answer your questions and tell you about stuff.” Katzgar

-“You take the Western Highway all the way out past San Ignacio to San Jose Succotz, then cross it on a hand cranked ferry (no charge), and can drive it right up to the Xunantunich Ruins parking lot. No need to leave pavement for this trip. From there, you pay your entrance fee and can totally do the ruins on your own, although hiring a guide at the site can be very affordable and worth the knowledge that they can share. Hope this helps!” Belize Jungle Girl

-“We did the ruins without a guide and really wished we had one! You have to hire a guide BEFORE the hand cranked ferry. We thought we could hire a guide up at the ruins but that was not the case at all and we felt like we missed out on all the history of the ruins!” sindy1232

-“You won’t have to leave the pavement at all… I must ask why would a rental company here in Belize ask that it not leave the pavement??? You should rent from somewhere else, that way you could see Mountain Pine Ridge. Better yet, rent from Cayo and save a lot of money since they are cheaper here. You don’t need a tour guide at Xuanantunich. If you hit a bigger ruin, like Tikal, I’d recommend it though.” DrFeelAwesome (Belize Travel Expert)

-“Your right, you don’t NEED a tour guide but we thought it would of been more informative if we had hired one. But then again, we made the mistake of walking up the hill instead of driving, lol. Don’t miss the visitors center because you will get a lot of information about the ruins there. With a rental car, if you can’t go off paved roads you will sure miss a lot of the wonderful country side in Belize. If you wanted, you could not even go to ATM because the road is more gravel, dirt and pot holes then pavement. I would check with Crystal Rental Cars for a rental or someone in SI if it were me. Just my humble opinion. BTW, we did fine without a tour guide but if I were to do it again I would hire one.” sindy1231

-“The buses are not at all terrible. If you like adventure, and seeing a place as it really is, then they are a good cheap option. Most people in Belize do not have a car, so even quite well off people regularly travel by bus. I have a vehicle, but occasionally travel by bus myself.”

-“If you are restricted to just paved roads, then you will miss out on a lot of places. Essentially, there are four paved roads in Belize – the Western, Northern, Southern and Hummingbird Highways. The bigger towns have paved roads – mainly. You would not even be able to go to parts of Belize City if you stuck to the rules. Nor Placencia, Monkey River, most if not all of the ruins – no, that isn’t going to work!” BelizeQueen

-“We took the bus around Belize but not from the airport to SI and we loved the bus. If you have a lot of luggage then you might want to get a transfer driver. If you want the names of the two we used then just let me know. Maybe see if someone else on a message board is arriving at the same time and wants to share a transport, just an idea as they are about $90 USD one way. I was going to get a rental car but at the last minute decided not to and we were fine with tours, transfers and buses.” Sindy 1232

I think we will still go with the avoiding-the-tour-guide idea. It is a possibility to take the bus from Belize City to San Ignacio and try arranging transportation from the bus stop to Table Rock Jungle Lodge.

We can gage whether we want to pay the money for a car rental that will be allowed off the pavements by to packing up our suitcases as a trial run to see what we are dealing with weight wise. I cannot imagine trekking across Belize with three huge suitcases would be a good experience.