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.

U.S. dollars are accepted as readily as the local currency in Belize, so you don’t have to be too concerned about the exchange rate there.

It is mostly recommended to carry cash with you when traveling to Belize. Carry only the allotted amount of money you need for the day and to store the rest in a safety deposit in your hotel room. If need be, there are ATM’s frequenting shopping areas and the small towns.

Traveler’s checks can take some time to cash and they are increasingly not accepted anywhere.

Also, bring a credit card for back-up. But only use if absolutely have to. While the item may be priced in USD, the credit card companies are charged in Belizean dollars. The credit card company will have to exchange that from the USD and they will charge you a fee for that exchange. If you’re concerned about money, stay away from credit cards while in Belize.

I personally am considering grouping the money into envelopes for each day that I plan on spending. That way, I can label the envelope, say, “Monday.” and just grab it out of the safe per day. I know that I will for sure have an envelope labeled “LAST DAY.” That will include the Belize Exit tax and necessary cash for any obstacles that may get in the way for catching our flight home. If we miss that flight, apparently we will be stuck in Belize until the following Saturday. Yikes!

Thanks to a number of helpful advisory comments from one of our followers, Liz and I were tipped off to a really valuable money-saving opportunity. Marie from Hot Card Belize told us about their outstanding discount card that is virtually universally accepted at businesses and restaurants on Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker.

You can pick up one of these cards for US$50. The upfront fee is quickly covered the moment you start planning your trip! Book a room with one of several different Hotel or vacation rentals and save 10 – 25%. The Hot Card can get you a 10% discount on Tropic Air, making your arrival on Ambergris or Caye Caulker that much cheaper and more pleasant! Once there, you can save on rental cars, golf cart rentals (the only way to get around the islands), and bikes. The card also gets you great restaurant benefits such as free drinks, two-for-one specials and 10% discounts on meals. Several different adventure vendors offer outstanding discounts to cardholders. The one I am most excited about is Ecologic Divers who are offering an astounding 15% for trips paid in cash!

Probably one of the best benefits of the Hot Card is its shopping value. Take this card to the Lagniappe Provisioning grocers or the Galleon Duty Free for all of your food and beverage needs. This is perfect for Liz and I as Cocotal Inn and Cabana’s has kitchenettes to serve our meal or between meal needs. Finally, a number of different retail stores offer sales discounts to Hot Card carriers.

Liz and I haven’t quite figured out all the ways we’re going to save with this card, but by initial estimates, it’ll be much more than the US$50 price tag! We will carefully document where we are saving and how much we estimate and report in a later post. Once we get back from the trip, we’ll report how much we actually saved. We’re confident it’ll be well worth it.

We are desperately trying to get in touch with someone who runs a catamaran and snorkeling tour around Ambergris Caye. So far we’ve contacted three different outfits. It’s been a couple of weeks and we haven’t heard from two of them. The third was just contacted recently in response to some advice we received in our comments thread. But what are we going to do if these guys don’t contact us?

We’d like to book this tour and have piece of mind knowing we’ve lined something up for Sunday before we get there. It would be awfully inconvenient to try to scramble the night we arrive for an activity the next day. Most probably don’t have this problem as they spend the first day orienting themselves and absorbing the locale. But we’d like to maximize our fun and our trip.

So we’ll continue to pursue these different vendors and hope that someone replies to our pleas!

Liz is having no luck contacting any of the catamarans in Belize. I’m starting to wonder if these companies close down during the off season. It’s starting to become painfully clear that some of the downsides to going in the off-season will be fairly significant.

If you’ll recall, Liz had originally talked about Unity Tours but quickly decided we should go with Me Too because they offered the same package for a better price. Remember – we’re still trying to think budget. So far, neither outfit has responded to her emails. We’re not crazy about calling, but will resort to that if we must.

We did, however, get some leads on a couple of other boating services. A Good Samaritan offered some guidance in the form of a comment, to which Liz replied. Mary Toy of destinationbelize.com suggested we try some other options. To quote her:

For the catamaran trip Seaduced and Searious are both great and run day snorkel trips, or for a smaller catamaran I would recommend Geraldo / El Gato. They all go to Hol Chan/Shark Ray Alley and then on to Caye Caulker for lunch.

She did warn us further that, because this is the slow season, our options are largely hit or miss. So we’ll see what comes up. Neither of these options offer fishing, but they would give us the snorkeling opportunities that I am eager for. If we want to really stretch our budget, she suggested we contact a gentleman, Steve at fishingsanpedro.com who represents most of the fishing craft. But that’ll easily cost $200+ per person.

I don’t know why open water fishing is so expensive. What’s the difference between taking a boat full of fishermen out and a boat full of scuba divers? Diving usually costs $100 for the day. Fishing is exponentially higher. But it doesn’t seem as though the service is anything more substantial. Fishing crew set your bait and help you land the trophy, but dive master’s babysit the entire dive crew for the full time they are submerged – and, they must be certified to do so!

Well, Liz and I will figure out our boating trip. Or we’ll take kayaks out, a little fishing line and some hooks, and we’ll catch our own fish. Check back for a later post on this crazy scheme.