Get in
By plane
You can head to the airport in Belize City and book a flight which will take about 20 minutes. You can also fly to Ambergris from the Phillip Goldson International Airport. There is a modest airfield near the center of the island and next to San Pedro town. You can also take a water taxi, a much cheaper option, from Belize City to the center of San Pedro.
By boat
Buy tickets about an hour in advance at the Water Taxi Terminal in downtown Belize City, a twenty minute taxi ride from the airport. The ride costs about US$20 and takes about an hour.
Get around
There are three main north-south streets, and several that link them, running east-west. Barrier Reef Drive is closest to the two- and three-story apartment buildings that face onto the beaches.
Only some of the roads are paved with cobblestones, and in the rainy season, many can fall into poor condition from traffic and rain erosion, and provide numerous potholes which are sufficient to slow the bicycle and golf cart traffic. There relatively few automobiles licensed on the island, and they are not needed because you can get to most places walking, by bike, golf cart, or water taxi.
Most people get around Ambergris Caye by simply walking. There's a great deal of quality hotels in town, and many resorts on the island are less than a mile from the town of San Pedro, the only urbanized area on the island. Many travelers enjoy renting golf carts, which are the dominant form of transportation, next to bicycles. Others ride bikes or take water- or auto-taxis on the island.
See
Wherever you are staying, you will be able to book tours that go all over Belize and even into Guatemala. Ambergris Caye is a great place to relax, and you can see a lot of what Belize has to offer with the trips that you can book wherever you are staying.
Do
The beaches are coral sand beaches and you may need watershoes or sport sandals. There are many piers (every 100 meters or so) where a tourist can rent a boat for diving, deep-sea fishing, or sailboating to other islands.
If you're going to be in town for a couple of days be sure to snorkel or dive the spectacular Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the longest in the Western hemisphere. Several marine reserves are close by, notably the Hol Chan Marine Reserve and Bacalar Chico reserve on the border with Mexico. Do not miss the Coral Gardens in front of Caye Caulker, Shark Ray Alley, or a fishing expedition to Mexico Rocks.
On weekends, there are very entertaining pick up soccer matches at the small stadium near the airport.
If you visit the island during early July, take the water taxi to nearby Caye Caulker for the annual Lobsterfest. Great spiny lobster and coconut rice!
Buy
There are small shops on Back Street including a grocery store.
Eat
Drink
The water in San Pedro is safe to drink, but on the mainland and smaller islands, use bottled water to be safe.
Many piers have bars where you might order a rum drink with a parasol in it. For a nice laid back bar on the beach try BC's. The Tacklebox makes a mean mojito.
The local beer is Belikin, which can be bought everywhere.
Sleep
You should call ahead to make reservations, but can usually find accommodations even without them.
You can rent fully furnished and stocked homes by the week or more, for less than what it costs to get a hotel room for the same amount of time.
Ambergris Caye, pronounced "am-BER-gris, is the largest island of Belize located northeast of the country in the Caribbean Sea. Though administered as part of the Belize District, the closest point on the mainland is part of the Corozal District.
The Caye (pronounced as "key", meaning an island, derived from the Spanish language "cayo") is about 25 miles long from north to south, and about one mile wide. It was named after large lumps of ambergris which washed ashore here.
The Belizean island, where it has not been modified by man, is mostly a ring of white sand beach around mangrove swamp in the centre.
A Maya community lived on the island in Pre-Columbian times, and made distinctive polished red ceramics, most notably small well molded figurines of animals.
San Pedro Town is the largest settlement and only town on Ambergris. There are also a number of small villages and resorts. Captain Morgan's and Mata Chica resorts north of San Pedro played host to the first season of Fox's Temptation Island in 2000, aired in 2001. More recently, the availability of skydiving during the winter has become a draw for tourists so inclined.
Tourism development of Ambergris Caye began in the early 1970s and grew considerably in the later years of the 20th century. The main attractions are the Belize Barrier Reef and its beaches. That barrier reef is the second largest in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. The caye has a small airstrip, and can be reached by plane from Belize City as well as by numerous fast sea ferries.
San Pedro Day is celebrated annually on June 27th.
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