Caye Caulker, Belize
A tiny Caribbean island to slow down, Belizean style.
Looking for concrete details and tips? Go straight to the Practical Information section.
As our water taxi was riding the crystalline waters of the Chetumal bay at full speed towards Ambergris Caye, I had one question in my mind: would this leg of my trip be worth it?
I had just spent about a week traveling the southern Yucatán peninsula to discover barely-visited Maya sites, most of them hidden in the jungle, and frequented by more spider monkeys than humans, but the lure of Belize had been too strong to resist. If I am being perfectly honest, I was excited to tick off the former British colony as my 73rd visited country on the planet. Any experience that would come on top would be an added bonus.
That Belize was easy to reach from Mexico wasn’t a given. Although the two countries share a border, mostly with the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, the two economies aren’t very integrated, and the transport routes few and far between. There are no direct flights between the two countries, except a sub-daily Tropic Air flight operated by a 14-passenger Cessna aircraft between Belize City and Cancún.
There exists, however, a daily ferry linking Chetumal, the southernmost city of the state of Quintana Roo, with San Pedro and Caye Caulker in Belize. That it was the easiest way for me to reach Belize made it an option I couldn’t set aside, and, after researching the two Belizean islands at which the ferry was calling, I decided to visit Caye Caulker.
I could say the ferry swayed me: knowing I would get to Belize on a small water taxi, with (I imagined) just a few people with me, either locals or slow travelers, made this route even more enticing. The unknown, the untraveled - the places very few people get to - that’s what I love to experience. I wrote a whole article about my water taxi trip to capture that moment.
A small, deserted beach on the western side of Caye Caulker.
As such, the fact I would end up on this specific island was mostly due to chance, and opportunity. That it wasn’t on my list of places to see made it even more interesting to check out, like a stop only itinerary that wasn’t planned, which I would make the most of.
I arrived in Caye Caulker after sunset, and I felt at home right away.
There is something to be said about an island without cars, where the only vehicles roaming the unpaved streets are golf carts and bicycles. There is virtually no street noise, no pollution, and a pace that, naturally, feels more chill.
Another gorgeous beach on Caye Caulker.
My hotel was located only a few blocks from the ferry pier, and I got there in minutes. My host, an affable Swiss guy, told me I was coming in the lowest of the low season, and that I should enjoy a relatively quiet stay - the rainy weather being one of the reasons why tourists would stay away in September and October.
I was unfazed by this - I knew the rainy season in the Caribbean usually meant a beautiful day with a couple of hours of rain, at worst, in the afternoon, and was bent on making the most of my two-night stay on the island.
Caye Caulker, as its name suggests, isn’t just an island, but one that was formed when sediments carried by the water settled over a reef and eventually rose over the sea surface. This explains Caye Caulker’s low elevation and its narrowness (the island is less than a mile wide overall).
Sparsely populated (there are less than 2,000 people who reside there full-time), this small dot in the Caribbean sea felt like it just came out of another decade. No cars, no paved streets, sure, but also a pace of life that was decidedly miles away from the hustle and bustle of any big city, and limited development that would make it the antithesis of the Riviera Maya.
The Split, a channel slicing Caye Caulker, as seen from the northern part of the island.
When I woke up the following day, the sky was overcast, and thanks to it, the heat bearable, so I set off to walk around the island to explore. It didn’t take me long - although I didn’t go all the way down south, the island’s petite size makes it a dream to discover, and in one hour, I felt like I had seen most of it. I didn’t feel like I was done - but truthfully, Caye Caulker isn’t where you’d want to walk for miles.
Instead, it is a great island for taking your time - its official motto is “Go slow”, after all - and for enjoying true Caribbean hospitality, as well as great snorkeling. Most of the tourists visiting the island come to enjoy one type of water activity or another. Not a lot of people come to Caye Caulker for its beaches, which are few and far between, and mostly pretty small.
This small dot in the Caribbean sea felt like it just came out of another decade.
I am not a big snorkeling fan - I am always afraid a potential close-by shark will be want to have me for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I love the water mostly from a safe distance, be it on a beach or on a ship. Luckily for me, water sports are not the only thing the island has going for it.
For most people, the second best thing to do on the island is to enjoy a meal or just a drink at the Split. About 150-feet (50m) wide, this channel of azure-blue waters separate the southern, developed part of Caye Caulker from the wilder northern part. There is a debate as to whether it was man-made or carved by Hurricane Hattie, back in 1961, but a little research showed both theories to be somewhat true. Initially dredged by locals as a way to create a passage for canoes, the canal was widened by the passage of the hurricane, and, because it allowed bigger boats to go through, was left that way.
Playa Asunción street in Caye Caulker.
Today, it is nicknamed the heart of the island. Featuring sea-front restaurants and shops, it is a great place to spend an afternoon sipping drinks, watching people jump in the water from the famous man-made stairs, or just letting time go by.
The Split is also where you can catch a ferry to the other side of the island. Tempted by a bike ride, I rented a somewhat comfortable two-wheeler from my hotel, hauled it on the ferry and, about 30 seconds later, emerged on the other side of the Split, ready to explore the more remote part of the caye.
Southern Caye Caulker, behind me, suddenly felt like a subway station at peak hour. There was nothing - absolutely nothing on the northern island, save for a narrow one-lane unpaved trail that led through a mix of mangrove and jungle. The sea was never really far away, and you could glance at a few roofs somewhere among the trees.
This part of Caye Caulker is where you want to be to leave the world behind. There isn’t much for tourists to do at present, but a few rather big condo developments on the eastern shore seem to herald a new future for the islet. The northern part counts with a few beaches, bigger than south of the Split, that have a lot of potential.
The main trail on Caye Caulker's northern island.
I biked almost all the way to the tip of the island, where the trail became nothing more than a narrow path, and turned back, worried that I wouldn’t be back before sunset - I was warned that mosquitoes were plentiful, hungry, and coming out en masse just before the sun went down, so I biked back towards the ferry, crossed the Split, and was back on southern Caye Caulker in twenty minutes.
There was one thing left to do to complete my experience of this little Caribbean island: watch stingrays at, well, Stingray beach. I hadn’t actually heard of this before the team at the hotel recommended I checked it out. On a small beach by the Iguana Reef Inn, stingrays congregate from around 4pm until sunset to get fed by hotel staff. When I arrived, there were about 50 people near or in the water, and close to twenty stingrays swimming by. I am not going to lie, it is an incredible sight to see these majestuous animals up close.
My instinct was, of course, to watch from a distance, along with a few pelicans and plenty of tourists. It was a little off-putting, however, to see people in the water actually feeding the rays. There is no education about the dangers both to the stingrays, who have become accustomed to being fed and congregate by the beach every day, and to the people feeding them - stingrays have a venomous tail, or barb, that they use it as a defense mechanism if threatened, and while it rarely causes death, it can be pretty painful.
You don’t actually need to go to Stingray beach to see rays. I saw a few of them swim by while waiting for my ferry at the Split, and on the northern island beach I checked out. Do yourself a favor and watch stingrays in the wild, keeping a respectful distance and do not interact with them. The beauty of seeing them by chance is much better than a manufactured show, however well-intentioned.
After enjoying a beautiful sunset nearby, I walked back to my hotel and, still full from my delicious meal at the Happy Lobster (see details in the Practical Information section below), decided to relax in my room with a book, ready to get up at 6am the following day to go back to Chetumal, Mexico, in a water taxi.
What stayed with me
It hit me as I waited for the ferry ride back to Mexico, the sun already rising. There was a lovely island dog waiting on the dock, at the door of the first ferry leaving for Belize City. For all the skinny street dogs I have seen in my travels in Latin America, this one looked well cared for. He seemed to want to leave the island but then changed his mind, and trotted back towards the shore.
It encompassed, for me, the welcoming spirit of this island - a place where even a dog can wander up to a ferry without anyone shooing him away. This is a chill, stress-free bit of sand where you can find your own pace, and perhaps your own peace. I know, for a couple of days, I found mine.
The Sip & Dip beach bar on Caye Caulker.
Practical information
(everything you wanted to know about Caye Caulker - updated October 2025)
In a nutshell
Come to Caye Caulker for the incredible snorkeling, stay for the vibes. The island motto is “Go Slow” and you can almost feel your heartbeat decelerating once you set a foot on this tiny strip of sand.
Caye Caulker is a great place to relax for a few days and enjoy Belizean hospitality. The island’s car-free policy makes it a truly relaxing place to unwind.
The dry season is from January to April, and the island, like the country overall, is deemed as safe as major European countries by the US Department of State.
Diving at the Split on Caye Caulker.
Getting to Caye Caulker
How to get to Caye Caulker from the United States: the island of Caye Caulker is located off the coast of Belize, 20 miles (32km) from Belize City. The simplest way to get there is to fly into Belize City’s international airport (BZE), which is served daily by the big US airlines from a number of hubs.
From the airport, the first option is to take a 10-minute hop on a small Cessna with Maya Air or Tropic Air (usually around USD160 to 200 round trip) that will land at the Caye Caulker municipal airport. The small airfield is located at the southern end of the island so you could either walk or take a taxi (i.e. a glorified golf cart as there are no actual cars on the island) to your accommodation.
The second option takes a little longer but is way cheaper. When you exit the terminal at BZE airport, take a taxi to the ferry terminal, bearing in mind there are two since March 2025 (see below). It should be USD20 for up to two people - it’s a fixed fare and the trip should last about 30 minutes. Once at the pier, you can choose between two water taxi companies that link Belize City with Caye Caulker:
Belize Express: I used them to travel between Chetumal, Mexico and Caye Caulker. They have 8 departures every day from 8am to 5.30pm, and the cost is USD21. They depart from this pier in Belize City.
Caribbean Sprinter: 5 departures a day, $30 one-way. They depart from that pier in Belize City.
The trip lasts a little less than an hour and gets you right in the center of Caye Caulker, at the ferry terminal. Unless you have packed heavy, it shouldn’t be an issue to walk to your accommodation from there.
How to get to Caye Caulker from Mexico City: There are no direct flights from Mexico City to Belize, so the best way is to actually fly into the Mexican city of Chetumal (CTM) and take a water taxi from there. It’s a 2-hour flight, a 10-mn taxi ride and then a 3h ferry ride with a stop in San Pedro to clear immigration and customs. I covered all the details in a special trip report. Aeromexico, VivaAerobus and Volaris operate once a day between Mexico City’s main airport (MEX) and CTM while Mexicana and Viva fly several days a week from Mexico City’s AIFA airport (NLU) to CTM, with base prices starting around USD75 one-way. From Chetumal airport, a taxi to the pier is MXN200 (about USD10 at the time of writing) and lasts less than 10 minutes. There is at least one water taxi a day, operated by either Belize Express or International Islander Ferries. Schedules vary depending on the company. Note there are more services per day during the high season. One-way cost is USD80 plus tax.
The water taxi to Chetumal, minutes before boarding, on Caye Caulker.
When to go to Caye Caulker
The best months weather-wise to enjoy Caye Caulker are during the dry season, between January and April, with March and April the driest months. This is also peak season so the tiny island may be a little crowded and prices a tad bit higher than the rest of the year. There is another peak season in the summer, coinciding with European travelers’ summer holidays.
I went to Caye Caulker in October, which is supposed to be the wettest month and, as such, the lowest of the low season. I had decided to tag along this Belize leg to a southern Yucatán trip, and while I knew this was the tail end of the hurricane season, didn’t think twice about it. The weather was a little overcast for part of the day, and the many puddles of water on the unpaved streets were a proof of how wet the month had been, but the afternoons were clear and sunny, and the weather didn’t bother me at all. I loved the (relative) lack of crowds.
Safety in Caye Caulker
Belize as a whole is labeled as a level 2 country by the US Department of State, meaning “exercise increased caution” - it’s the same level of safety as major European countries such as France or Spain, meaning this isn’t an especially dangerous place to visit.
Belize City has been flagged as a level 3 area (“reconsider travel”) but Caye Caulker, a sleepy little island with no cars and a chill way of life, isn’t where crime is. You can enjoy your stay here without worry.
A table at the Happy Lobster restaurant on Caye Caulker.
Food & lodging in Caye Caulker
Hotels
I stayed at the Bounty hotel on Caye Caulker. It had really good reviews on booking.com and was within my price range. It was almost on the beach, a stone’s throw from the ferry pier and a few minutes from the Split, the island’s beating heart. The host was super friendly and the hotel had a good vibe. I’d go back.
Restaurants & Bars
The Happy Lobster: on the island’s main drag, this well-reviewed place has about zero attitude, and I liked the fact the reviews were about the food, and not the decor. It’s nothing fancy, it’s not on the water, it doesn’t try to give you Ibiza vibes. The food is simple but really good. The portions are huge, so much so that I had to skip dinner on the day I ate there for lunch.
The Lazy Lizard: there are a few bars and restaurants close to the Strip, but the most famous is the Lazy Lizard. Located right on the channel, with gorgeous views of the northern part of Caye Caulker, it is the ideal place to spend a few hours sipping a cocktail.
Keep in mind these travel tips
Belize uses its own currency, the Belizean Dollar (BZD), but it is pegged to the US dollar at a fixed rate of 2 BZD for 1 USD. You can use US notes in Belize, although the change will be given in BZD. Credit cards are widely accepted the country even for small amounts - it was never an issue for me.
Mosquitos are aggressive here, and they come out just before sunset. This is especially true on the northern part of Caye Caulker (north of the Split), which is a lot less developed. Be ready with bug spray (which is, luckily, available in all the supermarkets dotting the island).
SPF will be your best friend. The UV index may be low in the morning and evening, but during the day, it gets pretty high.
Cell service is fine. I was able to get a pretty consistent 4G LTE service on SMART by roaming with Airalo, and that was helpful on my bike ride to the northern part of the island.
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All photos are mine and copyrighted.