PlanetEye

March 24th, 2008

Air Belize

Brendan

The Global Nomad

I pride myself on finding things to love about places others love to hate. As far as I’m concerned, every place has SOMEthing to offer, the secret is to find that thing and focus on it.

That having been said, I still haven’t found that thing for Belize City. My advice: get out. Preferably as soon as possible.

Buses in Belize are affordable, but if you can shell out just a little more, flying can be a very economical way to see parts of the country that might take too long to get to otherwise. Plus, most domestic flights can stop at Belize City’s international airport (BZE) as well, so you can easily get on your way as soon as you arrive.

(Important note: if you are pinching pennies but still want to fly, or are arriving by land, it is cheaper to fly from the tiny domestic terminal downtown. Not to mention if you are already in the city, you’ll save quite a bit on the taxi—about 20 bucks.)

As much you may be accustomed to planning and booking ahead, especially when it comes to air travel, you should get rid of this habit when it comes to flying in Belize (or Honduras for that matter). Flights are frequent, cheap and flexible; locals rarely book more than a day ahead and I have several times shown up at the airport and just hopped on the next flight without a problem.

Belize is also a great place to experience the fun of small airplane travel. Many times I have been able to hug the pilot from behind, and on my last flight a final passenger was able to squeeze on my flight by sitting in the co-pilot’s seat! There’s nothing quite like seeing a country from a small low-flying airplane.

Belize has two main domestic airlines: Tropic Air and Maya Island Air.

Also Note: there are both domestic and international departure taxes when flying out of BZE airport. At writing the domestic one was very cheap (no more than a dollar or two) but if you are flying internationally it is quite steep—about USD$35.

Whether you have to pay this or not depends on whether it has been buried in the price you paid for your ticket, and this depends on your airline. TACA for example had already included it in our tickets, but American Airlines had not. In this case you will have to pay this tax in US dollars on the spot. They do accept credit cards but will not accept Belize dollars.

If you can’t see it in the fine print breakdown of your ticket price, ask your airline. The other important message is that when you are leaving the country use up your Belize dollars before you go through security, as the duty free also only accepts US dollars, and you will only have beer and souvenirs to spend your remaining cash on!

Tags: Belize, flying

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