There are several ways to get from Mexico to Belize, but none of them is completely straightforward. In this post I describe what crossing the Belizean border looked like, how much it cost us and how we hitchhiked to the village of Sarteneja, where we spent our first night in a tent.
Crossing the border Mexico – Belize
We entered Belize on 14 December 2023. Crossing the Belizean border is a small business for taxi drivers. You can’t walk across the border directly from Santa Elena on the Mexican side – you either have to walk a long way round or take a taxi. For 150 MXN (about €8) we were first taken to the Mexican border office, where the driver waited for us until we got our exit stamp, and then drove us to the Belizean office.
At the Mexican office you have to pay a tourist tax. If you have already paid it, you need proof – it is often included in the price of your flight, but it has to be itemised on the invoice. If it isn’t, you pay on the spot, and many people have to pay the fee a second time, with no possibility of appeal. At the moment it is 687 MXN (about €37) per person – more than the internet said, so we only just had enough. Payment in cash only.
Good to know
- The official language of Belize is English.
- The currency is easy to convert: 1 Belize dollar (BZD) = 0.5 US dollar (USD).
- On entry, at the border office, you have to declare where you will be staying.
- Wild camping is legal in Belize, as long as you don’t pitch your tent on private land.
- Prices and amounts are as of December 2023 (the time of our visit).
Hitchhiking to Sarteneja
The plan was to hitchhike from the border south – to Orange Walk, on the way to Belize City, where we wanted to catch a ferry to the islands. At the border we were picked up by Aurélien, Ewa and Gabriel (@landcruising_family), who have been travelling in their car all the way from Canada and – just like us – had entered Belize the day before. After more than two months we hadn’t seen a car with Polish number plates, so it was a really nice touch, as was the whole ride filled with conversations in Polish and English.
On the way we crossed a river on an interesting car ferry. Together we reached Sarteneja – not at all in our direction, but it turned out you can get to the islands from here too. Only a short stretch of the road was paved; the rest was full of potholes, unlit and – especially after rain – very muddy.
We spent the first night in a tent. We hadn’t bought a SIM card, but we had Wi-Fi from a nearby bar (Loco-Nuts Social House), which played music until late – luckily we managed to fall asleep. We drank our first Belizean beer for 5 BZD (about €2) for 275 ml.
The next day we made it to the island of Ambergris Caye (San Pedro), and from there we went on to Caye Caulker – more about that in the next post.
