When we finally headed to the Cayes of Belize we chose Caye Caulker from the many options.

Where We Slept

Daisy’s Guest House.Our traveling companions from Caracol had been to Caye Caulker before us and had recommended Daisy’s. The rooms were spacious with two beds, a ceiling fan, and bathrooms down the hall. It reminded us of a dorm room at college as all the rooms were attached to one long hall. We were quite lucky because we ended up having the entire guest house to ourselves for one of the nights, which we enjoyed quite a bit. We spend time lounging in the hallway because it was a bit cooler and the WiFi worked better.

Favorite Place to Eat

Barrier Reef Sports Bar. We realize this is a strange choice in an island known for seafood (during LobsterFest for that matter!) But, we did enjoy their trivia night. Unfortunately, the food is only OK. However, what we really enjoyed was finding all sorts of Texas and Rice University (!!) paraphernalia adorning most of the walls. There was even a picture of the 2012 Rice Women’s Soccer team in the bathroom. We also enjoyed chatting with the owner who was an expat from Houston.

Things To Do

Swimming at the Split

Caye Caulker did not really have a lot of options for truly public beach. The best place to go to lay in the sun, drink cocktails, and swim in the ocean was at the northern end of town. We heard it was called the split because several years back a hurricane came through and tore through the island splitting it in two. The channel that runs through is clean, clear, and offers some mediocre snorkeling. It’s not really a beach, and tourists and local alike did more relaxing along the crumbling sea wall which was not very comfortable. However, the water was warm and welcoming. Our time in Caye Caulker was plagued by mosquitoes (they were out in mass EVERYWHERE! At one point, Della got 7 mosquito bites in about 4 minutes on an early morning walk down the hall to the bathroom of the guesthouse!) so we did not enjoy laying out too much. There was a neat bar right on the edge of the split that had tables IN the water. We did spend some time drinking beers and completely submerging ourselves in the shallow water of the bar.

Go  Snorkeling

We took a snorkeling trip out of Caye Caulker and were in agreement that it was the best snorkeling we had ever done!

Relax

Caye Caulker was an easy town to be in with lots of shops, restaurants, places to stay, and street food/vendors. We enjoyed seaside bars, karaoke bars, and lots walking around town.

Lobster Fest

Obviously, Lobster Fest doesn’t occur year round. But if you have a chance to experience it, you definitely should!

Summary

We chose Caye Caulker above some of the other Cayes because it was supposed to be quiet, relaxing, and a little less touristy. Because we arrived during Lobster Fest and came from the small quiet town of Hopkins, we didn’t find Caye Caulker as quiet as we expected. It was definitely a relaxing place to spend a couple of days, though as we already mentioned, the mosquitos were almost unbearable which severely restricted how much time we spent outside. In addition, it rained a fair amount of the time that we there, so we were sometimes happy just to spend time in our guesthouse and read or check email. Overall, we got a little bored in the three days that we spent there. We were lucky that we had met and traveled with our travel friends from Hopkins. Getting the chance to hangout with and get to know them better was definitely a plus during our time in Caye Caulker. The highlight of the time was definitely the snorkel trip, which we loved! (although, it would have been better if we had been more careful with sunscreen!)