An Easy Guide on How to Get to Caye Caulker From Belize International Airport

Last Updated on August 6, 2022

Caye Caulker is a little island just off the coast of mainland Belize, there are no paved roads and the main method of transport on the island is golf cart or bicycle! The cheapest way to reach Caye Caulker is by water taxi! Here’s my guide on how to get to Caye Caulker from Belize International Airport…with step by step instructions taking you right from the airplane door to this paradise island!

Disclosure AD: This post is sponsored by GuateGo

Updated: March 2022

How To Get To Caye Caulker

Phillip S.W. Goldson International Airport is located just outside of Belize City and has direct flights to the USA by airlines such as American Airlines, Delta, United, Southwest and WestJet.

Just 30 minutes after touch down and I was out the terminal and in the (very warm) Belizean sunshine! There was a short wait at immigration and travelling with only hand luggage, I didn’t have to wait at the baggage carousel!

In Belize, licensed taxis have a GREEN number plate and wait just outside of the arrivals door. The standard rate to anywhere in Belize City is $25USD. It wasn’t metered, this is just the set rate. (My guest house charged the same price, they said it’s set by the airport). It takes around 20 minutes to travel from the airport to the water taxi dock.

Belize City to Caye Caulker

Getting To Caye Caulker From Belize City

TIP – There are TWO water taxi docks in Belize City that offer services from Belize City to Caye Caulker: the San Pedro Express (that despite the name, goes to Caye Caulker too) and Ocean Ferry. The taxis will automatically take you to the San Pedro Express if you say you are going to Caye Caulker. A return ticket from Belize City to Caye Caulker on the San Pedro Express is: $30USD.

Return tickets are open ended and are valid for 3 months. Just don’t lose it! Mine got a little bit wet and wrinkly (even though I kept it in my wallet, that’s the humidity for you!) but it was still accepted.

SAN PEDRO EXPRESS SCHEDULE (CORRECT march 2022)

Belize City to Caye Caulker	Caye Caulker to Belize City
8.00am 10.30am 12.00pm 1.30pm 3.00pm 4.30pm 5.30pm	6.30am 7.30am 9.00am 10.30am 1.30pm 3.30pm 5.00pm

Check http://www.belizewatertaxi.com/schedule for the latest timetable

The San Pedro Express is currently running a schedule with less departures.

OCEAN FERRY SCHEDULE (CORRECT march 2022)

Belize City to Caye Caulker	Caye Caulker to Belize City
8.00am 10.30am 1.30pm 3.00pm 5.30pm	7.00am 8.30am 10.30am 1.30pm 5.00pm

Check http://www.oceanferrybelize.com for the latest timetable.

San Pedro Express

The ticket counter at San Pedro Express terminal is right at the end (near the water) on the right hand side. There are several souvenir shops and places to eat. (The Ocean Ferry terminal has similar facilities).

The toilets have a $1BZD charge (the rule of thumb is $2BZD = $1USD…if only travelling with USD you’ll have to pay with a dollar bill as they won’t accept coins even though it converts to $0.50USD).

A 1litre bottle of water at the water taxi terminal is $2BZD/$1USD. It is cheaper here than at the shops on Caye Caulker island. (And a lot cheaper than the $4USD bottle I bought at Miami Airport which was half the size…and then left under the chair in the departure lounge…FAIL)

San Pedro Express Water Taxi Terminal — *Standing on the dock looking back at the water taxi terminal*

If you are travelling with luggage/a suitcase, these actually travel on a different boat. You will need to check it in at the entrance of the terminal and collect it at the end of the dock on arrival. I had a backpack and a personal item and these were allowed to stay with me on the boat. A lot of other travellers were confused by the whole ‘luggage travelling separately’. I heard a lot of questions being asked as to where to pick their cases.

Considering it’s called the ‘San Pedro Express’, I was expecting to get on a boat that goes to/from San Pedro that maybe just stopped at Caye Caulker on route. The San Pedro boat is actually much larger and has more indoor seating areas, the Caye Caulker boat is tiny in comparison. Maybe I’m wrong and some boats do stop on both islands but it didn’t seem that way on my travel days!

I travelled in low season (June) and the boat was quite tiny, there’s also not a lot of shade on board. The journey from Belize City to Caye Caulker takes around 45 minutes. I was lucky the days I travelled, the ride was quite smooth. When I was back in Belize City, I met up with a couple that said their ride over the following day was really choppy! I even saw dolphins on one of my journeys!

San Pedro Express Belize City to Caye Caulker

TIP – Be aware of ‘island time’. It may have been because I was in low season, but I rocked up at the boat dock in Caye Caulker to get the 3.30pm water taxi back to Belize City and I was told it was leaving at 3.10pm instead. Thankfully I had arrived in plenty of time! Things like weather can also cause delays. And make sure you don’t miss the last ferry of the day!

On arrival in Caye Caulker golf carts will be waiting just outside the terminal to take people to their accommodation. I was told a journey costs $5USD, I can’t say for sure though as I walked everywhere on the island…it’s less than 1 mile wide and even though it’s 5 miles long, there’s not really any accommodation more than a 15 minute walk away from the dock.

However, if travelling with a suitcase, the ground on Caye Caulker isn’t exactly flat or smooth. The quickest way to get to my accommodation was via the beach, I can’t imagine dragging a suitcase across sand would be fun.

And that’s all there is to it! I was travelling solo and found this whole process of getting from Belize City to Caye Caulker very easy!

Flying to Caye Caulker

For those with more of a budget, it is possible to fly to Caye Caulker. Obviously this is quicker but is more expensive! Tropic Air roughly have 6 flights a day from Belize International Airport to Caye Caulker (I would call it Caye Caulker airport…but it’s literally a runway in a field…).

The flight time is just 10 minutes compared to the 1hr 5 minutes of land/water travel (minus the waiting time between the taxi’s arrival at the terminal and the ferry departing!). The longer route costs $75USD for the complete return trip (taxi and ferry), return flights are around $150-200USD.

How To Get To Caye Caulker From Other Destinations

There are other ways to get to Caye Caulker than aren’t from Belize City. The San Pedro Express has boats from San Pedro to Caye Caulker. The journey takes around 30 minutes and costs $18USD for an adult single ticket.

An international route also runs from Chetumal in Mexico to Caye Caulker via San Pedro. The boat takes 1hr 40 to get between Chetumal and San Pedro, where it has to clear immigration before continuing on for another 30 minutes to Caye Caulker. A one way ticket costs $55USD BUT there is a departure fee of 534 Mexican pesos (around $25USD) to pay on top of this.

The route between Chetumal and Caye Caulker only runs once every other day.

GuateGo

You can book your transportation in Belize online in advance with GuateGo to ensure your seats and compare schedules, prices and travel times. They have painstakingly brought together all of the transport, routes and tour options in one easy to use website.

You can book all the main destinations in Belize starting from the airport to the water taxi station or connect to Caye Caulker, Ambergris Caye, Chetumal or book ground shuttles to San Ignacio or Palencia. Also you can connect Belize City with practically every destination in Guatemala (Flores, Lanquin, Antigua, Atitlan).

You can choose what kind of transport you want to use (shuttle, coach, water taxi, luxury bus, private transport or plane) they have all the main transports in the web site. The best part is that is a little bit cheaper than booking in the water taxi station.

How to book:

When booking be sure to check From: your origin To: your destination. Then select how many tickets you want and your dates. Note: Every shuttle will wait between 20 to 30 minutes for you. If you book a shuttle it will pick you up in your hotel or the airport. For coach, luxury bus and water taxis; you have to get to the station. So make sure you Don’t forget to book your return journey too.