Heading to Belize in January. We are going for three weeks with two young children - 4 and 5. I’ve read through old posts and gotten some advice from them. I have a couple questions that I wasn’t able to find.
1. What is the best currency is to bring.
2. Does it make sense to buy groceries and cook yourself (I have an air bnb), or just eat out for meals?
3. Has anyone booked any cave trips or zip lining adventures where the children were 5 and younger?
4. I’m renting a vehicle and wondering if I should bring my car seats, or just do without - thoughts?
Any other advice or things to do would be great!
Thanks for your help!

I would like all your tips when you’re done. I want to do this trip next year.

Sarah sounds great!

1. USD is best

Typhoid, Hepatitis A & B vaccines.

Laurel thank you for this. I had it on my things to do list and it totally slipped my mind. Got them booked for this week.

Bring REALLY good bug spray! And benadryl. Absolutely beautiful area but found the bugs terrible (just for my daughter and I... the boys seemed fine). We had a house and cooked for ourselves most of the time - just for cost savings.

Jessica I would echo this. We spent 2 weeks in Roatán with our 7 year old and were eaten alive by sand flies and mosquitoes. The hotel proprietor advised bringing 40% DEET. He also had many types of itch creams on hand for us.

Sal where can you find such strong sunscreen?

Sal oops bug spray lol

Larissa go to sporting good stores. Hunting fishing places.

Jessica did you find the sun really strong too? Or mostly just the bugs?

Larissa didn’t find the sun different. And I’ve done Mexico, cuba, etc. just the bugs. And again, so weird but my sons and my ex - hardly a bite!! My daughter and I - top to bottom.

Jessica I feel like my son and I will be eaten alive, and my husband and other son will not. They just love certain people.

Larissa so true!!! I am apparently tasty to those lil

Larissa also most travel clinics

I would take car seats. You can use them on the airplane too if you wanted.
Not sure their sizes but I have kiddos similar in age and they are both still in 5pt harnesses as they are no where close to maxing out their limits.

Tricia I’m leaning towards this as well. My issue is for our last week there we need to take a ferry to an island and the place we are staying is small. So thinking of lugging two car seats, plus all our luggage on the ferry and then storing it in our tiny place seems like a difficult task.

Usd is taken everywhere but you can get Belize $ when you get there. I wouldn't take kids on a cave tour like a.t.m. at that age. We were in the jungle last January and there were virtually no bugs. The monkey River tour out of Placencia would be cool for the kids as we saw monkey's and alligators.

Brendan what age for the monkey river tour? I have ages 10/15/17, too old?

Taylor
1. Belizian dollars is best, you can use USD but the exchange will be worse. We found a lot of places only took cash
2. Yes absolutely. We found eating out a bit expensive but you can find budget options so you could do a mix of both
4. I always bring our car seat! We rented once and it wasn’t very clean

Taylor how much money would you suggest to bring? Is there anywhere you can take out more money?
I’m leaning more towards bringing the car seats, I’m a bit of a crazy person when it comes to car seats anyways, it’s just the thought of hauling those things around that’s making me consider not.

Larissa just came back from Mexico and you can take money out of banks. Just make sure it is at a bank and not a random bank machine as there can be readers attached to those.

Larissa it depends which places you are going to. We found some smaller restaurants and excursions on Caye Caulker only took cash, but more on San Pedro took card from what I remember. We also stayed in San Ignacio and Placencia and found the same. It just depends if you plan to eat out at more high end restaurants vs smaller road side vendors or take out type restaurants. I personally like to just bring them, but we also bought a lighter weight one specifically for travel

oh and yes we did use a ATM while we were there! But exchange is usually best if you take it out beforehand

Larissa my sister had this awesome backpack that her car seat fit into for travel and bonus it isn’t a weighed item so she would load it with cloths and Extra blankets etc for my niece. It was perfect. They have travelled all
Over with her including many flights to England as that is where her dad is from. Makes it so much easier to travel.

Taylor did you get vaccinated / the kids too?

Larissa yeah we have all of our travel vaccines!

Roads can be rough depending on where you go, so car seats would make for a more comfortable ride for the kids.

Charlene great advice, thank you.

Take USD. Belizeans will give you Belizean $ in change when you buy things and you can use either anytime.
Do a mix of eating out and your own cooking. It's fun to see what's in grocery stores, food stands, and fruit markets.
Use bug repellent, but you will inevitably get bit anyway. You can buy anti-itch cream with cortate or antihistamine, and use it frequently.
Bring your car seats.
Cave tubing is probably something you should save for when they're older, like at least 10.
Enjoy!

Karen thanks so much Karen! I appreciate the advice. Would you recommend vaccines as well?

Larissa yes, absolutely. It gives you freedom to leave the resort with less worry of getting sick, and they last a long time.

Karen, which vaccines???

Aline when we're going anywhere, we go to the Medicine Shoppe and ask for a travel consultation. It depends on where you're going and what you'll be doing. Most likely Twinrix and typhoid, possibly Dukoral.

Karen, thank you for your quick response, looking into going to Belize or Roatan next November!!’

Buy an oil bug product, you can buy locally (Jungle Oil), spray might help on the clothes but does nothing for the skin, I found by lathering in oil it worked way better. Do not be afraid to eat in the small little hole in the wall, they are affordable and the food was always great. The zoo is very neat but know that most of the animals are nocturnal, you can book a night tour, we didn't and still enjoyed but might be fun for the kids to do a night tour. Most caves were flooded when we were there (rainy season) so can't advise on that. We used American dollars but thinking going with Belize dollars might have been easier, maybe take half and half and make sure you use all the Belize first.

Allison Greta advice. Would you suggest getting the oil there then? I’ve never even heard of that here before. How did you find the sun there?

Larissa we bought the oil there after we got bit but it did help. We were there in November and it was about 25-37 degrees Celsius. The locals also suggested Vaseline or vicks for on the bites.

Larissa here is a website you can order Jungle Oil https://www.bodybelize.com/store/p48/jungleoil.html
BODYBELIZE.COM
Jungle Oil Insect Repellent

Another option is to go to website https://www.weedsnseeds.com/
WEEDSNSEEDS.COM
Herbal Remedies | Weedsnseeds.com

They have an oil bug product as well, we went to Lamanai Chocolate Company And Tours and this was the product they used and sell.

Allison wow! Thanks so much!

Larissa the bugs don't mess around in Belize