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What's the best way to get around in Ambergris Caye?

Decorated golf carts on parade in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

There are only two ways to get to Ambergris Caye: one is by a puddle jumper flight (a small, 14-passenger plane), and another is by boat, also called the water taxi.

A puddle jumper flight can take you from Belize City or from Corozal to San Pedro in 15 minutes. The boat or water taxi can take you to San Pedro (the main town on Ambergris Caye) from Belize City or Corozal within an hour and a half.

The best way to get around Ambergris Caye is either by golf cart or by bicycle. There aren’t a lot of cars in Ambergris Caye because Ambergris Caye is a bit too small and is getting congested with traffic, so the government is not granting permits for bigger vehicles, which are necessary if you want to have a vehicle in Ambergris Caye.

It’s very nice to drive around in San Pedro. In San Pedro, there aren’t a lot of one way streets, and the streets are easy to be familiar with. With only three main streets in San Pedro, you cannot get lost. If you go too far in one direction, you’re going to hit the sea anyway so you’ve hit the end.

San Pedro is a small place. It will take you from one end of San Pedro to the other about 25 minutes in your golf cart, and from the center of the town of San Pedro going north to the end of the island is going to take about one hour and a half in your golf cart.

(Decorated golf carts on parade in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize, pictured.)

Posted April 07, 2017

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Christian Burn - Grand Baymen

0 7

The best way to get around Ambergris Caye is on a golf cart. You could also ride a bike, but riding a golf cart tends to be the easiest and the most fun. As an expat, you’re not allowed a car on Ambergris Caye.

Posted December 02, 2014

Matthew Hoy - Pelican Properties

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House in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

The best way to get around in Ambergris Caye bar none is the golf cart. We have the golf cart lifestyle here and it’s absolutely the best way to go. The island is very small, and the roads are not very large either. The main populated area of the island is only a 6-mile stretch of land from north to south, so having a car is not necessary. Having a bicycle is fine but if the heat gets to you, having a golf cart to move around at 20 miles an hour is by far the easiest and most effective way of getting around town.

The whole island of Ambergris Caye is only 25 miles long. Development is increasing on the north side and there is a road being paved all the way to the 12-mile mark north. They are also paving the road all the way to the southern tip of the island. Right now, they are only at 6.5 miles of that paving and I project that within the next 18 months or so, that should be completed, which will enable someone to drive from the very southern tip of the island to the very northern area of the island in less than an hour and a half. But for now, the area where generally everybody would go is only about 6 miles in length from north to south and it’s only about 1.5 miles wide.

There are cars here but generally, they are taxis and delivery vehicles. Not many expats drive cars in Ambergris Caye. Generally, San Pedranos (local people who are from San Pedro, Ambergris Caye) are the only ones who have cars. There are more and more cars arriving but I think that is something that is going to get changed because people realize that we don’t really need them here.

(House with a garage for a six seater golf cart in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize, pictured.)

Posted November 24, 2015

Josh Buettner - Ambergris Seaside Real Estate

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Boat belonging to Josh Buettner's company, Ambergris Seaside Realty, Ambergris Caye, Belize – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

The best way to get around in Ambergris Caye is a combination of bicycle, golf cart and boat. Between those forms of transportation, the golf cart is the most prevalent. There are a few people that have cars but the reality is that’s not practical because Ambergris Caye is a fairly small place.

The frames of car also tend to rot and get affected by corrosion substantially quicker than most of the golf carts. The joke is that even plastic rusts in Belize and on Ambergris Caye it is probably more true than any place else in the country. Places like Placencia where they are 10 to 20 miles away from the reef don’t have the same issues that we do here in Ambergris Caye in terms of corrosion. Here, the air is permeated with salt because it is ionized when it bounces off the reef and it is thick in the air and coats windows, doors, and things of that nature. If you close off a house and leave and come back in 6 months, chances are, the locks and windows are not going to work. You will get corrosion on pretty much everything. What people do to avoid that is to do proper maintenance and get quality materials.

(Boat belonging to Josh Buettner's company, Ambergris Seaside Realty, Ambergris Caye, Belize, pictured.)

Posted October 27, 2015

Bob Hamilton - Century 21 Coral Beach Realty

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Golf carts parked along businesses in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

The best way to get around in Ambergris Caye is by driving a golf cart.

The new traffic cops are trying to tighten up a little bit here, but it is not unusual to see two couples driving in the middle of the afternoon and all of them have an open beer in their hands. That is not technically legal but the traffic cops are trying to make the drivers not hold a beer when they are driving around.

It’s not necessary to have a golf cart. You can walk, depending on where you live. If you live within the town core of San Pedro (the only town on Ambergris Caye), you don’t need a golf cart. If you are going to stay at a hotel that is located 2 or 3 miles north, you can take a water taxi that goes about every half hour. It goes north and comes back and charges $10 BZ (US $5) each way. If you want a little more freedom, perhaps to go exploring, you can get a golf cart and rent that for a day or two and just drive around. It’s perfectly safe.

If you decide to live here, you would need a golf cart the same way you need a car back home. A brand new golf cart will set you back for about US $11,000 or $12,000. We are getting some of the old golf carts off the golf courses in the US that were manufactured in 2007, 2008, up to 2010 to Belize to get refurbished. Those ones will set you back about $6,000 to $7,000.

The maintenance of golf carts is cheap but the main thing here in Ambergris Caye is that because there is so much salt in the water, air, and sand, a cart will rust out in 3 years. If you buy a golf cart here, if it has an aluminum frame on it, it doesn’t rust out. There are some golf carts here that run on electric and others run on gas. I have two golf carts and both of them run on gas.

Generally, people here in Ambergris Caye do not have cars, but instead have golf carts. You drive around with the breeze on your face. You don’t need air-conditioning because golf carts are open. Most of them have a windshield to stop the rain and keep you a little dry.

(Golf carts parked along businesses in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize, pictured.)

Posted October 06, 2015

David Drummond - Georgetown Trust

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San Pedro and golf cart, Ambergris Caye, Belize – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

The best way to get around Ambergris Caye is via two feet in a heartbeat!

Generally, the best way to get around in Ambergris Caye is to walk. It depends on where you are, too. Obviously, if you are two miles outside of San Pedro town, you can’t walk, but for tourists, there are lots of places to stay within a mile of town, so they will walk, ride a bike, take a taxi, or a golf cart. For the most part, if you are staying in and around San Pedro, you can walk around. If you are staying at one of the destination resorts north or south, then you would probably want to ride golf cart or a taxi.

There are people who will buy homes in the north of the island on the oceanfront. Typically, north of the bridge, you will see resorts, all the way for up to 20 to 25 miles. You won’t probably get there in a taxi, but you might be able to get there in a four-wheel drive golf cart. There are also water taxis that will make stops running north and south.

The majority of the population of people living in Ambergris Caye live within two to three miles of San Pedro, whereas tourist population will stretch 25 miles north and 3 miles south. There are also some tourists living within 1 mile north and 1 mile south of San Pedro.

The town of San Pedro is about 5 or 6 blocks long and 3 or 4 blocks deep from the east of the island oceanfront to the western oceanfront. A mile north or south will be what I consider, the mainstay of the population.

The southern part of Ambergris Caye is more residential. To the north, there are more tourist or destination resorts. Everything is pretty close so the need for transportation is not a big deal. If you live in town, you can walk to wherever you need to get to. A golf cart is just a convenience.

(Tooling around in a golf cart, San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize, pictured.)

Posted May 01, 2015

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