Belize

Belize
Information
Language:	English, Spanish, Kriol
Capital:	Belmopan
Population:	314,275
Currency:	Dollar (BZD)
Hitchability:	<rating country='bz' />
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<map lat='17.25' lng='-88.75' zoom='7' view='0' country='Belize' height='300'/>
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Hitchhiker Katja on an empty rural road in Belize.

Belize is a small country in Central America. It borders to Mexico in the north and Guatemala in the west.

Hitchhiking in Belize is very logical and appears to be very good and easy, even locals do it. There are plenty of speedbumps (just called bumps), so each time you walk out of a town it's better to thumb at one of these. Some hitchhikers say that a small token payment may be exchanged. Others have not experienced this at all. Public transport is inexpensive but quite slow considering the size of the country. Cars with green license plates are taxis. Small smart mini cars tend to be taxis for short distances.

People in Belize are very friendly and many of them are proud of their country. Try to show respect to Belize and it's citizens and you'll find out that this tiny country has a lot of things to offer.

Safety wise Belize is generally safe but have some serious dangers. One of those is police brutality.

People in the past have been robbed and abused by the Belizean police. Human rights basically don't exist, and you will not have anywhere to complain if the police violates your rights.

It is recommended to keep distance and avoid any small behavior that might give the police an excuse to pick on you.

SonOfHitch spent a night in jail just for accepting an invitation to someone's home in Punta Gorda. More info in experiences.

Cities

• Corozal
• Belize City
• Belmopan
• Punta Gorda aka "PG"
• San Ignacio aka Cayo

Islands

• Caye Caulker
• San Pedro

Border crossings

To/From Mexico

As to 2024 Hitchhiking to the border from Mexico is quite easy.

Although most of the road is highway and most people go to Chetumal. It is still easy to stop rides and ask them to stop for you on the junction to Belize. The border crossing itself is a bit confusing. There are two different customs in different locations for entering and exiting Mexico. The locals tend to not know so well the rules because they don't apply on them the same as tourist.

Exiting Mexico was super easy. There is a white room in the middle of the road where a lady just stumped my passport with barely any questions. She did tell me that if I wish to go back to Mexico in this border crossing it will cost me 750 mexican pesos and a flight ticket as a proof that I am leaving Mexico.

The Belizean customs are not so close to the mexican customs. Luckily I had locals helping me, driving me around. In the Belizean customs you need to fill a standard paper stating your name, passport number etc... I was told to fill that I will stay only 30 days in Belize. They inform you that you can ask for 30 days more later and it will cost 100 US dollars. You have to state to which hotel are you going. I just filled a name I found online and no questions were asked. Later they might check your bags to see if you are smuggling anything ilegal, like fruit and veggies from Mexico.

There is a bus stop just after the customs and even the police told me I can hitchhike there. Everyone in the Belizean side seem to prefer speaking English.

To/From Guatemala

There are 3 Borders crossing between Guatemala and Belize. One of the border is currently close. And one of the the two left requires a boat.

Melchor de Mencos if you Crossed this border please add information to this section

Punta Gorda to Livingstone On the south most point of Belize you can get boats that go to Livingstone. Boats go Monday to Friday leaving 9:30 from Punta Gorda to Livingstone and leaving from Puerto Barrios in Honduras passing in Livingstone To Belize at 14:00 with a company called Requena and cost 80 Belizean Dollars (June 2024). the ride takes about 40 minutes.

You need to purchase a ticket before at Requena’s office a little bit norther than the immigration office in Punta gorda. If you are coming from Livingstone to Belize tickets can be bought at docks when the boat arrives around 14:00. make sure you passed in the Guatemalan Immigration office before.

At the entrance of Punta Gorda Immigration office guards will want to see your boat ticket and maybe passport. Inside you will have to pay 40 Belizean dollars for leaving. I know, Crazy.

After paying you get stamped in the next stand and you are free to go to the docks. Come much before 9:30 else you might miss your boat. The Boat company recommends you to get there latest by 9 Am, But 9 Am might be too Late.

Entering Belize doesn’t cost anything for most nationalities, but you only receive 30 days, for another 30 days you’ll have to pay 100 US Dollars. On Entrance you will have to state on a paper how long you are going to stay in Belize. Just fill 30 Days, you want get more. And you’ll need to put a name of a Hostel/Hotel where you are planing to stay. Don’t worry you can later after crossing choose to go to another Hostel/Hotel if you wish.

In Livingstone the immigration office is not so close to the docks. About 6 minutes walk up hill. If you are leaving Guatemala you should get stamped before trying to buy a ticket from the boats at the docks. If you just arrived in Guatemala you should go to soon as you get to Livingstone to Immigration office to get stamped.

Immigration office is located here: 15.826657451562127, -88.74908321548322, Google maps

Leaving is quite easy. Entering requires you to fill a form online. You can get very Weak Slow WIFI at the immigration office. The Problem is that Livingstone tends to have a lot of outbreaks where the whole city don’t have electricity sometimes for days which will make it impossible to fill this form using the immigration WIFI. In that case you might need to wait for the electricity to come back to get stamped.

After they give you the password for WIFI you can Scan the QR code they have on the entrance of the building which will lead you to a website to fill all your personal data. After succeeding to fill the form they stamp you passport and you are free to go.

Jalacte Border Crossing (Illegal by this moment)

December 2016 experience: El Chulito and Shamcore tried to legally cross the border with Guatemala via Jalacte in December 2016. They hitchhiked from Punta Gorda to Jalacte without any real difficulties. The traffic is poor, but they got rides from one village to a next one and reached the destination point in about 3 hours, which is not a bad timing. The road was completely paved and in great condition. Seems like the works are almost finished. About 5kms before Jalacte there's customs where the guards first ask where you go. El Chulito and Shamcore asked about a legal way to exit Belize and enter Guatemala and got bad news. The only way to leave the country legally is to find the only police officer in Jalacte who owns an exit stamp. Actually he's only authorized to put exit stamps only in guatemalan passports, but it seems like he can be convinced to help travelers as well. Now it's impossible to enter Guatemala legally, because there's no kind of customs or control when entering the country. This means that it's impossible to get an entry stamp and stay in the country on a legal basis. People say that Guatemala doesn't really participate in making a legal border crossing point because of a territorial conflict between two countries. Let's hope that in 2017 travelers will be able to cross the border legally. At the moment you can only enter Guatemala at your own risk, which is never advisable by HitchWiki community.

Experiences

Zenit hitched from the western border to the northern border in just a day in March 2018. The ease and the friendliness of people made him quite upset at already having to leave again, but the unexpected 40B$ (20US$!) exit fee quickly put his feelings back in perspective.

Levon had an extremely good experience across all the country. Roads and vehicles are scarce in many parts of the country (one in 20 minutes max); however, they almost always stop, especially if this is not a busy road. Sometimes they would expect a small treat (like a bottle of beer) but never more than that. Many locals hitchhike in the back of the pickups too. The atmosphere is very safe (didn't hitchhike in Belize City, though). Again, a very positive experience in general. No signs/cardboards are needed. Just to underscore the level of "hitchability" - we hitched from and back to the airport right on time to fly back to Canada :)

SonOfaHitch I hitchhiked Belize in June 2024 for almost a month, Exploring all it’s parts. Hitchhiking was quite easy. And people were friendly. I felt safe most of the time.

That being said, Most people I met had a quite serious relation with alcohol and or other substances. And the country was very Expensive. Beside that, law and Human rights don’t really exist, and it seems money can get you out of anything here.

I met people that there house was just destroyed by the neighbor coming with a Bulldozer just because he felt like it. To say the least he didn’t pay anything to the old lady he destroyed her house and the law never prosecuted him. Situation like this are apparently according to the locals common in Belize.

Towards my last days I was arrested by the police. For what you might ask? I was invited to stay at someones house by a guy that I met in Punta Gorda. While I was in his place I offered to cook for us. He got Drunk and started acting weird. And short after the police to the house and asked me if anyone broke into the house.

To this I replayed no, but speak to the house owner who is in the next room. Apparently the guy changed his mind about inviting me over. But instead of asking me to leave he chose to call the police. I was in Shock to say the least.

The police told me “listen we know he is Drunk, don’t worry, just come and tell us what happen and we let you go”

On the way to the station one Police-woman was asking me why do I go to someone’s house, and telling me she will teach me not to trust people.

At the station they didn’t ask anything about what happened. They asked me if I do drugs if I have a criminal record, did I stole in my life etc. police man start playing with my equipment. And it seemed to clear that they are searching if they can frame me on anything.

Eventually they decided to arrest me for having two nationalities, and told me they need to contact both ambassadors before I get release.

They started to ask how much money I have, and told me that I should know that by heart. If I have more than what I say the rest is theirs. The made whole in all of my bills. And gave me some cake that apparently have Laxatives in them to give you Diarrhea.

They put me in a room full of poop all over the floor. The other inmates were shouting all night. Soon I had to go to toilet which was in the middle of the room. Needless to say that there is no door for privacy or anything. While I was sitting they decided to release the other inmates into my room, just so they can stretch their bones.

I quickly pulled my pants up and had to confront them while they were checking me.

I had to ask for the guard later to give me water to wash down the toilet. After doing so I realized the toilet just pours your feces all other the room’s floor.

They kept me there for a day. And eventually let me go with out saying what did even happen all this time I was locked and why it took so long.

As I was leaving The police-woman from yesterday asked me if I learned not to trust anyone. I said yes, and you can guess what I was wishing her at my heart.

Gallery

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  Katja and Augustas on a free pickup ride in Belize.

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  On the road in Belize.

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  Sometimes you might be "lucky" to hitch a tractor.

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  Hitchhiker Katja waiting for a ride.