Water taxi day trip to Caye Caulker

Cheaper than any tour, the scheduled water taxi from San Pedro runs south to Caye Caulker several times a day on the boats that work the Belize City, Caye Caulker and San Pedro route. San Pedro Belize Express runs them; tickets sell online and at the terminal. On a windy day the crossing gets bumpy, and seats near the back ride smoother.

Caye Caulker is a sand bar about five miles long and under a mile wide, with unpaved streets, no cars, golf carts and bicycles, and a motto of "Go Slow". Front Street has most of the bars, cafes, gift shops and snorkel and dive shops, and you can walk the village in 20 minutes. Do not expect a real beach. People swim at the Split, the channel that cuts the island in two, sunning on concrete seawalls and jumping in near the Lazy Lizard bar. Kayaks can be rented to paddle the mangroves of the forest reserve that covers the island's northern end, and the west side is calmer.