Just online looking at the ways of traveling from Cancun to Belize in mid-Spetember. We will be in Cancun for 3 nights, leaving on a Satruday morning for Ambergis Caye, and returning back to Cancun on Tuesday to catch a flight back to the States. What would be the fastest way to get to Ambergis Caye (San Pedro) from Cancun? I am not much on sitting on a bus for hours and hours, but would like some suggestions on how to get there. Thanks!

The fastest way is by flight. Maya Island Air fly between Cancun and Belize City, then get a flight to Ambergris.
Maya Island Air, http://www.mayaregional.com/

If you do decide in favour of the 5.5 hour bus trip to Chetumal, there is a daily water taxi from Chetumal to Ambergris.

More information about the buses & water taxis are on my BelizeBus site: http://belizebus.wordpress.com/

Thanks so much for the information. Did not realize that the ride was 5.5 hours. Have you been on this tour before? I was thinking that we might take the bus trip down there, but fly back. Thoughts? And if there is anything else about these destinations I should know about, please let me know!

Hi Carli,

A good idea to fly one way and bus the other way.

I've done the bus trip both ways. The Mexican ADO buses are excellent - reclining seats, a/c, toilet, video. The a/c always seems to be set to "freeze" so you might want to wear long pants and have a long sleeved shirt to put on in case you get cold.

I do the trip by bus so that I can spend time in Chetumal, Tulum & Playa del Carmen, or wherever else I feel like going.

There is an airport shuttle bus operating between the Cancun airport and Playa del Carmen, and there's an airport bus that departs from Chetumal (goes direct to Cancun airport, but it departs around midnight -- check the ticketbus site for schedule).

I'd recommend the water taxi between Chetumal & Ambergris because you might not like riding the old buses in Belize.

Playa del Carmen is very touristy; Chetumal is not very touristy (that's why I like it). Tulum has a great beach. Any guide book should give you more information.

Was on the mayaregional website looking at Cancun to Belize City. Are those prices in US dollars?

Yes, they are all in USD

I was wondering if those prices were sent in stone or not. I have never been to Belize, so this would be my first time traveling from country to country. On another note, does anyone have the name of the ship that goes from the Chetumal to Ambergis Caye? Since I am not sure of all of the prices, I am thinking that my friends and I would drive to Chetumal, than take the boat to San Pedro (how far is that trip?)


Carli

Sometimes the airlines have specials.

There are two water taxi companies providing service between Ambergris Caye and Chetumal:

a) San Pedro Water Jets International:
http://www.sanpedrowatertaxi.com/index.html

b) San Pedro – Belize Express:
http://sanpedrobelizeexpress.com/index.html

Trip time: 90 minutes.
Fare: US$30 one way, US$55 round trip.

Despite what their websites state, this is the information I have received directly from the water taxi companies.

When daylight saving is in effect in Mexico, SP Water Jets departs Chetumal at 3:30 pm Mexico time (2:30 pm Belize time), and SP-B Express departs Chetumal at 4:30 pm Mexico time (3:30 pm Belize time).

In Chetumal, water taxis use the main pier, “Muelle Fiscal”, which is close to the big Government building, “Palacio Gobierno”, at the waterfront. Both companies have offices at the pier.

Check the information on my BelizeBus site because there is a map of Chetmal showing the location of the pier:
http://belizebus.wordpress.com/

Carli, With only 3 days, leave Cancun on Sat. and a return for a flight out of Cancun on Tues. the only practical way you will make that on a short run is by air. You need to extend your trip for a few days and enjoy AC because even by air it will not give you much time. Good luck.

Get the bus and boat schedules and put down a time line on paper. It is tighter than I would like. By bus/boat it would be tight getting to SP Sat. night but maybe you could do it. If you miss the boat, there is not another till the next day. You would have to leave SP on early Monday morning for a mid day flight out of Cancun on Tuesday. Lot of traveling for possibly 1 day in SP. The contrast between Cancun and SP is like day and night. Come on down to San Pedro and spend some time that you may never forget. Again good luck.

If you do that, once you get to San Pedro you will wish you had spent the whole time there instead of Cancun.

If you fly into Cancun, how to you get from there to Chetumal to catch the water taxi?

You go on the bus from Cancun to Chetumal to catch the water taxi.

Do you know how long the bus ride is from Cancun to Chetumal so that we could catch the water taxi? Is the bus terminal close to the airport in Cancun?

The bus ride on the express is about 6 1/2 hours. You'll need to catch a taxi into Cancun for the Bus Terminal. It took me about 20 minutes by cab in the early morning.

Is it possible to do this in a day? The earliest flight I see into Cancun arrives a little after noon?

If you leave on an early enough bus you can make it to Chetumal in time to get on the water taxi to San pedro. You will need to leave no later than 7 a.m. to do this.

Hi KMarie,

If you arrive in Cancun after noon, you can't get to Chetumal (by bus) in time to get the water taxi to Ambergris. But, you could get the ADO Riviera airport shuttle bus to Playa del Carmen, spend a night there, and head to Chetumal & San Pedro the next day.

I have written a detailed account of how I have done the trip on my BelizeBus site -- scroll down to section 6. If you have any questions after reading that, let us know.
http://belizebus.wordpress.com/

The ticketbus site has all the trip times for the buses.
http://www.ticketbus.com.mx/

MisterB266,

When you say to scroll down to section 6, are you referring to going to the belizebus.wordpress.com website and looking under #6?
Your information is helpful and I thank you. Seems as if no matter which way we do this trip, we have to stay the night. I'm trying to figure out if it's cheaper to just fly into Belize or do the bus/water taxi. If we end up having to stay the night then the fare might be the same after all is done.

We'll be making monthly or every other month visits to work on our house and we are trying to play the "cheap airfare" game. The "taxes and fees" are ridiculous, prices wouldn't be so bad if they would leave off those two.

Thanks again for all of your information. I read the posts daily.

Yes

Airfare to Belize is $706 for us right now. Cancun is $486. What do you think I'm looking at with a bus, water taxi, hotel room, etc from Cancun to Belize so I can get an idea if the Cancun trip is even worth while. Thanks.

I fly from Manchester England to Cancun for £300.00 To Belize it is £800.00. Bus to Playa US$9, Hotel in Playa US$30.00, Bus to Chetumal US$24.00, Taxi to water taxi US$2.00 Water Taxi to San Pedro US$35.00 all one way fares. I hope this helps. That is why I fly to Cancun.

Cost round trip would be $180US plus added travel time. Seems not so wonderful. From Europe ok but the difference from 700 and 486 plus the 180 doesn't seem worth the trouble.

You are right Ron that is why I broke down the costs so you could make your own mind up. It is a hour to Playa by bus and 4-5 hours to Chetumal. The water taxi to San Pedro took 2 hours as the sea was rough.

It would seem you need to get a very cheap ticket to Cancun to make it worth while or you just want to see Mexico by bus.

I got a cheap ticket to the USA from Cancun and tried to do the route from San Pedro. All I can say is that as soon as I got to the USA I called the airline and changed my ticket to fly me back straight to Belize City. I didn't find that it saved me much money at all, when including food as well and the additional day traveling just wasn't worth it for me. For people who want to spend some time in Playa, it would be great.

I sometimes fly "out" of Cancun to the US then back "into" Belize City. It's a nice couple of days to regroup and try and get yourself back into the frenzy of the US by taking the bus and staying in Playa for a night or two. Flying that route usually saves about $250 US per person.

Maybe saving $250 or so if you live in Belize is a good deal, but as a traveler, why would anyone want to spend 6 hours of a vacation day on a bus to save a few bucks?

Everyone's information has been so helpful, thanks. Well, I agree that if I didn't find a good price to Cancun that the trip wouldn't be worth doing. With that said, my husband and I are going to drive to Atlanta, Ga (which is only 4 hours from our home) and fly from Atlanta to Cancun. We got both of our trips for less than one ticket to Belize so it was a HUGE savings. We will be in Belize for three weeks so we can afford the travel time. With that said, I'm nervous about getting to where we need to get to in order to arrive in San Pedro. We will arive in Cancun at 10:58 am. Where do we go from here? I thought we were suppose to take the bus from Cancun to Chetumal, but am confused because "Inplub" said that he/she(sorry) takes the bus to Playa and stays the night in Playa. Can someone walk me through this in baby steps knowning that we will be arriving in Cancun at 10:58? Will we still have to stay the night somewhere or will we be able to get to San Pedro the same day since we arrive in Cancun so early? I'd appreciate all the help and information you have to offer. You can also email me directly at kmcarek@insightbb.com. Thank you so much. Regards, Karen

KMarie, With that arrival time it you won't make it to Chetumal in time for the boat. So, instead, do go to Playa and stay the night. Hang out a bit and then go to Chetumal for the afternoon boat to San Pedro the next day. The bus from Cancun takes 6+ hours to Chetumal and the boat leaves at 3:30pm, so you won't make it. Relax and enjoy Mexico instead. You might even want to stay a couple of nights in Playa as it is lovely there. The bus from Cancun to Chetumal stops at Playa along the way.

KMarie, did you have a look at my BelizeBus site?
I thought I had done a pretty good job of detailing the trip step-by-step.

There are no direct buses to Chetumal from the airport, as far as I know.

From the airport, you can get a bus north to the bus terminal in Cancun, or south to the bus terminal in Playa del Carmen. At one of those places, get a bus to Chetumal. I do the Playa route.

This is how I do the trip from Cancun airport to Chetumal…

From Cancun airport to Playa del Carmen, there is an approximately hourly ADO Riviera airport shuttle bus. The first three departures after 10:58 am are 11:15, 12:00 & 12:40. Cost is MX$106 (that's pesos) and the trip takes 1 hour.

Tickets are sold at a counter in the airport just after exiting customs or, if there's no one there, from the ticket seller where the bus is parked. To get to the bus, go out of the airport terminal, turn right and keep going to the other end of the terminal (this might depend on which terminal you arrive at, but I'm guessing this is correct).

There are 2 bus teminals in Playa. The airport shuttle bus terminates in Playa del Carmen at the bus terminal at the corner of Quinta Avenida and Avenida Juarez (5th Avenue and Juarez Avenue). If you want to continue to Chetumal immediately, get a taxi (MX$15 to MX$20) to the other bus terminal (Terminal Alterna) at Avenida 20 and Calle 12, where the bus departs to Chetumal. Sometimes the airport shuttle bus will stop at the Alterna terminal before continuing to the terminal on 5th Avenue). Check with the driver or watch the street signs in Playa, and if the bus stops at Alterna and you want to continue to Chetumal, get off and change buses.

Or, stay a night in Playa. If you decide not to stay in Playa, there are plenty of hotels in Chetumal.

Here’s a link to a map of Playa del Carmen showing the location of the two bus terminals:
http://www.travelyucatan.com/playa_del_carmen_mexico_hotel_map-a.php

From Playa del Carmen Terminal Alterna, ADO express buses depart frequently to Chetumal. The trip takes about 4.5 hours and costs MX$228 for Primera Class (as at July 2010). Check the ticketbus site for up to date schedules and fares.
http://www.ticketbus.com.mx/wtbkd/index.jsp

There are two water taxi companies providing service between San Pedro and Chetumal:
a) San Pedro Water Jets International:
http://www.sanpedrowatertaxi.com/index.html

b) San Pedro – Belize Express:
http://sanpedrobelizeexpress.com/index.html

Trip time: 90 minutes.
Fare: US$30 one way, US$55 round trip.

Despite what their websites state, this is the information I have received directly from the water taxi companies. When daylight saving is in effect in Mexico, SP Water Jets departs Chetumal at 3:30 pm Mexico time (2:30 pm Belize time), and SP-B Express departs Chetumal at 4:30 pm Mexico time (3:30 pm Belize time).

In Chetumal, water taxis use the main pier, “Muelle Fiscal”, which is close to the big Government building, “Palacio Gobierno”, at the waterfront. Check the map of Chetumal above for the locations of the ADO bus terminal and the pier. The pier is also visible on Google Earth.

If arriving in Chetumal at the ADO bus terminal, there is a little booth inside the terminal where you can get water taxi information. There is (or at least there once was) a water taxi sign and a person who speaks English. You could probably buy a ticket there, but you might get pushed into an overpriced taxi. I’d just go outside to get a taxi, and buy a ticket at the pier.

It’s about 3.5 km from the ADO terminal to the pier. A taxi should take about 10 minutes, and cost about MX$15 to MX$20 (that’s pesos), and certainly no more than MX$30. The taxi driver might not know about the water taxi, but he/she will know the pier. Write it down if you can’t pronounce it.

The BelizeBus site has a map of Chetumal showing the location of the ADO bus terminal and the water taxi pier.

For the return trip, there is a direct bus from Chetumal to the airport -- it departs around 11 pm or 12 midnight -- check the ticketbus site for schedule & fare.

How's that?

MisterB266,
I've printed your information and will take it with me. Thank you. You mentioned prices in pesos a few times. Should we exchange our USD to pesos for the trip or will we be fine paying all the fares (taxi, bus) in USD?

I've tried a couple of times to spend US$ in Mexico and nobody wanted it, so have used only MX$ since. You might already know that in Mexico and on Mexican websites, the "$" symbol is used to represent pesos.

There is a currency exchange in Cancun airport. You'll see it just after coming out of customs.

There are several money changers on 5th Ave in Playa, and a few money changers on the main street in Chetumal.

US$ are accepted in Belize; change might be given in BZ$.

It's not easy for Mexicans in the interior to change USD to pesos which is one reason they don't like to take them. At the moment, the official exchange rate is MXN$12.67 for USD$1.

If you do pay someone in USD, how are you going to determine the exchange rate? It changes minute to minute and you'll get change in pesos, anyway. Also it's easy to have a bit more of your USD shaved off the exchange than might be the case if you got pesos from a bank or a casa de cambio and paid for all your transactions that way in the first place.

Any suggestions on a hotel in Chetumal? I saw a post that said the Muelle Fiscal pier is very close to the Sam's Club and that there is a hotel across from Sam's Club. Can't find the name of the hotel online. Thanks

The hotel's name is Noor.