To clarify on the credit cards, it's not a service charge, it's a SURCHARGE. By my estimate, about one-third of Belize hotels and tourist-oriented restaurants do impose a surcharge. It ranges from 2% to 10% but is usually 5%. In the past, nearly all businesses in Belize honoring credit cards imposed a surcharge. Now it's less common, but it's still a practice that some places, especially the smaller and less successful ones, do follow. On Ambergris, only a handful of restaurants impose it, and a few hotels do. It's more common on the mainland.

--Lan Sluder

Lan Sluder/Belize First
http://www.belizefirst.com