AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Travel Flights

I've been planning a trip to Belize for almost a year now, plan on coming late September. I've read this board almost daily for a year gathering information and think I have an awesome trip planned, the only missing piece is a plane ticket. I've been watching those as well for almost a year. The cheapest I have seen from the Washington, DC area is $525 and I can currently get that price. But, what I have also noticed over the last few weeks is that every other place you can name in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America, besides Belize, is offering plane tickets for $200-350 during September. I don't understand why Belize is the only place where the airlines won't offer any specials? I could have used frequent flyer miles on US Air and not have paid a thing, but of course they decide not to fly there at all in September? Does Belize not want a big tourist population or something? Sorry for the rant, but if I can't get a deal on SkyAuction or Priceline Belize just might loose my business, even though my heart has been set on that place for a year. Any other suggestions?

Airfares to Belize have been high and getting higher for years!! I get notices about 2 times a year from TACA with $299RT from SFO these are 1 day sales. Lots of folks fly to Cancun and bus down. The buses are great to Belize boarder takes about 5 hours.

Flying to Belize is high $$$ compared to most places....We did look into flying into Cancun and taking the bus to Belize....I didn't want this to be a 2 week trip...want to send that time in Europe in the Fall...Yes, Belize is more expensive than other areas...but if you are a diver....it's just one of the top 5 places for diving....so you got to look at it that way...Cheapest way is to fly into Cancan....take bus to Belize...spend the night...take a ferry boat to Ambergris Caye....this is all easy to find over the internet..
You can find discounts if you look for them...
Happy Diving...
All the Best,
Ruth

Prices to BZE totally suck. There is a niche travel population that will pay almost any price to get there and yet it isn't overgrown yet -- this is the perfect formula for high prices.

The solution is either more popularity or less devotion -- I'm not sure I'm willing to deal with either.

So, high prices it is!

Meredith
This may sound silly but over the past five years the only airport we have managed to get "deal" prices departing from has been Philadelphia.
Part of family drove up last year from beltway area around DC because they got $278.rt tickets. It was worth the four hour drive not to pay $684 from Dulles or BWI
Think about it... sounds dumb but may pay off. Tickets were purchased for fall travel about 3 weeks before depart.

I sympathize Meredith. We did the same thing. All the research and then we waited a day too long and lost the opportunity to book for our plannned dates using dividend miles. But then we changed our dates and extended our stay to be able to use the miles so it worked out. Because of the high prices, Belize is really a great way to use your miles if you can be flexible with your travel schedule.

Good way of putting, it Otter. I agree. I'll take my devotion to the island and the "relative" lack of popularity along with a little higher price. Once it gets too popular, I won't enjoy it as much.

Meredith:
I haven't seen it so much recently but I have seen people posting specials they find from the airlines here on this board. Assuming people still do this, keep an eye out here and you may spot a deal.

One thing too, almost $200 of each ticket each way is taxes. If you price on a site that excludes taxes in their quotes, you'll see tickets to BZE for a little over $300. Then when you get through the booking stage and they add taxes, the total cost ends up being a little over $500. Not sure if they are belize or US taxes, but I would gather a good portion of it is Belize.

Local airlines charge twice as much to land at the international airport than they do to land at the municipal airport. When queried about the difference in price we are told that the additional cost is airport "landing fees."

The airport is being expanded and the run way is being extended to accomodate larger aircraft.

When I buy a ticket to go to the US I book on line and ask for a quote with all fees and taxes included - then I don't pay the departure taxes at the airports. The US departure tax was $18 per person (about 7 yrs ago) don't know what it is now.

I understand that the Mexican government subsidies airfare...particularly to Cancun and other travel destinations. Flights are not inexpensive to Mexico City.