Expenses: Belize

When we started plotting our points of interest for Belize it became apparent we were probably going to exceed our projected budget. The richness in diversity extends well past ethnicity, making Belize a great place to partake in tours. In total, our 27 days spent exploring the country set us back $2,708.81, $100.33 per day. This is an amount we are extremely pleased with considering all of the things we experienced and how much more everything costs in Belize compared to Mexico. The exchange rate is pretty much locked at 2 Belizean dollars for one US dollar with US currency being accepted everywhere. As always, all of our expenses are reported in US dollars.

Our border crossing fees are fairly standard except for the $.70 we spent on copies. It is not necessary to provide any copies at the Belizean border but we needed to print and make a couple extra copies of our newly renewed vehicle registration to have on hand. The most expensive item was the $18.75 per person exit fee we had to pay before being stamped out of the country. 

The T-Mobile plan we switched to before leaving the US does not cover Belize so we picked up a BTL SIM and added enough money to subscribe to the 30 day 1GB high speed plan costing us a total of $26.48. That didn't prevent us from having to pay for our T-Mobile plan, but our overall communication costs were lower than usual due to the timing of our DeLorme payments. One happened just before entering Belize and the next a few days after leaving, so it will be reported under Guatemala.

We did a lot in Belize over the relatively short amount of time we were there so it comes as no surprise that our entertainment expenses amount to 22% of our overall expenditures. The $603 we spent, $23.33 per day, was well above what we normally expect to spend and was worth every single penny. The ATM Cave, snorkeling at Caye Caulker, Nohoch Che'en cave tubing, and Ixcacao were all wonderful experiences and ones we will cherish forever. We also managed to visit four more sets of ruins, hiked in a couple of parks, and perused the Belize zoo. One anomaly in our reporting is the amount we paid for the rental vehicle we used to visit Caracol, we decided to record it under transportation.

Food was once again our largest expense tallying high at $996.56, $36.91 per day. We ate out a lot while in Belize but we did end up cooking towards the end, mainly due to remote camping and finding some really good meat. Our grocery total is skewed somewhat due to an overzealous overindulgence in purchasing chocolate while at Ixcacao. When we find something really good we tend to go a little overboard.

Our total living expenses were a happy surprise considering $240 of the $409.08  we spent was for the 4 nights we stayed on Caye Caulker. The overall average of $15.15 per day is higher then we'd like but getting to lounge around in an air conditioned room was a welcomed reprieve. Campground costs averaged $14.69 per night when we used them, we free camped 9 nights during our time in Belize.

We unexpectedly purchased a few miscellaneous items while in Spanish Lookout just before leaving. We've already used our new waterproof bag and stainless steel pressure cooker, the mini grease gun has been stashed in our tool bag. The $6.20 per day average pushed us over the dreaded $100 per day mark but finding good quality gear makes it worth it to us.

Our total transportation cost was much higher than most at $377.31, $13.97 per day. Somehow we managed to drive 1,145 miles in a country that is 180 miles long and 68 miles at its widest. We consumed 78.8 gallons of diesel averaging 14.5 MPG. Fuel was our greatest expense with diesel costing $4.37 per gallon. We filled the van up twice In Belize and topped off a rental car before returning it. We filled up a third time after crossing into Guatemala so the mileage is reported for Belize but the expenditure has been recorded under GT. Our ferry and mass transit expenses were for our visit to Caye Caulker. The $37.50 under vehicle rental is half the fee for the Honda CRV we used to visit Caracol, we split all associated costs with Joe & Josee.

The pie chart and expenses table are programmatically added to this page. Meaning, if we update our expense information then those will automatically reflect the change possibly creating a disparity between the textual breakout and the actual expenditures. This information has been provided to assist others in planning a long-term trip so use accordingly, by all means contact us to ask any questions or to point out any errors so we can remediate them.