In case you missed it! Fares can be found as low as $149.00!
“Ethical Traveler’s new report, “The World’s Best Ethical Destinations,” identifies the 10 countries in the developing world that are best protecting their natural environments, promoting responsible travel, and building a tourism industry which provides real benefits to local communities. “There’s no doubt that worldwide interest in mindful, responsible travel is growing – not only among travelers, but within the countries that host us,” says Jeff Greenwald, executive director of Ethical Traveler and co-author of the report. “Now is the perfect time for savvy travelers and well-intentioned governments to evolve together, each encouraging the other. This is especially true in the developing world, where travel and tourism can be developed as lucrative, low-impact alternatives to forestry, mining, and the destruction of ocean habitats.” In alphabetical order, the best ethical travel destinations for 2010 are:
“In drafting our report, we use scores of information sources — including publicly available data — to rate each country’s genuine commitment to environmental protection, social welfare and human rights,” says Christy Hoover, co-author of the report. “Data sources include the United Nations Development Program, Human Rights Watch, Columbia University, Reporters Without Borders, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and many others. Private interviews with NGO leaders are part of the process, as well.” The full report can be viewed at http://www.ethicaltraveler.org/destinations Ethical Traveler is an international alliance of travelers who believe that travel is a powerful tool for international goodwill and cultural understanding. The group seeks to harness the political and economic clout of tourism to support human rights and the environment. Ethical Traveler is a project of the Earth Island Institute. For more information, please visit http://www.ethicaltraveler.org . Note to Editors: Stunning high-resolution photos and follow-up interviews available upon request. Media Hotline: Michael McColl +1 510 451 0267 This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com. SOURCE Ethical Traveler © 2009 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved”
Anerican Airlines is holding a flight sale to Belize. Pick up flights from major hubs like Miami and New York from just $149USD.
http://www.aa.com/netsaaver/viewNetSAAverSpecialsDetails.do?fN=LatinSale.xml&locale=en_US
What a perfect time to come to Caye Caulker!
(BBC)
“Navigating the world’s oceans can be a difficult task for anyone.
For a tiny seahorse with only small fins and a tail for locomotion it seems an impossible task.
However, a seahorse that lives on the western coast of the Atlantic has been found in the Azores almost 5000km away from its possible home.
Researchers suggest the seahorse may have completed the epic journey using its prehensile tail to hitch a ride on a raft of floating sea grass.
An international team of researchers from the UK and the Azores publish their discovery in the Journal of Fish Biology.
Lost at sea
The seahorse was found by a fisherman on the isolated Azores archipelago in the eastern Atlantic.
Two species of seahorse Hippocampus guttulatus and Hippocampus hippocampus are native to Europe and the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal.
We were surprised to identify the unknown seahorse as H. erectus, as this species is found thousands of kilometres away
Dr Paul Shaw
Royal Holloway University of London, UK.
The researchers compared the morphology and DNA of the seahorse with the two native species and found it was a lined seahorse Hippocampus erectus usually found along the Atlantic coast and Caribbean sea coasts of North, Central and South America….”
See the rest of this BBC article
From next month (July 2009) you can fly to Belize City directly from our three neighbouring countries! There will be two daily flights to/from Cancun, and one each to/from Guatemala City and San Pedro Sula. This is such welcome news as it makes Belize so much more accessible. It also promises cheaper flights to get here, and hopefully makes it easier for Europeans and other non-Americans, who will no longer need to travel through the USA. There are so many cheap flights available to Cancun from Europe. Now you can take advantage of them and instead come to beautiful Belize! Let’s just hope the airline can weather the current economy, and make this the success it deserves to be!
Here’s the schedule:
Cancun (Mexico) to Belize City (45 Mins) US$199 -Remember Mexico is an hour ahead of Belize
9am – 8.45am
5.50pm – 5.35pm
Belize City to Cancun (Mexico) (45 Mins) $US199 -Remember Mexico is an hour ahead of Belize
9.30am – 11.15am
6.50pm – 8.35pm
Hugely unfortunate that European travellers still can’t reach the islands in one day, you’ll have to stay in Cancun / Playa del Carmen, or Belize City, but you can fly straight through on the way home, and you no longer have to go through US Immigration to reach us by air!
Guatemala City to Belize City (50 Mins) $US199
5.15pm – 6.05pm
Belize City to Guatemala City (50 Mins) $US199
9.30am – 10.20am
San Pedro Sula (Honduras) to Belize City (40 mins) US$199
8.05am – 8.45am
Belize City to San Pedro Sula (Honduras) (40 mins) US$199
6.20pm – 7pm
Now we’ve got the hang of this blogging thing, we’re twittering away, or is it tweeting away? Won’t you please join us?
(Nadine Pedoe)
Here’s all you need to know to reach Caye Caulker from your country.
Firstly you need to get to the country of Belize:
From the USA, you have a choice of airlines, flying from their respective hubs to Belize City (BZE), and connections to your home city.
Continental fly to Belize from Houston (IAH) two or three times a day. They also have some flights from Newark (EWR)
American Airlines fly from Dallas (DFW) and Miami (MIA)
Delta fly from their hub in Atlanta (ATL)
US Airways fly from their hub in Charlotte, North Carolina (CLT)
You can also bus or drive down from the USA through Mexico. It’ll take you about three days. Bus services in Mexico are (more…)
Not one single case. Over 40 people were tested, and they all came back negative. Most people are now aware that the western media caused a pandemic of fear, but now reports are coming out of Mexico that even the cases there were extremely exaggerated. It’s well known that their economy is suffering from the lack of tourists. Same thing in Belize and we never had a single case. Whether it was false information spread by panic merchants in the first place or the swift reaction of the Belize emergency team, who immediately educated the public on how to avoid infection, closed down some public meetings, and monitored the border with Mexico and the flights from the US, the fact is there have been no cases.
Because of the panic, there has been a drastic drop in tourist numbers, which is obviously affecting people’s livelihoods. Most people’s income comes from tourism.
But this is good news for individual tourists. There has probably never been a better time to come to Belize. The flight fares are very low – we’ve found $298 plus taxes, there may even be better. The hotels have slashed their prices too. The weather is hot and sunny as it usually is at this time of year. While you won’t quite have the place to yourself, you certainly will find it quieter than usual.
Tourists are starting to come back so these low prices may not last for long!
Flights from New York are as low as $298 (plus taxes etc) , hotels have dropped their prices by as much as 50% in some cases, the weather is hot and sunny. All these things make it a perfect time to visit us here in Caye Caulker. We never did have any swine flu in Belize, but the tourist industry was hit almost as hard as that in Mexico. Sad for us, but great for the tourists as visitors can take advantage of the lowest prices in years. However please don’t ask us to drop the prices on the tours as these are run at the lowest prices possible already.
All our tours include reserve park fees, purified water, tropical fruits, rental of equipment, and some tours include lunch cooked on the beach. All are guided by licensed and registered guides, mostly by our head guide and owner Carlos Miller, who is well known for his eco-friendly, fun, educational tours, and is highly recommended by both Rough Guide and Lonely Planet.
The sun is shining, the fish are swimming and as colorful as ever, the water is heated and sparkling, the palm trees and hammocks are swaying in a gentle breeze, need we go on?
What are you waiting for?
We’ve found fares as low as US$312 (including all taxes) from New York to Belize. Fares can’t stay this low forever, so take advantage of them while you can. Continental, Delta and American all fly to Belize from their respective hubs. Some flights are several times a day.
All of these airlines also fly to Europe, or you can use a European carrier to make the connection. Research is worthwhile as fares can vary alot between airlines and throughout the year. We’ve found flights from as low as GBP 542 for next month using flight services.
TACA flies from some US cities, and also from South America and other Central American countries
From Europe, it is also possible and often cheaper to fly directly to Cancun in Mexico, or to Mexico City. From there it is easy to take a bus (or a flight) to the city of Chetumal, close to the Belize border and from there swop buses to cross the border, or take a taxi. Once across the border, you have the additional options of flying or taking a boat from Corozal to get to the Cayes, or you can get the bus directly to Belize City and join the water taxi out to the Cayes from there. It’s all much easier than it sounds!
