About Belize

Watch "Be One With Belize" video about Belize":

Language

Belize was a British colony and English is widely spoken, together with Belizean Kriol. Spanish also is widely used as a mother tongue, while English is the official language and is taught and used as a secondary language.

Weather & Climate

Belize is typically hot and humid day and night year-round. Temperatures vary by only about 4°C between the coolest part of the year (December to March) and the hottest (May to September). The daily temperature range is around 10°C from the hottest part of the day to the coolest part of the night. In the uplands (Mountain Pine Ridge and the Maya Mountains) you can expect temperatures to fall by about 3°C for every 1000ft rise in altitude, making things noticeably more comfortable.

Belize has distinct wet and dry seasons. The wet season runs from mid-May to November in the south and from mid-June to November in the north. November to February is a transitional period, with the year's coolest temperatures and a limited amount of rain. The true dry season is February to April. There's quite a large difference in rainfall between the north of the country (around 1500mm or 60in a year) and the south (about 4000mm or 160in). In the north and center of the country there's a dip in rainfall in August, between peaks in July and September.

Currency

Belize's currency, the Belizean dollar (BZ$), has been fixed for many years at US$0.50, although talk of a devaluation is never far beneath the surface. The currency bears the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and the dollar is divided into 100 cents. Coins come in denominations of one, five, 10, 25 and 50 cents and one dollar; bills come in denominations of two, five, 10, 20, 50 and 100 dollars. The 25-cent coin is sometimes called a shilling, and you may hear the 100-dollar bill referred to as a "bluenote".

Tipping

Tipping is not obligatory but never goes amiss, especially if guides, drivers or wait staff have provided you with genuinely good service. Rounding up the bill by somewhere between 5% and 10% is usually a suitable tip. Some hotels and restaurants add an obligatory service charge to your bill (usually 10%), in which case you definitely don't need to tip.