Benable — create shareable lists of things you recommend!
E.g., products you love, local businesses, travel recs - you can add anything to a Benable list!
🇧🇿 Our 5-Day Belize Itinerary With Kids: Jungle, Tikal, Culture & Island Time
14
items Our 5-day Belize itinerary for a family of four with kids ages 3 and 7. We combined a relaxing stay at Black Rock Lodge with a full-day trip to Tikal in Guatemala, Xunantunich, a Belizean cooking experience in Hopkins, and beach time in San Pedro. Th...
Map
Sections
5
1. 🌿 Day 1: Arrive at Black Rock Lodge + Relax
2. 🇬🇹 Day 2: Tikal, Guatemala
3. 🏛️ Day 3: Xunantunich + Hopkins Cooking Class
4. 🏝️ Day 4: Belize City → San Pedro + A Slow Afternoon
5. ✈️ Day 5: San Pedro → Belize City → Home
1. 🌿 Day 1: Arrive at Black Rock Lodge + Relax
Our first day was intentionally slow after traveling. We checked into Black Rock Lodge, had lunch, relaxed, enjoyed massages, and had dinner on property before our first big adventure.
We stayed at Black Rock Lodge for the jungle portion of our Belize trip. The setting is beautiful and gives you a true Belize jungle experience without feeling like you’re completely removed from civilization. It was a great home base for our Xunantu...
Black Rock Lodge
After traveling to Belize and settling into the lodge, we treated ourselves to massages before dinner. It was the perfect way to ease into the trip before our more active days of exploring and adventure.
💆🏾♀️ Our Black Rock Lodge Massage
Our biggest lesson from this trip was that you don’t have to do every excursion just because it’s available. We adjusted our plans around our kids’ ages and energy levels, including choosing river tubing instead of cave tubing because our youngest wa...
🧳 Belize Travel Tips With Kids
2. 🇬🇹 Day 2: Tikal, Guatemala
This was our biggest adventure day. We took a full-day trip from Belize to Tikal in Guatemala. It was a busy, long day, especially with kids, but we thought it was absolutely worth it. The tour guides assisted with explaining the process of crossing ...
This was a big day, but absolutely worth it. We booked this full-day Tikal tour from San Ignacio and crossed the border into Guatemala to explore the Tikal Maya ruins. It was a busy day with our kids, but seeing Tikal was one of the highlights of our...
🇬🇹 Our Tikal Day Trip: Maya Ruins in Guatemala
Tikal was one of the highlights of our Belize trip. We spent the day exploring the ancient Maya ruins in Guatemala, including the impressive temples and surrounding jungle. It was a long, busy day with our kids, but seeing Tikal in person was absolut...
🏛️ Tikal National Park: What We Saw
Tikal requires crossing from Belize into Guatemala, so passports are essential. Our full-day tour handled the transportation and border logistics for us, which made the process much easier with our kids.
🛂 Tikal + Belize–Guatemala Border Crossing
3. 🏛️ Day 3: Xunantunich + Hopkins Cooking Class
Day 3 combined Maya history with food and culture. We visited Xunantunich before continuing to Hopkins for a Belizean cooking class. It was another full day, but gave us a great mix of adventure and cultural experiences.
We booked a custom tour that picked us up directly from Black Rock Lodge, took us to Xunantunich, and then continued on to river tubing. We had lunch in the van between stops and chose river tubing instead of cave tubing because our youngest was too ...
🏛️ Our Custom Xunantunich + River Tubing Tour: Vital Nature & Mayan Tours | Tours in Belize
We did a cooking class in Hopkins from 3–5 PM after our Xunantunich and river tubing day. I loved adding this to the itinerary because it gave us a chance to experience Belize through its food rather than just sightseeing. The kids loved learning how...
Authentic Garifuna Cultural Cooking Class in Hopkins Belize
We stayed at Umaya Resort in Hopkins. It was also convenient for arranging transportation between the resort, our cooking experience, and the Belize City water taxi terminal. The resort hotel picked us up from our cooking class. They also took us to ...
Our Hopkins Stay: Umaya Resort & Adventures
4. 🏝️ Day 4: Belize City → San Pedro + A Slow Afternoon
After several packed days in the jungle, we headed to San Pedro for some island time. We kept the afternoon relaxed rather than trying to squeeze in another excursion, which ended up being exactly what we needed.
We planned to take the 10:30 AM water taxi from Belize City to San Pedro. The next scheduled option was 12:30 PM, so I’d aim for the earlier boat to maximize your time on Ambergris Caye. After several busy days, we were pretty tired, so we kept this ...
🚤 Our Belize Water Taxi to San Pedro
We stayed at Ramon’s Village Resort in San Pedro in a Riverfront Deluxe room. After the more active mainland portion of the trip, this was our chance to slow down and enjoy island time. We checked into Ramon’s Village and spent the afternoon taking i...
🏝️ Our San Pedro Stay: Ramon’s Village Resort
We ate at Blue Water Grill during our first afternoon in San Pedro, and I had the grilled lobster tail. 🦞 After several busy days exploring the mainland, it was a nice way to settle into island time with a meal by the water. We were pretty tired by ...
🍽️ Where We Ate in San Pedro: Blue Water Grill
5. ✈️ Day 5: San Pedro → Belize City → Home
Our final morning was all about getting home. Ramon’s prepared breakfast for us, drove us back to the Belize Marine Terminal, and we took the water taxi back to Belize City before heading to the airport. One little travel mishap turned into one of ou...
One of our useful Belize travel notes: licensed taxis have green license plates. This is a quick thing to know when you’re getting around Belize.
Belize Taxi Tip: Look for the Green Plates
After taking the water taxi back to Belize City, we grabbed a taxi to Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport (BZE) for our flight home. This was a straightforward final connection after our San Pedro stay.
✈️ Getting From Belize City to BZE Airport