Worth the journey? What about the rest of Central America, Costa Rica attracts a fair bit of tourism.

Nice people? Food and scenery good?

We went to meet our daughter who was back packing around Central America for 6 months. We spent a couple of weeks ourselves, flying into Cancun then catching buses (both the express variety and the chicken buses) around Mexico & Belize.

It was all good, but according to Sian, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala Mexico and Cuba (where you stay in peoples houses) were all better. Quay Calker & Ambergris Quay are very americanised, Belize City is scary, Placencia is lovely and there are things to do in San Ignacio.

Most of the people were lovely, especially the guy who didn't speak English or Spanish, just Creole, and realised that we didn't know we were in for a 4 hour bus-ride (we thought the $2 was just getting us from the border in Chetumal to Corazol, 10 miles away, not to Belize city) so he hopped off at the next stop and got us 2 big bottles of water. The man who got on, waving his machette around at Orange Walk was a bit scary, but the locals said it was OK "Es loco!" and he got off at the next stop to shout at some policemen he'd spotted.

If you like corn tortillas, you'll be fine with the food.

My mate Lord Ashcroft loves the place

Belize City is scary

Why? Any worse than Peckham? 😀

Yes.

PS – I've added more to my original post.

I was mugged in BC. Very politely, and they didn't take all or much of my money, but it was still a mugging. This was 30 years ago, I lived in Dangriga for 4 months. I loved it.

I was the only white boy in the disco – interesting times.
Go there.

If you dive, go there. Second biggest reef in the world and in far better condition than most others.

Thanks guys sounds good to me! I thought Guatemala was supposed to be the bad egg out of them so if your daughter thought that was good perhaps I'll do the lot.

I have spent some 16 months there as i did a few trips with the Army, only saw the trees and the camps plus Belieze City and Belmopan, both toilets of the highest order.

We used to bump into a lot of backpackers who would come to the camps for a bit of medical advice or treatment and they used to say Guatamala was fantastic, we were not allowed there but i have been to Nicaragua, Mexico and you have to be aware as with any plac, Nicaragua was basic but good people.

Last time i was in Airport Camp with is basically Belize City was 1991 and the American DEA and the likes were all over the place, big problem with drugs but a lot of bad boys have set up home there and for example back then there were a lot of folk getting out of Hong Kong as they "had to" and they were getting Belizian citizen ship for $2000 back then.

Worth passing through but not somewhere where i would stay, diving awaesome of the keys but i would shoot through to cancum sp? if it was me.

Anyone know any good "travellers/backpackers" forums?

Not been to Belize but haven't heard anything positive (apart from the diving) about it from people who lived and worked there. However, much of the rest of Central America I can highly recommend – I spent nine months travelling in Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Cuba and all were fantastic, though very different, places.
Costa Rica is the most touristed and expensive. A lot of the northern Pacific coast is a bit of an outlying US state but the further south you go the wilder it gets. Cuba is a lot of fun if you've got the time; we stayed in Havana then hired a 50s car and drove the length of the island at about 17mph.
Guatemala was my favourite place – incredible Mayan ruins at Tikal. The capital cities of all these countries (Cuba excepted) are worth getting out of asap but other than that I'd have no reservations about returning. Not sure if I'd say the same about Mexico – I wrote a guidebook to the place a few years ago and many of the places I visited seem to be drug war zones now. However, tbh, Belize would still be bottom of my list of places to visit in such a remarkable area.

I went about 18 years ago so my knowledge is massively out of date but I have to say I enjoyed it. Yes, there were soldiers on the streets of Belize City (it was during the election) and yes, we were told areas of the city were a no-go but frankly, I've been told the same in the UK and the US. San Pedro was great and Chan Chich in the jungle was great. Awesome trip and the only problem is it's a bit pricy to go again.

I'd love to go back to Guatemala. Didn't spend much time in Belize, but did bus down from Mexico and then up through jungle to Guatelmala. Long time ago – the border had only just been opened. Tikal is on the Belize side of Guatemala and is a genuinely amazing experience.