1. Leave your fancy designer clothes at home. This country is laid-back to the max, where flip-flops and a bikini or hiking boots and shorts are as fancy as you need to get.
2. Take off your watch. Simply go to bed when it is dark (anytime after 6.30 pm) and get up again with the sun (anytime from 6 am onwards). Your daily alarm clock will be the breaking waves on the shore or the tropical chorus of birds and howler monkeys in the jungle.
3. Realize that when people in Belize tell you 'right now', they don't actually mean 'right now'. They are actually asking you to wait a minute (or two or three). Try not to stress, things will get done.
4. Slap on the SPF to protect your skin from sun damage and pre-mature aging. Your tan will develop anyhow!
5. Bring mosquito repellant. We have good nights and bad & it's impossible to predict when the mosquitoes will appear.
6. If you are hooked on junk food, get your fix before coming to Belize. You will not find any KFC's, McDonalds or Burger Kings here. Our fast food is chicken, rice & beans.
7. Be prepared to fall in love in with this odd little country (secretly eyeing up the real estate signs and casually asking people about local property prices)
8. Unless you are a diving, sun bathing or sea fishing fanatic, do not spend more than 5 days on San Pedro or any of the other Cayes. You will have seen all there is to see and will end up going stir crazy.
9. Leave your hair dryer at home. With all this humidity and sunshine you'll be fighting a losing battle anyhow. We all have terrible hair in Belize..join us!
10. Try out things you've never done before. Abseil, kayak, dive, drink from a coconut and enjoy being away from what you call 'the real world'. This place is actually more real than most of Western society, as what you see is what you get. No billboards no catch phrases, just Mother Nature at her finest.

Labels: belize, top 10, top ten, travel tips