The Best Cheap Hotels to Book in Belize

This great-value-for-money hotel and hostel on Belize’s popular Ambergris Caye is in a splendid spot. Find it in the heart of San Pedro village, close to bars, restaurants and dive shops, a number of which offer discounts for Drift Inn guests. Less than a minute’s walk from the beach, accommodation ranges from bunk-packed, single-sex dorms to private rooms with wraparound balconies, decorated in a palette of whites and turquoises, with a few boutiquey touches including indigenous art and throw pillows.

With beer signs tied to the balconies and a young, backpacker clientele looking to party, the Sandbar is, as you’d imagine, an upbeat cheap Belize hotel – think again if you’ve come on vacation for long, restful nights of silent slumber. That said, there are privacy screens on the beds in the dorms, and you’re an easy stroll from the beach, in the heart of Ambergris Caye’s lively San Pedro village. Since there’s a bar, social areas and a menu of good-value excursions, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to make new best friends among fellow travelers.

This cheap Belize hotel is in a magical setting, surrounded by nearly 100 acres (40ha) of private secondary rainforest. Hummingbirds whir, monkeys screech, and unexcavated Mayan temples await your arrival, peppered among the trees. The Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) Cave, with its eerie pre-Columbian remains and spectacular stalactites, is on your doorstep, and the hotel organizes dozens of well-priced adventure excursions. Accommodation – in simple, wooden cabins painted in candy-shop colors – ranges from private rooms with en-suites to dorms. Furnishings are simple, with mosquito nets draped over beds – and in the dorms, privacy curtains and lockers.

You won’t find a cheap hotel in San Pedro village with a better location than that enjoyed by Tropical Paradise. It is right on the beach in the heart of downtown, with an abundance of restaurants, bars and convenience stores less than a minute’s walk away. Rooms and dorms are simple, spick-and-span affairs painted in peaches and apricots, with plum-colored bed linens and little desks in the private rooms. Staff can organize diving and tours, and the bar-restaurant serves food and cocktails all day.

This cheap hotel, a five-minute drive from downtown San Ignacio town in western Belize, is perfectly situated for travelers out to explore the Cayo rainforests and the big Mayan sites at Caracol and Xunantunich. Single, double and triple rooms (the latter with space for two couples and a single) are crisply decorated in creams and rough stone, with chunky bamboo furniture and desks. The hotel has a large pool with plenty of lounge chair space, a restaurant and a long list of tours to places including the Tikal ruins, across the border in Guatemala.

Situated in a big, traditional, balcony-fronted townhouse in the heart of San Ignacio, the Venus is a cheap hotel perfectly positioned for nights out on the town. This is Belize’s second city, with a most Central American feel, which means there are dance-bars aplenty on your doorstep, as well as ruins and rainforest just 10 minutes away – including the spectacular Mayan monuments at Xunantunich and Caracol. So, you’ll be spending little time in the simple beige and whitewash rooms or mixed four- to six-bed dorms.

La Milpa is named in honor of the Mayan maize and fruit plantations that have fed this area since before there was rainforest – when Belize was part of a nation of rural Mayan city states. Today, La Milpa is a tranquil glade in towering rainforest wild enough to be home to resident jaguars. You sleep in Mayan-inspired thatch-roofed cottages built of hardwood, with ranch-house decks where you’d expect to see a rocking chair but will find a hammock. Staff run excellent wildlife-focused excursions.