San Ignacio, Belize: Mini Travel Guide
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San Ignacio is a small town on the banks of the Macal River and if you ask me a fantastic place for backpackers to stop off between the Caye Caulker and Flores.
It’s a quaint town that allows you to explore some of the wonders Belize has to offer, the most well-known attraction being the Actun Tunichil Muknal also known as the ATM caves. It’s also possible to do activities such as tubing, waterfall chasing, visiting historical ruins and much more.
San Ignacio was my favourite place in Belize, the people were so welcoming and I loved the chill vibes and the amazing views.
How to Get to San Ignacio, Belize
We came from Caye Caulker and it was a pretty simple journey, even though we were dying from the world's worst hangover. We got on the 10:30 am ferry across to Belize City (check the updated ferry schedule here) and we actually hadn’t arranged a shuttle from Belize City to San Ignacio, instead, we just bought our shuttle tickets once we got to the ferry port, we paid $25 USD each. Even though it wasn’t the cheapest option, it was super simple and we only waited about 45 minutes for the shuttle to arrive.
You can also get a chicken bus (public transport) from the bus terminal in Belize City to San Ignacio for around $10 USD, however, you will have to deal with frequent stops, no air con and crowding. We decided to opt for the shuttle for two reasons. One we were hungover and lazy and two we hadn’t heard great things about the safety of Belize City and we would have had to make our own way from the ferry terminal to the bus station.
Onwards from San Ignacio, we headed into Guatemala to the city of Flores, we booked our shuttle through our hostel and it cost us $20 USD each. One bus took us to the border to enter Guatemala, which was literally only 15 minutes and once we were stamped out of Belize and into Guatemala we hopped on another bus for just short of 2 hours before arriving in Flores. I heard of people taking a taxi from San Ignacio to the border and then hopping on a chicken bus once passing through the border and I would imagine if you negotiate the right price this would be slightly cheaper.
The actual border crossing process was very easy, we had to pay a $20 USD exit fee each to leave Belize. On the Guatemala side, there were no fees.
Things to Do in San Ignacio, Belize
Take a tour of the Green Iguana Conservation Project
This was such an interesting and unique experience and the project is helping the threatened Green Iguanas population. Based in the San Ignacio Resort Hotel, it’s walkable from wherever you find yourself in town and the tour runs every day on the hour between 8 am and 4 pm and it will cost you $11.25 USD. I don’t want to give too much away but you’re able to interact and feed the Iguanas, whilst also learning about the risk they are facing and what is being done to help them.
Discover the Mayan ruins of Cahal Pech
Cahal Pech is actually one of Belize’s oldest ruins dating back to 1200 BC and you will find these ruins located about a 20-minute walk outside the main streets of San Ignacio. Be prepared for an uphill climb to get there, in my personal opinion, it was worth the out-of-breath struggle to get there though.
With 7 small plazas to enjoy you can check it all out easily within an hour or so. Out of all the ruins I have seen whilst travelling through Central America, Cahal Peach was by far the most interactive sort of experience. All the different plazas are connected with tunnels or underground passes and you can climb up and walk around at the top of a lot of the ruins. For this reason, I really enjoyed my time here and it felt like you could really imagine what it was once like.
Also, we literally saw 2 other tourists the whole time we were there, I don’t know if it was because we went at about 9:30 in the morning or it’s just a quiet site to visit. Cahal Pech is open Mon-Sun 7 am to 5 pm and will cost you $5 USD per person.
Shop until you drop at the San Ignacio Market
Want to see San Ignacio from the eyes of locals, well get yourself down to the Market. The largest market takes place on a Saturday, with everything you could ever want to buy as well as a few food carts in case you're peckish. You will also find a smaller amount of vendors selling fresh produce and some souvenirs and handmade goods throughout the whole week as well.
Learn how to make Mayan chocolate
If you are a chocolate lover like me then this is the activity for you, Ajaw Chocolate, based in San Ignacio town offers a few different tours you can do. The most popular is their chocolate-making and tasting tour in which you will learn traditional Mayan chocolate-making skills. This runs every hour on the hour, Monday to Saturday 9 am to 6 pm and you can either book in advance or just drop by and join in. Check out their website here for a full list of tours they offer including a Cacao farm tour.
Stroll down the Macal River
The Macal River wasn’t the cleanest river I have ever seen but I still enjoyed a little morning walk on the river path, alternatively, you could also take this opportunity and explore the town on the other side of the river Santa Elena. Whilst on the river stroll, I found myself fascinated with the Hawkesworth suspension bridge that connected the two towns, the structure was just so aesthetically pleasing.
There is the option of taking a canoe or kayak town along the river as well, just ask at one of the tour shops in town.
Travel Tip- If you like a good coffee in the morning you have to check out Coffee de Los Mayas, you will find them located in the centre of San Ignacio. They offer takeaway coffee so you can stroll and caffeinate at the same time.
Day Trips from San Ignacio, Belize
ATM Caves (Actun Tunichil Muknal)
Possibly one of the most famous attractions in Belize, a tour of these caves will have you hiking through a jungle before swimming into the vast underground network of caves and discovering the hidden relics left behind from Mayan times. From my understanding, it’s quite a physically taxing tour to take and as a slightly claustrophobic myself I decided to skip this one.
Note it is not possible to visit the ATM caves without a licensed guide and they limit the number of visitors daily to 125 people, so you may need to book ahead in peak season. A full-day tour to the ATM caves will set you back roughly $250 Belizean Dollars/$125 USD and include transport, admission and usually lunch too.
Mountain Pine Ridge Forest
This is the day trip we opted for and I’m so glad we did, the guide picked us up right outside of our hostel and took us and another couple on our day adventure. We stopped at Big Rock Falls, Rio Frio Cave and Rio Frio Pools as well as our lunch spot which was a gorgeous lookout point into the forest.
Unfortunately, we booked the tour through our hostel so I’m not 100% sure who the tour company that took us was, it cost us $65 USD each. But our guide was so insightful about the reserve as well as the history surrounding it, I learnt so much about Belize on this day. Also, we were supplied with ‘happy juice’ the whole day which was an added bonus, IFYKYK.
It is also possible to hire a car and explore Mountain Pine Ridge Forest yourself and it would probably be more budget-friendly if there was a group of you. Just note some of the roads aren’t the best so you would some off-road driving skills.
Exploring Ruins
There are so many ruins to see around San Ignacio, so if you are somewhat of a history buff, this town is a great place to base yourself.
Caracol is the largest site of Mayan Ruins in Belize, and the largest pyramid within Caracol still remains the tallest man-made structure in all of Belize. It takes about 2 and a half hours to get here from San Ignacio but there are plenty of tours running or alternatively, you can rent a car. As well as being allowed to climb the pyramids these also differ from the neighbouring tourist hot spots of Tikal and Chichen Itza, because they have substantially fewer visitors.
As mentioned before Cahal Pech is within walking distance of San Ignacio but about 10km outside of San Ignacio you will find more Mayan ruins called Xunantunich, admission only costs $5 USD. It’s recommended to climb to the top of the main pyramid for the best views of the whole site as well as the Mopan and Macal rivers.
Some people even venture into Guatemala for the day to check out the incredible ruins of Tikal, personally as Flores was our next stop after we didn’t do this. I have read that Maya Walks tour company are the best to go with as the price also includes the border crossing fees.
It’s also common to go cave tubing from San Ignacio, although I didn’t do this a few people in our hostel were raving about it.
I had little to no expectations going into our stay in San Ignacio but I fell in love with this small charming town and think it’s a must-visit spot in Belize. The stunning surrounding scenery and the lovely people made my time here, we stayed at Yellow Belly Backpackers which I would strongly recommend.
Have you been to San Ignacio, Belize? Let me know your thoughts on this charming town in the comments below.
