Belize Airport to San Pedro: Getting to Belize City, the Ferry and Rental Cars

The doors of the terminal in Ladyville slide open, and the first thing in front of you is a decision: which way to the water. San Pedro sits on the southern coast of Ambergris Caye, on an island, so the trip is never one ride. It starts on the road toward Belize City, then continues by boat, and the airport has a few clear ways to begin it.

How do you get from the airport to Belize City?

The route the airport itself points to is the road: Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport lies 10 miles from downtown Belize City, in the village of Ladyville, and the drive into the city center takes about half an hour. From there, the SPBE ferry carries passengers to San Pedro, a crossing of roughly an hour and a half.

Several things decide how you handle that first stretch. Group size matters, because a family with a pile of bags has different needs from a solo traveler with a backpack.

Your own schedule matters too, since the airport keeps daytime hours and your arrival time shapes everything that follows. And there is the road itself: roadwork and dredging are underway on the airport access road, which means slower traffic and uneven surfaces, so anyone driving should leave extra time.

Two airlines that operate from Terminal 1, Maya Island Air and Tropic Air, are also part of the picture for travelers heading onward within the country. The airport lists both next to the international carriers, so a connection to the cayes can start under the same roof.

Once you reach Belize City, the island is the second half of the journey.

Your options from the airport

A rental car from the terminal

Two rental companies keep a presence at the airport: Hertz/Safari Belize and Crystal Auto Rental. Each can be reached by phone, and Crystal also takes reservations by email. Picking up a car here means your first miles are on the airport access road, and that is where the roadwork is.

The advisories for the work zone are specific. Drivers should reduce speed and follow the flaggers, and should watch for dredging equipment and workers near the roadway. The surface is uneven in places, and traffic moves more slowly than usual. The drive into Belize City takes about half an hour without delays, so it makes sense to count on more.

A car suits a traveler who wants to set the pace of the first leg, stop in Belize City when it suits, and carry luggage without handing it over. It does not take you to San Pedro itself, since the island lies across the water.

The travel agency desk

All in One Travel Service is a travel agency located at the airport. It can be reached by two phone numbers and two email addresses, which makes it a place to ask about arrangements for the road to Belize City and the onward trip to the cayes before you land or once you are in the terminal.

An agency suits a traveler who prefers to talk through the plan with a person rather than piece it together alone, particularly a group or a family with more than one stop in mind. The contact details are the useful part: write them down before you fly, so that a question about connections or timing has somewhere to go.

The ferry onward to San Pedro

The SPBE ferry runs from Belize City to San Pedro and takes approximately an hour and a half. It is the water leg of the trip, and it ends at the island town on the southern coast of Ambergris Caye. Water taxis also use the Saca Chispas Water Taxi Terminal in San Pedro Town, a facility operated by the Belize Border Management Agency, with six berths for small water taxis, tour boats and marine tenders.

If you are adding Caye Caulker to the trip, the ferry from there to San Pedro takes 30 minutes. That makes the two islands a natural pair for a traveler with time to spare, and the shorter crossing is a gentle way to arrive.

Airport transfer options compared

The two rental companies sit side by side on the page, and the difference between them is mostly how you reach them. One answers by phone only, the other by phone or email, which helps if you are planning from home and prefer a written confirmation. Either way, the car takes you as far as Belize City, and the ferry does the rest.

The trade-off in choosing a car is the access road. Roadwork and dredging mean slower traffic and uneven surfaces, so the half hour of driving can stretch. The travel agency at the airport is the alternative for someone who would rather ask questions than handle the road, and its two phone numbers and two email addresses make it easy to reach before departure.

The ferry has a different character altogether. It is slower, about an hour and a half, but it puts you directly in San Pedro rather than at the edge of Belize City. Think of the whole transfer as two stages and choose each one on its own terms: the road for the first, the water for the second.

Arriving at the airport

The official name is Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport, and it sits in Ladyville, in Belize District. It has two terminals. Check-in counters for all airlines are in Terminals 1 and 2, and each terminal hosts a different group of carriers.

Terminal 1 is home to COPA, Sun Country, Transportes Aereos Guatemaltecos (TAG), Maya Island Air and Tropic Air. Terminal 2 serves Air Canada, Alaska Air, American, Delta, Southwest, United and WestJet. Knowing which terminal your airline uses tells you where you will end up on the way back, and it also shows where the carriers that continue within Belize have their counters.

The airport has a runway of 9,900 feet, which is part of why long-haul international flights land here. Lost belongings are handled by the Security Office in Terminal 1, where items left or found in the terminal building are kept for 60 days before being donated or destroyed. On the car side, the rental desks for Hertz/Safari Belize and Crystal Auto Rental and the office of All in One Travel Service are all located at the airport.

Good to know before you go

The U.S. State Department rates Belize Level 2, “Exercise increased caution”, because of crime, and says the south side of Belize City has historically had the highest concentration of violent crime.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, so a trip in October falls inside it, and the sea crossing to San Pedro is the part of the journey that depends most on the weather. Keep the road advisory for the airport access road in mind as well, since it affects anyone driving. The fees below are those listed by the airport.