Shopping in Belize?

[jratly]

This will be our first visit to Belize. Is the shopping good? Would this be the place to look for a digital camera?

[angiernc]

This will be our first visit to Belize. Is the shopping good? Would this be the place to look for a digital camera?

 

We just returned from Belize. Not much shopping there. They have all of the tourist type shops with lots of knock off handbags and wallets. Lots of cheap "relics". Several stores were selling pharmaceuticals such as narcotics and antibiotics right off the shelf. There was a really nice store behind The Wet Lizard restaurant called Fine Arts that had some really nice handmade wooden crafts. Everything was very overpriced. The only place we really shopped was in the Fort Street Tourist area and there were a few street vendors right outside the fenced area that had cheaper prices.

[MDSue]

This will be our first visit to Belize. Is the shopping good? Would this be the place to look for a digital camera?

The shopping at the Belize ports consists mostly of your typical "cruise recommended shops" and alot of t-shirt and nick-nack shops that are mostly imported souveniers. I would not choose this as a shopping port. This is really a place to pick an excursion. It has alot of history and beautiful snorkelling. They do have alot of really nice woodowrk here, nice bowls and vases made of mahagony and other woods. There is at least one shop inside the port that carries these items. If you take an excursion, you will find shops outside the port that also have local handicrafts.

I would not look for a digital camera here.

In St. Maarten, there is a camera shop where you can get great prices and they offer a factory warranty. I bought a nice digital camera there and am still using it today.

I love visiting Belize and have bought two pieces of woodwork here that I love, but overall choose this port for visiting ruins, viewing wildlife or snorkelling.

[travelingran]

can we walk the various restaurants and shops from the port? or do we need to take a cab. we generally do not take tours. we just like to hang out or rent a car and drive around the island. is belize a good place to rent a car or jeep?

[Cant Wait 4 Cruisin!]

I personally thought the shopping was very good. There were quite a few shops to pick from as well, right after you got off the tender. We never went outside the shops of the port.

[jollycruise]

can we walk the various restaurants and shops from the port? or do we need to take a cab. we generally do not take tours. we just like to hang out or rent a car and drive around the island. is belize a good place to rent a car or jeep?

 

Yes you can walk to various shops and restaurants once you get off the tender. There is the "inside" the gates shopping and the "outside" the gates shopping. I would not rent a car in Belize. This is a place to take a tour. Our ship excursion was cancelled and we had no idea what we were going to do. We found MANY tour operators once you get off the tender. We found a guy (Manny) who took us on a private tour of the Mayan Ruins. We didn't want to get stuck on a bus with 20 other people. He provided us with a great tour of the ruins. We were the first ones there and really got to enjoy the site. After we got back to town we had time to do some shopping before heading back to the ship. We are like you and love to rent cars and drive around and explore. But we were glad we took a tour. We would not have felt comfortable and would have never found the ruins on our own. We did rent a car In Roatan and had a wonderful time!