The Great Blue Hole in Belize is one of the world’s most spectacular natural sights. A deep, dark blue marine sinkhole contrasts with the turquoise waters of the Belize Barrier Reef, teeming with marine life and stalagmites and stalactites.
In this post, we’ll compare the best way to see the Blue Hole: scenic flight vs scuba diving.
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What is the Great Blue Hole Belize?
The Great Blue Hole is the icon of Belize. It was one of the main images on my mind when planning our trip to this beautiful country.
The Blue Hole was once a limestone cave before ocean levels rose, and the cave collapsed. It’s now classified as a marine sinkhole, and the almost perfectly circular hole sits in what feels like the middle of the ocean, surrounded by the Belize Barrier Reef.
One of the largest of its kind in the world, the Great Blue Hole in Belize is UNESCO World Heritage Listed and many think it deserves to be labelled as one of the natural wonders of the world. We completely agree!
The Great Blue Hole is over 120 metres (400 feet) deep, and about 300 metres (900 feet) wide. Seeing the contrast of this deep, dark blue hole against the shallow, turquoise waters of the reef was spectacular.
The huge depth of the hole makes it difficult for marine life to thrive, with a lack of sunlight to support corals and marine life. Instead, the hole is filled with stalactites, stalagmites, limestone caverns, and cave formations.
Seeing this natural spectacle is a once-in-a-lifetime, bucket list experience. For anyone visiting Belize, it’s no doubt high on your to-do list, and if it’s not – it should be! Seeing the Great Blue Hole with your own eyes is a must on your Belize itinerary.
PLANNING A TRIP TO BELIZE? 🇧🇿
Start with these posts:
Great Blue Hole Belize location
The Great Blue Hole is located deep in the ocean, 70 km (43 mi) off the coast of mainland Belize.
Take a minute to consider this, because it explains why it is so difficult, and so expensive to see this natural spectacle. It’s seriously far away from the mainland!
The Blue Hole is situated on the Belize Barrier Reef, which is a small section of the broader Mesoamerican Reef. Second in size only to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the reef spans 1,000 km (625 mi) in the Caribbean Sea from Mexico in the north to Honduras in the south. Belize’s section is a protected area, 290 km (180 mi) long that also has UNESCO World Heritage status.
More specifically, the Great Blue Hole is found in the Lighthouse Reef Atoll. One of just three atolls in Belize, Lighthouse Reef is home to six cayes, the best known being Half Moon Caye.
In addition to housing the Great Blue Hole, it is considered one of the healthiest reef systems in the country!
💡 Did you know Belize also has an Inland Blue Hole
How to get to the Great Blue Hole
Given its remote location literally in the middle of the ocean, visiting the Great Blue Hole isn’t necessarily straightforward, or cheap.
You have two main options if you want to see the Great Blue Hole in Belize:
- ✈️ Take a scenic flight over the top of it
- 🤿 Go scuba diving (or snorkelling) inside it
Each option has its merits, and it will be totally dependent on your preferences as to what option suits you best. I’ll give you a rundown of each, to help you decide which is right for you.
Option 1: Scenic flight over the Great Blue Hole
This is the option that we decided to go with, so we can speak more about our experience in regards to the flight vs the dive. Not only was it one of the best things we did in Caye Caulker, but it was easily one of the highlights of our entire 6 months in Central America!
Taking a scenic flight allows you to witness the incredible spectacle that is the Blue Hole from above. You get the full perspective of how large it is, and how it seemingly appears out of nowhere in the middle of the ocean!
The flights generally last 1 hour, and the most common (and affordable) flights are on small passenger planes, run by local Belizean airlines. It is possible to charter a helicopter, but this is much more costly and not as popular.
✈️ GREAT BLUE HOLE SCENIC FLIGHT DETAILS
There are two local airlines that offer scenic flights over the Great Blue Hole:
We went with Tropic Air and cannot recommend them more highly!
Both airlines offer scenic flights over the Blue Hole from three destinations in Belize:
- 📍 Caye Caulker
- 📍 San Pedro, Ambergris Caye
- 📍 Belize City Municipal (not the international airport, a smaller airport in the city)
These are the closest destinations to the Great Blue Hole and give you the quickest access to see it.
One flight will pick up from multiple airports, they are not separate flights. It’s dependent on bookings, but the plane will most likely leave first from San Pedro with a few passengers, before stopping at Caye Caulker to pick up some more people, and then heading on to the Blue Hole Belize.
The airlines each operate on a day on/day off schedule, so no matter what day you’ve got free for the flight, you’ll find one running. Schedules can change at any time and can differ between the high and low seasons, but current schedules are:
- Tropic Air runs just a few flights per week, all flights supposedly depart at the same time, but I imagine this changes slightly depending on departure point and scheduling:
- 🗓️ Tuesday: 1:00 pm
- 🗓️ Thursday: 1:00 pm
- 🗓️ Sunday: 1:00 pm (from San Pedro and Caye Caulker only)
Check current schedules for Tropic Air here
- Maya Island Air does the same thing on alternative days:
- 🗓️ Monday: 8:30 am (BC), 8:45 am (CC), 9:00 am (SP)
- 🗓️ Wednesday: 8:30 am (BC), 8:45 am (CC), 9:00 am (SP)
- 🗓️ Friday: 8:30 am (BC), 8:45 am (CC), 9:00 am (SP)
- 🗓️ Sunday: 8:30 am (BC), 8:45 am (CC), 9:00 am (SP)
The timings of flights are scheduled around the optimal time to see the Blue Hole and the waters of the Belize Barrier Reef with minimal reflections. They definitely have the times right as we had a perfect view, and the photos turned out great!
💰 GREAT BLUE HOLE BELIZE SCENIC FLIGHT COST
The scenic flight over the Blue Hole is not a cheap experience. But if you have room in your Belize budget to splurge – it is worth every cent.
You can expect to pay anywhere between $250 – $300 USD per person for the flight. A little more if you decide to book the co-pilot seat.
Maya Island Air is often cheaper than Tropic Air so I would advise checking both airlines.
Despite this eyewatering cost, this is actually the cheapest way to see the Great Blue Hole. A dive trip will set you back well over $300 USD.
🎟️ BOOKING A SCENIC FLIGHT OVER THE BLUE HOLE
Considering there is only one flight available per day, I would suggest booking in advance, especially if you’re travelling in the peak season (December – February).
Plan the flight into your Belize itinerary, and book as soon as you know when you want to do it. You book online via your chosen airline’s website, the process is easy to navigate.
The flights take place on very small planes, with a maximum capacity of just 11 passengers. Everyone gets a window seat, or alternatively, you can choose to book and pay a little bit extra to fly co-pilot!
🛫 BOARDING YOUR SCENIC FLIGHT
We took our Blue Hole flight from Caye Caulker, so our experience is from that perspective.
The airport on Caye Caulker is tiny, and I assume it’s pretty similar in San Pedro.
We rode our bicycles from our hotel in Caye Caulker down to the airport. We parked right next door to the Tropic Air lounge building and wandered in. Nothing like a regular airport!
The runway was right in front of us, and it all seemed so informal, we loved it.
You need to arrive around half an hour before your flight and bring some form of ID to show at the check-in desk. We were given reusable plastic boarding passes, such a great way to avoid waste and they were much prettier than regular ones!
Tropic Air has a beautiful lounge area in Caye Caulker. It looked brand new and there was plenty of space to sit down and wait, and incredibly fancy bathrooms should you need to use them before your flight.
Maya Island Air has a smaller, less modern but perfectly comfortable boarding lounge at Caye Caulker Airport.
When the plane arrives, you will be escorted out to the runway to climb aboard.
On our flight, the seats weren’t allocated (I think this is always the case) and we just happened to get outside first so we were able to jump on before the others.
There were a few passengers already on board that had come from San Pedro, but they were seated at the back of the plane.
Luckily enough, no one had booked the co-pilot seat, so Brayden jumped at the opportunity and got to sight right up the front with a huge window view!
🪸 TAKING OFF AND FLYING OVER THE BARRIER REEF
Once everyone was in, we took off pretty quickly. The runaway was small, and once we were up, we were soaring over the ocean straight away!
It was so interesting to see Caye Caulker from above. Looking at the rainbow of houses, all the different docks jutting off the coast, and to understand The Split in the island from an aerial perspective made so much sense.
Once you pass Caye Caulker and the more developed cayes, in around 5-10 minutes you’ll hit the first layer of the Belize Barrier Reef. The water changes from a deep, dark blue to light turquoise. You will see coral in all shapes and sizes, and so many different layers of water depth. It is just breathtaking.
I loved seeing the barrier of the reef, where the deep water and waves crashed up against the shallow rocks and corals.
Keep your eye out for marine life, like sharks, rays and manatees. We definitely spotted at least a couple of stingrays, and possibly even some sharks but I can’t guarantee that with my bad eyesight!
I was mindblown that just a few days earlier, we were underwater snorkeling in Caye Caulker, and now we were soaring high above it!
🔵 SEEING THE GREAT BLUE HOLE BELIZE
About 10 minutes later, one side of the plane will get its first glimpse of the Great Blue Hole. The pilot will loop around the hole around 4-5 times for the first side of the plane, before turning around and doing the same for passengers on the other side. Everyone gets plenty of opportunity to admire the incredible scene before their eyes, and there is no need to lean or look over the other side of the plane – your turn will come!
It would be underselling the incredible spectacle that is the Great Blue Hole if I tried to describe it with words.
Instead, I will leave you with some photos and a strong encouragement to take the flight for yourself. It was one of the most unusual, stunning and somewhat random things I have ever seen, and I was blown away by it!
Once both sides of the plane have seen the Blue Hole, you will continue further east and fly over Half Moon Caye.
If you decide to take the scuba diving option to see the Great Blue Hole in Belize, you will have the chance to visit the island. From above, it looked like a tropical paradise and it was at this point I was wondering if we should also do the scuba diving option to be able to put two feet on this incredible island!
🏝️ RETURNING TO CAYE CAULKER
The plane will turn around at Half Moon Caye and you’ll head back towards Caye Caulker/San Pedro/Belize City.
I think we took a slightly different route on the way back, as I saw more of the large Turneffe Atoll than I did on the way over. Maybe it was just because I was on the other side of the plane. Either way – it was just as stunning!
Coming down to land in Caye Caulker we overshot the island and turned around to face the runaway. It was a great opportunity to again look down at the island and see all the places we had already visited, as well as those we had yet to see.
For such a small plane, and such a small runway, the landing was very smooth. The hour went way too fast!
Once we touched ground we were offloaded pretty quickly, because, in a matter of minutes, the plane took off again back to San Pedro, to drop the rest of the passengers off.
💭 OUR GREAT BLUE HOLE SCENIC FLIGHT REVIEW
I’ll let you keep reading this post, and more information about the scuba diving option before you make your own conclusions. But to sum up this first section – we couldn’t recommend the scenic flight more highly!
The whole experience was incredible, and I think I was squealing almost the entire flight. It truly is an incredible sight to see, and being up in the air soaring over the Blue Hole Belize was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
I think it is the best way to see the hole, as there is no other way to get that perspective and appreciate its sheer size and depth. In our opinion, the flight over the Blue Hole was worth it.
Option 2: Scuba diving in the Great Blue Hole
The other way to experience it is by scuba diving inside the hole. This gives you the experience of seeing inside this incredible sinkhole, not viewing it from above.
Jacques Cousteau deemed the Blue Hole one of the greatest dive sites on the planet, making this unique spot a bucket list dive for scuba fanatics all over the world.
🔵 GREAT BLUE HOLE SCUBA DIVING DETAILS
It’s possible to take a dive trip to the Blue Hole from a number of places around the country, but the most popular departure points are from San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, or from Caye Caulker.
As with the flight, these are the closest destinations to the Blue Hole, meaning the shortest boat ride possible (spoiler: it’s very long regardless!).
There are a plethora of dive shops on both these cayes and many of them offer a Great Blue Hole option. A few recommended options for each caye are below.
🤿 San Pedro:
There is a lot more choice of dive shops in San Pedro, and many different operators run trips to the Blue Hole. Do your research, check prices and inclusions, and read recent reviews to choose which operator is right for you.
🤿 Caye Caulker:
There are other dive shops on Caye Caulker, but most don’t offer a Blue Hole dive. If they do, they probably outsource to one of these guys. Choices are more limited, but reviews for both operators are great.
💰 COST TO DIVE THE GREAT BLUE HOLE
The cost to dive in the Blue Hole is expensive!
It makes sense and is completely valid given the long distance to reach the site on the boat, the park fees involved with diving in a protected area, and the fact that most operators do the trip as a three-tank dive.
You can expect to pay over $350 – $400 USD for the day, depending on who you dive with.
Some operators provide an all-inclusive cost, covering the three dives, rental gear, national park fees and meals and snacks throughout the day. Others price all these things as extras, so a lower price might be too good to be true once you add up the additional costs.
You might find small savings between operators, but most are around this price point, if not even higher!
🫧 WHAT TO EXPECT DIVING THE GREAT BLUE HOLE IN BELIZE
No matter who you go with, or where you depart from, your day will most likely look pretty similar.
From San Pedro, it is around 3 hours on the boat to reach the Blue Hole, and from Caye Caulker it is approx. 2.5 hours. The trip is long and can be very bumpy. If you get seasick at all, you’re in for a rough time.
You will be departing very early in the morning, between 5:00 am – 6:00 am and won’t return until around 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm, or later in the evening.
Most operators offer three dives, given the distance you have travelled.
The first will of course be the deepest, diving in the Blue Hole (max depth 40 m / 130 ft).
Afterwards, you will dive the Half Moon Caye Wall (max depth 18 m / 60 ft), and then a site known as The Aquarium at Long Caye Wall (max depth 15 m / 50 ft).
You will have surface time, and possibly your lunch, on Half Moon Caye, where you can get off the boat and look around.
The dive in the Great Blue Hole is a bit of a strange one. We didn’t experience it ourselves of course, so I can only share from the research we did when making our own decision to dive vs fly. If you do end up doing the dive, I would absolutely love to hear about your experience in the comments.
The hole is so deep, at over 120 m (400 ft), so you most certainly won’t go anywhere near the bottom of it!
Because it is so deep, that really isn’t a lot of life to see inside. There isn’t much coral or fish due to the lack of light entering the hole and the main thing you will see is stalactites and stalagmites, and the limestone caves and caverns inside the hole.
It’s also common to see black tip and reef sharks, and occasionally hammerhead and bull sharks.
I won’t touch on the other dive sites too much, as they are just regular reef dives. Albeit pretty incredible ones! Most divers say the other two sites are actually better dives because there is so much more life to see.
It’s up to you to determine if it’s worth the huge trip out to Lighthouse Reef when there are plenty of other fantastic spots to dive much closer to San Pedro/Caye Caulker. But of course, diving inside the Blue Hole Belize is one of those bucket list things, and I think for many it is more to say they have done it, rather than the quality of the dive.
🐟 DIVE EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
Most dive shops will require you to be an Advanced Open Water level and have dived recently in the past 6 months.
Some will let you go as an Open Water diver, but you won’t be able to get as deep, meaning you won’t see any stalactites and stalagmites. From what we have read, if you are not an advanced diver, you will basically see nothing inside the hole and you should consider if it is really worth the cost.
It’s important you take the time to reflect on your own diving experience and ability, to be sure this is a suitable dive for you. Because you are at such great depths, the dive is a lot quicker. Unless you are really experienced you will chew through your air very quickly, have issues with your buoyancy, and possibly even experience narcosis.
We really had to ask ourselves, do we want to dive in the Blue Hole, just to say we’ve done it?
We are Advanced Open Water divers but we wouldn’t consider ourselves ultra-experienced. We would have technically been able to do the dive. But would it have been what we wanted it to be?
Ultimately, for us, the answer was no. This is why we decided to fly over the hole, and appreciate it from above instead.
🤿 SNORKELLING IN THE BLUE HOLE
It is possible to participate in one of these trips as a snorkeller. Most dive shops let snorkelers accompany one of the dive trips.
You obviously won’t descend into the Blue Hole or at the other sites, but you’re able to snorkel around the top/edge of the hole.
Given the huge width and depth of the hole, unless you’re flying over the top of it or diving under the surface of it, you can’t even tell you’re inside. It’s just a deep, dark body of water with not much life to see.
To be completely honest, if I wasn’t a diver I would most definitely opt for the flight. I don’t think the lengthy boat trip is worth it for a sub-par snorkel experience.
I just wanted to share that this is an option.
If you are a partner or a group with a mix of divers, and non-divers, maybe this would be an appropriate option for you.
The costs to snorkel are reduced, but you can still expect to pay around $180 – $200 USD.
Going snorkeling around Caye Caulker in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve is a much better option, and you’re guaranteed to see a ton more marine life than you will inside the Great Blue Hole.
Deciding how to see the Great Blue Hole in Belize
Now you have all the information on how to see the Great Blue Hole in Belize, I hope you can decide which option is right for you.
We obviously opted for the flight, and we have no regrets about seeing the Blue Hole from above!
I do kind of wish we had also taken a scuba diving tour and seen it from below the surface as well, but I wouldn’t have swapped the flight for just a dive and there was no way we could have justified the cost of both. Ahh, if money was not an issue…
To finish off, these are a few of the questions we asked ourselves to help make our decision on how to see the Great Blue Hole Belize. They might help you too.
- 💰 The cost – Taking a scenic flight is the cheapest way to see the Great Blue Hole. A flight is around $250 USD vs up to $400 USD for a dive. We were coming from Caye Caulker, if we dived it would have been $340 USD. A big difference if you’re on a tight budget.
- ⏰ Duration v cost – Yes the flight is cheaper, but the scuba trip is a whopping 12+ hours long, vs just over 1 hour for the flight. Of course, many of those hours are on the boat travelling, but if you were planning on scuba diving in Belize anyway, this might sway you towards the dive to get more bang for your buck, as you get two other reef dives included.
- 👀 Seeing the Great Blue Hole from above or below – This was a huge factor in our decision and I think what got us over the line for the flight. Whilst it would have been cool to be inside and underwater in the Blue Hole, the best way to appreciate it (in our opinion) is to see it from above.
- 🗓️ Time in your itinerary – Do you have an entire day in your trip to dedicate to diving? You will have a very early start, so need a good sleep the night before. And no doubt will be exhausted after such a long day, so factor in an early night and probable sleep-in the next day too.
- 🤿 Dive experience – As mentioned, if you are not an advanced diver, or you’re just a snorkeller, I really think the flight is a better option. Everyone has to make their own call, but based on the other factors, if you can’t even get deep enough to see the stalactites and stalagmites, it’s probably not worth it.
Is the Great Blue Hole worth it?
No matter which option you choose, scenic flight or scuba diving, seeing the Great Blue Hole in Belize is an expensive endeavour.
So, is the Great Blue Hole worth it? In our opinion, 10000% YES!
It is such a unique and mind-blowing sight, seeing it with your own eyes is a special, once-in-a-lifetime experience. I hope this Great Blue Hole review has convinced you that it’s worth the splurge.
If you’re in Caye Caulker or Ambergris Caye and have the opportunity, our advice is – do it!
Is the Great Blue Hole Belize on your bucket list? Tell me in the comments below which option you are choosing, scenic flight or scuba diving?
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