My wife and I traveled to Belize with our four teenagers for a family vacation. We budgeted a few excursions, but when you multiply by 6 it gets expensive quickly, so we decided to drive to Lamanai. We had searched for a route to the village of Indian Church at our vacation home before we had left, and I was very glad I had zoomed in on the map at each turning point and taken a screen shot on my iPad. That way we could pull up the photo as we approached each area to make sure we were following the route. What makes it difficult when you get into the countryside is that very few of the small towns have signage, and your GPS and global maps rarely work, so you’re never quite sure where you are. The route we took:
1. Take Northern Hwy north from Belize City. The road is well-paved but has frequent speed bumps until you get further from BC. You can travel about 55 mph most places.
2. Watch for signs that you are in Carmelita (there was a very small sign if I recall).
3. Shortly after Carmelita is Tower Hill where you want to turn left off the Northern Hwy. There is a large maroon sign pointing that direction to Lamanai Archeological Reserve, but it is more easily seen coming from the north, and it is partially obscured by street vendors shelters. It took us one hour to get to this point.
4. This road bends back toward the south, and the roads are bad. Not impossible, but mostly stone with decent-sized potholes here and there that you have to watch for.
5. Eventually you pass through a small village of Guinea Grass. The great thing about Guinea Grass is that it has a very nice green and yellow sign as you come into town, so you know you are going in the right direction.
6. After Guinea Grass, the road will eventually make a sharp right turn (you are forced to turn and head west).
7. You travel west for a while through very nice Mennonite country. We actually loved this part of the journey. There are many horse and buggies on the road, and you don’t want to dust them all out by driving too fast.
8. The road will come to a T where you have to turn north or south. There is a feedmill on this corner. You want to turn left to head back south again. I would suggest taking a picture of this feedmill so you know where to turn when you return because it is an easy turn to miss on the return trip. (We missed it!)
9. Going south you will go through the Mennonite Shipyard community. (I don’t think there is an actual village anywhere.). Signs say not to go over 30 mph through this long community of farmers.
10. Eventually the road will angle to the right (I can’t recall if this is easy to mess up - we didn’t have any problem.)
11. After a short drive, you have to make a left-hand turn following the little green Lamanai signpost.
12. From there you drive to the village of Indian Church. There is a very large, bright beautiful sign welcoming you to the quaint little village. (Great little hacienda right after the sign that is great for cooling off with Belikin beers after you see the ruins!) To enter the village you turn right at the sign, but to go to Lamanai you continue straight along the east edge of the village for half a mile or so. There you find the large entrance sign to the Lamanai ruins. You turn left at the sign and proceed to the entrance. Without a doubt, the drive to the park entrance was the roughest part of the trip. Not impossible, but you have to go slow and drive around the biggest potholes.
We were the only car in the parking lot. It took us a total of 2 hours, 15 min to get there from BC. I can certainly understand why most people take the river cruise tour to get here, but for us it worked. And once we got there, it was an amazing and beautiful experience (we were quite pleasantly shocked really!). We paid the $5US entrance fee at the office and did a self-guided tour on our own (took a picture of the sign at the start of the ruins area to use as a map). We had brought along a picnic lunch and ate it under one of the several thatched-roof picnic shelters at the park. A+ experience, but it is somewhat painful for you and your car to get there by car.
