Caye Caulker: Bike and Golf Cart Rates, the Split, and What the Crossing Costs

Verified on 26 August 2026, on the rental operator’s and the hotel’s own published rate cards, and on both ferry operators’ booking engines priced for travel on 16 September 2026.

On the rate card Luxury Island Bike and Golf Cart Rentals published on 26 August 2026, a bicycle on Caye Caulker is US$15.00 a day and a golf cart is US$75.00 a day for gas or US$87.50 for electric. The crossing from Belize City is USD 29.00 one way with San Pedro Belize Express or US$30.50–32.00 with Caribbean Sprinter, priced the same day for travel on 16 September 2026.

One rate card carries the whole contrast: it prices a golf cart at five to nearly six times the bicycle listed beside it.

What it costs to get around

All four rates are Luxury Island Bike and Golf Cart Rentals’ own, read on 26 August 2026. The operator notes that bike rentals are “Caye Caulker only”. It publishes no hourly or weekly rate.

The cart is dearer here than on Ambergris Caye. We read three San Pedro operators’ own rate cards the same day: Advanced Golf Cart Rentals — the business that brands itself Ambergris Caye Carts on the same site, and appears under that name elsewhere on this site — at US$30 for a four-seater and US$60 for a six, GO San Pedro at US$35 and US$65, and Mark’s at US$40 and US$65. That is US$30–40 a day for four seats and US$60–65 for six.

Luxury Island does not state how many seats its carts have, so this is not a strict like-for-like comparison — but its gas cart at US$75 sits above the top of both Ambergris ranges, and on our arithmetic its electric cart at US$87.50 is US$22.50 above the US$65 that is the dearest six-seater any of the three San Pedro operators lists.

That US$22.50 is a gap between advertised rates, not between bills. Only one of these four operators publishes what tax does to its number: Mark’s states that 12.5% GST is added at payment, which would make its US$65 six-seater US$73.13 at the counter — our arithmetic on its stated rule. GO San Pedro and Luxury Island publish no tax note at all, so whether their rates are before tax or already include it is not something either one says. The advertised gap is US$22.50; the gap between what two travellers actually pay is not computable from what these operators publish.

The Split and the Lazy Lizard

The Lazy Lizard Bar & Grill is on Front Street at the Split. Its own site describes it as “arguably Caye Caulker’s most famous attraction due in part to its close proximity to the Split”, and gives +501-226-0655 and +501-634-9714, plus [email protected].

It publishes no opening hours. There is no hours page, nothing in the footer and nothing on the about page. We are not going to fill that in from a review site — the phone number is the only reliable route to today’s hours.

How the Split came to be there, we are not going to tell you. The origin story that circulates on travel pages traces back to no government record, no hurricane archive and nothing from the National Institute of Culture and History that we could find. Rather than repeat an origin we cannot source — even to disown it — we leave the question open until a primary record turns up.

One property’s published room rates

Most Caye Caulker accommodation quotes through a booking widget rather than a published rate card. Colinda Cabanas is an exception — these are its own posted nightly rates in US dollars, read on 26 August 2026:

This is one property, not a range for the island — three more Caye Caulker rate cards, and the tax terms each one does or does not print, are on our where to stay on Caye Caulker page. Its page states no season dates, no minimum stay, and does not say whether taxes or a service charge are added on top. Phone 011-501-226-0383.

Snorkelling from the island

The reserve most tours run to is Hol Chan Marine Reserve, off the southern Ambergris Caye coast. A ferry operator’s destination page describes it as home to “more than 160 different fish species” — that is the operator’s claim, not the reserve’s own.

The fee is US$15 per person, and it is normally outside the tour price. The last announcement traceable to the reserve is its own press release of 27 July 2024, reported by The San Pedro Sun, setting the charge at “US$15 for all 15 zones” effective 1 August 2024 and quoting Executive Director Ian Pou. Two San Pedro operators publish the same US$15 today and both want it in cash. US$10 is the fee that increase replaced, and a proposed US$20 never took effect.

What we cannot do is read it off the reserve: both of Hol Chan’s own domains were down on 26 August 2026 — holchanbelize.org suspended, holchanmarinereserve.org returning 404 — so the press release reaches us through a newspaper rather than from the authority. The full fee history and both operators’ snorkel prices are on our Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley page. Ask your tour operator whether the reserve fee is inside the price it quoted you; on the trips we priced it is not.

What the island is, as its ferry operator describes it

San Pedro Belize Express’s destination page says Caye Caulker has “only 2,000 inhabitants in total on the island” and “approximately 40 reasonably priced hotels and hostels”, is laid out on three main roads — Front, Middle and Back Streets — and that “You won’t come across any vehicles here — only occasional golf carts.”

That is a ferry operator’s marketing copy, not a census and not a hotel registry. We repeat it with attribution because no official figure was found; see the gaps below.

Getting there

San Pedro Belize Express charges USD 29.00 one way in either direction. Caribbean Sprinter charges US$30.50–32.00 from Belize City, varying by departure, and a flat US$32.00 on the way back. Between the two operators there are 14 crossings a day — eight on San Pedro Belize Express and six on Caribbean Sprinter — the last at 5:40 PM. Sprinter states its price includes all fees and taxes; San Pedro Belize Express does not say either way.

Two operators, two crossing times — and one of them contradicts itself. San Pedro Belize Express’s booking engine shows 1 hour 0 minutes on every Caye Caulker to Belize City sailing, against 45 minutes outbound; Caribbean Sprinter’s booking page quotes approximately 45 minutes in both directions. Two firms timing their own boats is not a contested number and there is nothing to reconcile there — use the figure for the operator you booked.

The disagreement that is real sits inside one company: San Pedro Belize Express’s own FAQ says the crossing is “approximately 45 mins” both ways, which its own booking engine does not support on the return. The engine is per-sailing, dated and transactional, so it is the figure in the table above — but the operator publishes both, and we are not presenting the 1-hour return as settled.

Both operators’ Belize City terminals sit away from the international airport, and both sell a transfer to reach it. San Pedro Belize Express’s is a shared shuttle at USD 25.00 for the first person and USD 10.00 for each additional person, about 25 minutes; Caribbean Sprinter’s airport shuttle is $15 USD per person. One person flying into BZE and continuing with San Pedro Belize Express therefore pays USD 54 to reach Caye Caulker, not USD 29.

What the operators don’t publish

These are gaps in what the businesses and institutions themselves publish:

• The Lazy Lizard’s opening hours. Nothing on its official site, anywhere.
• Any menu or drink prices at the Split from a primary source.
• Any sourced account of the Split’s origin, from a government record, a hurricane archive or NICH.
• Caye Caulker’s length and width from an official source.
• An official population figure from the Statistical Institute of Belize — only the ferry operator’s “2,000 inhabitants”.
• A live fee, hours or rules page from Hol Chan Marine Reserve itself. Both of its domains were unavailable on 26 August 2026, so the US$15 above reaches us through a newspaper report of the reserve’s press release and through the operators collecting it, not from the authority’s own site.
• Hostel dorm rates from hostels’ own sites.
• Luxury Island’s hourly and weekly rates, and how many seats its carts have.
• Whether Colinda Cabanas’ rates include tax or a service charge, and its season dates and minimum stay.

How we researched this

Scope: this page reports source research, not an on-site test. We checked the booking systems, timetables and official sources named below on the date shown; calculations, unresolved disagreements and information we could not verify are labelled explicitly.

We read Luxury Island Bike and Golf Cart Rentals’ own rate page and Colinda Cabanas’ own accommodations page on 26 August 2026, and the Lazy Lizard’s location and phone numbers come from its official site the same day. The ferry fares and the two crossing-time figures come from live one-way searches on both operators’ booking engines, run on 26 August 2026 for travel on 16 September 2026; the sailing count and last departure come from San Pedro Belize Express’s printed schedule and Caribbean Sprinter’s sailings page; the airport shuttle prices from San Pedro Belize Express’s FAQ and Caribbean Sprinter’s home page. The island description, the “2,000 inhabitants” figure and the Hol Chan fish-species count all come from one ferry operator’s destination page and are attributed to it rather than stated as fact. The Ambergris Caye cart rates used in the comparison are the three San Pedro operators’ own rate cards, read the same day, quoted operator by operator rather than as a bare range.

Figures on this page labelled our arithmetic are calculated by us from the sourced inputs cited below — comparisons, percentages, multiples, differences, per-night and per-person conversions, running totals and currency conversions. Every other figure is reproduced as its named source published it. Where an operator or authority publishes a per-person or per-night rate directly, that is their figure and it is attributed to them at the point it appears.

Sources

• Luxury Island Bike and Golf Cart Rentals — US$15.00 bike, US$1.00 helmet, US$75.00 gas cart, US$87.50 electric cart, “Caye Caulker only”

• Colinda Cabanas — accommodations — every nightly rate in the room table, and the phone number

• Lazy Lizard Bar & Grill — Front Street location at the Split, both phone numbers, the email, the “most famous attraction” description, and the absence of opening hours

• San Pedro Belize Express — ticketing — the USD 29.00 fare and the 45-minute / 1 hour 0 minute crossing times

• San Pedro Belize Express — FAQ — the operator’s own “approximately 45 mins” statement, which its booking engine does not match on the return leg

• The San Pedro Sun, 1 August 2024 — the Hol Chan press release of 27 July 2024, the US$15 fee and its 1 August 2024 effective date

• Caribbean Sprinter — booking — US$30.50–32.00 outbound, flat US$32.00 return, “approximately 45 minutes”, and the all-fees-included statement

• San Pedro Belize Express — printed schedule and Caribbean Sprinter — sailings — departure times and the 5:40 PM last crossing

• San Pedro Belize Express — FAQ and Caribbean Sprinter — the two airport shuttle prices

• San Pedro Belize Express — Caye Caulker destination page — the 2,000 inhabitants, ~40 hotels, three streets, golf-carts-only description and the 160 fish species

• Advanced Golf Cart Rental, GO San Pedro Rental, Mark’s Cart Rentals — the Ambergris Caye cart rates used in the comparison

• BELTRAIDE (Government of Belize statutory body) — Belize hotel accommodation tax and sales tax that land on a Caye Caulker room bill. Read 2026-08-26.

• Maya Island Air — schedule graphic — the published timetable for flying to Caye Caulker instead of taking the ferry. Read 2026-08-26.

Last verified: 26 August 2026. Rental rates, room rates and ferry fares change without notice.

Written by Estuardo Enriquez. This site is independent, carries no affiliate relationship with any operator or property named here, and is not connected to any previous owner of this domain.