St. Herman's Blue Hole National Park: Fee, Hours and What Is Inside
Verified on 14 November 2026 on the Belize Audubon Society’s page for St. Herman’s Blue Hole National Park and its protected-areas page, and on the Forest Department of Belize’s protected-areas page.
Entry to St. Herman’s Blue Hole National Park is BZD 8 per day for non-nationals and BZD 2 per day for nationals, and its hours of operation are 8:00am-4:30pm. At Belize’s fixed 2:1 peg the two fees are US$4.00 and US$1.00 (our conversion). The Belize Audubon Society (BAS), which co-manages the park with the Forest Department as its government partner, publishes both on its own site, read on 14 November 2026. BAS places the park "(12) twelve miles southeast of Belmopan on the right side of the beautiful Hummingbird Highway."
Entrance fee and hours
| As the Belize Audubon Society prints it | US$ (our conversion) | |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Nationals | BZD 8, per day | US$4.00 |
| Nationals | BZD 2, per day | US$1.00 |
| Hours of operation | 8:00am-4:30pm |
The fee turns on nationality rather than residence, and a non-national pays four times the national rate (our arithmetic). BAS’s FAQ adds the days: the seven protected areas it co-manages open “everyday including weekends and Holidays from 8:00am to 4:30pm.” BAS’s fees for its other protected areas, the offshore Blue Hole Natural Monument among them, are set side by side on our Belize trip cost page.
Inside the park
BAS gives the park 575 acres of forest and names two main attractions, St. Herman’s Cave and the Blue Hole, which it says are “connected by an underground stream.”
- St. Herman’s Cave. “Visitors can walk 200 yards into the cave entrance unguided or can hire a guide to traverse the cave completely”, seeing speleothems and Mayan artefacts. After a guided tour through the cave, BAS says, visitors can float back to the entrance on an inner tube.
- The Blue Hole. BAS describes a cenote formed by the collapse of an underground limestone cave, with the river that ran through the original cavern still flowing through the cave system. “The depression measures about 100 feet deep and 300 feet in diameter”, and the Blue Hole at its base is about 25ft deep. BAS calls it a place for an afternoon swim.
- Mountain Cow Cave, also known as Crystal Cave, visited on a guided exploration through caverns with crystalline formations. BAS writes that Mayan shamans and priests once journeyed into this underworld, known as Xibalba, to perform rituals.
BAS lists the activities as birdwatching, spelunking, picnicking, hiking, swimming and wildlife viewing, and names six trails: Low land Trail, High land Trail, Jungle Trail, Mountain Cow (Crystal Cave) Trail, Dusky Antbird Trail and Hummingbird Loop.
Two entrances on the Hummingbird Highway
The park has two entrance areas, each with parking. At the St. Herman’s Cave entrance BAS lists a picnic area, visitor center, gift shop, restrooms and trail heads; the second entrance gives easy access to the Blue Hole, with a picnic area, restrooms and changing rooms, as well as other trails. BAS states that “Buses traveling on the Hummingbird Highway can stop to allow visitors to get off at either entrance.” The drive along that highway between Belmopan and the south is described on our San Ignacio to Placencia and Hopkins page.
From Blue Hole to St. Herman’s: the park’s history
In BAS’s account, the site’s cave was recognised for its tourism potential as far back as 1965. Part of the site was proposed as a national park by James A. Waight in 1968, and the entire site by the FAO in 1978. The Government of Belize acquired part of the site in the 1960s and the rest in the 1970s, and “declared it as Blue Hole National Park on November 23, 1986.” The name changed to St. Herman’s Blue Hole National Park in 2005, “To avoid confusion with the Blue Hole Natural Monument (at sea)”; that site at sea is covered on our Great Blue Hole page.
The co-managers
BAS lists the park, as SHBH est. 1986, among the seven protected areas on its protected-areas page. Under Key Government Partners the same page names the Forest Department and states: “The Forest Department is our government co-management partner for this protected area; together we ensure the effective management of these sites.” The Forest Department’s own protected-areas page says Belize has 103 protected areas, counts National Parks among the five categories it manages, and defines a national park as an area established “for the protection and preservation of natural and scenic values of national significance for the benefit and enjoyment of the general public.”
BAS states: “We don’t offer guided tours but can recommend local licensed tour guides.” For the parks it co-manages it gives its head office, +501-223-5004/4987/4988, and [email protected], for contact and reservations. BAS is the body to confirm the fee and hours with before relying on them.
What BAS doesn’t publish
On the two BAS pages we read on 14 November 2026:
- A cave-tubing price. BAS’s FAQ says cave tubing is offered at the park and points to a link for more information; neither page prints a price.
- A guide fee for the full St. Herman’s Cave or Mountain Cow Cave.
- A last-entry time before the 4:30pm close.
- Whether one day fee covers both entrances.
How we researched this
Scope: this page reports source research, not a visit. Every page below was read on 14 November 2026. We requested the Belize Audubon Society’s St. Herman’s Blue Hole National Park page and its protected-areas page, and the Forest Department’s protected-areas page. The fee, hours, history, features, trails and entrances come from the park page; the co-management partner, the opening days, the guided-tour answer and the contacts from BAS’s protected-areas page; the national park definition from the Forest Department. The US-dollar figures and the four-to-one comparison are our calculations.
Sources
- Belize Audubon Society — St. Herman’s Blue Hole National Park — BZD 8 and BZD 2 per day, 8:00am-4:30pm, 575 acres, the cave and the 200 yards, the Blue Hole’s dimensions, Mountain Cow Cave, the activities and six trails, the two entrances and buses, the 12-mile location, the history from 1965 to 2005
- Belize Audubon Society — Protected Areas — SHBH est. 1986, the Forest Department as co-management partner, the everyday opening, no guided tours, cave tubing at the park, the head-office contacts
- Forest Department — Protected Areas — the 103 protected areas, the five categories it manages and its national park definition
Last verified: 2026-11-14
Written by Estuardo Enriquez. This site is independent, carries no affiliate relationship with any operator or authority named here, and is not connected to any previous owner of this domain.