Flying Over the Great Blue Hole of Belize
The Great Blue Hole (or just the Blue Hole), Belize’s most famous site, is a hard-to-believe, perfect circle of coral surrounding a 410-foot-deep sinkhole in the ocean floor. It’s one of the top wishlist dive sites in the world but the only way to really see the circle is from the air.
And when you do, there is no way to describe it – or show pictures or videos of it – that will come close to flying over it. The shades of blue, the glow, the miraculous coral reef rising from the deep ocean floor, the scale of it. It’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen.
It’s that incredible.
And Tropic Air invited me to join them for a flight last week. About an hour over the ocean and atolls – from the runway in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye over to Caye Caulker and then to Turneffe Atoll (about 40 miles from SP) and then to even more remote Lighthouse Atoll. It made me cry. It’s that good.
Did you know Belize is home to 3 of the 4 atolls in the Western Hemisphere?
First the details and then I’ll get to the pictures. But remember, what you see in person is about 10000 times more impressive than the photos. It’s that cool.
Departs: San Pedro, Caye Caulker, Belize City Municipal
Time: 1PM
Tour time: 1 hour
Days: San Pedro (Sunday to Thursday) Caye Caulker (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Sundays) Belize City Municipal (Tuesdays, Thursdays)
Price: $292USD, Passengers: 3 & 11 Seat aircraft available, All Passengers get a window seat and Tropic Air is a license tour operator.
Note from SanPedroScoop: This would be the MOST PERFECT surprise/gift. Perhaps fashion a little coupon and…last minute Valentine’s gift that DOES NOT DISAPPOINT.
Here are some of my photos.
We first flew along the coast of San Pedro – over town. You can see that best in my short video.
A few minutes later, we were flying over Caye Caulker and the gorgeous split in the island. (Here’s my guide to Caye Caulker – my second favorite island in the world)
Seconds later we were swooping over Caye Chapel – where I recently attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the Caye Chapel Four Season. They are working down there but opening in 2025? It’s possible.
We swung a left – out to the atolls.
An atoll is a ring of coral surrounding a lagoon. But it is sooo much more than that. It’s 1 million shades of blue in what seems like the middle of the deep dark ocean.
Turneffe is the larger atoll with lots more land…almost all covered in mangroves. Turneffe IS THE BUFFER for Belize City if any storms/hurricanes come in.
It’s so hard to tell scale when you are flying above. The Blue Hole has a diameter of over 1000 feet but since it had been a very windy morning, there were no diving boats out there giving a sense of scale.
We circled a bunch of times getting closer and closer.
It hardly looks real – it is just unspeakably beautiful. And made me cry. Proud to be a new Belizean (you can read: Yesterday I Became A Belizean Citizen), because it is so miraculous…and just feeling like if everyone was able to take this flight, we might treat the earth and the ocean a little bit better…
Maybe?
We then swept over a tanker shipwrecked on the reef in 2005.
And then we were headed back. The hour flight goes by in a flash. Over the split in the coral off of Ambergris Caye – better known as Hol Chan. THE most popular snorkel spot in Belize.
Insane. Incredible. Once-in-a-lifetime experience. 1000x more impressive than you would ever think. That’s my summation.
I know I am going to get 101 questions asking: Is the Blue Hole Tour worth it? It is a splurge, yes. But if you are interested in splurging on a seriously incredible hour that will take your love of Belize to a new height? Well then, yes. Yes it is TOTALLY WORTH IT.
For more information on this Tropic Air flight, see their informational page and, as always, let me know what you think!
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Thank you for sharing!
Wow! I can only imagine what this would look like with my own eyes. Seems very much worth it and probably was such an incredible experience. Thanks for sharing!
wow….. not one word mentioning tyhe fact that naturalist, Jaque Cousteau…dynamited the heck out of it, to get his research vessel into it.
Yup, Jacques said they had to dynamite a number of coral heads to get the Calypso inside the circle – for “biodiversity research”. But the truth is that that the divers and their tiny sub could have easily wound their way through the reef and into the circle. So why was it so important to get the Calypso inside the hole? ‘photo op’. His TV show made the Blue Hole famous and the parade of tourist diver boats still enter through his cut in the reef.
You think that was a natural fit into this post? I didn’t!
Not sure, but the instant I read “perfect circle of coral” I thought of Jacques blasting a channel and making it slightly less perfect. But to his credit he changed a lot from his early days, becoming a leading ecosystem conservationist…
So beautiful! I love the emotion in your writing about your new home country.
Yup, Jacques said they had to dynamite a number of coral heads to get the Calypso inside the circle – for “biodiversity research”. But the truth is that that the divers and their tiny sub could have easily wound their way through the reef and into the circle. So why was it so important to get the Calypso inside the hole? ‘photo op’. His TV show made the Blue Hole famous and the parade of tourist diver boats still enter through his cut in the reef.
oops, sorry. I didn’t intend to paste that message to your comment…
Insanely Beautiful ! Now on my wish list !!! As usual, thanks for all of the incredible pictures !
The Blue hole is a Meteoroid impact crater. Anyone who threw stones in mud will recognize that. It came out of the ENE and punched a hole in the crust which you and tell by the ejecta pattern. Do not believe what some idiot says on the Net. Think for yourself using your brain.
My apologies if you’re just being sarcastic, but I can’t let this go: “impact crater”? “ejecta pattern”? Good grief – the Blue Hole started to form during the ice age when the sea level was 100’s of feet lower than now. It started as a limestone cave. As the sea level rose the cave flooded and collapsed. The coral reef surrounding the hole has slowly been growing for thousands of years.
Thinking for yourself isn’t working, Greg – try doing some actual research…
I’m going to go with scientists rather than “anyone who has thrown stones in mud”. But your opinion is noted.
Rebecca, I am a geophysicist and chemist so I am happy you are going with the science. I was only using the mud example so people can see the obvious impact structure.
My husband and I are closing on property in Ambergris Cayes May 1st. We fell in love with Belize!! Will be adding to existing structures and opening a bed and breakfast in 2025!! Casa Pisces is the name. Will be advertising with you the closer we get to opening.
That is super exciting. Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great Pictures–Thanks