Belmopan Safety Guide

Belmopan, the compact capital tucked among low limestone hills and citrus orchards, keeps crime levels lower than Belize City. Daytime streets around the National Assembly and Market Square echo with bicycle bells and the scent of fresh tamales. Yet after dark the cicadas take over and poorly lit lanes behind the bus terminal turn eerily quiet. Most visitors arrive for government business or to use the city as a springboard to the Caves Branch or Blue Hole, and they pass through without incident by sticking to plain urban sense: ditch the flashy jewellery, carry minimal cash, and call a taxi instead of walking after midnight. The tap water is chlorinated and clear. But the pipes between the treatment plant south of town and your guest-house tap can be decades old. Bottled water is cheap at any chiney shop and saves you from stomach trouble. Mosquitoes whine at dawn and dusk year-round, so repellent is as essential as sunscreen. Roads out of Belmopan toward the Western Highway are smooth. Yet the Hummingbird and George Price Highways still claim the occasional motorcycle at dusk when fog rolls off the jungle. Locals call their city tranquilo, and violent attacks on foreigners are rare. The real headache is petty theft from parked cars at the entrance to Guanacaste National Park and the Saturday market. Police respond quickly inside the ring road, less so in the scattered peri-urban villages where backyard chickens outnumber streetlights.