Belize If You Please
09. Nov, 2009 
22 Comments
Today, I’m flying to Belize courtesy of Belize Tourism. I’ll be joining four other bloggers for a six day Fam Trip, where they’ve arranged a packed itinerary of jungle tours, cave tubing, zip line canopy tours, snorkeling, parasailing, Mayan ruins and more. Oh and they’re putting up us in some lovely hotels and hosting all the meals at some great restaurants. Sounds pretty good, no?
This is the first time I’ve traveled on someone else’s dime (excluding all the business travel I did in my corporate days). The trip comes at an interesting time for me. First, because I’ll be 24 weeks pregnant and while I feel great, it has been interesting to see people’s reactions when I tell them that I’ll be spending a week in Belize. Second, it seems like October and November 2009 have been deemed “The Battle of Travel Writing Ethics” online. There’s been a lot of noise lately about a certain NY Times writer who got fired for taking a comped trip (NY Times has a strict code of ethics that forbids their writer’s from taking freebies– past or present). There has been even more talk on Twitter about whether it’s possible to be objective when traveling for free. It’ll be interesting to experience it for myself and see how my coverage differs from any of my other trips (if I start listing “must sees”, describe my hotel location as “nestled” or use the expression “veritable” anything, you have permission to revoke my blogging license).
While I haven’t been specifically asked or required to write about the trip, I will be writing about it this week, posting pictures or whatever else seems interesting and/or worthwhile. I’ll also be hanging out with these fine folks:
Kara Williams, The Vacation Gals
Kerrin Rousset, Mykugelhopf
Melanie Waldman, Travels With Two
Gennaro Salamone, Enduring Wanderlust
What do you want to see?
We’ll be starting in Placencia and then heading north to San Pedro (with stops in between). If you have any questions about Belize, let me know. This week I’ll have the ears of folks who are just dying to telling you more about this Central American nation on the Caribbean sea.
You can also follow the tweets of all the bloggers on Twitter with hashtag #belizetrip.
Pic by: WisDoc
Sounds freaking fantastic! Look after the little one whilst you’re hanging from trees and fending off angry Twitter’ers
Elysia´s last blog ..The Petronas Towers of KL: Not A Highlight
That sounds like a great time. Enjoy the traveling on somebody else’s dime.
Casey´s last blog ..We Are All Weird
I’ll be interested in what you experience. I used to be an owner of one of the top resorts in Belize….always interested in first time impressions.
It would be nice if you could tell your views on Maya civilization which includes ancient Maya temples and ruins. Are they all finished or is there still left in some state ?
And do take care of little one.
Nisha´s last blog ..Influence of Tamil
Oooh, I love Belize. My husband and I went there for our honeymoon. I can’t wait to hear what you think of it, nestled as it is.
Cherrye at My Bella Vita´s last blog ..Four Ways to Guarantee B&B Staff Will Hate You
Have a great time and I do hope when you come home you’ll reflect a little on the whole “objectivity” (whatever that means)-on-a-free-trip thing. I’d love to read what you have to say about it.
Mara´s last blog ..The teeniest pumpkin
Belize is a beautiful country and I hope you enjoy your visit. If you have time, check out our place chaacreek.com we offer exotic tours to the different archaelogical sites in Belize.
Next week, we will be giving away free vacation packages in a sweepstakes lotto for the discerning traveler who would like to enjoy a free vacation during these hard economic times.
Just don’t parasailing, ok?
I look forward to your story.
Have fun!
Fida´s last blog ..Oct 29, Treehouses
We are looking forward to your visit on Wednesday night! We’re privileged to be your luxury outpost while experiencing the archaeological epicenter of the once-great Mayan Empire. Chef Kuylen and our culinary artisans are eagerly anticipating your arrival at Ka’ana Resort & Spa and look forward to you sampling our newly defined Belizean gourmet cuisine. Ka,ana regards and see you soon…..
I am sure that will be a great experience for you and I look forward to read more about Belize.
I’m just about to finish up a press trip in Honduras, and I think now is a great time to show the world that travel journalists can be ethical while traveling on someone else’s dollar. Have fun in Belize … I look forward to reading about your travels!
JoAnna´s last blog ..The Importance of Food in International Travel
Enjoy your trip! Belize is my favorite place in the world and an annual trip for me. I will be interested to see your thoughts on Placencia – went there for the first time this year and was rather disappointed. Most places were still closed for low season (just last week).
When you visit Ambergris Caye – a few great places to eat (if on your itinerary) include Carambas, Elvi’s, Caliente, Blue Water Grill, and Wild Mangos. Get Eileen’s frozen custard at D&E’s (next door to Carambas). If you can, try the ceviche at El Divino – some of the best I’ve ever had. Next door at Mata Rocks are two of the nicest bartenders – Sherlyn and Criselda. Just left them a few days ago and miss the Caye so bad! Every year gets harder and harder to leave.
For tours, hopefully some are coordinated thru Aqua Dives. One of their dive masters, Michael, is the best.
The all day catamaran trip & snorkeling trip to Caye Caulker (Seaduced Tours) is not to be missed. The guides are far better on this trip than many of the other guides who do the snorkeling at Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley (especially Silvin, Manuel, and Jovanni).
Enjoy your trip…interested to hear thoughts on packing everything in on a 6 day fam trip – I usually spend 10 days every year and it’s just never long enough.
What a great opportunity. Enjoy!
Carolina´s last blog ..Get Healthy and Fit, Part 3 – Exercise Edition
Sounds awesome! Especially the jungle tour and parasailing part. Looking forward to read about it and see some photos.
I have two questions; when’s the best time of year to visit? And how does Belize’s cuisine rank when it comes to vegetarian/vegan food?
Erica´s last blog ..Music That Makes Me Happy: Moving On
Belize is a very vibrant country with a multi-layered culture. Be sure to climb some of the Mayan ruins, you can see Guatemala from the taller ones. I take press trips all the time and it doesn’t have to affect your objectivity at all. Have a great time.
Fly Girl´s last blog ..Anti-Terrorist Fashion
Sounds like a great adventure for you. Have a great time and thank you for sharing. I’ll keep myself and my readers posted. Belize is one place I’d include on my next travel plans.
It will be interesting to see what you come up with. Hopefully the pregnancy wont slow things down too much!
Please tell us about your trip after being there, and oh! Traveling expense free is really really great!. Enjoy.
Hi Christine
Hope you are enjoy the sunshine! It would be great if you could write a post once you are back about how you found the experience from a blogging perspectice – discussing this whole issue of comped trips and objective writing etc. And… whether you make any money out of the trip (assuming that was your intention… or was it?)
Thanks
Jeremy
Seriously. I am not jealous. I love the rain and darkness of north European winter (not!)
Jeremy Head´s last blog ..72% of Press Releases are made up crXp!
I think with comp’d trips, it’s perfectly doable to be objective. However, you will have a more controlled experience and get the VIP treatment, so your experience might be quite different from a paying customer.
I don’t see anything ethically wrong, so long as there’s full disclosure.
Enjoy Belize!
Neil´s last blog ..A Weekend by Bike
Hi,
I followed the link to your blog from Uncornered Market’s website, and have really enjoyed spending an evening looking through your articles. Crisp, intelligent writing always brings a surge of adrenaline to my chest, especially if it is about places that I previously knew almost nothing about, such as central America. I look forward to exploring your site a bit more when I have more time.
Happy travels in 2010,
Jon
Jonathan Campion´s last blog ..Photo set: Kyiv in Winter