We had a decent shuttle ride with Belize Family Adventures going to San Ignacio in a shuttle bus/van. However, they were not at all clear about where to meet the shuttle at the public departure point and there was no sign with my name on it, as they indicated there would be. We were left feeling like we'd missed our shuttle until we reached out to the company. We had a fine ride one we found the driver, but it was a confusing and frustrating departure. On the return trip, we expected a similar/decent experience but were sorely disappointed.
We booked a departure at 9:00am from our hotel to Belize City. The tour/shuttle company had picked us up at our hotel previously, but we called the night before to confirm pick up. We also called the morning of departure to ask if there was any way they could please collect personal items from another tour company. They agreed, and we were very grateful! (Thank you for that!) We were informed at that time that the shuttle would be there between 9:30 and 10am. No problem. We waited patiently until 10:30 and called them again. We were then told it would be 10-15 minutes before they arrived. I then called again at 10:45 when they still weren't there. We had no communication from the provider; it was us reaching out each time to find out what was going on. We were told the shared shuttle was held up at the Belize/Guatemala border waiting for the other passengers.
The "shuttle" did eventually show up at 11am, two hours after our scheduled departure. At this point, we were definitely going to miss our next booking at our destination. The vehicle that finally arrived was a pickup truck with a back seat barely large enough to fit three grown adults. There was no room to move an inch, let alone stretch a leg. Due to knee/circulation issues and a bit of claustrophobia, this was one of the more painful experiences I've had. After the expected two-hour drive, we should have had an hour of buffer time upon arrival, but we didn't make it there until 1:15p.
To write a fair review, I will say that we had a great experience with the company for our other tours, and they did us a great favor by picking up our left-behind items. I acknowledge that this caused a delay in our pick up. However, we could have picked up the items on our own had we know it would be such a delay. I also don't feel it's fair that we were so greatly impacted by other customers' delays.
I rate the shuttle experience poor for their lacking communication, not following their own pick-up instructions on our departure to San Ignacio, lack of timeliness or accountability on the return trip (again, we waited patiently, but two hours!?!), and the beyond-uncomfortable shuttle on our return.
Both Belize Family Adventures and Viator failed to offer any kind of refund, credit, or anything beyond apologies. Maybe my expectations were too high but beware if booking this shuttle. You may not feel you get what you expected or paid for.