You must go with a tour in order to visit Hol Chan as there are limited spaces for boats and they have to be reserved in advance by your tour provider. Our tour provider took us on a guided snorkeling tour, you are not allowed to just swim around the reserve on your own, they require it to be guided. Our provider had life vests for all passengers which made snorkeling much easier, there were no children on our tour however and I did not see any children at the reserve on the day we went.

You would probably start at Hol Chan and then go over to shark ray alley. You don’t have to get out of the boat when they go to shark ray alley and most tours are only at that part for 15-20 minutes. We saw several turtles at Hol Chan, and tons of other marine life. I will say, I thought the coral was prettier at Mexico Rocks, but more sea life at Hol Chan.

No age restrictions. On our tour there was a family who had a 3 year old daughter and 5 year old son. They both joined the group at the first location during snorkeling. When we went to the second location to swim with the sharks and rays, their parents opted to stay in the boat and watch. Life jackets and snorkeling gear are provided.

Yes, you are in waist or chest depth in most places and can swim, FLOAT, viewing sea life.

Fishing isn’t allowed at the reserve and not sure how close you can be to Hol Chan to be able to fish. Unsure about what you’ll need as I only fished in the other side of the island and that was with Belize Fishing Charters and they provided everything for us.

They are two different places. We never visited coral gardens. I was informed it would be a great place to see manatees, sea turtles . Possibly seahorses as it is closer to caye caulker.

I don’t know the name of their company but a young man named Milo and his nephew Jean run a hol Chan tour and they are excellent!! Milo is very patient and both are VERY knowledgeable about the sea and Belize history. If you’re not sure who to ask, try asking the staff at the Ocean Tide sea view hotel, as they are affiliated with Milo and Jean. Enjoy Belize!! By the way, if you happen to drive to secret beach in one of those golf carts, be sure to take along mosquito repellent for the ride.

This is a late post but I thought I would weigh in on the coral bleaching. I dived here in 2015 and again last month. On my 2015 trip, there wasn't bleaching that I can remember. On my trip last month, I was saddened to see that about 15% of the reef off of San Pedro was bleached and another 10% was going fluorescent, which is the stage before bleaching. That said, I did not notice any bleaching in Hol Chan than I can remember and the bleaching on the most Northerly reefs was much less than in the central area off of San Pedro. Hol Chan was abundant with sea life and seemed very healthy.