Introduction: Places

A detailed guide to the entire country, with principal sites clearly cross-referenced by number to the maps.

Belizeans like to tell you that that once you have drunk fresh Belize creek water and tasted rice and beans, their staple diet, you are certain to come back. Even if you don’t succumb to these particular culinary temptations, once you have dived the rainbow-colored water world around Belize’s spectacular coral reef, traced the ancient footsteps of Maya priests to the top of great pyramids, and swum in crystal-clear pools in the rainforest, it is still more than likely you will want to return for a second helping.

Belize City is the hub, the whole nation under one roof, distilled down into this bustling, ramshackle port town by the Caribbean Sea.

North of the City, riverside Creole communities left slumbering since the end of the logging industry in the 1960s are waking up to help unlock Belize’s environmental treasure chest. Situated in vast wetlands and pristine rainforest, you can see more wildlife here in one day than in most other parts of the world in a year.

In the forested northwest, Maya cities hidden for centuries by the jungle are coming back to life, their mysteries painstakingly being unraveled by teams of archeologists from around the world.

Climbing El Castillo at Lamanai.

Corrie Wingate

Heading west into the hills around San Ignacio, a welcome drop in temperature is accompanied by a booming network of comfortable jungle lodges, and it is possible to adventure here in style. Capped by the Mountain Pine Ridge, home of the great Maya city of Caracol, the region has become Belize’s main inland eco-tourism center.

In Placencia, one of the fastest-developing of all Belize’s holiday destinations, the locals retain a defiantly laid-back lifestyle. More adventurous souls can head for the interior of the deep south and Belize’s only true tropical rainforest, where Maya villages coexist with nature in a way that has not changed in thousands of years.

Finally, and the highlight for most visitors to Belize, are the cayes (pronounced keys), a necklace of islands strung the length of the coral reef. Unforgettable islands, the cayes range from upbeat tourist spots to stranded desert isles offering the best diving, snorkeling, and fishing.

Jungle view from the top of Lamanai’s El Castillo.

Corrie Wingate

Sunset at Ambergris Caye.

Corrie Wingate