Main Attractions

Boutique retreats, tropical jungles and world class diving...

Barrier Reef - the atolls & Cayes: Let’s face it, if you don’t like the beach, you’re in the wrong place. Arriving by air taxi from Belize City onto Ambergris Caye, you will have reached a blissful world of swaying palms, powdery sand and azure seas. Head for your hammock or make for the dive shop, and relax by night with a rum punch to the sound of reggae wafting across the beach. Our favourite hotels are small and stylish, with ocean views and secluded stretches of beach, but if you want a spot of shopping or some nightlife, it’s easy to find in the town of San Pedro.

A caye is a small island surrounded by coral reef, and most of Belize’s are inhabited only by fishermen, or are entirely undeveloped. Ambergris is the largest, and the primary activities here – if you’re feeling active, that is – are fishing, snorkelling and diving. Among a host of superb diving opportunities packed full of tropical fish and marine life, Belize’s famous Blue Hole site can be reached in a day’s excursion from Ambergris Caye.

Further south, the outer cayes and the atolls are accessible only by boat and are for serious divers.

Rainforest & Ruins: Inland, and close to the border with Guatemala, Belize’s Cayo District is largely pristine rainforest, rich with tropical bird and animal life, and abundant caves for the intrepid to explore. Here too is the country’s largest Mayan site; Caracol, whose vast central pyramid towers over the jungle and the thousands of buildings whose ruins remain. 

Hollywood film director Francis Ford Coppola owns a luxurious lodge in this area (and one at the Belizean coast) so you can really spoil yourself at the same time as absorbing the country’s Mayan heritage and roaming through the forests to meet its wildlife.

Further north in Orange Walk District lie the Mayan ruins of Lamanai, less accessible than the sites in Cayo District and therefore surrounded by yet more wildlife. Despite its remoteness, however, there is an excellent lodge here too, itself built on the site of the Mayan ruins of Chan Chich.