That Cool Travel Couple

Belize was our first trip together as a couple, so the country will always hold a special place in our hearts. It is a country where you can experience crystal blue sandy beaches, ancient Mayan ruins, island living, and humming rainforests rich with animal and plant life. Belize truly has it all. 

Practicalities for Belize

Currency: Belizean Dollar (BZ)

Recommended length of stay: 1-2 weeks (but you could spend much longer..)

Month of our visit: December

CDC’s Recommended Vaccinations: Click here!

Packing List for Belize

• 2 bathing suits
• 2 pairs of shorts and light weight shirts
• Lightweight dress or button down shirt
• Sandals
• Sneakers or hiking boots
• Rain jacket – I like this one because it packs up into a small bag and looks more elegant than most rain jackets! Comes in lots of cute colors too!
• Headlamp
• Packable Towel
• Bug spray – these wipes are super easy to pack away
• Sunscreen

Our Itinerary

We flew directly into Belize City airport from LAX on a red eye. Obviously we didn’t spend any time waiting around before hopping in our rental car! Once on the road we drove two hours to Hopkins, a small beach town on the southern coast of Belize. Consider having a four wheel drive as some of the smaller roads in Belize can be a bit tricky. The drive definitely made us wish we had slept more on the flight over! 

Hopkins

Once we got to Hopkins we checked into the Lodge at Jaguar Reef, one of my favorite hotels EVER. The lobby is a beautiful with vaulted ceilings and a direct view of the pristine waters of the Caribbean Sea. After waiting some time lounging on the beach we were taken to our Seafront Suite. The beach was only a few steps away. The plunge pool was absolutely delicious after a long day in the Belizean sun. 

The Lodge offered us several water sports and we opted for kayaking around the coast. We saw lots of beautiful (and loud) water birds in their natural environment and ample forested shoreline. 

For us, the highlight was Big Dock Bar, a wooden over-water construction serving fresh made Belizean delicacies and refreshing drinks. It was open until late in the evening, so we spent several nights star gazing in their over-water hammocks. It felt like we were in another world completely. 

Paddle House Restaurant at the Lodge also served up amazing local dishes with their own twist. The freshness of the food and the impeccable flavors made us drool.

Hopkins is a little over one hour drive to Placencia. Placencia is a slightly busier town for tourists further down the southern coast. We enjoyed walking down the beachside “Tipsy Strip” which has lots of beach bars, souvenir shops, and spas. We enjoyed some live music on the beach and had dinner close by. 

After spending a few days on the beach, we decided it was time to check out the Belizean interior. We drove a little over an hour and a half to Belmopan and stopped off at St. Herman’s Blue Hole National Park. We climbed down into St. Herman’s cave after walking a short way through the jungle. Pro tip – this is a great place to use your head lamps! There is also a beautiful blue sinkhole but we unfortunately arrived too late in the day to do this. 

In Belmopan, we stayed at Dream Valley Resort. To our surprise, we were greeted by guards with rifles upon entry to the resort. We were told that occasionally prisoners escape from a nearby prison via the river on the back of the property. We can’t confirm whether this is true or not, but it definitely made it difficult to sleep at night!

Dream Valley

The resort itself is beautiful, and is surrounded by lush green jungle. You wake up to the sounds of different bird calls, and eat delicious breakfast in the resort’s restaurant. Our room felt like we were immersed in a jungle treehouse. There was a luxurious light warm rain during most of our stay. Our room also had a jacuzzi tub overlooking the river which was quite beautiful. 

There are several Mayan ruins that are accessible from Belmopan. We opted to visit Xunantunich which probably remains my favorite Central American ruins spot. We had the entire grounds nearly to ourselves. Afterwards, we visited Caracol ruins, which were beautiful as well. We did not have time to visit the Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave in Belize. Apparently the trek requires some degree of physical strength according to some friends who have visited in the past. It was drizzling on and off during our visit to the ruins. We were glad we had packed our rain jackets!  

After visiting Belmopan, we drove back to Belize City to return our car before ferrying to San Pedro. We had the chance to visit a rum factory called Travellers Liquors and sampled some delicious varieties of local rum. Of note, larger tours visit here as well so it was quite busy and still an enjoyable time. 

San Pedro

Our next stop was San Pedro after taking a quick (and very windy!) ferry ride through several islands. We disembarked and headed over to our next hotel, Lina Point. This was our first time staying in an overwater bungalow and it did not disappoint! There was a window in the floor where we watched the fish swim by. My favorite was the cold tub and swing on the deck perfect for sunset watching. 

In San Pedro we rented a golf cart for the day and drove to ‘secret beach’. This is an area of a couple of beach bars and restaurants. We had an amazing time lounging around eating lots of ceviche and enjoying the warm weather. We were told that the island you can see from secret beach is owned by Leonardo di Caprio. But who knows if this is true! 

We also had the chance to do a snorkeling boat tour from San Pedro, which we highly recommend. We took the boat out to Ho Chan Marine Reserve and Shark Ray Alley. Here we saw hundreds of different types of fish including stingrays and MANY nurse sharks. This was our first time swimming with sharks. It was quite terrifying, though I’m told nurse sharks don’t typically eat humans! The humans on the boat ate a delicious fish curry which was much needed after lots of swimming and snorkeling. 

After the tour, we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around San Pedro. We sampled some delicious local chocolate and coffee. Then later we had dinner at Palapa Bar and Grill which was a fun time with lots of happy people! 

Unfortunately we didn’t get to visit Caye Caulker during this trip to Belize. I have heard there are many interesting beach bars on this Caye including the Lazy Lizard and Sip n Dip tube bar. Maybe next time! 

And that’s a wrap! Anybody else have fun memories of Belize?

Interested in visiting other Central American countries? Hint hint – check out Guatemala!