Planning a trip to Belize and trying to decide which destinations to include on your itinerary? Tough choice, I know! There are so many beautiful places in Belize to choose from.
Unless you’ve got months (wouldn’t that be nice?!), you’re going to need to narrow down to just a couple of destinations. In this post, we’ll give you a rundown of the top 10 places to visit in Belize, to help you choose which are right for you.
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Destinations in Belize
Belize might be one of the smallest countries in Central America, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in tropical Caribbean islands, thriving reefs, pristine rainforest and palm-lined coastline.
There are so many wonderful places to visit in Belize, it can be hard to know where to start when planning your trip.
There really is something for everyone, with different destinations offering a different vibe, and appealing to different types of travellers.
I don’t think you could choose a bad destination, as everywhere in Belize is beautiful and unique. But to help you decide which places suit you best, and will earn a few days on your Belize itinerary, I’ll share a little taste of the top 10 places to visit in Belize.
Note: this list will focus on destinations to base yourself in for a few nights, rather than specific attractions to see. Check out our post on the 10 best experiences to have in Belize for this.
It’s unlikely you will have time to hit all these Belize destinations (you would need at least a month in the country to comfortably see them all!), but we hope this list helps you to narrow down which places are a good fit for you.
They’re in no particular order, as I could never decide!
- Caye Caulker 🦈
- Ambergris Caye 🍹
- Tobacco Caye 🏝️
- Lighthouse Reef 🤿
- Hopkins 🥁
- Placencia 🌞
- Hummingbird Highway 🌿
- San Ignacio 🚣🏽
- Orange Walk 🐒
- Belize City 🌇
Top 10 places to visit in Belize
🇧🇿 Planning a trip to Belize? Check out our complete Belize Travel Guide for everything you need to know! From the best time to visit, getting there and around, typical costs and handy info on visas, currency and phones.
1. Caye Caulker
🌴 For a laidback, Caribbean paradise
Caye Caulker is the second most visited island in Belize, but it’s number one on our list of the best places to visit in Belize! Smaller, less developed and more laidback than neighbouring Ambergris Caye, Caye Caulker attracts more of a low-key ‘traveller’ crowd.
The island’s motto is ‘go slow’, and you can’t help but chill out and relax under swaying palm trees and turquoise Caribbean waters. There are no cars on the island, just bicycles and golf carts, with no huge resorts or mass tourism. It has retained a local vibe, which is what makes so many travellers fall in love with Caye Caulker – ourselves included!
The local restaurants are delicious (I’m still dreaming about the seafood curries and jerk chicken!) and there is a great range of accommodations on Caye Caulker for all budgets.
If you can drag yourself out of a hammock, the best things to do in Caye Caulker revolve around the sparkling Caribbean Sea and the Belize Barrier Reef. We loved snorkelling in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, taking a scenic flight over the Great Blue Hole and jumping from the rickety wooden platform at The Split.
BEST PLACES TO STAY IN CAYE CAULKER
💰 Sophie’s Guest Rooms
💰💰 Colinda Cabanas
💰💰💰 Weezie’s Ocean Front Hotel and Garden Cottages
🏖️ Read our Caye Caulker travel guide here
2. Ambergris Caye
🍹 For the buzz, nightlife and activities
Ambergris Caye is Belize’s premiere tourist destination. It is often referred to interchangeably as San Pedro, which is the name of the only town on this large island.
Ambergris Caye is more developed than neighbouring Caye Caulker, attracting a different kind of visitor. Many locals describe the island as ‘Americanised’ with plenty of fancy resorts, raucous nightlife and kind of tacky tourist attractions.
But this little island is hardly Cancun, and there is no denying the natural beauty of Ambergris Caye! Like Caye Caulker, the best things to do on the island revolve around the ocean, and you can do many of the same activities from Ambergris Caye, like snorkelling, flying over the Blue Hole or sailing tours.
If you like your holiday destinations with plenty of buzz, nightlife, fine dining and nice accommodation, Ambergris Caye is for you.
BEST PLACES TO STAY IN AMBERGRIS CAYE
💰 Sandbar Beachfront Hostel
💰💰 PUR Boutique Cabanas
💰💰💰 Matachica Beach Resort & Spa
CHOOSE ONE 👆🏼
Because Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker offer a similar range of activities and similar landscapes, we would recommend choosing one island to visit. That’s not to say both aren’t great, but by opting for one, you can include some different styles of destinations in your itinerary.
The vibe of each island is very different, with Ambergris Caye being the busier, more developed option, and Caye Caulker has a more laidback, backpacker vibe. Choose which sounds more like you, and head for that caye!
3. Tobacco Caye
🏝️ For a Castaway-style tropical island getaway
For a deserted island experience, Tobacco Caye is one of the most unique places to visit in Belize and was our favourite off-the-beaten-track experience.
Belize is home to hundreds of islands or cayes, as they are locally known. Some are completely uninhabited while others house ultra-luxury resorts. But Tobacco Caye is the perfect blend, giving you all the Castaway vibes, with enough amenities to be comfortable.
At just 120 m (400 ft) long and 60 m (200 ft) wide, the island can be explored in a matter of minutes! It’s located right next to the Belize Barrier Reef, with great snorkelling just a short swim away. There are a handful of basic accommodation options, the most iconic being the colourful overwater cabañas at Tobacco Caye Paradise.
There are no restaurants, and all the accommodations offer mandatory meal plans to their guests. We spent our days snorkelling the reef, kayaking and paddle boarding around the island and simply swinging in a hammock reading a book. Paradise!
BEST PLACES TO STAY IN TOBACCO CAYE
💰💰 Tobacco Caye Paradise
💰💰 Reefs End Lodge
💰💰 Windward Lodge
💰💰 Jo Joe’s By The Reef
🏝️ Read our Tobacco Caye travel guide here
4. Lighthouse Reef
🤿 For an unforgettable scuba diving experience
Home to the iconic Great Blue Hole, Lighthouse Reef is undeniably one of the most beautiful places in Belize. One of just three atolls in the country, Lighthouse Reef is home to a handful of small cayes, the most well-known being Half Moon Caye and Long Caye.
Visited primarily on scuba diving day trips from Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye, for a truly unique experience in Belize, plan to stay a couple of days on this deserted atoll. It will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience you won’t forget easily – although it will come with a high price tag!
It’s not as easy as jumping online and booking a hotel, but it is totally possible to stay on Lighthouse Reef. On Long Caye, there are two dive resorts, Itza Resort and Huracan Diving Lodge, that offer all-inclusive packages including accommodation, transport, meals and diving. On Half Moon Caye, Island Expeditions has a small base camp with safari-style tents.
Our Belize trip budget didn’t stretch this far, but we flew over the top of Half Moon Caye and it looked like a deserted tropical paradise in the middle of the ocean! Future Belize plans.
5. Hopkins
🪘 For Garifuna culture in a low key beach village
The small coastal village of Hopkins is the heart of the Garifuna culture in Belize. In a country home to a diverse range of cultures and ethnicities, the Garifuna people are one of the most vibrant and unique.
Hopkins is a great place to immerse yourself in the culture, through drumming lessons, cooking classes, dance parties and local cuisine. The village is set on a long sandy beach, with a handful of high-end resorts and a range of budget-friendly accommodations.
The cayes don’t actually have that many proper beaches, so wandering along a sandy coastline is a luxury in Hopkins. It’s still within easy striking distance of the reef, and you should definitely spend a day snorkelling.
The other great thing about basing yourself in Hopkins is the easy access to inland adventures like the Mayflower Bocawina National Park, with hidden waterfalls, thrilling ziplines and miles of jungle trails. You can also visit the Cockscomb Basin Forest Reserve, which is considered the best place in Belize to see jaguars in the wild.
BEST PLACES TO STAY IN HOPKINS
💰 The Funky Dodo Backpackers Hostel
💰💰 Buttonwood Belize
💰💰💰 The Lodge at Jaguar Reef
6. Placencia
🏖️ For fancy resorts and postcard beaches
If you’re looking for beautiful beaches and nice resorts, Placencia is up there as one of the most beautiful places in Belize. While technically Placenia is on the mainland, it feels like an island as the town is stretched along a long, thin peninsula with the ocean on one side and a lagoon on the other. It’s just 30 km (19 mi) long and less than 1 km (0.5 mi) wide.
The peninsula is lined with luxury resorts and ends with the small settlement of Placencia town, home to more accommodations, great restaurants and beach bars, and plenty of tour operators.
In addition to lazing by the pool or on a postcard-perfect beach, Placencia has easy access to the southern section of the Belize Barrier Reef. Taking a day tour out to the reef to snorkel, dive or simply relax on a remote caye is one of the many great things to do in Placencia.
BEST PLACES TO STAY IN PLACENCIA
💰 The Royal Rat Hostel
💰💰 Mariposa Beach Resort
💰💰💰 The Ellysian Boutique Hotel
CHOOSE ONE 👆🏼
Hopkins and Placencia are both coastal, beach towns situated within an hour of one another. Although both have very unique personalities, they offer a similar experience in terms of landscape and activities. Both have easy access to the Belize Barrier Reef, and you can venture inland to the rainforest from both destinations.
Choosing just one of these destinations allows you to save time in your Belize itinerary for more island and jungle destinations. If you’re looking to ‘flop and drop’ and want a typical beach resort holiday, Placencia is a better choice. But if you’re looking for a beach town with more of a local feel and affordable price, Hopkins is a great choice, with rich Garifuna culture to immerse yourself in.
7. Hummingbird Highway
🌿 For an epic rainforest clad road trip
More than just a highway, we think the lush rainforest-clad region surrounding this scenic drive is one of the most underrated destinations in Belize.
The Hummingbird Highway stretches 86 km (53 mi) from Belmopan in the north to Dangriga in the south. It is the only highway in the country that winds through a mountain range, the Maya Mountains, and the scenery is breathtaking!
This stretch of road is home to some of Belize’s most beautiful national parks, like the iconic St. Herman’s Blue Hole National Park and the Billy Barquedier National Park. We enjoyed jungle swimming holes, waterfalls, rainforest hiking trails and caves, all to ourselves without the crowds.
The highway hosts a range of great local restaurants, and plenty of fresh produce, being one of Belize’s most prominent agricultural areas. You’ll also find some fantastic accommodation options designed in harmony with the jungle. We lived out our jungle treehouse fantasy here!
BEST PLACES TO STAY IN HUMMINGBIRD HIGHWAY
💰 Toucan Ridge Ecology and Education Society (T.R.E.E.S)
💰💰 Pineapple Hill
💰💰💰 Sleeping Giant Rainforest Lodge
🌿 Read our Hummingbird Highway travel guide here
8. San Ignacio
🦎 For jungle adventures and Mayan ruins
If you’re looking for jungle adventures in Belize, San Ignacio is your place! The capital of the Cayo District, San Ignacio is the unofficial adventure hub of Belize. Situated in the west of the country, close to the Guatemalan border, San Ignacio is the perfect base to explore Belize’s jungle-covered inland.
There are countless outdoor adventures and things to do in San Ignacio. We loved venturing deep inside the sacred ATM Cave, visiting waterfalls, pools and caves in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve, going tubing through a cave system, and seeing spectacular ancient Mayan cities. There is an activity for everyone here.
The town itself has a buzzing local vibe and all the amenities a traveller could need. There are comfortable accommodations for all budgets in town, but for a unique experience, you can stay in one of the many jungle lodges spread across the region. Compare the pros and cons of each option in our San Ignacio accommodation guide. There is fantastic and affordable Belizean and international cuisine and plenty of sights to explore within the town of San Ignacio.
BEST PLACES TO STAY IN SAN IGNACIO
💰 The Old House Hostel
💰💰 Maya Mountain Lodge
💰💰💰 Ka’ana Resort & Spa
🦎 Read our San Ignacio travel guide here
9. Orange Walk
🐒 For Maya culture and wildlife
Orange Walk is located in northern Belize, not too far from the border with Mexico. The demographics of this area are unique and different from the rest of the country, with predominantly Maya and Mestizo (of Maya and Spanish descent) ethnicities.
You’ll hear a lot more Spanish being spoken, and can sample some seriously tasty tacos, with Maya specialities like cochinita pibil that are more commonly found across the border in Mexico.
Orange Walk is the gateway to the great Maya city of Lamanai. Reached by a cruise down the New River, where you should keep your eyes peeled for crocodiles lurking under the surface or monkeys swinging along the banks.
If you’re a wildlife lover, the Rio Bravo Conservation Area is the best place in the country for bird-watching. Immerse yourself deep in the jungle with a stay at an eco-lodge, like Chan Chich Lodge or Lamanai Outpost Lodge.
BEST PLACES TO STAY IN ORANGE WALK
💰 Casa Ricky’s
💰💰 Becks Bed & Breakfast
💰💰💰 Lamanai Hotel & Marina
10. Belize City
🏩 For a comfortable home base
There’s no sugarcoating the fact that Belize City isn’t usually considered one of the best places to visit in Belize. But, as home to the country’s only international airport, most visitors to Belize will transit here at some point throughout their trip, including ourselves.
You might be able to jump on a domestic flight or hop on a ferry straight out of the city. But if you’ve got a night or two to spare, there are some good quality accommodations and nice restaurants.
Plus, the city is a great base for exploring some of the country’s best natural and cultural attractions.
There are a number of fantastic wildlife attractions within an easy day trip, such as the ethically run Belize Zoo, the Community Baboon Sanctuary and the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. Don’t forget to check out Altun Ha, the Mayan ruins that inspired the Belikin beer logo, and you can even take a day trip to Goff’s Caye, a tiny tropical island with fantastic snorkelling.
BEST PLACES TO STAY IN BELIZE CITY
💰 Belize Maya Cabana
💰💰 Fort George Hotel and Spa
💰💰💰 The Palms
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Most beautiful places in Belize: Final thoughts
Belize is a beautiful and diverse country, offering the perfect combo of ocean and reef, and lush, pristine rainforest. We fell in love with it, and it was one of our favourite stops on our 6-month trip to Central America.
There are so many beautiful places in Belize I know how hard it is to choose just a couple! We hope this list helps you plan your Belize trip, and narrow down which destinations are right for you.
Tell me, which of these places to visit in Belize are you adding to your itinerary?
MORE BELIZE POSTS
- Planning a Trip to Belize: Ultimate Belize Travel Guide
- 2 Week Belize Itinerary: Best of the Reef and Rainforest
- Our Belize Trip Cost: Is Belize Expensive?
- 10 Top Things to do in Belize: Your Belize Bucket List
