The best places to swim: secret beach (west side), Tranquility Bay (12 miles north) or Ramon’s Village Resort.

Our favorite thing to do is rent a private boat for $500-800 for the day. You’ll get snorkeling, fishing (if you want), beach bbq and private place(s) to swim. Very memorable and fun.

I live in Belize inland. I don't go to the beaches for swimming. Sargassm, sea grass, sand flies....Taking a boat trip to the reef is great.

Well. Maybe.

There is a beach there with barriers to dampened the waves however the whole coast is subject to periods when they get floating seaweed. Like a lot of it. I was there 2 weeks ago and they had half a dozen people full time just removing seaweed.

As for other suggestions for good beaches, beyond the obvious at secret beach I’d be curious to hear myself.

Glovers Reef

I stayed at Huracan Dive Resort when I was there. It's a long boat trip out there, but it's super close to all the best dive sites. It was some of the best diving I've ever done.

If you have extra time, spend a few days in the jungle too in San Ignacio. We stayed at Table Rock Jungle Lodge, which was fabulous.

Belize is an amazing country.

I’ve been to Belize four times, that’s all you really need to do. I think. Lighthouse Atoll is the best one.

Isla Marisol.

10/10 recommend scuba school and family dive center. They were great with not just my kids but also my grouchy old man. We all had a great time and the dives are incredible!

https://preview.redd.it/kv0cuiou98lc1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=17bcb85eaacdacb1c80b8ecde08ec1cdef4bf134

Great time there last week. Took our golf cart over to the North side on the little ferry. Go have a beer or three with Mobster at the resort!

For more inspiration on Caye Caulker & Belize - my Travel Guide 

It's on my bucket list of places to travel too. Love the posts I see on this thread.

Ice and Beans still in business?

VIVA BELICE GUATEMALTECO

I have stayed at Umaya Resort in Maya Beach, which is in between the other suggestions of Hopkins and Placencia. The resort is gorgeous and affordable. But it was also a great central location that gave us access to both Hopkins and Placencia for fun day trips. The resort has great accommodations in itself, and the staff were super helpful getting us connected to locals for fishing charters, snorkeling, etc... We had a great time diving for conch and lobster, then the restaurant chef cooked us a divine meal with our catch. It was amazing. If you're in the area, grab a lobster pizza from Jaguar Lanes bowling alley.

We stayed at Ramones on San Pedro island for our beach part and it was excellent! Then to the Banks for hiking/cave adventures, equally amazing! Definitely try to hit both!

https://enterbelize.com/2024/02/26/itinerary-san-ignacio-hopkins-in-7-days/

Hopkins is the closest beach to the best adventures.

Check out Copal tree lodge. It’s in a remote area of Belize, but offers access to cayes for snorkel, it’s situated in the jungle on the Rio Grande river where you can river kayak, hike trails, enjoy farm tours, rum distillery tours, chocolate making and great service. I believe they offer a jungle beach combo package with one of their placencia beach locations for many more opportunities for water activities.

I liked taking the water taxi/ferry. Sit at the top part of it and take photos. I saw a dolphin on one trip.

Caye Caulker doesn’t have much of a beach, though there is Koko King which is the touristy part of Caye Caulker, though I wouldn’t really call the rest of it touristy.

If you end up at Caye Caulker or Ambergris Caye, make sure to take a snorkeling tour! I’ve has the second largest reef and one of the healthiest.

I haven’t been to Placencia, but the locals I talked to said that if you want a beach go there. If you want to go to Placencia, search r/Belize for transportation options. Some people reserve a shuttle or take the chicken bus instead of flying.

I just sailed Belieze for a month, Placencia!!!

This is a beautiful little town. The Jaguar conservation forest was a beautifil hike. The beaches are small, but there are Cayes really close.

I can give you a list of some that are really close to Placencia. I even know some people there that have boats and can take you around.

Caye Caulker is small and gives a more Caribbean island vibe. You can easily walk the island in an hour or two.

San Pedro is more of a city. It's spread out and the beaches are open, but tend to be colonized by the hotel/resort that is next to the section of beach. I tended to stay near the south part of the city which is more resorts, but did stuff in the city center area which is more built up.

Food and drink are available at either.

I wouldn't fly from Belize City to the islands. It's reasonably fast to take a boat and saves $$$. Plus you can meet people on the boat going to your island. The taxi from the airport to the ferry port is $25 and it didn't matter how many people are in the taxi, so make some friends and you are now all one group :) Just realize you have to sell it as one group and not let the taxi driver catch on else they'll try to charge you the $25 per group and put multiple groups in the same taxi.

I did Popeyes Beach Resort at Caye Caulker. Not a bad accommodation, but somewhat primitive outside the room. The room was very nice though. They did a basic free breakfast where you can meet other people there.

Pedro's Hotel in San Pedro. Location is out of the way, but a basic private room (with private bathroom) for cheap in a bunkhouse. Restraunt/bar on site and they have an agreement with a local resort for beach chair/umbrella access. Definitely would stay again if location wasn't an issue (a 20 min walk to downtown area where the night action is more located).

I hadn't been introduced to hosteling yet, but Belize is so cheap it didn't matter. I also was diving each day so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

PS: Thanks for the flashpacker term. I've always thought of myself as an upscale backpacker, but this fits much more closely to how I travel!

I went out to Glovers Atoll which is a private island. Note this was 10 years ago but it still seems to be there and operating similarly to what it was back then.

It's pretty cheap to go and stay, you have to stay a week because the boat only goes there and back once a week. You can take food or buy meals in the kitchen, or buy fresh fish which they catch, or we went and caught a lobster and cooked that up. I was on my own but had opportunity to socialise with the others staying on the island. I ended up having a 12 bed cabin to myself. Went diving, and when they go fishing they feed the guts to sting rays and sharks that swim right up to the docks to feed. It was pretty cool!

I've been to Ambergris twice and flew both times, once from BZE and once from the city airport. Definitely the best choice destination if food is your main criterion.

If you fly from Punta Gorda to San Pedro, you'll change at the city airport. But instead you could fly to the city airport, taxi ($5) to the water station, and take the water taxi.

Lots of choices.

From Punta Gorda to Placencia bus is your best bet.

I can’t wait to go back to my step pops house there . I alway have the best time . I miss the flap jacks

We’ve spent a lot of time looking out at False Caye but I’ve only seen it that calm twice. Lovely.

Rainy here today.

Placencia. On the tip of the peninsula, surrounded by water. Lovely community vibe. Boardwalk for a Main Street and tons of excellent food and drink choices.

Placencia over San Pedro. In town if you want more activity, Maya Beach if you prefer quiet. Check out the Placencia Resort https://theplacencia.com/home-page Or try

https://muyono.com/resorts/ (Full disclosure: I worked at Copal tree in southern Belize when it was operating under different name and ownership)

Hopkins. Great little village, walkable, nice beaches and places to stay, tons of excellent food.

Here's some of the things to do there:

https://enterbelize.com/2024/01/09/itinerary-a-week-in-hopkins-belize/

Caye Caulker or Placencia

I’m going to say don’t do San Pedro. We spent 9 days there and I really wish we’d gone elsewhere for part of it.

For Costa Maya, I highly recommend Maya Chan resort. It's not affiliated with the cruise lines, so you have to book through their website and walk out of the port yourself to meet the staff (they arrange transportation for you). The place holds 100 people max and every group gets their own private area.

It's open bar and they make tacos for lunch for you. I read reviews beforehand and everyone said how good the tacos were and I thought "they're tacos, how different could they be" but when I went a couple of weeks ago, I was blown away. Hands down the best tacos I ever had. They had handmade tortillas (corn and flour) and a variety of fillings.

I went with 7 people and Maya Chan was one of the highlights of the trip.

Same! We're going over Christmas week on NCL and will get Harvest Caye instead of Belize City. Years ago my wife and I went cave tubing in Belize and that was a lot of fun. We are travelling with two children under 10 and grandparents on this trip so not doing any super adventurous excursions.

This is our current penciled in excursion plan:

• Costa Maya - Dolphin encounter near dock
• Harvest Caye - ???
• Roatan - Rony's Tours Freestyle tour
• Cozumel - Paradise Beach

When it comes to Belize, do an excursion or stay on the ship.

Belize outside of the touristy area is super sketchy, lots of unsavory people waiting to take advantage of you or just straight up steal from you. You either want to do an excursion where you’re part of a group protected from that or don’t get off the ship because it’s so bad.

I did the pyramid tour in Belize and highly recommend it. Lots to see on the way. Two guides on the bus- one was a retired archaeologist and the other was a guide who described what it is like to live in Belize, the good and the not so good. At the pyramids there was a modest little market and open air restaurant. Bought some delicious fresh bananas, the BEST hot sauce on the planet (Smokin’ Marie’s) and shared a plate of local beans and coconut rice and plantains with my spouse.

I don’t have any food tips, but I would highly encourage you to do the Mayan temple excursion in Belize. It’s a bit of a bus ride, about 2 hours, but you get to see the countryside on the way there and back. The temple is amazing and unlike a lot of other temples you are allowed to climb the steps (at least you were pre-COVID). Book it ASAP as that excursion always fills up.

Hoping to return to this lovely beach again this winter.

Lots of nice snorkeling, conveniently including right at the entrance, by the bar.