14 Days in Belize: Itinerary for the Cayes, Cayo, Hopkins and Placencia

Halfway through the trip, in a Garifuna village on the Hopkins shoreline, the drums start after dark and a few people drift out from the guesthouses to listen, while the smell of fried fish and coconut rice comes off the grills nearby. You have already woken to the sea on a small island and walked into the rainforest, and the coast is still ahead. This route runs from the cayes in the north to the jungle in the west and then down the southern coast, and it ends at the Placencia peninsula.

Is 14 Days enough for Belize?

Yes, two weeks is enough to see the three sides of Belize that people travel for: the reef and its islands, the Maya country of the Cayo District, and the Garifuna and fishing villages of the south. It suits travelers who like to change scenery every few days and who accept that a country this small still rewards slow stops. Belize is compact, but the route below keeps each stage long enough to unpack, wander and eat well.

The reef is the reason most people come. The Belize Barrier Reef is a World Heritage Site and the longest in the western hemisphere, and the route puts you on two of its islands, Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye, before turning inland. You spend the first days with sandy streets, boats and sea air, so the jungle days that follow feel like a real change of scene and not a repeat.

Inland, the Cayo District brings you to San Ignacio on the banks of the Macal River, with the Maya sites of Xunantunich and Cahal Pech close at hand. Xunantunich sits on a ridge above the Mopan River, so near the Guatemala border that the country line is part of the view. Cahal Pech has evidence of habitation going back to 1200 BCE, which makes it one of the oldest recognizably Maya sites in western Belize.

The south closes the loop. Hopkins and Dangriga are Garifuna communities with their own language, drumming and cooking, Cockscomb Basin is recognized as the world’s first jaguar preserve, and Placencia is a beach village at the tip of a long peninsula. Each of these places could fill a trip by itself, so the route chooses a few things in each rather than everything.

Two weeks leaves things out. The offshore atolls (Turneffe, Lighthouse Reef, Glover’s Reef), the Great Blue Hole, the far north around Corozal and Sarteneja, and the deep south around Punta Gorda all fit a second visit better than a rushed first one. If the Great Blue Hole is the point of your trip, think of it as an addition to this plan, not something to squeeze between stages.

The itinerary stage by stage

Days 1 to 2: Belize City and Caye Caulker

You land at Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport in Ladyville, the only international airport in the country, with the center of Belize City about a 30-minute drive away. The city sits at the mouth of Haulover Creek on the Caribbean coast. It was the capital until Hurricane Hattie in 1961 pushed the government inland to Belmopan, and that history still shapes the place, which is a working port and a starting point more than a resort.

From here the cayes begin. The boat to Caye Caulker takes about 45 minutes, and the island rewards an unhurried first evening. Sand streets, bicycles and golf carts, painted wooden houses and open-air kitchens set the tone. The Split, a channel cut through the island by Hurricane Hattie in 1961, is where people gather at the end of the day with a drink and watch the light fade over the water.

Sleep in a small guesthouse or cabana near the main street, where you can walk to dinner. Look for grilled lobster or fish with rice and beans, and fry jacks (puffy fried dough) at breakfast. The reef lies about a mile east of the island, and the Caye Caulker Marine Reserve, established in 1998, protects the waters around the village.

Days 3 to 5: San Pedro and Ambergris Caye

The boat from Caye Caulker to San Pedro takes about 30 minutes, so the move needs little planning. San Pedro is the town at the southern end of Ambergris Caye, the largest of the several hundred cayes in the northern waters of Belize. The island runs about 25 miles north to south and only about a mile wide, so the sea is always close, whether you are in a town café or looking at the water from a dock.

Hol Chan Marine Reserve, a protected stretch of coral reef, seagrass beds and mangrove close to both Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, is the outing that shapes these days. Boat trips to the reserve and the reef beyond it give you a way to see what the World Heritage listing is about. Keep the other days for walking San Pedro, browsing the shops along the waterfront and sitting down to ceviche, conch fritters or a plate of fish with a view of the lagoon.

Stay in a beachfront hotel or a small inn just outside the center, where the island turns quieter after dark. The day you leave, the connection to the mainland comes by air, with Maya Island Air and Tropic Air serving the island, or by sea. San Pedro Belize Express runs a boat service from Belize City, and its terminals take major credit cards for walk-in purchases.

Days 6 to 8: San Ignacio and the Cayo District

The change of scene is the point. San Ignacio, in the west of the country on the Macal River, is the capital of the Cayo District, and together with Santa Elena it forms a pair of towns with a population of just over 21,000. After the islands you step into river valleys, green hills and a town with a Saturday market, shops selling crafts and café terraces that fill with travelers and locals alike.

Two Maya sites anchor the stay. Cahal Pech stands near San Ignacio itself, a set of plazas and stone buildings above the town. Xunantunich lies farther west above the Mopan River, and its position beside the Guatemala border gives the visit a sense of how connected this region has always been. The Maya built across a landscape that now stretches over several countries, and the ridge makes that obvious.

Sleep in a lodge outside town or a guesthouse in San Ignacio. The distance from Belize City is about 63 miles, and the move from the coast is by air, by sea or by road in stages, since there is no single link to rely on. Evenings here mean grilled chicken, stew beans, fresh juice and a quiet night with insects and birds as the soundtrack.

Days 9 to 10: Hopkins, Dangriga and Cockscomb

From the hills you drop to the southern coast. Hopkins is a village where about 70 percent of the people were Garifuna at the last census recorded, and you notice it in the drumming, the language and the food. Dangriga, the capital of the Stann Creek District, is a Garifuna town at the mouth of the North Stann Creek River, and it is also where Maya Island Air and Tropic Air operate several flights a day to Belize City, Placencia and Punta Gorda.

Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary lies off the Southern Highway about 20 miles south of Dangriga. It was designated a wildlife sanctuary in 1984 and is known as the world’s first jaguar preserve. You may see birds, butterflies and tracks along the trails, and with luck other wildlife, but jaguars are secretive and a sighting is a chance and never a promise.

Sleep in Hopkins, in a beachside cabana or small lodge. In the evening, look for hudut, the Garifuna stew of fish in coconut broth served with mashed plantain, and if a drumming session is on, go and listen.

Days 11 to 14: Placencia and the flight home

Placencia is a tourist village of about 1,600 people at the southern tip of its peninsula, and its Sidewalk, a concrete pedestrian path that runs most of the length of the village and ends at the shore, serves as the main street, lined with restaurants, shops and guesthouses. Maya Island Air flies between the international airport and Placencia, and Dangriga has flights to Placencia too.

Seine Bight, a Garifuna village north of Placencia on the same peninsula, deserves an afternoon for its community and its beach. Offshore, Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve lies about 22 miles off the coast and covers roughly 26,000 acres of sea, reefs and small cayes. Boat trips to the reserve are the outing that defines the southern coast, and the last days are for them, for beach time and for long dinners on the Sidewalk.

On the final day you fly back to the international airport at Ladyville for your flight home. American Airlines connects Belize with Charlotte, Dallas, Miami and Los Angeles, and Alaska Airlines flies to Seattle and Los Angeles, so choose your return flight before you plan the day so the last morning has no loose ends.

Getting between stops

The cayes are the part of the route with clear options. Maya Island Air connects the international airport with Caye Caulker, San Pedro, Dangriga (for Hopkins), Placencia, Punta Gorda, Corozal, Savannah and Kanantik.

The legs inland and along the coast are not given a schedule here. Between San Pedro and San Ignacio, between San Ignacio and Hopkins, and between Hopkins and Placencia, you travel by air, by sea or by road, depending on the leg, and what you choose depends on what is running. Treat these moves as the working part of each stage and plan the day around them.

For the southern coast, the airstrip at Dangriga is served by Maya Island Air and Tropic Air several times a day, with flights to Belize City, Placencia and Punta Gorda. For flights from the United States, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines are the airlines listed for the international airport, and Tropic Air also flies from it to San Salvador, San Pedro Sula, Roatán and Cancún.

What to book before your 14 Days in Belize

Start with the long flights. American Airlines and Alaska Airlines both serve the international airport, and the domestic airlines, Maya Island Air and Tropic Air, connect the cayes and the southern coast. Then settle the boat service between Belize City and the cayes, where San Pedro Belize Express takes major credit cards at its terminals.

The rest of the trip can stay loose. The stages are far enough apart to make a firm plan useful, and near enough to adjust as you go.

Adapting the route

The seasons change the feel of the trip more than its shape. Belize has a rainy season from June to November and a dry season from January to May. In Belize City, January highs average 83.2°F, while July highs reach 89.3°F, and rain falls on about ten days of an average January and about twelve of a July. The same route works in both seasons, but the days feel different.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, which means the rainy months sit inside it. Belize knows what a storm can do. Hattie in 1961 reached Category 5 and damaged over 70 percent of the buildings in Belize City. If you travel in the season, keep the island days flexible and choose flights and boats you can adjust.

With fewer days, cut the south. A trip built on Caye Caulker, San Pedro and San Ignacio keeps the three experiences that define the country and drops the longest transfers. With more time, add the north, where Corozal Town sits on the Caribbean Sea about 9 miles from the Mexican border and Sarteneja is a fishing village at the mouth of the Bay of Chetumal.

For a slower trip, stay longer in three places and skip the rest. Spend a week on the cayes and in Cayo, or give Placencia and Hopkins the second week and leave San Ignacio for another trip. For families, the route works best with fewer moves, so give each child a base with a beach or a river and let the outings come from there.

Good to know before you go

The U.S. State Department rates Belize Level 2, “Exercise increased caution”, because of crime, and says the south side of Belize City has historically had the highest concentration of violent crime.

Carry a bank card for walk-in purchases at the water taxi terminals, since San Pedro Belize Express accepts Visa, Mastercard and Discover there. The Atlantic hurricane season runs through November 30, so a trip in October or November falls inside it, and the rainy season runs through November too. Keep your plans flexible in those months and let the stages move around the weather.

Sources

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• Plan de the (duree choisie by the redaction)
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To plan your stay

• Best Time to Visit Belize: Weather by Month, Seasons, Crowds and Festivals
• Where to Stay in Belize: Cayes, Placencia, Hopkins and the Cayo Jungle
• Getting Around Belize: Water Taxis, Small Planes, Airport Transfers and Roads
• Know Before You Go to Belize: Entry Rules, Airport Fees, Money and Health