DESTINATIONS LATIN AMERICA BELIZE
SAMPLE PRODUCT
Sail onboard the Belize Aggressor IV on Dive
Worldwide’s Belize Liveaboard trip around the Turneffe and Lighthouse Reef atolls. The 10-day trip starts at £3,345 including return flights, transfers, one night in a hotel, seven nights’ full-board and up to five dives a day. diveworldwide. com
National Geographic Journeys with
G Adventures has a 10-day Explore Belize trip from Belize City to Caye Caulker. The itinerary includes Garifuna drumming lessons and visits to social enterprise
projects such as the San Antonio Pottery Co-op. Prices start at £1,259, departing January 19, 2018, including nine nights’ hotel and guesthouse accommodation, breakfast and selected lunches. Flights are excluded.
gadventures.
co.uk
54
travelweekly.co.uk 9 November 2017
◗ SEE Neatly wedged between Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean Sea, don’t let its size fool you – there’s plenty here for a standalone holiday. Its Mayan experience is at the heart of it all, predominantly in the western Cayo District, home to the unassuming capital Belmopan, aka the ‘Garden City’ thanks to surrounding waterfalls, caves and rivers that are ideal for hiking, birdwatching and soft adventure. The tourist hub, though, is San
Ignacio, a small town of lively local bars and restaurants, and a good base for Caracol, Belize’s most impressive Mayan city; Cahal Pech, the oldest known site in the Belize River Valley; and the temples of Xunantunich, where a new tomb was discovered in 2016. Hanna Stables offer horse-riding tours here, including a quirky ferry crossing with horses in tow. Cayo District is home to the Actun
Loch Tunich cave, where a hike and abseil take you 300 feet down into Central America’s largest cave system. It’s also relatively easy to visit the
Don’t let Belize’s size fool you – there’s plenty here for a standalone holiday, with Mayan experiences at the heart of it all
magnificent Mayan complex of Tikal in Guatemala, a two-hour drive across the border.
In southern Belize, connected by
the scenic Hummingbird Highway, Placencia is becoming popular with its 16-mile-long beach and increasing number of hotels. There’s a quieter experience to be had in the local Garifuna communities of Dangriga and Hopkins fishing village, where you’ll find mountain, beach and reef. There’s also much to recommend
in the far south, in the oft-forgotten Toledo district. Punta Gorda (or PG) is a great base for exploring rural Belize and Mayan culture, and the
town itself is small, inviting and pretty, right by the sea, with lots of locally run restaurants and shops. Suggest Eladio’s Pop Farm where
farmer Eladio shows guests around his pioneering organic farm before serving up a feast, or the Living Mayan Experience, where the Cal family have recreated a traditional Mayan home, and the Chiacs family show off the intricacies of Mayan craftwork. For years though, Belize has been
known for its cayes, the tiny islands in the Caribbean Sea, a 10-minute flight or 20-minute boat ride from Belize City. Last year’s Hurricane Earl battered parts of the Belize coast, but it’s back to business as usual. Here it’s all about sunsets, diving and snorkelling. Companies such as Island Dream Tours offer snorkelling and sunset cruises, while Ramon’s Village Divers is a good bet for trips to the Belize Barrier Reef, Shark Ray Alley, Hol Chan, and the collapsed freshwater cave system of the Blue Hole, for rays, turtles and more. The most popular isle is Ambergris Caye whose main town, San Pedro,
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
