DESTINATIONS LATIN AMERICA BELIZE
Ignacio Resort Hotel a popular choice in San Ignacio town. Its seven hectares of tropical gardens are home to the Green Iguana Conservation Project, which is open to guests and non-guests. Out of town is the boutique luxury
Ka’ana Resort with hacienda-style suites and villas, organic garden and a top-notch rainforest restaurant. Gaïa Riverlodge is another
eco-property in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve southeast of San Ignacio, while down south in Punta Gorda, the intimate 16-room jungle lodge Belcampo has an organic farm, rum bar and spa in a 4,850-hectare nature reserve. In San Pedro, on Ambergris
Caye, Ramon’s Village Resort has a Polynesian theme that doesn’t feel entirely out of place despite the Caribbean setting. There’s a fun beach bar-restaurant, and while the former pier and dive shop were destroyed by Hurricane Earl, there’s a new 400-foot pier, dive shop and fleet of dive boats.
North of town on a quiet stretch
of white-sand beach is the all-villa Matachica, which features Central American-design fabrics, mosaic-tiled bathrooms and a Jade Spa offering treatments such as banana and papaya facials. Another upscale option is the Caribbean colonial-style Victoria House, south of San Pedro town, with an infinity pool, newly revamped spa, thatched ‘casitas’ and beachfront villas.
BELOW: Gaïa Riverlodge
◗ SELL Since November 2016, an American Airlines service has for the first time allowed UK travellers to reach Belize without overnighting in the US. Regional airline Tropic Air’s partnership with Thomas Cook offers same-day services between Europe and Belize via Cancun, and also connects Central American and Belizean towns. Belize spans the full range of price points – from backpacker basics to luxury stays – and can cater to more specialist markets such as the dive sector, adventure travellers or
voluntourism trips from the likes of Hands Up Holidays. The variety of Belizean dishes should also make a strong selling point. Try johnny cakes (breakfast biscuits) and fry-jacks (fried doughnuts), Creole-style rice and beans, fresh lobster (in season), and Garifuna dishes such as cassava and plantain. And you’ll be hard-pressed to find a table without a bottle of Marie Sharp’s hot sauce on it. Belize’s compactness is half the appeal, too. “It’s becoming increasingly popular,” says Intrepid Travel’s head of trade sales Andrew Turner. “It might be tiny, but it packs a punch: Mayan ruins shrouded by jungle, world-class diving, and a spicy fusion of Belizean, Creole and Mestizo culture. The fact that Belize is the only English-speaking country in Central America makes chatting to the laid-back locals much easier. “There’s a real opportunity for agents to introduce their clients to this little-known gem.”
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travelweekly.co.uk 9 November 2017
PICTURE: PETER MORNEAU
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