Must-see attractions in Cayo District

Set on a leveled hilltop, Xunantunich (shoo-nahn-too-neech) is one of Belize's most easily accessible and impressive Maya archaeological sites. Getting…

Once one of the most powerful cities in the entire Maya world, Caracol now lies enshrouded by thick jungle near the Guatemalan border, a 52-mile, roughly…

On the lush Macal Valley grounds of the San Ignacio Resort Hotel, this excellent program collects and hatches iguana eggs, raising the reptiles until they…

Barton Creek rises high in the Mountain Pine Ridge and flows north to join the Belize River near Georgeville. Along the way it dips underground for a…

High atop a hill about a mile south of San Ignacio, Cahal Pech is the oldest-known Maya site in the Belize River valley, having been first settled between…

The 575-acre St Herman's Blue Hole National Park contains St Herman's Cave, one of the few caves in Belize that you can visit without a guide. The…

The magnificent Belize Botanic Gardens, accessed from the grounds of Sweet Songs Jungle Lodge, hold samples of roughly one-quarter of the approximately…

The García sisters display and sell a wide assortment of beautiful black-slate carvings. These five sisters developed this craft, which is now widely…

The small but powerful Big Rock Falls on Privassion Creek are, for many, more impressive than the Thousand Foot Falls – not least because you can get up…

Remote El Pilar, about 7 miles north of Bullet Tree Falls, was occupied for at least 15 centuries, from the middle Preclassic Period (around 500 BC) to…

Created and managed by the Ruiz family, this highly unexpected avant-garde sculpture park is one of the hidden artistic gems of Western Belize. Set in 60…

William Morales' dog was busy chasing down a gibnut (small, brown-spotted rodent) on his lush property one day in 1989, when the dog seemingly disappeared…

Belize's smallest national park was declared in 1990 and is named for the giant guanacaste tree on its southwestern edge. The tree survived the axes of…

Set along the banks of the Macal River, beautiful Chaa Creek is a 365-acre nature reserve offering extensive facilities to lodge guests and nonguests…

Many refer to Sa'c Tunich as 'the living Maya site' because at first glance it looks like an excavated ruin. However, Sa'c Tunich is actually the museum…

Ten miles off Chiquibul Rd, the Thousand Foot Falls are reckoned to be the highest in Central America, a ribbon of water cascading down a mountainside…

Just off Chiquibul Rd, 2.5 miles north of Douglas D'Silva (Augustine), Río On Pools is a series of small waterfalls connecting pools that the river has…

Hike up the tree-covered hillside above the Macal River to reach the Chaa Creek Natural History Center & Butterfly Farm, a small nature center with…

In the heart of the highland area southeast of San Ignacio, 200 sq miles of submontane pine forest forms the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve. The…

On the southeast corner of Centennial Park, Benque Viejo House of Culture hosts regular traveling exhibits of art and music and provides a space for local…