Top Choice Ruins in San José Succotz & Around
Xunantunich
Set on a leveled hilltop, Xunantunich (shoo-nahn-too-neech) is one of Belize's most easily accessible and impressive Maya archaeological sites. Getting here is half the fun with a free hand-cranked cable ferry takin…
Top Choice Archaeological Site in Caracol
Caracol
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 two- or three-hour drive from San Ignacio. Sitting high on th…
Top Choice Gardens in San Ignacio
Green Iguana Conservation Project
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 are past their most vulnerable age. The iguanas are then rel…
Cave in Southeast of San Ignacio
Barton Creek Cave
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 spell, flowing through the Barton Creek Cave. During the Classic …
Ruins in San Ignacio
Cahal Pech
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 1500 and 1000 BC. Less impressive than Xunantunich and Carac…
National Park in Hummingbird Highway
St Herman's-Blue Hole National Park
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 visitors center (where flashlights can be rented for BZ$3) is 11 mil…
Gardens in Southwest of San Ignacio
Belize Botanic Gardens
The magnificent Belize Botanic Gardens, accessed from the grounds of duPlooy's Jungle Lodge, hold samples of roughly one-quarter of the approximately 4000 species of plants in Belize. The bountiful 45-acre zone boas…
Cultural Center in Southeast of San Ignacio
García Sisters' Place
The García sisters display and sell a wide assortment of beautiful black-slate carvings. These five sisters developed this craft, which is now widely imitated around Belize. Their carvings, selling for between BZ$10…
Waterfall in Mountain Pine Ridge Area
Big Rock Falls
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 close and swim in the pools below. Take the road toward Gaïa R…
Ruins in Bullet Tree Falls
El Pilar
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 the late Classic Period (about AD 1000). Long before present-da…