Experience the best of Placencia

The Placencia peninsula runs roughly 25 km south from the mainland between the Caribbean Sea and a lagoon, and the village sits near its southern tip. A concrete footpath called the Sidewalk serves as its main street, lined with guesthouses, bars and dive shops. The beach of pale sand faces east, and offshore the Belize Barrier Reef shelters small islands known as cayes.

Boats run out to Laughing Bird Caye, a tiny national park ringed by reef, and to the Silk Cayes, where whale sharks gather off Gladden Spit in spring. Inland, the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary protects forest set aside for jaguars and has waterfall trails, and the Monkey River can be explored by boat for howler monkeys, iguanas and crocodiles. The Garifuna village of Hopkins lies up the coast.

Fresh snapper, conch and lobster are grilled or stewed in coconut milk, and rice and beans with stewed chicken is the everyday plate. Garifuna cooking adds hudut, fish in a coconut broth with mashed plantain, and habanero hot sauce sits on every table. The dry months, roughly February to May, are the easiest for the reef.