Belize's Northern Cayes: what to do in tropical paradise
Aussies are spoiled for nearby tropical island destinations, but for those who want something different, I am visiting Belize, a tiny Central American country just south of Mexico.
Belize sits right next to the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef — the world's second biggest, after Australia's Great Barrier Reef. And there are many islands (named 'cayes' at these latitudes, and largely made of ever-shifting bases of coral) peppering the cerulean Caribbean along Belize's eastern shore.
Ambergris Caye is Belize's biggest island — and its most popular. Even Madonna once sang about the seductive lure of its main town, San Pedro.
An hour by water taxi from Belize City, San Pedro is small and compact and has an airport, and tourists from the United States and Canada come here in droves looking for a slice of 'island paradise'.
Roads are packed with golf carts (the most common form of transport in Ambergris Caye) alongside rows of shops, hotels, cafes and bars. Sandy Toes in the Corona Del Mar hotel is a good American-style one, but a weird bar experience. On Thursdays from 6pm, the 'Chicken Drop' is one of the world's quirkiest bingo nights. Players bet on which number the chicken will poo on. The winner gets a cash price.
Ambergris Caye's real attractions are under its gin-clear waters.
Most tourists go to the island's western side, to Secret Beach. It's the opposite of 'secret', with a hedonistic string of driftwood cocktail bars spilling sunbeds and stools even into the sea. You can sit and have a beer and seafood on partially submerged tables and chairs fixed to the sea bed. On the beach's southern end, Blue Bayou is the most attractive bar, with an imposing palapa deck with a bar and waiters attending patrons even inside the water.
But you can't get to Ambergris Caye and not explore the Mesoamerican Reef at least once. The second-longest reef in the world after the Great Barrier Reef, it runs just a few kilometres off the eastern coast, and the best thing is that even those without a diving certification can enjoy a few great local marine sites by snorkelling. Mexico Rocks, declared a marine park in 2015, is only 15 minutes from San Pedro with a maximum depth of just 2.4m, and has plenty of stingrays and nurse sharks.
Six kilometres south of San Pedro, the Hol Chan Marine Reserve has dramatic canyons and ample sea life. Shark Ray Alley is a perennial favourite snorkelling spot known for its shallow waters populated by big southern stingrays and nurse sharks that come very close to swimmers.
The most offbeat part of the island is the north, where the Bacalar Chico National Park offers the chance to get on boat tours and view elusive wildlife.
An easier, cheaper northern option is a tour of Eco Museum Belize (ecomuseumbelize.org). Started in January 2025 by the local community in Ambergris Caye's Kate Subdivision, this outdoor museum in a coconut grove covers 2000 years of local island history. It has the artefact collection of the former San Pedro's House of Culture History Museum, which closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Informational panels and reconstructions illustrate the life of early Maya fishermen, their dwellings, cooking habits and religious symbols. The tours end with a coconut scraping demonstration. Cooking classes based on ancient Maya methods are available upon request.
Even further north along the coast, only 5km from the Mexican border, Rocky Point is part of the Hol Chan Marine Park and has a reef within walking distance of the shore. It's less visited because it takes two hours to get there on a bumpy golf cart ride from San Pedro. You can swim from the shore to the beautiful tropical beach and it's perfect for catch-and-release fly fishing.
'Go slow' and 'No shirt, no shoes, no problem' are just some of the slogans that apply to the two small islands of Caye Caulker. The water between them is called the Split, and it is said that Hurricane Hattie carved it in 1961. However, it's more probable that the locals finished the job to make a navigable boat channel between the two chunks of the island. Right by the Split, the Lazy Lizard Bar and Grill is the most popular spot to lounge and enjoy the island's best swimming, including a trampoline platform and other water games for children. Things wind down by sunset, which comes early around 6pm at these Caribbean latitudes.
Caye Caulker's southern island is the most developed, with hotels, a few backpacker hostels and dozens of bars and restaurants. Caye Caulker is considered 'the party island', but with a mellow vibe.
Two of the most interesting (and free) things to do besides diving on Caulker (and note that as San Pedro has most of the closest reef, dive operators usually go there) are going to the Tarpon Feeding Dock at Calle La Posa. Dozens of Atlantic tarpons (a fish that can grow to 2.4m long) gather and swim about, ostensibly waiting for a free feed. Just south on the beach outside Iguana Reef Inn (iguanareefinn.com) from 4pm to sunset, dozens of large stingrays arrive in the shallows and glide around, unfazed by humans, looking for food. I understand this is not the most ethical, as tourists feed the stingrays, but you'd hardly see such a spectacle elsewhere.
Small boats ferry passengers across the Split for $3.90. North of the Split, the upper chunk of Caye Caulker still has a few swathes of nature relatively untouched by the tourist boom. But remember that this is no secluded paradise: several resorts have already popped up and reclaimed most of the once unspoilt beachfront. The place where most people go for a nice stretch of beach these days is French-owned Bliss Beach Lounge and Beach Bar, where one can kick back with a cocktail or have a nice gourmet meal. There are direct shuttles ($155) from the Split, or you can cross bringing a bicycle on the ferry to get there faster.
Set on the sparse Lighthouse Reef, the Great Blue Hole symbolises Belize and is possibly the largest marine sinkhole on Earth. An aquamarine circle, it is roughly 300m wide and 125m deep. A scenic flight is probably the best way to see it. Maya Island Air (mayaislandair.com) and Tropic Air (tropicair.com) fly 11-seater planes from Belize City, Ambergris Caye or Caye Caulker for about $390. Divers can also attempt a deep dive into the hole, with a quick descent to about 30 to 40m.
Editor's note
Ambergris Caye is named for ambergris — a waxy substance produced in the digestive system of sperm whales. Pirates came to the island in the 1600s and found valuable ambergris washing ashore. It was highly prized in perfume production before the advent of modern synthetics. It was the main ingredient in oriental scents and in high demand for the parfumeries of Paris.
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