Month: March 2024

Placencia, Best Beach Destination to visit in Belize 

With more than 400 offshore islands and 200 miles of Caribbean coastline, it can be difficult agreeing on which beach in Belize is the most beautiful.

Much of the country is pristine and untouched, brimming with wildlife and gorgeous flowering plants, so finding the ultimate beach destination in Belize isn’t easy. Add in the fact that the islands have their own inescapable charm, many of the beaches front gorgeous mangrove-lined lagoons, and stretches of white sand are common, making crowning one beach the best an extremely difficult task.

But after carefully reviewing all of its features, benefits, and location, the beaches that reign supreme in Belize are found on the Placencia Peninsula.

The Island You Can Walk To

In Belize, islands are known as “cayes” (pronounced “keys”), and Placencia is often called “The caye you can walk to.” Except for a narrow strip of land measuring just half a mile wide, the Placencia Peninsula is separated from the rest of the mainland in the southeastern part of the country.

Placencia was given its name by the Spaniards, who called this lovely 16-mile long strip of land “Punta Placencia” or “Pleasant Point,” an apt name. Less than a mile wide, the western edge of Placencia is a pristine, mangrove-lined lagoon teeming with fish, birds, and wildlife. On the eastern shore, Placencia fronts the beautiful Caribbean Sea.

Only around 1,500 people live full-time in Placencia, so the peninsula has retained much of its idyllic charm. Most locals are employed in traditional occupations of fishing or farming. There are two villages in Placencia, Seine Beight, a community primarily inhabited by the Garifuna people, and Placencia Village at the southern tip.

Placencia Village serves as the unofficial capital of the peninsula and is the holder of the Guinness Book of World Records title for the smallest main street on the planet, a 4,000 foot-long pedestrian-only sidewalk renowned for its lovely shops, boutique coffee houses, and colorful street murals.

Placencia Village also serves as the gateway to the Belize Barrier Reef.

Adventures Abound

Placencia is a great place to stroll along the beach or enjoy a swim, but it’s also famous for being the access point to the islands of the Belize Barrier Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with many protected national parks and marine reserves. The reef abounds with spectacular places to scuba dive, snorkel, fish, and sail.

Placencia’s beaches are formed of pure white sand and offer enough space that you can easily find a secluded spot to relax and unwind or simply admire the stunning views.

Chabil Mar

Chabil Mar is an award-winning resort located on the Caribbean coast of the Placencia Peninsula in southern Belize. Chabil Mar features elegantly appointed villas, a gourmet restaurant, a lush tropical garden, and a seafront pier ideal for enjoying meals under the stars.

The resort is conveniently located just a few miles from the Belize Barrier Reef and offer guests Belize vacation packages that include scuba diving and snorkeling on the reef. Chabil Mar also organizes diving and snorkeling tours during the springtime to see migrating whale sharks that visit Belize each year near Gladden Spit on the reef.

Visit our website chabilmarvillas.com for more information on Belize, and don’t hesitate to send us an email, or call US/CAN Toll Free: 1-866-417-2377, Local: (011-501) 523-3606, if you have questions or need help in planning a Belize vacation.

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The Maya Ruins of Caracol

Caracol is one of the most interesting and well-preserved ancient Maya sites in Belize. Previously known as Uxwitza (“Three Water Hill”) to the ancient Maya, the current name of the site was coined in 1938 when the local British head archeologist dubbed it Caracol (Spanish for “Snail Shell”) on account of the curving access road that leads to the site.

Far bigger than even Belize City, Caracol once housed up to 180,000 people at the height of the city’s power. Caracol dominated the ancient Maya geopolitical world, variously allying or fighting against other city-states, including Naranjo and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Tikal that is currently located just across the border in neighboring Guatemala.

The most famous building in Caracol is the Canaa (“Sky Palace). An enormous period that contains four palaces and three temples, Canaa is still the tallest building in the country at 141 feet (43 meters) high. Other important buildings and items discovered in Caracol include 24 religious altars, three large ball court, five big plazas, 24 carved stelae, reservoirs, causeways, and a very advanced astronomical observatory. A total of 35,000 lesser buildings have also been identified in Caracol along with more than 100 tombs.

Due to its enormous footprint (some 75 square miles), much of Caracol is still awaiting further excavation. A 2009 aerial survey was used to create a 3D map of how the city stands, including large sections of causeway and agricultural terraces that still lie buried in the jungle. The remote location of Caracol in the foothills of the Maya Mountains in southwest Belize also add to the difficulty of performing large-scale archeological work.

Caracol rose to the height of its power during the Maya classic period but the city seems to have been abandoned around the year 1050 for unknown reasons relating to the wide scale collapse of Maya civilization in the area. Once reclaimed by the jungle, the city was accidentally rediscovered in 1938 by a local logger named Rosa Mai who was in the area searching for mahogany trees.

Today, Caracol is located approximately 25 miles south of San Ignacio in the western Cayo District of Belize. The site of Caracol is within the Chiquibul Forest Reserve and is surrounded by both primary and secondary tropical rain forest. The abundance of carved stelae, altars, markers in ball courts, walls, and capstones have allowed archaeologists to accurately document the history of the city, including a monumental military victory of Tikal in the year 562 AD.

Chabil Mar in Placencia Belize & Caracol Mayan Ruins

Chabil Mar resort on the Placencia Peninsula is close to all of the most exciting mainland destinations in Belize. Guests of the resort can include a visit to Caracol Mayan Ruins as part of one of Chabil Mar’s fantastic Belize Reef & Jungle vacation packages.

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Visit our website chabilmarvillas.com for more information on Belize, and don’t hesitate to send us an email, or call US/CAN Toll Free: 1-866-417-2377, Local: (011-501) 523-3606, if you have questions or need help in planning a Belize vacation.

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The warm waters of the Caribbean Sea make Belize an ideal home for sharks. More than 350 different species of sharks can be found along the barrier reef, coral atolls, and mangrove estuaries, including the elusive hammerhead shark, black tip shark, bull shark, nurse shark, reef shark, lemon shark, nurse shark, and the enormous whale shark, the largest fish in the world’s oceans.

Southern Belize and the area of the reef near Placencia is an ideal place to see sharks. Underwater formations such as estuaries, the roots of mangrove forests, upwelling currents, fore reefs, and deep walls are all excellent places to have a safe and exciting encounter with sharks.

The hammerhead is rarely found in the oceans, but it’s not uncommon to see one when diving in Belize. Hammerhead sharks are very peculiar about the areas of the ocean that attract them, but the edge of the continental shelf of the Atlantic Ocean where it meets near Placencia attracts large schools of hammerheads. Named for their unique T-shaped head, hammerheads are peerless hunters, twisting their bodies to turn and chase prey. Hammerheads cruise the seafloor in search of crabs, lobster, octopus, and fish, using special sensors on its head to detect faint electrical signals.

Another interesting shark that inhabits the shallower areas of the reef near Placencia are lemon sharks. Named for their yellow skin that serves as excellent camouflage, lemon sharks like to park themselves on the sea floor while waiting for prey to cross their path.

But perhaps the most popular shark in Belize is the nurse shark. Once hunted nearly to extinction, nurse sharks are now a protected species in Belize. Generally docile towards humans, nurse sharks have a distinct mouth with two barbels on their upper lip.

Other kinds of sharks you may encounter in Belize include black tip sharks which often leap out of the water in pursuit of fish and reef sharks that gain their name from their penchant for hugging the shallow waters of the reef. Tiger sharks can be found in Belize, but these are far rarer.

Perhaps the most famous shark to visit the waters of Belize are whale sharks. Every spring, vast schools of migrating whale sharks visit the outer part of the reef, consuming enormous quantities of fish spawn and plankton.

Travelers interested in diving with sharks, including nurse sharks and whale sharks, can book their Belize snorkeling and diving vacation with Chabil Mar.

For more information about sharks in Belize, feel free to chat with our Concierge at: concierge@chabilmarvillas.com or contact our Reservations Manager at: reservations@chabilmarvillas.com. Or perhaps you would like to call toll free from the US or Canada: 1-866-417-2377.