94 Best Sights in Belize

Inside the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve, Thousand Foot Falls actually drops nearly 1,600 feet, making it the highest waterfall in Central America. A thin plume of spray plummets over the edge of a rock face into a seemingly bottomless gorge below. The catch is that the viewing area, where there is a shelter with some benches and a public restroom, is some distance from the falls. Many visitors find the narrow falls unimpressive from this vantage point. To climb closer requires a major commitment: a steep climb down and up the side of the mountain is several hours.

This museum, often just called the "rum museum," celebrates Belize's love affair with rum and its oldest distillery, Travellers. Although it's small, the museum is fascinating, with displays of old rum bottles and distillery equipment and the history of rum-making in Belize. You can also look through a window and see rum and other potables being made and bottled at the little factory behind the museum. Best of all, you can get samples of the various rums made by Travellers, including its best-selling 1 Barrel, along with samples of more exotic drinks such as cashew wine, Rompope (rum with eggnog) and Craboo Cream liqueur. Initial samplings are free, with a small charge for further tastings.

Besides thoughtful displays on the Cayo flora and fauna, Tropical Wings, a little nature center, raises about 20 species of butterfly including the blue morpho, owl, giant swallowtail, and monarch varieties. The facility, at The Trek Stop, also has a small restaurant and gift shop, along with cabins.

One of the most accessible Mayan sites in Belize, Xunantunich (pronounced shoo-nan-too-nitch) is located on a hilltop site above the Mopan River west of San Ignacio. You take a hand-pulled ferry across the river (it carries pedestrians and up to four vehicles) near the village of San José Succotz. The ferry is free, but tip the operator a Belizean dollar or two if you wish. Tour guides offer their services as you board the ferry, and although you do not need a guide to see the ruins, we recommend them so that you can get more information and history. After crossing the Mopan on the ferry, drive or hike about a mile to the visitor center and the ruins. Although settlement of Xunantunich occurred much earlier, the excavated structures here, in six plazas with about two-dozen buildings, date from AD 200 to 900. El Castillo, the massive 120-foot-high main pyramid and still the second-tallest structure in Belize after Caana at Caracol, was built on a leveled hilltop. The pyramid, which you can climb if you have the energy, has a spectacular 360-degree panorama of the Mopan River valley into Guatemala. On the eastern wall is a reproduction of one of the finest Mayan sculptures in Belize, a frieze decorated with jaguar heads, human faces, and abstract geometric patterns telling the story of the Moon's affair with Morning Light.