Belize- an ideal option for off the beaten track
When people ask me why Belize is worth visiting, my mind doesn’t go to the glossy travel brochure images of turquoise seas or Mayan temples rising out of the jungle (though both are there, in all their beauty). Instead, I think of the jaguar kitten we had while living in Belize.
My father worked as a forester in Belize hence why we were living there. A rock avalanche had killed the cub’s mother, and the villagers, gripped by fear and superstition, wanted nothing to do with it. In Belize, jaguars are powerful creatures in the cultural imagination, feared as much as they are revered. But my parents, who had a habit of taking in strays, didn’t hesitate. They brought the kitten into our home.
I still remember the weight of that tiny jaguar against me, the way its fur felt soft and warm, its eyes full of an ancient wildness that never quite softened even as it grew. That photograph of me with the cub, awkward and proud, remains one of my most treasured.
That’s what makes Belize worth a visit. It’s not just the landscapes, though they’re extraordinary, from the Pine Ridge forests where I grew up, to the Great Blue Hole, a natural wonder that draws divers from around the globe. It’s the way life here is entangled with the land. The jaguar in the jungle, the howler monkeys that echo through the canopy, the laughter of children leaping from waterfalls into cool pools. It’s the quiet knowledge that nature isn’t something you look at from a distance, but something you live alongside.
Belize offers travellers a rare thing: the chance to feel both small and deeply connected. Walk among ancient ruins with no one else in sight. Snorkel above reefs that are alive with colour. Hike forest trails where every rustle in the undergrowth feels like a secret waiting to reveal itself.
For me, Belize will always be a place of roots and stories, the wildness of a jaguar cub pressed against me, and the hum of a country that never really lets you forget the power of the natural world. For anyone who visits, I believe you’ll leave with your own story, one that will stay with you long after you’ve gone home.