I wanted to share my guide for Placencia, Belize. This is a small fishing village that has started becoming more of a tourist destination and can be quite affordable!!

Getting here

Whitney and I flew from Dallas to Belize City Airport. From there you have the option of flying on a little hopper plane (30 min flight) to Placencia, or driving (about 3 hrs). We decided to drive because Whitney was a little unsure about the small plane, but next time I would fly!

It was about $160 USD per person to drive using a shuttle service. and I think the hopper flight is about $220 per person. You will have to book this flight separately form your flight to Belize City.

Currency

USD and BZD are both accepted. We only brought USD, but a lot of the times we would get c change back in BZD. They use the exchange rate of $1USD=$2BZD. So it’s pretty easy to calculate in your head when the menus are in BZD. I recommend bringing cash as not many places take card. Also, if you use the Belize Bank ATM, it will give you BZD, even though it tells you the fees in USD! I didn’t realize this and so Only got half of what I thought I was going to! (not sure if the other ATM’s are the same)

 

Where to Stay

We stayed at Laru Beya, which is about 10 minutes from Placencia. You can find my hotel review here. There are also a lot of resorts in and around Placencia. A couple of my faves that we visited were Naia, Belieze Ocean Club, and Turtle Inn.

Where to eat

We ate a lot at Quarterdeck, which was our Resort restaurant. They had really good food! But we also ate at Rumfish y Vino, which was super yummy (a little pricier than other places, but still not expensive). For drinks, we loved Barefoot Bar, and Tipsy Tuna. There isn’t much nightlife here, but Tipsy Tuna is the bar to be at for late-night festivities! Food and drinks are definitely reasonably priced in town! At some of the higher end hotels, prices are a little more expensive.

Make sure you have gelato at Tutti Fruitti! And the the Ferrero Roche kind!  Delicious and cheap!!

What to do:

Snorkeling

We snorkeled with Go Sea for a snorkeling trip to the Silk Cayes. It was amazing! The reef around Silk Caye was so colorful and we saw a ton of fish!! The tour lasted form 9am- 3pm and we had a BBQ lunch on the beach as well. After spending time on the island, we loaded dup the boat and they took us to another spot where we got to snorkel with turtles, sharks, and rays! It was amazing!! I definitely recommend snorkeling in Belize because the reefs are beautiful and very colorful with lots of corals and fish!

It was about $90/person and includes snorkel equipment, lunch, towels, and water.

Catamaran Tour

We went on a sunset Catamaran tour with Daytripper and it was such a relaxing but fun activity! If you are with a significant other, it is a romantic little sail. They provide unlimited alcohol and some snack for $75/ person!

Monkey River Cruise

This was a super cool experience! You get to boat through the Mangroves on your way to see the monkeys and its guaranteed you will see a lot of different wildlife! We saw many types of birds, iguanas, turtles, and even alligators! Once we arrived at the spot where the moneys are, we got off the boat and our tour guide walked us through the jungle in search of the monkeys. The monkeys are waaayyy up in the trees, but your guide will find them and point them out for you to see! Make sure you bring bug spray as there are a lot of mosquitoes!

We booked this through our hotel, but I believe it was about $75/ person and includes lunch and water

Spa Day

It was a little rainy one day, so Whitney and I decided to have a little spa day! We went to the Belize Ocean Club and had an amazing facial and massage!! The spa is also super cute and situated over the water.

Cave Tubing

We didn’t have time to do this, but it sounded like a fun adventure! Plan for a full day because it is about an hour and a half drive away! Find out more here

Mayan Ruins

We also didn’t have time to do this, but this is also a long tour day because the ruins are quite a ways away. If I ever come back, I will definitely be visiting the ruins! Find out more info on tours here

Beaches

The beaches here were ok. There was just quite a bit of seagrass in some areas, so it wasn’t that nice to walk along the waters edge. Some places were doing a better job of removing it than others, but I think it is a pretty common issue in Belize. If you travel to some of the Islands or Caye’s, they didn’t have ant seagrass!

Other Towns to Stay

Abergris Caye is also another very popular destination! I don’t know a lot about it, but I think it is more popular than Placencia!