Day Trips from Belize City

Scale the Temple of the Masonry Altars at Altun Ha, the very spot where the jade head of Kinich Ahau surfaced, then let Maruba's lemongrass breezes and mineral mud masks scrub the limestone dust from your skin. Toucans clack overhead at sunrise. By late afternoon you're on horseback threading orchid-draped trails.

A 45-minute water-taxi from Belize City spits you onto a sand split where the sea slides from gin-clear to cobalt. Snorkel Hol Chan's cut and watch tarpon flash like silver coins, then feel nurse sharks bump your knees at Shark-Ray Alley. End with char-grilled lobster under palms that clatter in the trade wind.

A speedboat guns up the New River while spider monkeys shake water bombs from branches and crocodiles slip like logs into brown water. Lamanai's Mask Temple lifts straight out of the jungle. Copal incense still hangs where modern Maya leave bowls of offerings.

In January the lagoon shrinks into a giant bird table: hundreds of jabiru storks, the planet's biggest fliers, stalk through knee-deep water, wings clapping like rolled carpets. Villagers pour cashew wine that tastes of honey and burnt rubber. Woodsmoke drifts from thatch houses.

Twenty minutes out you're inner-tubing underground rivers, headlamp catching stalactites that drip like wax. Above ground, scarlet macaws scream over a pool trimmed with hibiscus. The kitchen ladle out coconut rice that clouds the midday air with steam.

A thumbprint of white sand barely 1 acre wide, circled by turquoise so bright it stings. Salt spray coats the 30-minute ride. You snorkel straight off the beach past brain coral where parrotfish crunch and sandpaper your knees. BBQ snapper arrives under a coconut palm rattling in the breeze.

Black howler monkeys boom like far-off thunder at daybreak. A village guide walks you beneath guanacaste limbs where a troop stares down with orange-ringed eyes. Babies cling like furry backpacks. Afterwards you grind cacao on a metate and sip spicy chocolate that lacquers your tongue.