Things to Do in Belize City in March

Caves Branch sits about 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Belize City, where the Sibun River's tributaries have carved a network of limestone caverns that the ancient Maya considered entrances to Xibalba, the underworld. In March, the river runs low and gentle. Chest-deep at most, often shallower. Your inner tube drifts through cathedral-sized chambers where the only light is your headlamp picking out crystalline stalactites and the odd sleeping bat overhead. The water temperature hovers around 24°C (75°F). Cool enough to feel restorative after the heat of the jungle trail that leads to the launch point, a muddy 45-minute walk through cohune palm forest where howler monkeys bark from the canopy and the air smells like wet limestone and rotting guava. March's low water also means fewer rapids. The float is calm enough for nervous swimmers. The experience typically runs five to six hours door-to-door from Belize City, including transport. Most operators depart early morning. The 7 AM pickups get you inside the caves before the cruise-ship groups arrive around 10. Worth the alarm clock.

Altun Ha is the ruin site that put Belize on the archaeological map. The jade head of the sun god Kinich Ahau found here in 1968 is now the image on every bottle of Belikin beer. You have likely already seen it without knowing it. The site sits 50 km (31 miles) north of Belize City through flat coastal scrubland. March is arguably the ideal month to walk it. Dry underfoot. Warm but not the scorching heat of April and May. The surrounding bush still green enough from the tail end of the wet season to feel alive rather than dusty. The two main plazas, Temple of the Masonry Altars (Structure B-4) and the Temple of the Green Tomb, are compact enough to explore thoroughly in two to three hours without feeling rushed. What the guidebooks tend to skip is the birding. Keel-billed toucans, Belize's national bird, are conspicuously active around the site in the early morning. The oscillated turkeys that wander between the stelae are absurdly unbothered by humans. The stones radiate stored heat well into the afternoon. Arrive early. The smell of the place is distinctive: warm cut grass, sun-baked limestone, and the faint sweetness of black orchids growing in the treeline.

The Belize Barrier Reef stretches roughly 300 km (190 miles) along the coast and sits close enough to Belize City that a day trip to snorkel it is not only feasible but one of the best things you can do here in March. Water temperatures in the shallows hover around 27°C (80°F), warm enough that a rash guard is optional. March's calm seas mean the boat ride to Hol Chan Marine Reserve or Shark Ray Alley off Ambergris Caye is closer to pleasant than punishing. Underwater, the visibility is startling. Nurse sharks glide beneath you like slow grey shadows. Southern stingrays settle on the sandy bottom in clouds of silt. The coral heads are dense with parrotfish, sergeant majors, and the occasional spotted eagle ray. The water taxi from Belize City to Caye Caulker takes roughly 45 minutes and deposits you on an island where golf carts outnumber cars and the breeze smells like salt and coconut oil. March is high season on the cayes, so the docks and split are busy. Mornings on the reef itself are still uncrowded if you book early departures. The return trip in late afternoon, with the sun dropping behind Belize City's low skyline, is one of those travel memories that earns its keep.

Xunantunich sits near the Guatemalan border, about 130 km (80 miles) west of Belize City, and the journey there is half the experience. The Western Highway climbs out of the coastal lowlands into the Cayo District's rolling hills, where the air shifts from salt-and-diesel to something greener. Wet earth. Wild ginger. The occasional wood-smoke plume from a Mennonite farm. To reach the ruins you cross the Mopan River on a hand-cranked ferry, which is as charmingly low-tech as it sounds. El Castillo, the main pyramid, rises 40 m (130 ft) above the plaza and rewards the climb with a panoramic view across the river valley into Guatemala's Peten jungle. March keeps the trails firm and the steps dry. This matters because the carved stucco frieze on El Castillo's east face, a masterwork of Late Classic Maya art depicting astronomical symbols and the sun god, is best viewed from a terrace you reach by climbing steps that become treacherous when wet. The heat is real up top. The breeze at elevation and the scale of the view make it worth the sweat. Combine this with a stop at the nearby Caves Branch area if you have a full day. Or pair it with the drive through San Ignacio's Saturday market where the smell of recado rojo spice paste and fresh cacao pods fills the covered stalls.

Belize City does not sell itself the way a polished Caribbean resort town does. That is precisely what makes walking it worthwhile. The Fort George district, the colonial-era neighborhood between the river mouth and the sea, has faded wooden mansions with wrap-around verandahs, paint peeling in the salt air, and the kind of quiet at 7 AM that lets you hear the slap of the harbour against the seawall. The Swing Bridge over Haulover Creek, one of the last manually operated swing bridges still in use anywhere, opens for tall-masted boats on a schedule that locals know by instinct and visitors learn by waiting. St. John's Cathedral, built with ballast bricks from British trading ships in 1812, has a worn brick floor and the musty-cool smell of two centuries of Caribbean humidity trapped in stone. The Museum of Belize, housed in a former colonial prison on Gabourel Lane, is small enough to see in an hour but dense with Mayan jade artifacts and colonial history that reframes the city. March mornings are good for this. The light is clean. The humidity has not yet peaked. The cruise crowds do not typically reach Fort George in force until mid-morning. Walk it early. Stop for fry jacks and refried beans at one of the Kriol breakfast spots near the Southern Foreshore. You will see a city that most visitors bypass on their way to the reef or the ruins.