Adventures in Luxury Travel

Mimi Lichtenstein 0:01
If you're a traveler that believes luxury and adventure are not mutually exclusive, then you're in the right place. Every week I take you to a new destination with one of my partners, sharing the hidden gems over the top experiences and active adventures to inspire your next family vacation. I'm Mimi Lichtenstein, an experienced Travel Advisor who has also traveled with my three teenagers and my husband around the world. Let's get started. Welcome to Episode 49 of adventures and luxury travel. Today Patricia and I talk about Belize a small country in Central America that packs in a lot of adventures. In Belize, you'll want to visit both the coast and inland so you can explore the wide variety of experiences on the water and in the jungle. For people who like marine life. Belize has a lot. Manta Rays, whale sharks, turtles and manatees. Venturing inland you'll find ancient caves Mayan ruins and jungle adventures. Add to that arrange of luxury lodging and you have an ideal winter getaway. Visit true day travel.com/ 49 For a video of today's show, and additional resources. Hi, everyone, I'm Mimi Lichtenstein. And today on Adventures in luxury travel, I am happy to have on Patricia Johnson to talk all about Belize. Patricia, welcome to the show.

Patricia Johnson 1:23
Thank you. It's good to be here. It's an honor to be able to share believe with your viewers and listeners.

Mimi Lichtenstein 1:28
Well, I'm so happy to have you. As you know, I was in Belize a few weeks ago or a couple of weeks ago, and you and I did not have a chance to meet in person. But I love that you live close by one of the places that I was staying always my favorite when I work with partners on the ground who are in the country because in some places, you know they're in different places. And so with you not only obviously you're from Belize, you live in Belize. Yes. And you just mentioned to me too, that your dad is from the Garifuna culture, and so you have a lot of history and background with that as well.

Patricia Johnson 1:58
Correct? That's right. And I tried to make it a point to visit some of my clients when I can unfortunately, when you were here, my kids are on vacation. So I was away for a little bit. But yeah, I do make it a point to give that little extra special personal touch.

Mimi Lichtenstein 2:13
Okay, I always find it interesting when people live in places that we vacation. Where did you vacate? Did you go away with your kids where we actually

Patricia Johnson 2:20
went to an island, we went to pee Cocker. Oh, and that is where one of my husband's family lives.

Mimi Lichtenstein 2:27
Okay, and you were there? We were there too. So yeah. Okay, well, let's dive in. So a lot of people you mentioned ask you where Belize is. And I think you know, even though I know it's in Central America, I always like to remind myself, you know, is it south of Mexico, North of Honduras. So for people who are just listening, you know, Belize is a country on the East Coast, so the Caribbean Sea Side of Central America. And when you zoom in on it, can you give us some overviews of them, the major areas of Belize that people like to go visit?

Patricia Johnson 2:59
Sure. So yeah, like you mentioned, I still get the question, whereas believes it isn't. Is it in South America? Is it an island? Do people speak Spanish? So those are some of the questions that I get asked all the time. It's bordered by Mexico to the north and Guatemala to the west and south and then the Caribbean Sea is to the east. And we're the only English speaking country in Central America. we're uniquely positioned as a part of Central America but also as a part of the Caribbean. It is a tiny country. It's a little bit smaller than the state of Massachusetts. And it has a lot to offer from the second largest barrier reef in the world. The great loophole, my ruins, caves, waterfalls, and lots of outdoor adventures paired with a culturally rich heritage from the map, you can see that we do have a lot of reserves. So roughly 26% of Belize is land and sea is preserved, which makes it quite healthy for marine wildlife flora and fauna. We became the first country to reject offshore oil exploration in 2017. Three of the major atolls in the Caribbean are located here in Belize. From the map, you can see the turnoff at all a little bit further. It's not here on the map, but there's the Lighthouse Reef atoll where the Great Blue Hole is. And then we also have the Glover's Reef atoll.

Mimi Lichtenstein 4:22
And those are both I think further south of turnoff, right? Correct. Correct. Okay. And so you have how many islands I guess.

Patricia Johnson 4:31
We have over 200 islands to explore. So some of them are really tiny. The largest island is ambergris key up there in the north. That's about 25 miles long. So well. Yeah, I was

Mimi Lichtenstein 4:46
gonna say he went on ambergris key and rented golf carts, which we'll talk about which made it very fun, but there's a big contrast between that and some of the other little tiny islands that we visited. So the right variety

Patricia Johnson 4:58
and usually, usually When you Google believe that island is normally the first one that pops up, okay,

Mimi Lichtenstein 5:05
and it's fun to get that mix if you're staying out there. And we'll talk a little bit about that the advantages of chartering a catamaran versus just staying in a hotel. But let's dive into the culture. First, we had the opportunity to go see some of the Mayan ruins. This is one of them. And is this the biggest one?

Patricia Johnson 5:21
Yes, this is the largest one in Belize. This one is Caracal. It's in the Mountain Pine Ridge reserve. So it's really close to the border in Guatemala.

Mimi Lichtenstein 5:30
Okay. And it's really quite awe inspiring, I guess you'd say as you are walking up to these structures that are huge. And just to try and visualize what it was like to be there back when people were living here and building them. I mean, I don't even do you know, off the top of your head, what's the period of time it took to create some of them? I

Patricia Johnson 5:52
don't what archaeologists do believe that there were over 1 million people 1 million miles living in Belize back back then at the time, at the time. So it's it's truly the story is particularly amazing on how these structures were built and the Maya civilization, and even visiting the indigenous Maya villages now is inspiring.

Mimi Lichtenstein 6:19
And I know when we went to Shin Antunovich you're able to actually climb up to the top of it, which left me I think it had been closed for the last couple of years and but we were able to climb up to the top of it and it was a beautiful view and just you know, stunning vistas everywhere you could see all around are you able to climb up Kara Cole? Also?

Patricia Johnson 6:39
Yes, you're able to climb Caracal as well. Okay.

Mimi Lichtenstein 6:44
And they you know, they kind of look similar. How far apart are shenana Chin Caracal

Patricia Johnson 6:49
Hara Karakol is about two and a half hours driving from shenana Snitch you there is connection between all these micro wins and how they treat it back in the day in the coyote district. There are so many excavated and unexcavated sites, there's a whole pitch not too far from Shannon's niche, which is a smaller site. And then there's also a connection with to Kyle in Guatemala, which is not too far from shenana niche. So it's all very much connected. And people actually get married at these sites. So that's a unique way to seal the seal the deal.

Mimi Lichtenstein 7:31
Now, we didn't see any weddings, but they were beautiful to see. And I we did meet several people who were going to cheat call in Guatemala from where we were staying in this area. And I think it was a solid hour and a half drive. So for somebody who's up for it, you know, those are supposed to be some of the most magnificent ruins. We weren't up for such a long drive. So we went to some of the closer ones. So it's nice to have multiple options depending upon what you're interested in.

Patricia Johnson 8:00
Right. And depending on where you're staying to Atlanta niches closer so you can do it in a couple hours. If you're going to call you can make it a full day activity and see some of the differences between the border towns of Belize and Guatemala.

Mimi Lichtenstein 8:17
And we had taken this ferry, which was very unique in order to get to shenana tonnage. Do you have to take this ferry to get there? Yes, you do. Okay. And so tell us a little bit about it's very unique about how it's powered. Yeah, so

Patricia Johnson 8:31
it is a Hong Kong ferry, there has to be somebody there to actually turn the ferry every time you cross and vehicles can cross the ferry. But there's only so much weight that can be on the ferry at a time. It's part of the adventure of getting there and how things were done all the way back in the day. Some things you want to keep traditional. And this is one of the things that we love about getting to this site, it adds to the adventure.

Mimi Lichtenstein 8:58
Yeah. And we actually were able to take the car on it the picture that showing has people on horseback, but you could also take the car on.

Patricia Johnson 9:06
Exactly. So horseback was traditionally how you would transport yourself around Belize back in the day as well.

Mimi Lichtenstein 9:13
Well, yeah, it does. It was fun. And then the cave so Belize is very big on caves. It's I don't know how many do you know how many there are that you can go off?

Patricia Johnson 9:22
It's probably the largest cave system in Central America. I'm sure it is. And this one, the ATM cave, which is the one you visited. This is the entrance of the cave. This has been dubbed the number one secret cave in the world by National Geographic. It's very, very special. And there are only certain amounts of guides that can actually guide inside this cave. So it's not like you can pick up a random guide and go here you have to have advanced booking and sometimes in Sneak peak season it's very difficult to get to see this particular cave pictures are now not allowed inside the cave for that reason of protecting the secret heritage of what is inside this cave. It's a really fun Indiana Jones type experiences what it's compared to swimming, hiking, crawling. No,

Mimi Lichtenstein 10:17
I was amazed at how huge I guess you'd call them rooms. You know, the rooms were in these caves. I mean, just, you know, three, maybe four storeys high with stalactites and stalagmites, and you're swimming and you're climbing and you're squeezing through sometimes rocks that are so close together that you have to turn your head sideways to get through, right. So it's definitely not for the faint of heart. But it really was, I mean, not only cultural, but also obviously, like a big adventure. And we adored our guide. And I think that he had mentioned that when the guides were initially certified, the number of them that they actually haven't certified any more guides since then.

Patricia Johnson 11:00
That's correct. They really are. They're probably less than 50 at this point. Okay, so it's eight people per guide. However, we do private tours. So if it's just the four of you, or the three of you, you will get your private guide. So that limits the amount of people that are able to go into the cave every day.

Mimi Lichtenstein 11:26
Yeah, and you could see how that's important given what's in there. I mean, they're all ceremonial sites, and you see a lot of very unique things from you know, LSL remains, yeah, from almost 1000 years ago, 1500 years ago, so definitely the ATM cave is to put on your list for sure. I agree. And then tell us a little bit about we'll have a couple of photos of the Garifuna culture, where are the Garifuna people and tell us a little bit about them.

Patricia Johnson 11:54
The they are mostly located in southern Belize on the coast parts of southern Belize, mostly in small fishing villages because that's one of their ways of providing for their families is fishing. As I mentioned, my dad is from one of the Garifuna communities so he's originally from Hopkins, there's an entire town called Dangriga town that is considered the culture capital of Belize because there's a lot of, you know, activities, drumming, dancing, immersing into the Garifuna culture. There's this really cool tour from Hopkins where you get to you can dress as a girl for now you get to cook a meal with the Garifuna women there. You can even fish for your food and then cook this traditional Garifuna soup. That is coconut base with fresh coconut mashed green and ripe plantains. It's a really immersive experience, they're gonna have a specific day that is dedicated to their arrival into Belize. We are descendants of African and Arawak Indians who were shipwrecked on a slave ship and shipwrecks around St. Vincent in the Caribbean, and then came to believe so that is the story of how the Garifuna came here, and how they're able to maintain their rich culture and language and share that not only believes but the rest of the world.

Mimi Lichtenstein 13:26
Well, I love it. I love live music in general. And I think learning you know, the cooking and just hearing about their history is always a fascinating part of a trip. And for a lot of people who go to Caribbean destinations, you know, some places don't have as much culture, and Belize is one of them. That definitely does. So

Patricia Johnson 13:44
we certainly do we have a melting pot of cultures. And if you're, you know, sometimes you get up and you know, try cultural dance, try to Punta shake your weights, do a little thing here and there. It's it's fun for us. We sometimes we tried to get the guard for not to do these really great presentations, where you they might come to you at your beach house and do drumming and dancing lessons and teach you a little bit of the cult of the culture, pockets of information that are easy to digest, of course.

Mimi Lichtenstein 14:23
Yeah. in question. So when we were out on the catamaran, we saw a fishing boat come by that was very, very small. And it's probably had a solid 12 Guys on it, and then a couple of canoes that were trailing. So a couple of them went out to go fish from the canoes, maybe spear fish. And our captain told us that they all sleep on board this boat for multiple nights and it didn't even look big enough for all of them to lay down and quite frankly is that from the Garifuna tribe

Patricia Johnson 14:53
that is most likely from the Garifuna community because that's their way of life. Yeah, it is how They survive. Wow. So fishing is very big. I actually took my kids to Hopkins this past weekend and we went on a half day fishing trip. It was their first time going fishing. I have a five year old and a seven year old and a teenager. But we really enjoyed the experience and just sharing where I come from my where my dad comes from with them was really special

Mimi Lichtenstein 15:24
night. Yeah, I think fishing and kids go together very well. I have a son who loves to fish

Patricia Johnson 15:31
they love it.

Mimi Lichtenstein 15:33
Okay, well, let's transition to some of the more active adventures. So as you mentioned before the Blue Hole, a lot of people who certainly if they're scuba divers, they've heard of the Blue Hole. Tell us a little bit about where this is and what people do there.

Patricia Johnson 15:47
So this is an the Lighthouse Reef at all. And you can get here from ambergris key from Placencia it's easier from the northern side. So from ambergris key or key Cocker, and it's usually a full day activity because it takes if you're staying there, it takes a few hours to get to the blue pool. And it's really great for divers. If it's a bucket list item for you, you can dive up to 130 feet, the blue hole itself is around 400 And something feet. What rarely do divers get to go all the way down. But you have to be really, really advanced and advanced divers to go into this blue hole. It's not necessarily about viewing a lot of marine life, because you will get to see a lot more marine life on the Barrier Reef. But once you're down in the Blue Hole, you get to see these great formations and maybe a shark somewhere in there. It's It's spectacular. I myself am not a diver. And so the way I saw the blue pool initially was flying over it. So there are scheduled flights from ambergris key that take about an hour and you fly over it multiple times and get to see the magnificence of the Blue Hole. If you're there on the shore. You don't actually see the entire formation of the of the hole. But it is an amazing experience.

Mimi Lichtenstein 17:24
Yes. And it just looks absolutely stunning. All the different shades of blue, absolutely beautiful. And I will say when we were going along the coast, you see the waves breaking over the coral reef, right, essentially extending all the way down except for occasionally there's a break in it where you can check out yeah, let's go back and forth. But other than that, I mean, the barrier reef extends for is it almost 200 miles. It's

Patricia Johnson 17:51
100 and 100. And about 170 miles, I believe along the coast of Belize, and it's still a second largest barrier reef in the world, like I said, but I think it's the largest living reef.

Mimi Lichtenstein 18:04
Okay. And I will say that the snorkeling that we did, we saw some of the best marine life of any snorkeling that I've done in the Caribbean, for sure. I have gone other places where it's just as good. But I was amazed with the turtles and the rays and the sharks and the puffer fish and barracuda. I mean, we saw so much which was really fun. That's awesome.

Patricia Johnson 18:28
That is thanks to all of the efforts on preserving the marine life here all of the reserves that we have, and all of the education that comes with

Mimi Lichtenstein 18:40
it. Yeah. And it's paid off because there there is a lot, a lot to see, despite the fact that there's a lot of fish to see people also go fishing, which again, is a favorite pastime of ours. There's so many different kinds. I think my son caught some snapper. And our captain was spear fishing. He taught my son and my husband had a spear fish and he caught a couple of groupers I think we were lucky enough to be able to have snapper and grouper, and we even actually my husband found a conch that he brought up one time we only got one so we didn't have you know savich A constant visa. So BJ but it was fun to find one that wasn't already found by the divers.

Patricia Johnson 19:26
Yeah, it's good to you know, catch your fish and then prepare it or have your chef prepared for you and actually eat the product of your labor. Yeah. And you can do this on the catamaran but you can also do this on a tour if you're staying online. You can do a cook your catch expedition.

Mimi Lichtenstein 19:44
Yeah. And I would say that before this, my son said he would he typically only ate lobster, tuna and salmon I think but he ate both grouper and snapper because he helped.

Patricia Johnson 19:58
So that's great. That's a win.

Mimi Lichtenstein 20:00
Yeah. A lot more apt to try it if they're the ones who caught it. And so for people who are going out fishing like we were trolling for part of it to go and get out, you know, the big, the big fish, you're going outside of the barrier reef right right

Patricia Johnson 20:15
deep sea fishing, the fishing is definitely possible as well.

Mimi Lichtenstein 20:19
Yeah, so you go outside the Barrier Reef, but there are fish that you can catch inside. Like that's where we caught the grouper and the snapper. We caught those inside the barrier reefs. All

Patricia Johnson 20:27
right, there are some protected species like the permits. tarpon so you would do there are a lot of people that come to Belize for sport fishing. So yeah, that's definitely possible here fly fishing.

Mimi Lichtenstein 20:39
Okay. And then cave tubing was a fun adventure. We did that one day, too. How many different places throughout the country? Is there cave tubing, not as many?

Patricia Johnson 20:49
Not as many. This is one. This is the hot chair and archaeological reserve. And then there's St. Herman's closer to the capital belmopan. There's another one, I believe down south, but there are not a lot of places that you could do. Cave tubing and cave exploration encompasses more than this. You had the ATM cave that we spoke about. You have this floating on the inner tube inside the cave, which is fun. And you have canoeing inside a cave at Barton Creek cave. There are some dry caves that you can hike into and view ceremonial remains as well. So there are different caving experiences that you're able to take part in.

Mimi Lichtenstein 21:32
Okay. And then hanging bridges. I know in Costa Rica, they have a lot of hanging bridges. We did not do this. So are these similar areas to where the cave tubing is and all the kind of the inland experiences.

Patricia Johnson 21:45
Yeah, so this one is more in southern Belize. This is that canopy walk there are some in around the cave tubing site as well. There's another bridge, so it is not as popular as Costa Rica, but there are some experiences here for sure. Along with ziplining

Mimi Lichtenstein 22:03
Okay, yeah, we have them in rappelling that's always fun.

Patricia Johnson 22:07
Yes. So this one is the black hole drop in Anderson's caves branch and this is rappelling inside down into a sinkhole. I have done this one before the scariest thing is just going over the edge. But once you're over the edge, it's pretty straightforward and easy from there but just looking down it's like yeah, so is that there's also waterfall rappelling that you could do with the waterfall, you know, beating you and it's an exhilarating experience, not for everybody. But if you are adventurous, I highly recommend it.

Mimi Lichtenstein 22:41
Yes, we've done some rappelling and waterfall rappelling and canyoning and other places and we love it. And ziplining which is more of an adrenaline Well, maybe not more of an adrenaline rush, but you're going a little faster than just rappelling. Yes, yes, that's for sure. And then I love this picture. This is of my son too big behind the dinghy, which is always a favorite pastime if you're chartering a catamaran so there's just so much and the hiking to waterfalls and seeing you know, beautiful scenery while you're out there. Would you recommend or most of the hikes within Belize, something you'd recommend with somebody doing as a guided experience are there some that you can do on your own,

Patricia Johnson 23:18
there's some that you can do on your own depending on where you're staying, for example, to big rock falls, if you're staying in Mountain Pine Ridge, there are a few lodges in that area that you can stay on, you can actually go hiking to big rock falls from there. But some places are a little bit more off the beaten path and hidden. So if you like a good hiking activity, and you don't know where to go, that's where one of our personnel guides come in, like the guide that you had, for your ATM cave tour. They started Billy's hiking group, during the pandemic to keep them occupied and to explore new, untouched areas in Belize places that people don't typically go to. So having that like, insider knowledge is key.

Mimi Lichtenstein 24:05
Yeah, and there's just so many places to get to that on your own. It's a little harder to find all of them. And I love this because it's active, but also relaxing. So heading out on a kayak, maybe even with a fishing rod in hand, as the sun is setting would be a magical way to end the day.

Patricia Johnson 24:22
I totally agree.

Mimi Lichtenstein 24:26
No complaints and the sunsets from Belize. You know, we're just beautiful every night. It was beautiful sunsets. So I'm a big fan of sunsets wherever we go. So I love I love sitting out at that time of day with a cocktail or with the kids just reading a book and enjoying kind of the end of the day. Yeah, I agree. And from a culinary aspect. So Belize is famous for a few different things including their fresh fish. Tell us a little bit about some of the culinary experiences.

Patricia Johnson 24:56
So because we have a melting pot of cultures that The food is very diverse. So this picture is of chocolate, the Maya food. It is made in mostly southern Belize because that's where they grow the cacao the most. And you can have a chocolate making experience. If you're staying in southern Belize, make your own chocolate watch the process of having it picked from the tree in the farm, to grinding and all of the process of getting it into a chocolate bar. And there's nothing more wonderful than tasting chocolate and see after seeing how it is made, right and I am a chocolate lover. So this this is definitely top top on my list we have the Mestizo culture which is a mixture of Spanish and Maya and they're mostly corn based foods. So traditional mestiza food would include things like Escobar Bucha, which is an onion, onion soup. Tomales is most diesel random Negra, which is a black soup that is musty. So we have talked about the garage and our culture and the hood, which has been unripe plantain called for for in fish coconut stew. There's cassava bread, the rasa is green banana Tomales. So the Maya have or the misty still have the tamales on the Gulf and I have the Terrassa the creole or more rice and beans so more Caribbean or fry Jack is definitely a staple for breakfast here.

Mimi Lichtenstein 26:24
My Juliet Jack, but

Patricia Johnson 26:25
it's fried dough. So french fry do and it's a company with refried beans, eggs, sausage or bacon and the food here is really fresh farm to table. We are big on farming, especially in the coyote district. And of course you know about sea to table it's always fresh seafood.

Mimi Lichtenstein 26:46
Right, which we had almost every day because we were catching our own. So that's a great part of it too. I know certain times a year lobsters are in season and you can go catch them and other times they're not what is Do you know the seasonality of lobsters off the top of your head

Patricia Johnson 27:03
yes July 1 to February 28 is lobster season and there's usually a lobster fest to start off the season. So if you love lobster, this may be one of the festivals that you'd like to go to an experienced tasting lobster in different forms. So many ways to cook lobster. I learned something new every year. So

Mimi Lichtenstein 27:26
perfect, awesome lobsters when we were snorkeling, but we weren't allowed to take any of them. Yeah,

Patricia Johnson 27:31
yeah. offseason we give them time to, you know, grow. Yeah,

Mimi Lichtenstein 27:37
absolutely. And then picnics. I love having picnics all over the world and I'm sitting on a beautiful beach or on a catamaran with a picnic. It's always a fun thing to do. Do you when people are going on on catamarans? Do you guys I think you probably have them set up in different places. You can have them you know, essentially anywhere probably right?

Patricia Johnson 27:58
Yeah. If you like remote islands, this is perfect for picnics and beach barbecues. And this is one of the spreads at random key. Where you know, we just take and make a beautiful spread for you and you get to enjoy your time there with your family just enjoying the view and having a really nice picnic. I love picnics myself. We do picnics by the waterfalls by the sea, wherever you want to do we can make it happen. Perfect.

Mimi Lichtenstein 28:25
Oh yeah, there's one of the lobsters clearly this was during the July to time. Yeah, as far as relaxing and luxuriating. Let's talk about that for a minute. I personally think going out on a catamaran is a very relaxing way to have a vacation because you're not packing and unpacking. You're just sort of like waking up in one place going to another and ending the day in the other, you know and reading a book and just enjoying the views. Yeah, it's a floating hotel. It's a floating hotel. So I would say that for people who would consider something like that. I think it's a great way to vacation. One of my favorite kinds of family vacations actually. Again, with the sunset just sitting out and watching the sunset each night is lovely.

Patricia Johnson 29:10
One thing on a hammock.

Mimi Lichtenstein 29:13
gafisa saw a lot of hammocks What about as far as spas go, we'll talk about hotels in a few minutes. But do you have any favorite spots throughout the country?

Patricia Johnson 29:22
I love going to nya Resort and Spa in West Sensia in southern Belize. i You also experience a spa at CHOC Creek which is not far from me. So when I need a little you know, a little massage, that's where I go on ambergris key there's a salt Spa at the Phoenix resort so there are different spa available throughout the country and we would recommend the best ones.

Mimi Lichtenstein 29:43
Okay. And then wildlife. So marine life. This is one of my favorites. I manatees. I sadly I'm just missing a manatee our captain thought but by the time I was in the water he was gone but my kids It's I think my daughter and my husband were paddle boarding at one of our stops, and there was one in the water right in front of them.

Patricia Johnson 30:07
So I love it. Yeah. They are so cute. And they are all over at one point they were becoming extinct. And there's a lot of manatee education here in Belize. So we tried to protect them as much as possible.

Mimi Lichtenstein 30:24
And are they? Are they there all year round? Or is there any seasonality to the manatees?

Patricia Johnson 30:28
They're here all year round, mostly along the mangrove areas.

Mimi Lichtenstein 30:32
Yeah. And then whale sharks swimming with whale sharks is one of our favorite activities in Mexico one year, we've not been in Belize, because they are seasonal, and they weren't there when we were there. But what time of year to the whale sharks come.

Patricia Johnson 30:46
So usually around the full moon around March, April, May or June. So sometimes two days before the full moon up to 10 days after and we would monitor more or less when they're in the area. Okay. And then we would, you can go snorkeling or diving with the whale sharks. I'm usually in the gladden spit reserve, which is in southern Belize. So you'd have to stay either in Placentia or Hopkins or on a private island, maybe around Riki so that you have easier access to seeing the wheel sharks, okay. Well, they

Mimi Lichtenstein 31:22
are magnificent. And the ones we went with were over 20 feet long. I don't know how big this one is. But if your family likes wildlife and marine life, it is absolutely an experience to have once in your life. Yeah. And then the rays. So we were surprised because a couple of beaches that we went to there were huge rays just there. You can meet them. Yeah, if you were careful.

Patricia Johnson 31:47
Yes, you can. And you can see them at different areas throughout the leaves. So I think you were you saw them at rendezvous and key Cocker, I think and at the reserves, so what whole chain, they're just all over the place. I know there's an abundance of wildlife,

Mimi Lichtenstein 32:04
abundance of race. And I think there were probably a dozen of these where we were they were, I mean, they it seemed like they came out of nowhere, but I think they've gotten accustomed probably to people giving them little pieces of fish. So they're happy to show up?

Patricia Johnson 32:17
Well, mainly because the fishermen would clean their fish. They're mostly at the areas where we'd see them. They're used the fisherman coming by and cleaning their fish. So when they see people, they automatically assume that they'll get some fish

Mimi Lichtenstein 32:33
or trains like that. And this is a photo of my family, I think yep. At shark alley, where there were so many sharks, before we even got in the water. And then these are all nurse sharks. Yes. Harmless nurse sharks. Yes. And there were they were having a feeding frenzy of some kind. There were probably 30 of them right next to our boat.

Patricia Johnson 32:54
Yeah, it's one of the cool things about staying on ambergris key is this is only 15 minutes away from the shore. So going to hold Chan and snorkeling there and then going to shark Ray alley and have swimming with the sharks if you don't want to swim with them. I have a lot of people that just watch from the boats because you know, getting in the water is a little bit too scary. But just having that experience is pretty amazing. And doing it in a couple of hours is just so easy.

Mimi Lichtenstein 33:22
Yeah. And that was quite Yeah, that was quite an experience. And this is a photo of me swimming with this as when we were snorkeling and I dove under the water to go swim next to a manta ray which was absolutely beautiful seeing them, you know, with their very elegant wings like floating and gliding through the water was just beautiful. And the turtles we both Loggerhead and green turtle turtles. Yeah. So it's not everywhere, where you can go snorkeling and you're gonna see giant turtles.

Patricia Johnson 33:52
Yeah, it's amazing experience here. Like I said, it's all thanks to the reserves that we have. And also staying on islands like rake key, which are close to the land and spit reserve, you're actually practically on top of the reef. You can snorkel from the shore and see some of these wild creatures, right. They're

Mimi Lichtenstein 34:13
beautiful. And then tell us a little bit about some of the more land based animals. We didn't see any of them in the wild. But you guys are famous for a couple of big ones.

Patricia Johnson 34:23
Yeah, yeah. I'm not sure if you saw any monkeys at char Creek, but they're usually very active around there. And then jaguars are very elusive. But we do have a lot of Jaguars here. In fact, we have the first Jaguar sanctuary in the world here in Belize in southern Belize. And at the cockscomb basin Jaguar Preserve. You might not see a jaguar in the wild but you may see their paw prints and the Jaguar Preserve is really great for hiking. You can see quite a moon these days. Front cat species here. So um, birds, a lot of people come to believes for great bird watching over 400 species of birds so, and our tape, they're still in the wild. They are they are not surveillance. So it's very hard to see them in the wild. But you can sometimes you know, if you're lucky, you can see them.

Mimi Lichtenstein 35:23
Yeah, we didn't see any, but I have seen one in my life. And they get very big, and they're very hard looking, but fun to see. Yes, so a combination. So let's talk about some of your favorite hotels. And as I mentioned, the catamaran is one of my favorite ways to travel. I think it's unique, or point out something unique about doing catamarans in Belize, and that is that you can do them for less than a week. A lot of places, it's a week minimum in order to charter a catamaran. But in Belize, it was great because it gave us the ability to charter a catamaran for four nights and then go spend equal amount of time inland, which was a great combination.

Patricia Johnson 36:01
Right? I agree. So throughout the year, except for peak season, which is Christmas and New Year, you can charter a catamaran for a minimum of four nights and combine that with something different something inland. Some people do want to continue on the beach, but a lot of people want to have a different experience and explore in Belize. It's a great combination.

Mimi Lichtenstein 36:23
And when you're doing that you typically are choosing either going north to the northern islands or going south meaning from Belize City, right to do both of them you would need over a week. Correct? Correct? That's right. Okay. And so Glover's Reef, that's one of the places that's easy to get to if you're chartering a catamaran, right, that's right. And the accommodations may be a little more rustic. So if you're on a catamaran, then you get your nice accommodations but you get access to this beautiful place.

Patricia Johnson 36:50
Exactly. So you will have access to great fishing spectacular snorkeling, as you can see, the water is blue. On the atolls, you're outside of the reef. So deep sea fishing along the way is great. Maybe you pick up a Dorado along the way you never know. But it's spectacular to be here and be on your catamaran and have the luxuries of that having your own captain and personal chef cooking for you and just enjoying this natural wonder that not a lot of people get to see a

Mimi Lichtenstein 37:18
great beautiful and then Francis Ford Coppola who a lot of Americans know as a famous director he has two places in Belize right turtle in each This is a picture of and Blanca now. lacZ

Patricia Johnson 37:34
Yes. And he also has coral key now which is off the shore of Placencia. It's a private islands and usually you would stay there for like two or three nights depending. But turtle in is in southern Belize, so great for people that want to stay in one location but have easy access to inland and beach from one place. This is perfect for that. As you can see the individual touched roof. Cabanas. I love this style of property because it's very unique. It's very private. It's very indigenous to Belize, like a lot of people used to have touch homes back in the day. That was how we live so this is a really cool experience and you can go from the standard entry level cottages to Francis Ford Coppola pavilion or renting Sophia couplers. beach house you can do that there so you can say you know I I was Sophia a couple of for a few few days.

Mimi Lichtenstein 38:35
Very fun. And then here's a picture of chalk Creek, which is where we stayed remind me this is not of our room but what kind of category room is this one.

Patricia Johnson 38:45
So this one is an orchard Villa good for families. The thing about chalk Creek is that there's different levels of accommodations. And so if you like to be adventurous during the day and maybe you want to have like you mentioned air conditioning, the other slide shows one of the newer at CHOC rates so this is a two bedroom villa that is solar powered. This has their own private plunge pool or Jacuzzi it comes with your own personal attendance so this is mother and luxury at chalk Creek if you're if you like to be on this 400 acre reserve and have access to the hiking trails and horseback riding butterfly farm and the not too far from shenana tonight just is a great location for that and being on the river as well you can do canoeing, so I love this accommodations for that.

Mimi Lichtenstein 39:43
And I would say that there's only is it two of these, these

Patricia Johnson 39:47
are only to totally G and then there's a spa villa with air conditioning. So if AC is a must, then we would have to look at these options here which get booked up so

Mimi Lichtenstein 40:01
quickly. Yeah. And I will say what I also loved at Chuck Creek is they have so many activities on property. So you don't have to go anywhere. And I think for people with kids maybe in the age range of like five to 12 is like a great sweet spot of a lot of activities that you almost wouldn't even need to leave the property. If you didn't want to having older teenagers, I would say that you might want to go do some of the more adventurous things off property, which is what we did, but it's it is a great option for that part of the country. And then going back to the coast again, tell us a little bit about its Ana.

Patricia Johnson 40:33
So it's Santa is a newer property in southern Belize in Placentia also in the same peninsula that the Francis Ford Coppola property is but this is more Central Americans style property kind of feels like a mixture of something that is in Mexico and Guatemala, but has some Belize touches. So it has villas that have private plunge pools and it also have entry level suites. So it is a really cool place to just stay for. If you want to stay for days or a week, it's very easy to do that. Because you can so much from this one property.

Mimi Lichtenstein 41:16
Well, it looks beautiful. I didn't have a chance. I did do some site visits while I was there, but I didn't have a chance to see it's on. But this pool would make me want to just lounge around and read a book. In fact, we read so many books on this trip when we were on the catamaran in particular that my husband and daughter and I were swapping books like okay, I finished my books. Can I have one your book? Really a great place for relaxing and just enjoying and soaking up the gorgeous weather and sunshine?

Patricia Johnson 41:43
Yeah, I could. I mean, it's Instagrammable to

Mimi Lichtenstein 41:48
look for teenagers. There are some new big properties, big name brands that are coming to Belize. Tell us a little bit about some of the hotels being built.

Patricia Johnson 41:58
So the four seasons is slated to be coming to Belize, probably by 25 at quiche used to be key cheerful, which was our golf resort. So that will incorporate golf and the Four Seasons luxury brand that they're known for. And then there's also six senses coming to Belize. So we're excited to see that come to fruition was not known for having large brands before was it more of a boutique style resorts so this is gonna be very different for the country.

Mimi Lichtenstein 42:40
And remind me where is the sixth sense is going to be located.

Patricia Johnson 42:46
It's going to be located in the north closer to ambergris key. Okay. Nice private island off of ambergris key.

Mimi Lichtenstein 42:55
Yeah, more good options. Okay, I always like to wrap up with some good like takeaway tips are your favorites of different places? So maybe let's start with I don't know Do you have a favorite beach bar restaurant that you go to when you're on the coast?

Patricia Johnson 43:12
When I'm on the coast? A favorite beach bar? Let's see in Placentia. I love to listen. See I got married there. A local beach bar barefoot beach bar. Okay. Good to interact with locals there. And sometimes they have local entertainment. So on ambergris key everybody goes to secret beach because it's great for swimming. And there's daytime entertainment. So yeah.

Mimi Lichtenstein 43:42
And that's when you rent a little golf cart, which is what we did, and you can drive around the island. From where people typically dock would you started minutes, only 30 minutes? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that's for certainly worth it. And then for time of year to come to Belize, the weather was absolutely perfect. When we were there. What is what's your high season and what's your like absolute peak season typically Christmas time end of December holidays?

Patricia Johnson 44:08
Yeah, so our peak season is definitely Christmastime in springtime. We are usually very busy as well. And surprisingly, over the past few years, we are quite busy in June. Our high season is typically from November to May. It's a little bit to include the summer months as well, because we typically have good weather in the summer. I'll do our rainy season starts from June to November. Okay, which coincides with the hurricane season. However, we don't get a lot of rain during the summer months.

Mimi Lichtenstein 44:44
Okay. Good to know. And then as far as comparing Placencia to ambergris key Tell me a little bit about how would you compare and contrast

Patricia Johnson 44:54
I get that question a lot actually. So I'm Berger ski is an island While Placencia is on the mainland, it's on the coast in southern Belize, so you are able to do land activities easier. If you're interested in just water activities and burgers, he is perfect for that because you're really close to the reef. The reef is a quarter mile from the shore, in some places, the island actually touches the reef. At Rocky Point or rubbles point it touches the reef. So really great for water activities really great for if you'd like to be social and want to go restaurant hopping or bar hopping, it's good nightlife, great food licencia. On the other hand, it's good for doing cultural activities from there because you have the indigenous Grafana communities nearby and you also have the indigenous Maya villages and far south of Belize into Toledo district. So you don't have to get on a plane or a boat to do let's see, hiking or tubing or ziplining. It's it's easier to do it from that one location. Okay, I want beach. I want to be on the beach, but I also want to do inland activities some days. That's how that's the difference the major differences between the two.

Mimi Lichtenstein 46:25
Okay, good to know. Thank you. And then what about sargassum? We all in the travel industry know the Caribbean has been, I guess you'd say plagued with this type of seaweed for the last many years. Yeah, in terms of I know from other places, the Riviera Maya and islands in the Caribbean, there's not really much of a rhyme or reason to when it comes. It's not like it's a seasonal item. So as far as knowing how to avoid it. One of my thoughts, which probably we have the same thoughts are, if you're on the side of the island that is not facing out to the Caribbean, then you're not going to have that Sargassum washing up on shore. But there are a lot of hotels that are actively removing it as they do in Mexico as it comes onto the beach.

Patricia Johnson 47:13
That is correct. So it depends on where you're staying. You can have access to Umbarger ski for example, from the leeward side if you're staying on kya sponsor which is a private island, you can you're five minutes away from ambergris key and they offer like boat transfers to and from so you could have access to exploring ambergris key from there and still have easy access to Bucha and marine reserve and shark reality and those great things but also if you're staying on ambergris key you have access to secret beach, which is great for swimming, if you wanted to, you know, walk into the water, different resorts have different ways of combating how Sargassum affects the beach, so some will clean their beach very often and some won't. And then it not cleaning the beach too often has it affects the the air and the smell because you know, sarcasm comes with a smell. So it really we would recommend the best places that are suited for you staying on key Cocker for example, you could swim on the leeward side, or staying on re key, which is on the reef, you could stay there. So it's an island, and you wouldn't be impacted that much by the sarcasm. So it really depends.

Mimi Lichtenstein 48:35
And the catamaran to because you're always moving so Exactly. We weren't impacted at all by it. Well, I think it's important to know about it. But in terms of where people stay, it's a great question to ask, you know, to make sure if you find out if they're sort of actively combating it if it is a place that is affected by it. So that if you're looking for that white white beach experience, that's the experience you're going to have.

Patricia Johnson 49:00
Right? We're golden sons Beach, right.

Mimi Lichtenstein 49:04
Well, thank you, Patricia. This has been so fun, good memories for me of just being there weeks ago. I absolutely loved it. And I think for families are people who want to either be active or just relax and luxuriate Belize has so much to offer from the coast to inland that it's a great destination spot for a warm weather vacation in our cold. United States winters.

Patricia Johnson 49:28
Thank you to me. It's great to share believes with your viewers.

Mimi Lichtenstein 49:31
Well, I appreciate it. All right. Well take care. I know we will be in touch. Yes, for sure. Okay, bye. Bye. Bye. If you enjoy today's show and don't want to miss an episode, you can subscribe and follow the show wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you haven't already, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a rating and review to let me know what you think and to help others find adventures and luxury travel. I want your honest feedback So I can create a podcast that shares lots of insights to help travelers have more amazing adventures. Visit true Bay travel.com backslash podcast launch for step by step instructions on how to subscribe, rate and review adventures in luxury travel today. See you next time. Thank you for listening to this episode of adventures and luxury travel. If you want more travel tips go to true Bay travel.com where you can sign up for our newsletter that shares more inspiring travel ideas around the world. See you here next week.