Places · Belize

Natural Wonders of Belize: The 4 Most Beautiful Places to Visit

4 places in the atlas

Belize fronts the Caribbean with the Belize Barrier Reef — the second-largest barrier reef in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site — strung with atolls, cayes, and turquoise lagoons. Its most famous feature is the Great Blue Hole, a giant marine sinkhole formed when an ice-age cave collapsed and later flooded, leaving an almost perfect deep-blue circle ringed by reef. Inland, rainforest, rivers, and caves add to a country rich in both marine and terrestrial life. Below are the 4 natural wonders of Belize in the atlas — the most beautiful places to build a trip around, each with what makes it remarkable, when to go, and how to reach it. Best overall time: The drier, calmer season (roughly March–June) for the best diving visibility and sea conditions; the warm Caribbean water is diveable year-round.

The Great Blue Hole

Lighthouse Reef, off Belize

A perfect deep-blue circle in the turquoise Caribbean — a giant marine sinkhole over 300 metres across and 120 metres deep, ringed by coral reef and famed as one of the world's great dive sites.

Marine sanctuary North America

Belize Barrier Reef

Caribbean coast of Belize

The largest barrier reef in the northern hemisphere — some 300 kilometres of coral running the length of Belize, with three of the Atlantic's four true atolls behind it and the Great Blue Hole at its centre.

Coral reef North America

Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary

Stann Creek District, south-central Belize, eastern Maya Mountains

Tropical forest on the eastern slopes of the Maya Mountains, set aside as the world's first protected area for the jaguar — with waterfall pools and Victoria Peak above.

Forest Latin America

Mountain Pine Ridge

Cayo District, western Belize

A highland of Caribbean pine on a granite massif in western Belize, cut by rivers that tumble over waterfalls and through the vast entrance of Rio Frio Cave.