Where to Stay: Luxury Hideaways in Belize’s Caribbean

With the world’s second largest barrier reef just off shore, hotels that are set on their own cays and increasing air service to Central America from around the U.S., Belize’s corner of the Caribbean is becoming more and more attractive to the luxury traveler. Here are three beach options in Belize for those in the know.

If Money is No Object: Cayo Espanto
Starting Price: $995 per night
It’s only three miles from San Pedro and Ambergris Caye, but what a difference that makes. The sandy caye, aka tiny island, of Cayo Espanto is less resort—the maximum number of guests is just 16—than small, secluded, palm tree covered private island paradise. Here, five oceanfront villas with private plunge pools and one over water bungalow (the cheapest room) are hidden from one another, have huge windows you can open for the maximum breeze, little extras like Yves De Lormes sheets and showers alfresco. Rates include your own personal butler, three meals per day served in your room or in spots around the island, snacks, all drinks (minus champagne and wine) and non-motorized water sports. For more seclusion, opt for renting the entire island. It’s only $12,000 a night.

Smart Luxury: Turtle Inn
Starting Price: $210
One of three Central American eco lodges owned by winemaker and Hollywood director Francis Ford Coppola, Turtle Inn was built, as the man himself put it, “as rustic as I love, and as luxurious as I could.” Here, a dozen cottages and villas plus the Coppola family Pavillion (starting at $1600 per night) are a cross between a local thathced village and Eleanor Coppola’s own flair for Indonesian art and design. All have their own private gardens, outdoor showers and Balinese handcarved doors and décor. If the mood is right, try the Chinese Matrimonial Suite (starting at $400 per night), featuring a 200-year-old, hand carved Chinese Fertility Bed. The lodge sits on the southern end of the Placencia peninsula beside both a wildlife flooded lagoon and the Caribbean Sea. So in the morning you can dive with whale sharks, and after lunch kayak up Monkey River (the actual name).

Smart Family: Jaguar Reef Lodge
Starting Price: $180 per night
If your kids don’t know where Belize is before they come to Jaguar Reef Lodge, they will when they get back. Fronting seven miles of Caribbean sands and hundreds of acres of rainforest, there’s enough to do here to keep kids and teens on the verge of over stimulation, giving parents the option of kicking back with cocktails in coconuts at the Butterflies Spa or doing some adventuring of their own. Their Family Suites have multiple bedrooms and kitchenettes, but with a family package, the resort will add free use of sports equipment (wind surf boards, kayaks and snorkels), free meals for kids and three of their adventure tours which range from hikes in the Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Preserve, fishing and wildlife watching on the Sittee River, River Cave Tubing, Zip line Canopy Tours, visits to Mayan Ruins and snorkel and diving trips.