When I visited Belize for a bird ringing adventure in 2018, I explored other parts of the country on the weekends. Although I spent little time in Placencia, it is not a place that has my best recommendations, as there are many other great places to see in Belize. But I did have my one and only (so far!) encounter with a wild manatee during my visit to Placencia, so this place deserves a blog post nevertheless.

As you might already have figured out yourself, backpacking in Belize is not always cheap. But you can save some of your hard earned dollars during you stay in Placencia if you plan a bit ahead.

Table of contents:

1. How to get to Placencia with public transport
2. Hostels in Placencia
3. Things to do in Placencia
4. Interesting places close to Placencia
5. Where to go after Placencia?

How to get to Placencia with public transport

One way of getting to Placencia is by bus, which you can catch from Belmopan. Don’t panic if you have to change buses in Dangriga. Ideally, when you go to Placencia, it is to stay for a few nights. The journey with a bus takes a couple of hours to reach the southernmost point of the peninsula, where Placencia is situated.

On the map below you can see the location of Placencia and some of the places mentioned in this post.

Hostels in Placencia

My friend and I arrived late in the evening on a weekend and had not booked anything beforehand since it was off-season and hoped for the best. We had searched for hostels online, and found the hostel Anda di Hows.

This was a very laid back hostel on the beach with kitchen facilities and one room with 10 bunk beds. If you are on a very tight budget this is one option. I recommend that you book beforehand if you decide to stay in this hostel for a few nights. As usually, you get what you pay for. The nights at Anda di Hows were humid, noisy and crowded.

Other hostels in Placencia include The Royal Rat Hostel and Placencia Hostel. All three hostels have good reviews according to Google Maps.

Saving money on accommodation allows you for more fun activities in the day. If you are a light sleeper and value a good night’s sleep highly, this hostel is not for you 🙂

Things to do in Placencia

There are a lot of activities you can book in Placencia, such as snorkeling trips, island trips, cultural trips. Personally, we just spent a day on the beach (The Volley Ball Beach), lying under the palm trees and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

We went swimming on the beach and found a big starfish and even spotted a manatee! That was the biggest surprise to the both of us. The manatee was very calm, and we only watched it from the surface.

Once you get hungry, there are many restaurants in Placencia, and I always recommend trying some local seafood when you are by the sea. We also had delicious pizza at Rick’s Cafe on the beach walk (see photo below).

Interesting places close to Placencia

After visiting Placencia we headed to Cockscomb Basin by taking the Hokey Pokey Water Taxi to Independence. Note that in Independence there were not a lot of taxis, and it is a bit of a walk from the water taxi to the bus station, so make sure you have plenty of time to catch the bus.

Alternatively, take the bus from Placencia and go from there, there is nothing wrong with that, we just wanted to see something different and try the water taxi 🙂.

We did see an osprey, and the water taxi takes you through a mangrove forest, which is pretty damn cool.

Where to go after Placencia?

If you are traveling from the southern part of Belize, you can continue your journey north and visit laid-back Hopkins, look for jaguars in Cockscomb, head directly to the Cayes (the Caribbean style islands off the Belizean coast), or you can head to action packed San Ignacio. Here you can see a suggestion for your Belize itinerary.

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© All photos are my own unless stated and may not be used without permission.

None of the mentioned places or experiences in this post were sponsored.