Parks and the outdoors in San Ignacio

Parks and the outdoors in San Ignacio

1. See

   Belize Botanic Gardens

   Drive as above, but turn right at the fork. This will take you to a botanical garden with a walking path of about 3 km. Here you can also find an interesting lodge (see Sleep below).

2. See

   Branch Mouth

   About 20 minutes walk from downtown along Branch Mouth Road. The confluence of the rivers Macal and Mopan, forming the Belize river. In addition to the natural attraction, there's the low-hanging Hammock Bridge (not for people who're afraid of heights), and a small park with a picnic area and a beach.

3. See

   Cahal Pech

   The main attraction in the town. Cahal Pech is a smallish set of Mayan ruins that were abandoned around 800-900 AD. There is an indoor museum displaying artifacts, a site plan, and information on the ruins in a regional context. There are, allegedly, guided tours, but these are unneeded, as the site is easy to traverse. The entire site should take 1-2 hours at most for a thorough exploration. Once at the ruins, the site is fairly flat, but Cahal Pech is at the top of the hill overlooking San Ignacio. The walk uphill to it from the main town is quite exhausting and is difficult even from the San Ignacio Resort Hotel on the hill. If you have any disability, or are in poor physical condition, you will want to drive.

   Daily during daylight hours·Admission is BZ$20 (US$10) for foreigners, BZ$10 (US$5) for residents

4. See

   Caracol

   Biggest ruin in Belize, once inhabited by 140000 people and biggest city to exist in today's Belize. Yet partially unexcavated, so you really feel like you are in a national park on a ruin. Ca'ana, place of the sky, is one of the biggest and most massive temples in the Mayan world. Definitely a must see ruin, and it comes with stops at Rio On Pools and Rio Frio Cave too.

5. See

   Chaa Creek

   Follow the Old Benque Road towards the border and then turn left on the Chial Road, drive for 5 km past the airport, and turn left at the fork to get to Chaa Creek. Here you can find two interesting lodging options (see Sleep below), the Rainforest Medicine Trail and the Chaa Creek Natural History Center & Butterfly Farm.

6. Eat

   Guava Limb

   Upscale restaurant at not so upscale prices. Fish, seafood, steak, pizzas and pasta and delicious cakes for dessert. Nice location next to a park with the tables on a veranda on the second floor.

   around B$20

7. See

   Iguana Hatchery

   Visit the Iguana Conservation Project and the interpretive Medicinal Jungle Trail at the San Ignacio Hotel. Ranked as one of the best family excursions in San Ignacio.

   tour daily at 9AM, 11AM, 1PM and 3PM·US$11.25 pp

8. See

   Xunantunich

   Maya Ruins

   Wear good shoes, bring water and plan to spend about 3-4 hours. There is a free hand-cranked ferry in Succotz over the Mopan River. From there you can easily walk the 1 mi (mostly uphill) to the site. As of Oct 2025, the main Visitor Center near the entrance is closed indefinitely. There's a small Education Center (with a few info boards) and a small Visitor Center (displaying stelae) further up the hill, adjacent to the ruins.

   BZ$25 for foreigners; BZ$10 for residents

9. See Not mapped

   Medicinal Jungle Trail

   Educational path in the jungle with around 70 different plants, moreover you may see some animals. Walking the path isn't too challenging and will take some 45 minutes. The path is south of town near Buenavista Road.

Listings from the Wikivoyage guide to San Ignacio (CC BY-SA 4.0).