Bella Vita Casitas

Wrapped along Paradise Street in Placencia village, Bella Vita Casitas delivers a quiet alternative to the peninsula's larger resorts, with casita-style accommodation steps from the narrow beach path that locals call the world's second-smallest main street.

The village sits at the tip of a 26-kilometre peninsula in southern Belize, with the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef roughly 10 kilometres offshore — snorkel and dive boats depart directly from the dock at the end of the road. Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, the world's first jaguar preserve, is a 45-minute drive inland.

Placencia runs slower than Ambergris Caye, with family-owned restaurants, a Saturday farmers market, and no traffic lights on the entire peninsula.