BELIZE

This year we celebrated our 20th anniversary and after seriously considering a trip to Norway we pivoted to a warmer destination. We have visited so many islands around the Caribbean as well as other tourist hot spots and realized we had never been to Belize. It was a WONDERFUL trip where I read an entire book, we did hours of relaxing, hours of fun adventures, ate everything, tried all the fruity drinks and enjoyed every moment of just us. 

Here is my summary of the country:

Pros: Probably the nicest people we've ever been around. Everyone was genuinely kind and not in a cheesy trying-to-get-a-tip way. Like in a real way. Also the views from the small hopper plane (I got to sign next to the captain on the way back!) were amazing. Such a cool experience to be in those types of planes flying over gorgeous oceans. The waters are BLUE and they have the second largest barrier reef in the world only behind Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The food was PHENOMENAL. We had the most delicious quesadillas, lobster, tacos, fajitas, omelets, chicken, etc, etc! The biggest pro, however, HAD to be the swimming with manatees. We were told there was only a 50% chance of seeing one and when we arrived to the spot there she was. The resident manatee and we only had 4 adults in the water so it was almost a private showing. That combined with the sea turtles and all of the other water creatures made for amazing snorkeling. Also swimming with sharks was pretty damn cool too. Lastly, the cave tubing was pretty darn cool. You can't do that in many countries and was quite the unique experience. 

Cons: The biggest con was not being able to swim off the beach. There is about 20-40 feet of heavy seaweed that surrounds the islands and you don't swim in it due to stench and irritation. Also the mainland in general. We had to go through Belize City for our cave tubing and zip lining and it's pretty rough with an extreme poverty level. Also the islands don't have stop signs, rather speed bumps. This was really rough on my old back for a week.