Leonardo DiCaprio’s eco-resort transforms backpacking Belize into a luxury holiday destination
The hiker’s haven is becoming a luxury holiday destination with development of upmarket hotel resorts, including one owned by Oscar-winning actor
For all of Belize’s cultural diversity, the country’s melting pot heritage is equal parts Mayan, Creole, Mestizo, Spanish, Lebanese, Chinese, British, Indian, and Mennonite – its tourism scene is surprisingly one-note.
Nearly three-quarters of the 1.4 million annual visitors to the eastern Central American nation arrive by cruise ship from the Caribbean Sea.
They dock for just enough time to see the Altun Ha Mayan ruins, ride some zip lines, or go tubing – the leisure activity of riding on water or snow on a large inflated inner tube – through its famed Crystal Cave.
And, while a small clutch of luxury hotels exists, led by the pioneering, culinary-focused Copal Tree Lodge and Turtle Inn, the private island resort of film director Francis Ford Coppola and his family – Belize has suffered from a backpacker reputation that undermines its true Caribbean charms.
However, that’s changing.
“When I started coming here 15 years ago, it was Birkenstocks [shoes] and REI [shoulder] bags on the TropicAir flights,” Beth Clifford, founder of the three-month-old Mahogany Bay Resort & Beach Club, says of the 14-seat Cessna flights that are ubiquitous in Belize.
“I just got off a TropicAir plane today and counted no fewer than three Louis Vuitton bags. The profile has changed entirely.”
Mahogany Bay is the first in a long string of luxury resort coming to Belize.