Ambergris Caye

The water is the reason people come. The Belize Barrier Reef runs parallel to the east coast, so the sea between reef and shore is calm, shallow, turquoise and around 27°C to 29°C for most of the year. The beaches themselves are less impressive than that colour suggests: a narrow strip of sand backed by palms and hotels, with seagrass underfoot close to shore. Most people swim from the end of long wooden docks, where the water is deeper and clearer.

The better sand lies north of San Pedro, where the resorts thin out and the shore gets quieter, and on the lagoon side at Secret Beach, where shallow, still water is made for wading and floating. Seaweed can wash up on the east coast in warmer months. Days revolve around the water, a hammock and a dock, rather than a long swimming beach.

Eating here means seafood: grilled snapper, conch ceviche and, in the season from June to February, spiny lobster on almost every menu. Belizean cooking turns up in stew chicken with rice and beans, fry jacks for breakfast, and cheap tacos and burritos from roadside stands in San Pedro. The range is better than the island's size suggests, from beach shacks to candlelit dining rooms in the northern resorts, with Belikin beer and rum punch as the default drinks. It is still a small island, though, and much of what is served is pitched at visitors, with imported ingredients and little that would draw anyone for the food alone.

There is very little to see in the sense of sights. San Pedro is a former fishing village of painted wooden houses and a small central park with a church, pleasant to stroll but without museums or landmarks of note. Small Maya sites such as Marco Gonzalez in the south and the remains in Bacalar Chico at the northern tip show the island's long history as a trading post, but they are modest mounds rather than temples. Visitors interested in Maya heritage go to the mainland.

Evenings centre on San Pedro, where open-air bars on the sand and over the water fill up at sunset and a handful of dance spots keep going past midnight, busiest around the weekend and in the winter high season. The tone is barefoot and sociable, with rum punch, reggae and punta on the speakers, and quirky weekly rituals at the beach bars that become part of a stay. Staying north of town makes for a quieter night, reached back by golf cart or water taxi. It is fun for a few nights, but it is a small-town scene with no club culture to speak of.

The reef is the landscape here. The Belize Barrier Reef, part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, lies a few hundred metres offshore, and Hol Chan Marine Reserve near the southern tip is a short boat ride from San Pedro, with coral gardens, turtles and eagle rays in clear shallow water. Next to it, Shark Ray Alley puts snorkellers among nurse sharks and stingrays. Divers go further, to the atolls of Turneffe and Lighthouse Reef, where the Great Blue Hole lies about two hours away by boat.

The lagoon side of the island is all mangrove and flats, famous for bonefish, permit and tarpon fishing, with kayaking, paddleboarding and kitesurfing on the steady trade winds. Bacalar Chico National Park in the north adds birdlife and wild coast. On land the island is flat and there is no hiking worth the name.

The easiest day out is Caye Caulker, a smaller and sleepier island about 45 minutes south by water taxi, with sand streets, a split in the island for lounging and a slower rhythm than San Pedro. For Maya history, organised trips cross to the mainland: Altun Ha, with its restored temple plazas, is the closest, while Lamanai, reached by a long boat ride up the New River through jungle, makes for a full and memorable day. Belize City itself has little to hold a visitor. Beyond these few outings, everything else on the mainland is a long journey.

Families come for the calm sea: the reef breaks the waves, so the water is flat and warm, and children old enough to snorkel can see turtles and rays on a short boat trip to Hol Chan. English is the everyday language, the pace is easy and golf carts make getting about a small adventure in itself. There is nothing made specifically for children, though, no aquarium, zoo or play attractions, and the seagrass and dock swimming are less suited to toddlers than a sandy, gently shelving beach. Resorts with pools in the north of the island make the most practical base with young children.

San Pedro is compact enough to walk, and the island's own transport is the golf cart, rented by the day or week, with bicycles and taxis as alternatives. North of the river bridge the resorts spread along a long, narrow road where a cart ride takes a while, and some places are easiest to reach by water taxi along the lagoon or the coast. There is no bus network. Everything on the water, from snorkelling to diving, means a boat, and reaching the island itself takes a short flight or a boat ride of about an hour and a half from Belize City.

Shopping is a small affair along Front Street and the lanes of San Pedro: T-shirts, beachwear, hot sauces, Belizean coffee and chocolate, rum, carved hardwood bowls and a few galleries selling local paintings. It is pleasant to browse for an afternoon, but there is no fashion, no market of note and nothing worth planning a trip around.

This is one of the costliest places to stay in Central America. Almost everything is shipped in, so groceries, restaurant meals and drinks are priced at North American levels or above, and beachfront rooms in the high season from December to April are expensive. Golf cart hire, diving and snorkelling trips add up quickly. Simple guesthouses in San Pedro, taco stands and local lunch counters bring daily costs down, and low season is noticeably cheaper, but it is not a budget island.

There is no theatre, concert hall or regular performing arts programme. Live music means a band or a guitarist at a beach bar, with occasional Garifuna drumming and punta dancing, and local festivals such as the summer celebration of the lobster season bring street music for a few days. Anyone wanting more than that will not find it on the island.

Ambergris Caye moves at an easy, unhurried pace. Outside San Pedro there is little to do except be near the water, and the northern part of the island, beyond the river bridge, is quiet enough that evenings end with the sound of the trade wind in the palms. Spas belong to the resorts, mostly in the north, with massages in open-air treatment rooms and yoga decks facing the reef, and day visitors can usually book in.

There is no bathing tradition of its own: no thermal water, hammams or bathhouses, so rest comes from the setting rather than from a wellness culture. For the most restful stay, choose a resort well north of town, away from the golf-cart traffic of the centre.