Placencia is essentially a 27 mile peninsula off the southern highway in South Central Belize. It is perhaps the best known resort area in Belize after Ambergris Caye. It is home to the best beaches, restaurants and nightlife in Southern Belize and possibly the whole country (non cayes). It contains more speed humps per mile of road than I have ever seen. It is the fastest growing area of Belize and it is just a really nice place to be.

The town of Placencia proper is the last mile or two at the end of the peninsula and home to the vast majority of the restaurants and nightlife. It is a pleasant place to walk around and offers a really relaxed, safe, cool vibe.

I am staying at the beautiful Robert’s Grove Resort and have an absolutely amazing villa. It is located about 6 miles north of Placencia town, where of course I started my first night by eating and drinking!

The best restaurant in town is a place called Rumfish. It is a cute little indoor outdoor second floor restaurant featuring specialty mojitos, caipirinhas and views of the local soccer game being played under the lights. The highlight of the meal though was the killer conch fritter appetizer and the amazing short rib lasagna. It was divine.

After dinner it’s straight to Tutti Frutti for some of the best gelato you will have anywhere outside of Italy. It is actually run by a guy from Venice who imports everything straight from Italy. Trust me, you can tell the difference in quality.

After dinner and dessert, the best way to cap off the night is to head to the best known watering hole in town called Barefoot Bar. It is a pretty awesome Caribbean style bar featuring a steel drum band and lots of reggae. It happens to still be Spring Break time right now so we had to deal with some drunken 19 year college kids excited that they can drink; but it was still pretty fun.

Upon waking up to the beautiful pool, I had to check out the peninsula and it’s incredible real estate. There are some enormous multi-million dollar mansions along the peninsula. But nowhere in Belize have I seen the disparity between rich and poor so much as in Placencia because these mansions are a few hundred yards away from where poor people sleep in ramshackle huts.

Placencia is also home to the most famous hotel in the country, run by its most famous resident, Francis Ford Coppola. His resort, Turtle Inn, is one of two he has in the country and is supposed to be amazing. I didn’t go inside, but I did manage to snap a picture or two from the outside. My hotel is a mile or so up the road.

Speaking of the road. The biggest issue I have with Placencia in general is that the peninsular road; which is narrow and has water on both sides must have 50 speed humps (insert joke here). It is beyond me why there are so many. It is actually enraging because you have to stop every 10 seconds for one and if you’re in a van, the whole thing is jarring.

However, that aside, Placencia is pretty awesome and is certainly my favorite Belize town that I have been to thus far and I have been to pretty much every town here. I still have another night or so here before I head up to Ambergris Caye as I am currently doing a property tour at an awesome development down here.

More to follow on that.

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