The fourth day of our Western Caribbean cruise brought us to Harvest Caye, Belize. (If you missed the other parts of this cruise summary, check out the posts on New Orleans/Cozumel and Roatan.) Harvest Caye is a private island owned by Norwegian Cruise Line. There is a beautiful beach area, a pool, shops and restaurants, and it’s quite lovely. But, as you might have read from some of our previous trip reports, we really enjoy exploring the local areas. We had learned there was a ferry from Harvest Caye to Placencia, a small Belize village on a peninsula, and this was exciting news for us.
We got off the ship as early as we were allowed because we wanted to catch the earliest ferry possible to maximize our time in Placencia. We bought our tickets right at the dock, and after a short (15-20 minutes) ferry ride, we arrived. We found the cutest village, with friendly people, a literal sidewalk as Main Street, and beauty everywhere.
From the pier, we started walking down the Main Street sidewalk into the heart of the village. We passed some locals selling souvenirs, and saw many cute shops. We headed inside a little cafe that was right on the beach for some coffee and the most delicious pastries. It was surely one of the better breakfast views I’ve ever had.
We walked a little further and came upon a beautiful boutique hotel. We went in the lobby to see if we could get some more information, and the lady at the desk was kind enough to tell us to make ourselves at home and explore the property. This was in January, considered their high season, yet it was quiet and non-crowded. This hotel is clearly somewhere we’d like to return and spend some extended time.
We continued winding our way down the sidewalk, stopping to talk with locals and friendly expats who told us how much they loved living there. We made our usual stops in a grocery store and pharmacy because we always find those places so interesting in other countries.
We had read online about a restaurant right on the beach called the Tipsy Tuna, so when we came to it we knew it was where we wanted to have lunch.
The food and drinks were delicious, the views were next level, the prices were cheap- what’s not to love?? (Side note, we couldn’t believe how cheap our bill was. When Barry went to pay, they said, “Oh no, that price is in Belize dollars.” Exchange rate is 2-1, so it was actually only half what we thought!) We could have stayed for hours- I would at least have liked to stay until the live music started- but we had to head back to catch the ferry. This is easily a place I would love to spend a whole day!
We rode the ferry back to Harvest Caye, and spent a little time checking out some of the shops there. We bought a couple souvenirs and some delicious Belizean chocolate, then returned to the ship for a fun evening of dinner and dueling pianos.
The next day, day 5, we stopped in Costa Maya, Mexico. This is quite honestly not my favorite port. But Barry hadn’t been there before, so we got off to explore. The port has been very built up by the cruise lines with a lot of souvenir shops and restaurants. They do have an area to swim with the dolphins which I had done on my last visit there. There are also some beach areas a short cab ride away, but since we’d done that earlier in the week in Cozumel (with much nicer beaches in my opinion) we stayed inside the port. After walking around the shops for a little bit, we headed back to the ship. Sometimes we enjoy spending time on the ship while in port- everything is much less crowded and it can really make for a relaxing day. So we had a lovely afternoon by the mostly empty pool.
We woke up the next day to our last full day of vacation, a day at sea. Not everyone enjoys these sea days, but they are always one of my favorite days. There is no schedule, no rush to get off and make the most of your port day- just plenty of time to do as much or as little as you’d like. There are always activities planned on the ship if you want to do that- everything from bingo to karaoke to going to the gym. Sometimes we enjoy some of these things. Some days we just eat and drink and read by the pool. Usually we do a little mixture of both, but this day the weather was perfect, so we spent most of the time by the pool or on our balcony. We knew we’d be heading home the next day to some intense winter weather, so we soaked up the sun as much as we could.
We disembarked the next morning for our flight from New Orleans back to Nashville. As we left the Nashville airport it was starting to snow, so we decided to quickly stop by the grocery for a few things. It wasn’t so quick since it was Snowmageddon in there- the bread and milk was long gone- and by the time we got home there were already a couple inches on the ground. This turned into 7-8 inches overnight, making us very thankful for our safe return home and already dreaming of warmer weather. I am definitely not a snow bunny, to the surprise of absolutely no one who knows me.
The Western Caribbean is surely a wonderful winter escape that we’d recommend to anyone looking for some sun and adventure. As always, please leave us comments or questions, and check back soon for more trip reports from the year! There are some big ones coming up, so stay tuned! Thanks for reading our blog!
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