Itinerary for vacationing in Hopkins Belize with a 5 year old! We have family that lives in Belize and we travel there frequently. Visit Hopkins like a local, we know all the spots.

Hopkins, Belize

On Wednesday we did a horseback riding trip with Outback Stables. We did not bring our son as we had family watching him for us. Though the tour guides mentioned having accommodated 5 year olds before. The farm was so pretty and well maintained. The horses were beautiful and friendly. We even got to see and pet a few of the colts that were recently born. We had such a great ride through the jungle and to a river. Bring your suit and you can even jump in to cool off halfway through the ride.

The most important thing you need to know when traveling to Belize from the US is that you need a passport! Make sure if you don’t have one, to submit for a new passport at least 6 months before your trip. 

We also booked our stay about a year in advance as places book up quickly. We stayed at Villa Rising Sun which is a private beach home rental. There are tons of resorts and other ways to stay in Hopkins. It’s hard to go wrong when staying there. Villa Rising Sun fully aides you in planning your trip, from groceries, to excursions, to private cooks, you can literally book anything and everything right from their site. It makes it so easy! 

As far as flights go, you will fly into Belize City. From there you can either get a rental car and drive 1 hour down a paved highway to Hopkins. Or you can fly on a jumper plane to Dangriga and a taxi can pick you up from there. This can all be arranged through Villa Rising Sun as well. We’ve done both options, but much prefer our own car while we are there. We rent from Crystal Auto rental and have had nothing but great experiences with them. 

We arrived early in Belize City, got our rental car, and actually visited the Belize Zoo before heading to Hopkins. It’s a small zoo but they have tons of local wildlife. It’s so worth the stop, jaguars, howler monkeys, tapirs, and so much more. All the animals are rescues too, which we loved! 

For us day 2 was a relax day. We got everything unpacked, got some groceries in order, and hung out on the beach. 

Villa Rising Sun has a nice tiki hut on the beach where you relax and sip on drinks. They also have a dock with swings. Our son loved running and jumping off the dock and swings into the beautiful blue water. Sometimes at night you can spot manatees, jelly fish, stingrays, and tons of fish off the end of the dock. 

We walked down the beach a bit in the afternoon and stopped at Belizean Dreams. They serve our favorite drinks in Belize, the best frozen coconut mint mojitos EVER.

Tuesday nights are drumming nights at Driftwood. The local drummers come and put on a drumming show and it is so fun to listen and dance and soak up some local culture. They also have the best pizza in the village, 5 year old approved. 

After our ride we stopped at the Maya Center on our way back for the best Mayan Chocolate around.  They also offer chocolate making tours at specific times, but we did not go on one. We’ve heard that the tours are really good though! 

For lunch we dropped in at the Swinging Armadillo. We had their fry chicken, and shrimp tacos. The food, drinks, and atmosphere was top notch. Right on the ocean, a beautiful view. 

Wednesdays are Windschief nights! The best special in the village, $12 Belize for 3 drinks and Putt Putt. Their food and atmosphere is great as well. Try your hand at some foosball on the beach while you’re there too. 

We woke up early to get to our favorite waterfall spot by 9am. 

We packed snacks and stayed all morning into the afternoon. 

On our way back we stopped at Southern Highway Snacks for some delicious traditional Mayan food. We stopped here a few times, you can’t go wrong, everything you order will be amazing, and their fruit juices are so good too! 

Later that night we did a bioluminescent tour through Get To Know Belize Tours. It was an overcast day and hadn’t rained in a while which was perfect conditions for the bioluminescence to be super bright. They take you out on a small boat we looked for crocs along the river (and spotted one) as it got dark enough for us to enter the lagoon and see the bioluminescence. 

Spray yourself down with bug spray good before you arrive, the mosquitos are fierce. Wear your swim suit under your clothes and you can even jump in and swim in the bioluminescence, it’s otherworldly! 

Pictures on your phone don’t capture the bioluminescence well, but trust me it was bright and vivid sparkling blue water. 

Another travel day. We left Hopkins about 3.5 hours before our flight so we had enough time to drive to Belize City, fill up the rental car at J Mall gas station which is the last stop before the airport for gas. 

We went to our favorite breakfast place ever, Thongs. I ordered the Thongs French Toast (different than the regular french toast on the menu), order it, trust me. All of their food and smoothies are so good there. Their new location is so cute and right on the beach too!

After breakfast we headed out a little over an hour drive to Placencia. We do this drive solely because we are obsessed with a gelato place there, Tutti Frutti. Yes we have an ice cream problem. 

Now up until this point everything I’ve listed has been kid friendly. This next restaurant is kid friendly if you want, however it is definitely fine dining and our child cannot handle being at a fine dining restaurant. We thankfully had family watching him so my husband and I could go to our favorite restaurant in Hopkins, Chef Robs.

They have a cute boardwalk with lots of local Mayan gift shops. As well as some pretty cute beach bars. We usually stop at Tipsy Tuna for some colorful drinks. But basically we are just crazy and drive 2+ hours round trip for gelato. 

We almost always do the 4 course meal; soup, salad, entree, dessert. Because honestly you can’t miss out on any of these things. I know you’re thinking soup in 90 degree Belize, no way. Do it, it’s the best soup you’ll ever have in your life. 

I always order the filet, and my husband gets the surf and turf. You really can’t go wrong here, the Chef is absolutely amazing. 

After hiking and swimming we went back and cleaned up for an early dinner at Maya Heights. This one takes the cake for best view with your meal, up at the top of mountain overlooking the valley.  

After breakfast at home and another stop at Roast of course, we headed to Mayflower Bocawina National Park. We did this without a tour guide, I will say the road getting back to the trails we wanted to do was rough. You for sure need 4 wheel drive, there was a large very bumpy hill that we barely made it back up and we should have parked before the hill and hiked to the trailhead. 

We attempted the Tears of the Jaguar Falls trail 3.2 miles. However, on day 6 in Belize our son was exhausted and cranky. Thankfully this trail has 3 waterfalls on it. We arrived at Lower Bocawina Falls after only about 15-20 minutes of hiking. The waterfall was ok and you were able to take a dip in it, but it wasn’t the best for swimming. 

Now we intended to hike only another 15-20 minutes to Upper Bocawina Falls and then only another 7 minutes from there to Tears of the Jaguar Falls which both looked very cool in pictures. However it does have a decent incline to get up to those two falls and our son had absolutely had it. If we did this hike early on in the trip I don’t think it would have been an issue for him. 

You park in the lot at the bottom of the hill and the attendant will call a Jeep to come pick you up and take you up to the restaurant. 

We had amazing food there, great appetizers, pesto Parmesan pasta, and lobster nachos for dinner. Super fun and delicious drinks as well. 

This was another relax day for us. We of course walked down for our favorite drinks at Belizean Dreams again. Stopping at Jaguar Reef’s Hopkins swings on our way. 

We also got pizzas to go from Beaches and Dreams and took them back to the Villa to eat under the tiki hut on our beach. 

So for our second to last day we had a sailboat trip out to Bread and Butter Island planned. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and we were unable to go. Though we have done this tour before and it’s clearly a favorite of ours. You take a beautiful sailboat ride out to some snorkeling, then out to the island. All around the island is shallow enough for you to wade, swim, and snorkel all around the island or just relax in the hammocks on the beach. The tour guide will cook lunch and sometimes they will cook the fish they catch on the sailboat ride out there! 

This trip can be arranged through Villa Rising Suns website.

Since our trip got cancelled we went inland and checked out the Ya’axkin Butterfly Farm. The tour guide showed us each stage of the butterflies with actual eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalises. Then we walked across the street to the butterfly house which was small but nice, and there were lots of butterflies in it. It was a nice inexpensive tour if the weather isn’t super favorable for a beach day. 

It also gave us a second chance to stop at Southern Highway Snacks for more delicious lunch. 

Hopkins, Belize

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