Editor Tamara (l) treats her visiting friend Courtney to a day stay at Caves Branch Jungle Lodge.

Many people who travel try to visit new places instead of returning to the same place time and again. I understand that. There’s so much to see and do in this vast world; if you’re like me, the FOMO (fear of missing out) is real! With limited time and often limited funds, we want to discover new places and do new things, ticking off the travel to-do list as we go.

But what do you do when you love a place so much that you keep coming back, discovering more reasons why you love it each time? When we moved to Belize over twenty years ago, my husband exclaimed, “Now we can go somewhere else when we take a vacation!” And he was right—I no longer needed to get my Belize “fix” now that we lived here!

Now the conundrum of favorite places lies within the country, and amazingly, after all these years of exploring Belize, there’s so much we have yet to see or do. But sometimes, we are guilty of gravitating to places we cannot resist. Sometimes, the comfort of going to a place you are familiar with relieves you of the anticipation of the unknown. Here, you know what to expect, what you love about it, and there’s no learning curve; just settle into your home away from home and enjoy the surroundings.

We are especially guilty of this when we have friends and family visiting who want to explore the country. Depending on their interests, we already have an itinerary at the ready. Ian Anderson’s Cave Branch Jungle Lodge is one of our go-to places in the Cayo District. We’ve taken countless friends and family there for a real-deal Belizean experience, complete with warm hospitality, gorgeous rooms, lush landscape, delicious food, and all-around comfort. We have countless favorites in Belize, but if you haven’t stayed at one of our jungle lodges, do yourself a favor and check it out – they’re just one of the many highlights in My Beautiful Belize!