Taking the Kids: Making time for romance

Another plus: English is the official language and U.S. dollars are accepted everywhere.

Especially during the pandemic, vacationers are seeking nonstop flights to destinations where they have private accommodations, open-air dining, and plenty to do outdoors. Tiny Belize, just about the size of Massachusetts with fewer than 500,000 residents, certainly fits the bill. From Chaa Creek you can see Mayan ruins, explore caves, go tubing, horseback ride or bird watch (there are some 500 species here more than 300 at Chaa Creek we learned on an early-morning bird watching walk). Kids love the horseback riding, jungle treasure hunts, the butterfly farm, where Blue Morphos and owl butterflies land on your arms, Treasures of the Night walks and more. Have you ever seen a bug that glows?

Then after all that activity, there’s time to kick back on the beach. Take out a kayak or paddle board at Naia! Go snorkeling or diving. Belize boasts the second-longest reef in the world. Sample local seafood dishes like conch fritters, Caribbean lobster and shrimp ceviche. Take an Open Hearth cooking class at Chaa Creek, cooking over a traditional wood stove. The dishes spotlight different Belizean cultures, including Maya and Mestizo, which comes from the Spanish word for “mixed,” those who share Spanish and Maya ancestry and now number half the Belizean population.

This iconic eco resort, widely considered one of the world’s best, actually started with a romance nearly a half century ago. Lucy and Mick Fleming, then in their 20s, met picking apples in Britain and decided to travel together to South America. They stopped in Belize and in a bar, met a man with an overgrown 140-acre farm to sell.

“We never made it to South America,” said Lucy Fleming, now a grandmother who is about to celebrate her 75th birthday.

They bought the farm — there were no roads, hot water or electricity — and began growing vegetables, bringing them to market in a dugout canoe, as the Maya had done 1,000 years earlier. (Mayan ruins have been found on the property.) Backpackers found their way there offering to help with chores in return for lodging. The Flemings built cottages and bought more land, raised two kids, added an organic farm, goats, cattle and horses, added a butterfly farm, upgraded the thatched-roof cottages and built luxury villas (with the private hot tubs and outdoor showers). Daughter Bryony now oversees the resort. From the beginning, giving back to the local community has been a priority. While we were there, some 70 pounds of school supplies were distributed through a Pack-a-Pound program that invites guests to make room in their bags for much-needed crayons, pencils, notebooks and more.

“People always say they wish they had more time,” said Lucy Fleming. “There is so much to do in Belize!

But with remote work, one Californian at Naia Resort, laptop in hand, told me, “there’s really no reason to rush home.”

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(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow TakingTheKids on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments. The Kid’s Guide to Philadelphia, the 13th in the kid’s guide series, was published in 2020, with The Kid’s Guide to Camping coming in 2021.)