The first place every visitor sees is Belize City, heart of the country and starting point for every adventure. At the center of transportation, commerce, culture, even politics - although not the capital - all roads, flights, and cruises lead to Belize City, simply called Belize by locals.

In the past, people merely transited Belize City en route to other points. Today, however, so many attractions await in or near the city that many visitors base themselves here, then experience Belize in a series of excursions. Spend the day nearly anywhere in the country, then return in plenty of time for dinner and a show.

Flanked by water on three sides, low-lying Belize City juts out from the coast, split by Haulover Creek, which separates the commercial south, with several banks, offices, markets, and historic sites, from the residential north, with its hotels, shops, embassies, and colonial houses. The Swing Bridge connects the two halves.

Gregarious locals create a mélange of ethnic groups. Mestizos, Maya,  Creoles, Mennonites, Chinese, Garinagus, and East Indians all live in this peaceable kingdom. Taxi drivers and vendors love to strike up conversations and spin yarns for visitors. While the city feels larger than it really is, the small-town friendliness of its people gives away the modest size, just 67,000 residents.

Although the country's only urban area, much of the city's idyllic past remains. Unpretentious, low-rise, British-colonial charm shows through the Victorian houses with gingerbread fretwork that endure from previous centuries. The historic Swing Bridge may be the only manually operated span of its kind left in the world.

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