Don Tonito’s, Belize Collection’s First Restaurant Franchise

A Taste of Familiar Comforts in a Top Travel Destination

Neapolitan pizza is not likely to come to mind in the top five foods to try while visiting Belize, but it’d be a mistake to miss out on The Belize Collection’s venture with the Italian staple. Now with locations at every TBC resort, there’s even less excuse for missing out on picking up a slice of cheesy goodness.

First located exclusively at The Rainforest Lodge at Sleeping Giant, Don Tonito’s (launched in 2019) was such a success that managing director Ian Lizarraga and the Collection’s executive chef Rahim Melendez decided that the restaurant was due for an expansion. In 2022, they set out to do just that. They’ve successfully developed two new locations at The Lodge at Jaguar Reef and Umaya Resort.


Now every resort under The Belize Collection banner has something familiar for visitors to complement the elevated Belizean cuisines at our signature restaurants, the Grove House, the Paddle House, and Restaurante Laguna.

Of course, expanding a restaurant into a franchise is more than making the same kitchens in a new area. It also requires training personnel in the delicate art of pizza-making. Chef Rahim took it upon himself to recruit from across The Belize Collection’s kitchens for this venture. Several of Don Tonito’s new cooks had humble origins working as dishwashers at The Belize Collection before being hand selected by Chef Rahim for weeks-long training.

Chef Rahim says he recruited in this manner because he believes that if you’re willing to ‘plant a seed, you can yield great results with care.’ In his own words, a basic pizza is not hard to make, but doing them with a high degree of excellence requires a high degree of attention throughout the process of creating the dough with its fermentation and ensuring the ovens maintain the right temperature.

That attention to detail was one of the kinks Chef Rahim and his team had to work out at the new beachfront Don Tonito’s locations. For instance, the rainforest-inhabiting original cooks its pizzas at 700 degrees Fahrenheit. However, due to the sea breeze facing the new locations, Rahim has had to increase the temperatures to 750 degrees to achieve the same quality visitors have come to expect. Although pizzas originated across the ocean, using wood-burning stoves has been a long-held tradition of Belizean cooks. The locally sourced wood infuses the pizza with the terroir of the Jewel itself.

The pizzas are made of the same high-quality ingredients at all three locations. The flour used is a protein-rich variety custom-made for The Belize Collection by ADM flour mill in Belize City. This blend allows the pizzas achieve the crispiness, elasticity, and earthiness unmatched by other pizza proprietors that often use off-the-shelf flour varieties. The yeast is a variety that holds up to higher temperatures than what’s typically used in residential cooking, withstanding the high heat of Don Tonito’s ovens. Lastly, the cheese used is a variety with a lower fat content compared to local counterparts, minimizing the greasiness of the pizza and allowing for balance between the pizza’s various flavors.

With ovens fueled with locally sourced wild craboo trees, Don Tonito’s pizza pies possess a flavor unlike any other available in the country. Chef Rahim is proud of what The Belize Collection has been able to accomplish. For Ian Lizarraga, Don Tonitos’s reaffirms The Belize Collection’s commitment to what has made it such a success: providing Belizean authenticity. Grab a slice on your next trip.

The Perfect Valentine’s Day with The Belize Collection: Beach Edition

This Valentine’s Day, show your love with a limited-time getaway from The Belize Collection. After enjoying the splendors of the rainforest, relish your time with a loved one at the beach at The Lodge at Jaguar Reef. There, you can indulge in a full day of delights that’ll inspire and excite the love between you two. We’ve gone ahead and created the perfect itinerary for you.

  1. Maya Chocolate Tour

After checking in and taking a quick look at your accommodations, start your stay with the Maya Chocolate Tour. This tour will take you through the entire chocolate production process according to traditional Maya techniques. Learn the work involved in growing cacao, harvesting it, and transforming it into delectable chocolate treats. Instead of buying chocolate at the store like every other Valentine’s Day, you and your partner will learn how to make chocolate of your very own that you’ll be able to take with you for a midnight treat.

  1. Swim & Savor Ceviche at Big Dock Bar

Once you’ve gorged on some choice chocolate treats, head to the Big Dock Bar where you can leap from the dock straight into the Caribbean Sea. Enjoy the sensation of the warm sea as you course through laps around the dock, or simply thread while enjoying the sound of the waves lapping against the shore. Take a break on the dock where you can lay out and sunbathe while the Big Dock’s ceviche expert prepares for you a zesty and fresh ceviche made from seasonal seafood.

  1. Set Sail on the Hobie Cat

There’s nothing quite so romantic as taking to sea by a sailboat except for maybe venturing out on the lodge’s Hobie Cat. A sailing boat small in size that delivers in both intimacy and adventure, you’ll set to the seas on the coast of Hopkins with our famous Captain Larry. If you’ve got sailing experience, he’ll be glad to hand over the ropes to you so you and your partner can appreciate all it takes to travel with nothing but grit and the wind at your sails.

  1. Private Dinner on the Beach

You’ve done a lot together already, but it’d be a shame to call it a day before enjoying a private dinner on the beach courtesy of the Paddle House. Booked earlier in the day, this quintessential romantic encounter includes a private table, candles and flowers with your meal. Choose from a collection of wines, champagnes or mocktails. Pair with a special Valentine’s Day dinner menu curated by Chef Rahim, available exclusively on the day of love, and have yourselves an exquisite dining experience neither of you will ever forget.

  1. Wind Down in your Private Plunge Pool

As the lodge quietly turns in for the night and the lights begin to go out, retreat to your room for some rest and relaxation. The Deluxe Suite at Jaguar Reef comes equipped with a plunge pool perfect for cuddling and rinsing off the salt air. Take your time and enjoy your company before you launch into your next big day together.

Give yourself and your valentine the getaway that you’ll be talking about for years to come. Celebrate every kind of love with us by booking the Belize My Valentine package.

Get Away to Fall Together: Jungle Edition

‘Reaffirm Your Love This Valentine’s Day at The Belize Collection’ | Jungle

When there is little light in the world, those of us who are fortunate enough come home to a loved one that’s willing to listen to our woes and evoke our ugly laugh. It’s easy to forget how rare that person is, and how unique the bond you share can be in a world that often pushes us to the limit. You and your love deserve an opportunity to celebrate what you have in an intimate and secluded locale this Valentine’s Day. At The Belize Collection’s Rainforest Lodge at Sleeping Giant, you’ll discover new depths to your bond and make memories that’ll last the rest of your life amid a lush forest.

Scenic Kayaking on the Sibun River

After a night in one of Sleeping Giant’s luxurious rooms, you and your beloved can start the day by exploring the riverways of Monkey Bay together in a kayak. Paddling in sweet synchronicity along the Sibun river, your morning exploration will be rewarded by the dawn song of a variety of birds. In harmony with the flowing river’s melody, nature’s orchestra will inspire you to seize the day with your partner-in-love.

Couples Massage

After that gentle workout and a light breakfast at the Grove House, you return to your room where two of the resort’s masseuses have already prepared to provide you both with a soothing yet firm massage. Choose our best selling aromatherapy massage or elect to fully immerse yourself in the jungle experience with a mud mask. Allow the pressure to melt away any existing tension as you ease into the rest of the day’s activities, knowing that for the first in what feels like a long time, you’re with someone you can be lusciously vulnerable with.

Private Picnic on the Rope Bridge

From there, you’ll get ready in your best tropical day fits for a surprise you’ve prepared for your beloved. You lead them on one of the trails by the hand where suddenly amid a clearing a picnic appears as if by magic. This picnic you’ve prearranged with Sleeping Giant features all the elements of romance you would like from champagne to charcuterie to special fruit spreads prepared by the Grove House. Enjoy this earned decadence in style with an arrangement of plush pillows and blankets that’ll get you cozied up.

Horseback Riding

Belize may not have anything like the city that never sleeps, but like the Big Apple, the Jewel has horses aplenty. As part of your Valentine’s Day trip, treat yourselves to a romantic thrill via Sleeping Giant’s horseback riding tour.  Or, opt for the horse and buggy tour. With hands clasped, you and your loved one will be treated to a ride through Sleeping Giant’s grounds. You’ll take in the Maya Mountains, the citrus groves, and the newly developed residential area—the perfect sites to see before plotting your next steps together in life.

Private Dinner at the Cliff

End your day of love with the infinite expanse of the view from the cliff while enjoying one of the best dinners available in Belize. As you take in the sunset and the sounds of other animals bringing an end to their day, you’ll indulge in course after course of exquisite delights that’ll leave you satiated and enlivened for wherever the night takes you.

At The Rainforest Lodge at Sleeping Giant, you’ll create memories that’ll live with you for a lifetime. You deserve to be loved this well. Let Sleeping Giant make a day an everlasting memory.

Plan the perfect Valentine’s Day with The Belize Collection by booking our Belize My Valentine package.

A More Resolute You in 2023

Discard the Old Habits, and Encounter the New You at The Belize Collection

2022 was another challenging year for many, so who can blame you if you didn’t keep up with the workouts or reading a book a week? Still, for those lucky enough to see a new year, January brings an opportunity for change, abandoning those habits that took us away from who we want to be and rediscovering those that better align with, well, you.

Let 2023 be the year that you reattune with what’s best for yourself, and make the resorts at The Belize Collection help you by providing the perfect setting and conditions to get started.

            What makes The Belize Collection an ideal set of locales to reencounter yourself is that all of the Collection’s resorts offer seamless ways to integrate better habits into your life. For example, say you’re looking to hit 10,000 steps a day in the new year. Well, at The Rainforest Lodge at Sleeping Giant, you’ll be covered with many trails easily accessible, holding an abundance of tropical jungle sights to stop and gawk at along the way. So go at it at whatever pace you like, and re-enliven those parts of yourself that have lain dormant in the tumult of the past few years.

If cycling is more your speed, get a complimentary bike near the check-in desk and circle the property as much as you like as you find that peak moment of zen where you and the bicycle hit maximum flow.

Do you plan to practice yoga for core strength and mindfulness next year? Get your practice started in the best location by grabbing a yoga mat at our on-site yoga deck overlooking the creek. Move through poses while surrounded by a grounding space undisturbed by bustling culture. When you feel you’ve done enough, treat yourself to a cooldown swim in the crystalline creek.
You can also use your time at the Lodge to put the phone down more often. Wi-fi is intentionally limited solely to the rooms, lounge, and dining area to give you opportunities for an electronic fast.

If getting reattuned in a beach setting is more to your liking, you’ve got plenty of options with the Lodge at Jaguar Reef and Almond Beach Resort in Hopkins and the Umaya Resort in Placencia. Swim out into the soothing Caribbean Sea, where you can take a few laps in front of the Lodge before heading to the Big Dock bar to absorb some precious vitamin D in the bar’s sunning area. You can bring along that book you never got around to last year, and while away the hours alternating between swimming and brilliant literature.
Sometimes developing new habits involves taking more time to appreciate your present moment. Umaya offers the perfect conditions for that with a lagoonside deck that provides an exceptional opportunity to simply take in the setting sun as it courses across the water and behind the nearby Maya Mountains. Meditate or practice yoga there if you’d like to make your mindfulness practice a little more active. Or don’t. This year is going to be all about trusting yourself, building confidence in your instincts, and saying yes to more and no whenever you feel like it.

That goes for the food as well. While The Belize Collection offers many indulgences crafted by the Collection’s renowned Chef Rahim, all our resorts offer you the means to start on a more balanced path. Enjoy a steak one night and a luscious fruit bowl the following day as a promise to your older self. Swap out the fried potatoes for an arugula salad with one of our entrees. Make that switch from sodas to natural fruit juices you’ve been meaning to do for months. Day by day, as you make these adjustments, you’ll feel better able to recommit to how you want to live in mind, body, and soul.
You deserve to live as the best version of yourself. A visit to The Belize Collection’s resorts will catalyze the changes you want to make for 2023 and beyond.
We’re evolving to the next step in our journey.

 Join us.

Bring The Spirit Up with the Garifuna’s Annual Jankunu Festival

In Belize, each of the country’s various cultures has moments of celebration that are distinct and add to the overall tapestry of the nation. Even at this time of annual observance, each enlivens the season through activities that are in conversation with the season’s themes of rebirth, celebration, and feting for fete sake. The Garifuna of Belize who first came here to escape persecution in St. Vincent is one such community that brought with them an assortment of rituals intended to commemorate their lives and history. One of the most spectacular among them, the Janukunu festival, comes along at the tail end of each year to remind Belizeans how important they are to the country.

Typically occurring on December 26, the festival held in Dangriga is a means of commemorating African ancestors’ resistance to European slavery, which varied from militant upheaval to theatrical forms intended to mock their master. Borrowing from the Creole, the Garifuna have made it an event to remember through an annual competition.

What is immediately striking about the dance is the way in which the participants are dressed. Each person dancing wears dark-colored trousers and a white shirt to evoke the uniforms of the British colonial military. Then over their head, every performer wears a pink mask with a painted face, sometimes sporting a little mustachio. Over that, they then place an African Arab Bedouin-style wrap.

Most eye-catching of all is the headdress every performer wears, consisting of a crown with rosettes and mirrors. Feathers are placed all over the headdress. Leggings adorned with many seashells are worn over the trousers. The overall impact of the costume is one that’s both joyous and intentionally a bit garish akin to the best drag.

In the dance, exclusively performed by men, participants dance to a 4/4 tempo beat, moving primarily their knees and ankles. The accompanying drummers do their best to keep up with the dancer. At the festival, dancing participants are given ten minutes to demonstrate their skills to the viewing audience. The dance is intended to demonstrate male prowess, and the drummer on the Primero follows the rhythm of the performer in a rare inversion of how music and dance usually work in Garifuna dances.

Throughout the dance, the dancer bends and flexes their knees and ankles, alternately placing their arms out in front of them or to the small of their backs. As the shells shake with the dancer’s footwork, a disorienting percussive array weaves its way through the crowds with dancers, signers, and drummers all combining to create an aural atmosphere distinctly Garifuna.

The Jankunu festival is primarily a celebration, but it’s also a competition among two major Garifuna communities, Dangriga and Seine Bight. Each community vies for the title every year, sending in dancers with ever more elaborate costumes and footwork to topple the competition. Through this dance, they invoke their past while celebrating their continued existence and future.

The Belize Collection with its Hopkins-based resort The Lodge at Jaguar Reef hosts several tours that also give visitors an opportunity to engage in Garifuna culture. Guests can learn more about their food through a Garifuna Cooking class or learn all they’re willing to share through the Ultimate Garifuna Immersion tour. In the birthplace of Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective’s world-renowned Watina, you’ll gain a deeper appreciation for one of Belize’s most beloved cultures.

12 Tours of December

Many visitors to Belize are discombobulated on arrival by the sheer amount of things to do while in the Jewel. Across various ecologies, including savannahs, rainforests, reefs, and cave systems, and a multitude of cultural activities, the options can be overwhelming.

For those that want some help getting their bearings on what to do when visiting Belize this December, we at The Belize Collection created this list of 12 hit adventures with our tour partners that’ll keep the holiday spirit roaring into the new year.

For The Archaeologically Curious

Ceremonial Cave at Sleeping Giant

The Ceremonial Cave, located right on the grounds of Sleeping Giant, provides an opportunity for visitors to see a site significant to the Maya of the past and present. After a jungle hike, you’ll be thrust into a cave featuring pottery, tools as well as skeletal remains. With impressive cave formations formed over thousands of years, you’ll be enlivened by the space that was once a site of significant spiritual practices. A great primer for those interested in learning about ancient Maya practices, the Ceremonial cave is a perfect half-day excursion for those staying at the Rainforest Lodge.

For the Chill Adventurer

St. Herman’s Cave Tubing Adventure

On some vacation days, you wanna just chill and not move as much as possible, but you feel like you oughta explore and do something adventurous. Not many tours meet those criteria. Fortunately, the cave tubing adventure at St. Herman’s Cave fits the bill. Located in the Blue Hole National Park nearby the Rainforest Lodge the tour involves a short, moderate hike before you’re handed a tube and enter the soothing cave waters. From there, you’ll course through the cave at a gentle pace, taking in its many sights. You’ll be able to cross off one more thing off the bucket list while relaxing.

For the Bushmen and Merfolk

Jaguar Preserve Waterfall Hike

First things first. Despite the name, you’re unlikely to see a jaguar on this tour, but take solace in the fact that they might see you. No worries though. Jaguars keep to themselves when they encounter a greater predator. On this leisurely hike covering the world’s only jaguar (Panthera onca) preserve, you’ll come across markers of the big cats’ presence as well as a wide assortment of other animals indigenous to Belize including howler monkeys, tapirs and peccaries. Once at the waterfall, take a dip, and cool down knowing you’re in one of the best places for Belize’s wildlife.

For the Fish Lovers

South Water Reef Snorkeling

Launching from Jaguar Reef’s dock, the South Water Reef Snorkeling tour starts with a 30-minute boat ride to the South Water Caye marine reserve. Once there, you’ll start your first of two 45-minute snorkel stops. You’ll swim through the world’s longest unbroken barrier reef system and get to observe all the life teeming within. Don’t forget to breathe as the sights will take your breath away.

For those Into Vintage Cities

Xunantunich Maya Site

Xunantunich is one of the major Maya sites in Belize featuring El Castillo, the second-highest structure in Belize (yes, including all contemporary buildings). With 6 major plazas and 25 temples to see, you’ll be able to roam around for hours imagining what it was like when the area was a thriving place of Maya commercial and ceremonial activity. Climb the accessible temples and appreciate a view of one of the world’s greatest civilizations.

For Those Heart-Pounding Action

Angel Falls Extreme Zipline

Get a birds-eye view of the Maya Mountain forest canopies with this zipline tour. Over three hours, you’ll zoom through the Maya Mountains like a hawk on the hunt. Look ahead, look down, look wherever you like as you’re guided through a sphere that few humans get to experience.

For the Chocoholics

Maya Chocolate Tour

You. Yes, you. You claim to be a lover of chocolate yet you’ve never seen the cacao pods fresh from the tree, or ground the dried pods to a rich paste. This is your chance to correct that lapse in your commitment to chocolate. You’ll learn all about the process required to get the fruit of the gods from the farm to a bar and also learn the significance of cacao to the Maya. By the end of the tour, you’ll get to appreciate the work that goes into making your very own chocolate bar and delight in samples made by this family-run chocolate tour company.

For Those Seeking the Sacred

ATM Cave

Actun Tunichil Muknal, often called the ATM Cave, is a site that requires perhaps the greatest amount of physical and spiritual endurance of all those in this list. Start with a hike through the Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve before arriving at the mouth of the cave. From there, you’ll swim, yes, swim, into the cave. Once in, you, the guide, and the rest of your group will venture through the cave observing a wide swath of Maya artifacts before concluding with a viewing of the Crystal Maiden whose skeleton has been well-preserved for over 1000 years. Beyond the artifacts, those that visit sometimes speak of the profound impact the journey to the cave has on them. Be ready to have your soul probed and reemerge into the sunlight with new insights.

For the Drum-Curious

Ultimate Garifuna Cultural Immersion

The Ultimate Garifuna Cultural Immersion sends you right into the heart of Garifuna culture. You’ll get an opportunity to experience Garifuna music as has been practiced in Belize since they arrived from St. Vincent. After an introduction, you’ll be led through a tutorial of the primero and segunda drums, leaving the rhythms of the Garifuna embedded in your palms to take home. No souvenir beats that.

For the Acro and Nyctophiliacs

Black Hole Drop Tour

With the Black Hole Drop Tour, you are putting your fate into one of the planet’s voids. Taking place at Actun Loch Tunich, ‘the Mother of All Caves,’ the tour involves a gentle hike up the foothills of the Maya Mountains. Once at the drop site, you’ll be tethered by your guide and repel down. As you descend into the blackness beneath you, you’ll experience an incredible rush of sensations while your mind makes sense of what you’re perceiving. Once through the rainforest canopy and in the cavern, you’ll be treated to a picnic lunch before climbing back out.
A tour for those ready for great highs and lows, this will be one you won’t forget.

For Those That Can Never Get Enough Waterfalls

Some tours will take you to one waterfall, maybe two if you’re lucky. This one allows you to experience the joy of 7 waterfalls within the Caves Branch area. Over half a day, you’ll hike through the jungle and a cave then scramble up the waterfalls to a series of refreshing pools. Catch your breath while enjoying a candlelit meal then start the return home via either a plunge into the waterfalls below or belaying to the ground. This is the ultimate photo opp that’ll give you the chance to capture images unavailable anywhere else in Belize.

For Those That Prefer Kayaks to Rivertubes

Cave Kayaking Adventure at Five Blues National Park

Venture through a three-cave system on this kayaking tour that’ll put you up close to a range of geological formations and lush jungle scenes. With a mild current, the tour provides you an opportunity to slowly take in the sights as you press on through the caves. You’ll get a great workout along with an unmatched lesson in Belize’s cave ecosystems all in one go.

While these are only our top twelve tours, we’ve got plenty to do from horseback riding to Maya cooking classes. The adventures never cease. Start choosing your tours for your next trip here.