When Spanish explorers came to the area hundreds of years ago, they saw pristine beaches lined with coconut palms. They named the peninsula Punta Placencia (“pleasant point” in English).

This description is equally suitable today.

Pirates holed up on the peninsula in 1629, using the shallow cuts through the barrier reef (the second largest in the world) to shelter from the Spanish and English navies’ reprisals for harrying their merchant ships.

In pre-Columbian times, there were more than 14 Maya settlements dotting the area around the peninsula, where the natives fished, traded, and produced salt for export across the Mayan world.

Today, Latino, Mestizo, Creole, Garifuna, Mennonite, East Indian, and Chinese people, plus gringos, spice up what was once a monocultural community.

This haven is somewhat of a secret in the Caribbean… Seventeen miles of the most beautiful, vacant, white sandy beaches… Dazzling turquoise blue water, teeming with fish…

Cooling trade winds gently caress the palm trees, and white beaches that offer perfect launching grounds for excursions to the myriad of cays that abound around this little peninsula of paradise…

Placencia is a 17-mile-long sand spit that is at most only a quarter-mile wide.

As a result, the one-time fishing village turned quiet tourist destination boasts high-quality developments, high-quality people, and little to no crime… just an abundance of deserted white beaches, turquoise waters, and relaxed luxury.