When you plan to travel somewhere outside of your own kitchen you have to ask yourself if it is safe. If you are traveling anywhere in Central America, you really need to take a minute and think about safety. Hopefully this helps as you make plans.
First lets acknowledge the bad. Belize City can be a dangerous place. Violent crime is common there. We don’t recommend staying in Belize City for long. The rest of the country is relatively safe. Very little violent crime exists outside of Belize City.
One of the reasons many North Americans choose to retire or move to Belize is because Belize is a safe friendly country. Non violent crimes, such as petty theft does occur. If you have a rental car, lock the doors when you aren’t in it. Be careful late at night if you go into a town and decide to hit the bars. Compared to most of the surrounding countries in Central America, Belize is very safe. Belize does safety inspections on vehicles and buses. We have health code inspections and licensing for hotels/bars. All tourism businesses are required to have a fire inspection and keep fire extinguishers up to date. All tour guides are licensed and trained in first aid. To be frank, Belize (excluding Belize City) is probably safer than most places in America. At Cotton Tree Lodge we provide good locks on our cabana/room doors as well as a lock box for anything you want to keep locked up. We take safety and security seriously.