Hopkins Holidays & Tailor-made Tours

Hopkins is a small fishing village on the Caribbean coast of Belize and the centre of the Garifuna culture.

Located on the east coast of Belize, the small village of Hopkins is surrounded by the Cockscomb Mountain Range and the Caribbean Sea. The village was created in 1942 to replace the small town of Newton, devastated by a violent tsunami. Since then, Hopkins has been famous for its authenticity and the extraordinary friendliness of its people, mostly fishermen. It is also the centre of the Garifuna culture, a community resulting from interbreeding between African slaves and indigenous people from the Caribbean. They are said to be the only black people on the American continent who have never known slavery and claim to be descendants of a slave ship sinking survivors.

We stay in Hopkins to discover this Belizean culture, where several times a month, everyone meets in the heart of the village to celebrate and rejoice. Hopkins also offers idyllic beaches with turquoise waters, white sand and coconut palms. The village is close to the second largest barrier reef in the world, where you can easily enjoy scuba diving and snorkelling. From Hopkins, you can discover the Jaguar Reserve, a natural park of over 40,000 hectares, home to a rich biodiversity. It is not uncommon to see jaguars, toucans, ocelots and pumas there.