The History of Secret Beach, Belize: From Hidden Cove to Boomtown

Secret Beach is a young place. The name has been in common use for only about a decade, and its beach bars sit on what was recently mangrove and scrub on the back of the island.

Where it is

Secret Beach is on the western, leeward side of Ambergris Caye, facing the shallow lagoon toward the mainland. The reef and San Pedro are on the east side. It's a 30 to 40-minute golf-cart ride from town, the last stretch on sandy road. The water is flat, warm, and clear over a sandy bottom you can wade out on for a long way.

How it got the name

Into the early 2010s this was a hard-to-reach local spot, reached by boat or down a rough, often muddy track. Locals came to swim and have a drink away from the town beaches. Nobody has a solid record of who first called it Secret Beach; the name spread by word of mouth.

The road and the boom

Better roads to the west coast in the mid-2010s made it an easy golf-cart outing. There had been essentially one beach bar. Others followed, with trucked-in sand, docks, palapas, and swings over the shallows. By the late 2010s there was a row of bars and restaurants with live music, and day-trippers arrived by the cartload around sunset.

Real estate followed. Secret Beach is now one of the most talked-about development areas on Ambergris Caye, popular with North American buyers drawn by the water, the dollar-pegged economy, and doing business in English. Will Mitchell of RE/MAX Belize has put it on many investors' radar with his widely followed videos. As with any boom, separate the facts from the sales pitch; we'll cover building in Belize in a future Journal entry.

Visiting today

Ambergris Caye is Belize's largest island, about 25 miles long and a mile wide, and you get around by golf cart. Its nickname, "La Isla Bonita," comes from Madonna's 1987 song, which mentions San Pedro, though the song was never officially about Belize.

Secret Beach is busier than its name suggests, but it still has the calmest, clearest swimming water on the island, and mornings are quiet. Black Orchid Oasis sits on this shore with a pool and a dock, a short cart ride from the bars. Our guest guide covers getting here.

Read next: villas at Secret Beach, compared · where on Ambergris Caye to stay, and every photo of the villa.