Northern & Central Belize

The north part of Belize is less travelled and has more Mayan ruins so if you're into isolated treks into the jungle to "discover" ancient ruins, you should go north out of Belize City. There are some good lodges an resorts up there to accommodate anyone. The land is flat so you'll see sugarcane fields and Mennonite farms, the latter near Orange Walk Town. The forests up near the border with Guatemala are partially untouched so there's old-growth mahogany trees surviving. Make a stop in Corozal Town, and chill out Belize style. It's on the Bay of Chetumal. There's an undiscovered fishing village called Sarteneja near the Shipstern wildlife reserve. There's less rain here, and the area is inhabited most by Mayas and Mestizos.

In Northern and Central Belize you'll find these attractions:
Brio Bravo Conservation Area. This area was created by Gerald Durrell, an important British naturalist. Covers a quarter of a million acres at the intersection of three countries: Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico. There are also more than sixty Maya sites, including La Milpa.
Lamanai. Some think this means submerged insect in Maya. Maya lived here for more than 3000 years, up to as recently as 1700 AD.
Altun Ha. Altun Ha is easy to get to and thoroughly excavated so you can easily see lots of what's left of ancient Maya civilization at this spot. This was at one time a city of 10,000 people.

Sarteneja

This tiny Mestizo town is known for lobster fishing, wooden boat building and pineapple fields. Culturally, Sarteneja feels more like Mexico than Belize. Bird watchers should visit the Shipstern Wildlife Reserve. There are toucans, egrets, flycatchers, warblers, and parrots in here, as well as peccaries, pumas, raccoons, and jaguars. Next to the visitor center, there's a butterfly farm! You can stay overnight in the cabins for BZ$20 a night, right on the reserve itself for a wild and jungly night. There are also a few guest houses in Sarteneja itself.

Corozal

During the 1800s there were caste wars on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, and the refugees fled to Belize and formed Corozal. It's the first town inside the border with Mexico, just across the Rio Hondo. Lots of Spanish spoken here, and Mexicans cross into Corozal to buy tax-free gas. Buildings are relatively modern since the town was flattened in 1955 by Hurricane Janet. There's a small expat community that builds more modern-looking houses and also a few remaining colonial-style houses and an old fort in the center of town. There's a beutiful mural on the wall of Town Hall depicting local history. You can visit the Corozal Cultural Center, which is really a museum and tourist info center. It was once a lighthouse.

There are some Maya sites near Corozal, too, like Santa Rita, which you can actually walk to from the town. South of corozal is Cerros, from 2000 BC. Take a boat, and this site has more to see than Santa Rita.