Placencia is the southern reef's base: quieter diving than Ambergris, fewer boats, and cayes you stop at for lunch that are often empty. The signature trip is Gladden Spit, where whale sharks come in to feed on the spawn of snapper aggregations around the full moons from March to June. It depends on fish behaviour rather than a timetable, and any operator promising you a sighting is selling something they do not control.
The peninsula is also the jumping-off point for the Monkey River, the Cockscomb Basin jaguar preserve inland, and the GarÃfuna coast north towards Hopkins and Dangriga.