Only around 150 people a year get to stand on the summit of Victoria Peak, and there's a good reason: the trail is only passable for a few months, you need two specially certified guides to climb it, and the entire route runs through the world's first jaguar preserve.

The Victoria Peak Route is a three-day, 35-mile backpacking trek through the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary and Jaguar Preserve in southern Belize. The sanctuary, managed by the Belize Audubon Society, was created to protect jaguars and also shelters pumas, ocelots, margays and jaguarundis — though hikers rarely see any of them. What you will see is dense, humid jungle, scarlet macaws, tarantulas, and a lot of mud.

The logistics are unusually strict. The trail is only open during the dry season, roughly March to May; the rest of the year, sections of the route literally become creeks and waterfalls. Every group must hire two certified guides, because the final summit push involves roped climbing with belayers over sheer rock faces. Only one group is allowed to overnight in the backcountry at a time, which keeps the trail gloriously empty and the wildlife undisturbed.

Don't let the summit elevation fool you — Victoria Peak tops out at just 3,675 feet, but the cumulative elevation gain across the trek is closer to 9,500 feet, much of it on slopes steeper than 45 degrees. Day one covers about 12.5 miles to reach the first camp. Hikers sleep in hammocks slung under open-air shelters at two camps (at kilometres 12 and 19), bring all their own food, and fall asleep to birdsong and hand-length grasshoppers. Summit day starts before dawn: five miles of relentless ups and downs, then harnesses and helmets for the scramble to the top, where views stretch over the Maya mountains to the sea.

Cost runs about $550–650 USD per person, which covers both guides and sanctuary fees that fund the park's protection. Book through the Belize Audubon Society by email. Most trekkers base themselves in Hopkins, a laid-back beach village where lodges like Jaguar Reef and Almond Beach make a comfortable pre- and post-trek landing pad — handy when your legs are shot and your feet are soggy.

This one's for fit hikers who want genuine solitude and don't mind earning it. The writer behind this account, an experienced desert hiker, called it the hardest trip she'd done in years and still started planning a return before she'd dried out. Pack extra snacks, extra socks, and train on steep slopes beforehand.