Placencia is a small beach village at the southern tip of a long peninsula in Belize. It is definitely a tourist place, but it clears the bar because the appeal is not just a resort strip: the village has its own slow rhythm, a famous pedestrian sidewalk, a lagoon behind it, and some of the country's best reef trips offshore.
The beach is the easy pleasure. The better days go farther: snorkelling at Laughing Bird Caye, diving or seasonal whale-shark trips around Gladden Spit and the Silk Cayes, kayaking in the mangrove lagoon, or heading inland toward Cockscomb Basin. Placencia is also a good place to eat seafood and watch the peninsula slip into evening.
It is not the place to come for urban Belize or Garifuna culture in depth; Hopkins is stronger for that. Come when you want a small, walkable base with reef, lagoon, and beach all within reach.