What are some good things to do in Belize?

[wavecruiser]

What about for cave tubing?

 

I just went cavetubing last week - I'm thinking the weather in december should be similar - the water was cold! But it wasn't unbearable, I think I just had a bit of a crappy time because I was sick. It's a lot of fun though, you will quickly forget about the cold temps.

[taillon]

We did cave tubing when we were there and LOVED it!

I have a friend that said the Zipline there was amazing...next time we go, we will try that out too!

[missusc]

I usually like to do the cave tubing, but last time we did a private tour and went snorkling by the reef (they have the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world) then we went to the mangroves and did some manatee watching, then to Bannister Island. But I read in the news that Bannister Island got washed away by a hurricane this year and is being rebuilt. Anyway, that was a fun tour.

 

What private company did you use for the above?

[thesawch]

winter is the dry season.

[Zelda911]

looking at all these replies the most important thing is what ever you do just enjoy the moment. We went to ruins in belize and enjoyed.

[Mississippian]

I am of the same opinion. I would try an excursion or just stay on the ship!

Wow! Ship excursions tend to be very overpriced. Not saying I wouldn't use one, but it is generally easier and better to tour on one's own.

 

I've never visited Belize on a cruise, but have on a land trip. I'd like to cruise, and think it would be easy to just rent a car, drive to the Belize Zoo (easy), then by the prison gift shop, then on to Burrell Boom for lunch, then to Altun Ha and back to the ship. There are, of course, variations on this theme.

 

I agree Belize City is a dump, so don't stay there! Rent a car and go do something.

[timh111]

Wow! Ship excursions tend to be very overpriced. Not saying I wouldn't use one, but it is generally easier and better to tour on one's own.

 

I've never visited Belize on a cruise, but have on a land trip. I'd like to cruise, and think it would be easy to just rent a car, drive to the Belize Zoo (easy), then by the prison gift shop, then on to Burrell Boom for lunch, then to Altun Ha and back to the ship. There are, of course, variations on this theme.

 

I agree Belize City is a dump, so don't stay there! Rent a car and go do something.

When taking certain things into consideration, booking an excursion through the cruise line in NOT a bad deal! You "tour" on your own. NOW, the responsibility of getting back to the ship before it leaves port is SOLELY on you. You get lost, rental vehicle breaks down, you get into an accident etc. GOOD chance you'll miss the ship. They will NOT wait for you. Same goes if you book an excursion through a private tour company. The ship will NOT wait for you if you are late for any reason. If you book through the cruise line, and something happens causing your group to return late, the ship WILL wait for you and your group. I would rather spend the extra $20 to $40 on an excursion booked via the cruise line and KNOW that no matter what, the ship will be there when we get back to the pier.

[btorlv]

cave tubing .com

Just back we did cave tubing .com $45 and well worth the money. The guides are great and made us feel safe the whole time. We had a super good time and had a hour and a half to spare to shop when they dropped us off. We would do it again in a heart beat.

[ciship]

I did the Jungle beach break???????? Not sure about the name' date=' but it was wonderful! :D Reason I didnt say we, my DH doesn't like the beach. :confused:

Wish I knew how to load some pics. There were beach lounges galore, water toys, an open bar. Sunshine and shade. Very reasonable too. I booked it thru CCL.

Luv's Crusin'

Happy cruising![/quote']

 

When you say "water toys"......what kind of water toys? You don't remember the name of the beach??

[tampadee]

We went on a cavetubing excursion with Vitaino Reyes (cavetubing.bz)

 

They were wonderful guides. The water was chilly but bearable. We hiked carrying our tubes for about 40 minutes. The guides will carry your tube for you if you get tired. I figured if children could do this so could I!

 

This is NOT white water rafting. We mainly floated down the river with a couple of faster spots. But it is a very mild ride.

 

Don't do this if you cannot walk easily over a rocky surface. Don't wear thongs. Old tennis shoes are the best.

 

They charge $45 including lunch. You can add ziplining. (don't know what that costs)

[sbcatcher1]

We did a "canoe trip through the mangroves and wine tasting".

Where did you find this?

[stroke]

i'm curious. Has anyone ever taken a horse and buggy ride from the people yelling from beyond the fence? We were to chicken

[courier1]

Title says it all.

 

Thanks ahead of time.

 

 

do not take the Coral breaze captain your own boat tour as the pics and boats are totaly wrecked, they don't stay running for more than 10 min,and when your trying to navigate that is very dangerous, we had a terrible time

[mrszuhwiggins]

We went with cave-tubing.com, and had a great day cave tubing and ATV's. They really looked after us, and made sure we were safe.

 

Hi - Was wondering if you could tell us what the ATV portion of the tour was like... We have used them for the cave tubing part, and were originally booked on the ATV tour as well, but our ship had a very hard time tendering due to high winds, so we didn't get to shore until much later than expected and then didn't have time to do the ATV portion.

 

If anyone else has done the ATV tour, can you tell me what it was like - and how long it took? Is the terrain very rough? My husband had back surgery a year and a half ago, and I want to make sure it would be safe for him.

[masch100]

DW and I just got back yesterday from the western Caribbean cruise on the Liberty (RCCL). We did the cave tubing and zipline tour with Nacho and Cynthia (ncqadventuretours dot com). We are both in our early 50s and had no problems with either activity. Nacho and Cynthia are absolutely the best. I highly recommend them. Read on for the why's.

 

When you go with them, they will ask that you get off of the ship on the first tender. They will be waiting for you at the port and off you go. By going out early, we were the first tour on the site. Ours was the only van in the parking lot when we arrived on a day where 800 people were expected, most of them from ship tours and the large local independent tours with big the big bus. Needless to say, being early made things go very smoothly. We had the ziplines all to ourselves with two guides (a catcher and a pusher) dedicated to us for the entire time. The ziplines included two short (less than 5 minutes) hikes from platform to platform but the guides would stop at several places along the way to point out interesting flora and fauna as well as answer our questions. Normally, with the big tours, there is a guide placed on each platform and you get passed from guide to guide with no guide on the short hikes through the forest. This part was very exhilarating and downright fun. There's something about flying through the rainforest 100 feet above the ground on a 600 foot cable that gets your blood flowing.

 

Following the zipline, it was off to cave tubing. We changed into our swimwear on site while Cynthia hooked us up with a local guide. Normally she does the tour herself, but she's had a back problem and her doctor has told her to not do it for six months. Anyway, the cave tubing requires a 30 minute hike through the forest to get to the river. Again, it was just DW and I along with our personal guide. It was a very informative hike over fairly easy terrain with lots of short stops along the way to look at plants and animals. There are some protruding roots, but they are easily missed if you are paying attention. You are hiking gently uphill for most of the way but it is not strenuous. You get a chance to walk through a grotto and see some of the cave formations before you get to the river. You are carrying the tube, a ski vest type life jacket, and a helmet. The tubes have handles so they are very easy to carry. About half way through the hike, the guide offered to carry DW's stuff in trade for her carrying his single smaller tube - an offer she couldn't refuse. Once we got to the river, mounting the tube was easy. We walked into the river which was cool but not cold. The guide held our tubes in place and we just sat down into them. After a couple of minutes you get accustomed to the water temperature as it is only your butt really in the water. The river was up a little bit so the guide tied our tubes together as a safety precaution. From there, all we did was ride and enjoy the scenery. The guide did all the work of paddling our tubes to the right places and getting us faced the right direction. The cave tubing was as relaxing as the zipline was exhilerating. We floated through a very large cave (about 45 minutes) and then on the open river back to the hike starting point. It was so relaxing, we didn't want to get out but the guide told that if we didn't, it would take about three days to float to Belize City.

 

Following the tour, we had a nice buffet lunch on site and then back to the city tour with Nacho and Cynthia. Here's an example of how far they will go to make your day enjoyable. When we got back to the port at the end of the tour, Nacho asked if we wanted to do any shopping as he could take us to a market with better prices than those inside the port. We mentioned that we were only interested in picking up some Belizean rum. He said no problem. He took us back into the city to a little market where he shops and had Cynthia go into the store to pick up the rum for us! She came out with a bottle of rum and some of the famous cashew wine and we were on our way.

 

If you want a really great tour with a lot of personalized service, Nacho and Cynthia are the way to go. No large groups, no big buses, and great service. What more could you want? Just google "nacho cynthia belize" and they pop up at the top of the list

[jeepchick444]

this beach is beautiful,,,,im looking in the excursions for our trip on carnival valor in february and no mention of this beach in the details of the different trips,,,,,was this an excursion for another cruise line?

[jlwilliams4]

We used this company http://www.belizecruiseexcursions.com/Lamanai_Belize.htm to see the ruins. It's pretty cool if you're into ruins. It's in a jungle, unlike others we've been to in Mexico. There were several troups of monkeys in the canopy which I really liked. It's about an hour ride to the river, then 45 minutes or so boat ride up the river to the ruins. Worth it if you like to see ruins.

 

We used this company http://www.cave-tubing.com/ to cave tube. If you do this, it's best to go during rainy season IMO. It was dry season when we did it and that was the most boring excursion I've ever done. The water was so low we were dragging butt except when we were in the caves. That's just my experience....others rave about it. No complaints about the tour operator, we just didn't go during the right time of year.

 

HTH

 

what is the rainy season? we are going in January and planning to go on that excursion.

[jlwilliams4]

Bannister Island is back in operation! I talked to my friend Ivar on Wednesday and he said they had made repairs and are now open.

 

DO you mind passing on his info? I am really wanting to do the cave tubing but no one else in my family seems excited about it so maybe i should have a second option. roughly what do you pay for the day trip you described. that sounds wonderful!

 

I am a travel agent and would love to make friends with someone i could refer regular business to. i have one of those in the dominican.

thanks

[TravelingG]

DO you mind passing on his info? I am really wanting to do the cave tubing but no one else in my family seems excited about it so maybe i should have a second option. roughly what do you pay for the day trip you described. that sounds wonderful!

 

I am a travel agent and would love to make friends with someone i could refer regular business to. i have one of those in the dominican.

thanks

 

Yes I would also like the information. Please :)

[madsbrittsmom]

I believe she is talking about Ivar Marchand he operates a small private tour. We hired him for a groups of 16 we had the best day ever!! He had a crew of three, a driver, james, and himself they awesome, knew everything there is possible to know about the area and mangroves! We hired him for the day he took us snorkeling then we rode around the island then we went to Bannister which was nice becuse we had the place to ourselves after the poor unfortunate souls who booked thru the ship had to leave and let me tell you it is gorgeous!! Where we went and what we did was up to us. I am going to book with him again this March. He also packed us an ice chest full of whatever we requested beers, water drinks, some kind of rum-pinapple concoction he made. We ordered what we wanted for the day and he had it for us on the boat. I am trying to remeber what he charged us I will search my emails!

[taillon]

When taking certain things into consideration, booking an excursion through the cruise line in NOT a bad deal! You "tour" on your own. NOW, the responsibility of getting back to the ship before it leaves port is SOLELY on you. You get lost, rental vehicle breaks down, you get into an accident etc. GOOD chance you'll miss the ship. They will NOT wait for you. Same goes if you book an excursion through a private tour company. The ship will NOT wait for you if you are late for any reason. If you book through the cruise line, and something happens causing your group to return late, the ship WILL wait for you and your group. I would rather spend the extra $20 to $40 on an excursion booked via the cruise line and KNOW that no matter what, the ship will be there when we get back to the pier.

 

Saving money is only a small part of why most people book tours on their own. For me, and many, it is about a smaller group and a more personal experience. You get more for your money. As long as you research the tour beforehand, you are going to be good 99.9 % of the time! We have booked all our tours privately and have made friends with tour providers in each place...wouldn't trade it for anything!

 

I believe she is talking about Ivar Marchand he operates a small private tour. We hired him for a groups of 16 we had the best day ever!! He had a crew of three, a driver, james, and himself they awesome, knew everything there is possible to know about the area and mangroves! We hired him for the day he took us snorkeling then we rode around the island then we went to Bannister which was nice becuse we had the place to ourselves after the poor unfortunate souls who booked thru the ship had to leave and let me tell you it is gorgeous!! Where we went and what we did was up to us. I am going to book with him again this March. He also packed us an ice chest full of whatever we requested beers, water drinks, some kind of rum-pinapple concoction he made. We ordered what we wanted for the day and he had it for us on the boat. I am trying to remeber what he charged us I will search my emails!

 

We have used Ivar Marchand before, along with his dad. He was with a company back then. He was awesome and I still keep in touch with him! He is someone that you can trust to show you a great time in Belize! He took us cave tubing and then we had lunch! Along the way he played tour guide, showing us the sites, and answering all our questions. He is on facebook....I will let him know that people are looking for his contact info on the board! :D

[ciship]

cave tubing .com

Just back we did cave tubing .com $45 and well worth the money. The guides are great and made us feel safe the whole time. We had a super good time and had a hour and a half to spare to shop when they dropped us off. We would do it again in a heart beat.

 

What kind of tubes and life jackets did this company use?

[taillon]

I contacted Ivar on facebook and he gave his permission to give his email address. He can be contacted at:

pbuay at yahoo. com