Ruins with 7 year old?

[bchester816]

Traveling this April on Carnival Dream. Which ruins between Costa Maya or Belize would be best to visit with a 7 YO?

[crewsweeper]

Do the Costa Maya tour with Native Choice. David and Ivan take you to a village populated by Mayan decendants and you get a native style lunch. Also tour is not as long as some Belize ruin tours (long bus ride to Xunantunich and Lamanai, shorter trip to Altun Ha). That might be a bit more interesting to a 7 YO.

 

The big difference is that in Belize, you can still climb on the temples. But some can be quite steep and depending on how big your 7 YO is, he/she may not be able to scale the upper levels.

[2112]

Depends on what else you would want to do. If a beach day is important to you, I'd do that in Costa Maya and do the ruins in Belize. In Belize, you really need to do something outside of the port area/Belize City and ruins is a good choice. If you're not a beach person, then you could do ruins in either port.

[World Gallery]

I agree with the poster above about Belize. You have to leave the port anyway and there isn't a beach there. The only negative to the ruins in Belize is the long distance to get there. We went to Lamanai (without kids) and it was about an hour bus drive then about another 30 to 40 minutes down a river. I have kids ages 10 - 16 now and they would not have liked this long travel time to see ruins.

 

We did take our kids (then ages 8 - 14) to the ruins in Costa Maya. They enjoyed the day but about 20 minutes into the tour, they were lost in regards to what the tour guide was saying. My kids are not new to tours and museums, and all like history, but to ask any kid to listen for an hour about history that tends to go over their heads, is not reasonable. Now, they did enjoy playing with each other among the trees and were able to climb on some of the ruins that weren't high and do their own thing. That is why I suggest the ones at Costa Maya for kids because it isn't far and tended to be more laid back. We did go through Native Choice and there is more to their ruins tour than just visiting the ruins You eat with a native family. Overall, it was a good tour and families are welcomed on their tours.