Don't want to see Ruins or Cave tube

[RM]

any other suggestions?

[BobbieSu]

Do you want to snorkel? Lots of that going on in Belize too. Coral Breeze or Belize Rays seem to be the two independent tours that will take you.

 

One of the options I was looking at was a taxi to the municipal airport and a quick 20 min plane ride to Ambergris Caye. Plenty to see and do there in a quick day trip.

 

I'd plan an excursion of some type though, not much to see or do otherwise.

 

Su

[MGoodyear]

We did the river tour and Belize zoo combo on Oct, we really enjoyed it

[Babie]

What are your interests?

Here are a few options:

Water Taxi to one of the Cayes. Relatively inexpensive, and a really nice view of the other Cayes on your way. I'd suggest Caye Caulker. It's closer. Here's a schedule of the water taxis: http://www.goambergriscaye.com/watertaxi.html

If you like shopping there's a few shops in the tourism village. But if you're really adventurous, you could walk across the street behind the Tourism Village (Fort Street) and a few feet to your left is a local flea market. It's a small market area, but the locals are friendly and love to bargain. You have to be able to say "no" with conviction to the tour operators outside the Village, but they're harmless and don't bother you inside the flea market.

If you like to snorkel, you could set up a tour with an independant (or the cruise line). One I'm doing in a couple of weeks is the Shark Ray alley tour. It includes snorkeling with stingrays and nurse sharks, a trip to Caye Caulker and some snorkeling at the Coral Gardens. (I'll post review when I return)

If you're into geeky interesting things, you could walk to the Swing Bridge. It's about 4 blocks from the Tourism Village (I'll give directions if you're interested, but it's easy to find). The Swing Bridge is the only operational hand cranked swing bridge in the world. They open it twice a day and if your there when they open it, they'll let you help.

[mnsawyer]

We're doing Goff's Caye through Carnival. It's a 4-hour excursion offered in the am or afternoon. We're doing the 8:00 a.m. excursion which gets us back to the ship around 12:30 or so. Have read several good reviews on this board. The tour leaves directly from the ship and brings you back to the ship. You can snorkel from the boat or directly off shore. We'll have lunch on the ship and then tender to the shopping village. To us, this is hassle free and the best of all worlds! It's $59 per person.

[RM]

Since DH doesn't swim snorkeling would be out especially since we're doing the beach in Costa Maya and Cozumel. We're looking more for a tour of the island, the culture, the people, etc.

 

Thanks for the help

[mnsawyer]

Not sure what ship you are going on but know Carnival has some tours that would meet your requirements for a cultural overview of Belize.

[prime9time]

It is kind of a long day, but probably the best thing to do for a sample of the beautiful little country is the tour to xunantunich......which is the most spectacular excavated site (i think anyway). The bus bumps along from the tourist village through Belize city and the guide points out the various buildings which are quite interesting English colonial wood buildings. Going west you see the "suburbs" of various sinking houses (wanna buy some swamp land in Florida) Those tours usually stop at the Belize zoo which is really nice ocelots, tapirs and all manner of flora and fuana you could see if you had more time in the wild. Sometimes these tours go by the Jade Museum in Belmopan (the capitol city) which has some really impressive mayan jade work. proceeding west the topography changes with the rising elevation with pine trees and nice bungalows mixed to thatched and mud wattle construction native houses....we even stopped at a place and an ol guy was making a dugout canoe. The people start to change from black people to mayan and latin american looking people as you get further from the coast. The tour finally passes through San Ignacio which is the hub of Cayo province. Many expatriats live in that area brits, germans usa retirees and general world traveler types. usually you will see some menonites shopping for farm supplies hardware etc. You will hear Mayan, Spanish and English and some of the schools in that province teach that tri lingual curriculum. The tour culminates at xunantunich ruins and some guy does a hand cranked ferry across the mopan river to the ruins which are...........uh not Tikal, Copan or Palenque or anything but nevertheless nice. If there is time (which there usually isn't) the bus takes you to the Guatemala border where you can cross the border and drink a guatemalan beer while buying mayan clothing and handicrafts and get your passport stamped to demonstrate you have been to guatemala hahahha. That is the best "overview tour" i can think of for Belize as far as sampling the terrain, basic sights and cultures there on the "in and out) cruise itineraries. John/Juan from NM usa.........prime9time@aol.com

[Nanatravel]

Please read the new review just posted on CruiseCritics' Home page of Belize. The "things to do" that are recommended are very good choices as well as statements about local safety and security. Belize is a beautiful developing country, which cannot just be experienced at the Tourist Center. Get out an about with a local tour guide that you pre-arrange.

Bon Voyage

[Elizabeth Gillian]

We did the river tour and Belize zoo combo on Oct, we really enjoyed it

 

We pre-booked this tour through NCL for our cruise (March 20 - 27). When we boarded, there was a note in the envelope with our other excursion tickets explaining that that particular tour was now going to the Baboon Sanctuary. My daughter and I had a wondeful time. We realy enjoyed the boat ride up the Old Belize River but she loved feeding the monkeys at the Sanctuary.