Water Taxi to Caye Caulker

[2stonesthrow]

Have been reading up on the water taxis on various sites. Has anyone ever used them personally? Any information on how reliable they are? Or of they stick to their timetable? I'm hearing mixed to bad reviews for Coral Breezes.... Any experiences welcome! Thanks!

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

I'm glad that you asked this question. We booked a trip to Caye Caulker with Coral Breeze weeks ago and they just sent me an email today canceling our tour for next week. I responded to the email to see if they were doing the Shark/Ray Alley tour so we could just book it as an observer and hitch a ride to the island, but they told me that is a no go as well so we are stuck finding our own way there since they are the only tour operator that goes over that way.

[jkeller527]

Have been reading up on the water taxis on various sites. Has anyone ever used them personally? Any information on how reliable they are? Or of they stick to their timetable? I'm hearing mixed to bad reviews for Coral Breezes.... Any experiences welcome! Thanks!

 

 

Eco tours and Island Marketing do the tour if they have enough participants. I just got email from Coral Breezes and they say business is picking up so not sure when you were going .

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

Eco tours and Island Marketing do the tour if they have enough participants. I just got email from Coral Breezes and they say business is picking up so not sure when you were going .

 

 

I checked with both of those tour operators and neither of them offer a trip to Caye Caulker. If you have seen it then maybe you can provide a link because I haven't seen anyone offer it other than Coral Breeze in the last several months of research I've done.

[LEtue]

Here you go.

 

http://belizecruiseexcursions.com/BelizeBeachSnorkeling.htm

[lorijeannj]

I'm glad that you asked this question. We booked a trip to Caye Caulker with Coral Breeze weeks ago and they just sent me an email today canceling our tour for next week. I responded to the email to see if they were doing the Shark/Ray Alley tour so we could just book it as an observer and hitch a ride to the island, but they told me that is a no go as well so we are stuck finding our own way there since they are the only tour operator that goes over that way.

 

Wow, just looked at ships in port for Belize for your sailing and it looks as tough there will be 10,000 passengers for when you will be there. Perhaps that is why they cancelled.

I will be checking for I am scheduled with this tour in February off the Liberty.

Thanks for sharing!

[mondello]

Have been reading up on the water taxis on various sites. Has anyone ever used them personally? Any information on how reliable they are? Or of they stick to their timetable? I'm hearing mixed to bad reviews for Coral Breezes.... Any experiences welcome! Thanks!

Google cayecaulkerwatertaxi. I didn't use them last month because wasn't sure if DW could handle the ride in a smaller boat. I wanted to go to Goffs Caye or Caye Caulker, maybe next time.

[Luke gs Daddy]

Have been reading up on the water taxis on various sites. Has anyone ever used them personally? Any information on how reliable they are? Or of they stick to their timetable? I'm hearing mixed to bad reviews for Coral Breezes.... Any experiences welcome! Thanks!

 

 

I am looking to do this myself. Has anyone actually got off the tender and went directly to the water taxi and did not go through a tour company?

 

Thanks.

[karenesl79]

We will be in Belize on Feb 5th. My DH and I plan to take the water taxi to Caye Caulker and then if the weather is good, we are going to look up Tsunami tours and have them take us snorkeling. I contacted them and they said it is best to wait until the day, then they will know the weather conditions. If it is too windy, we will hang out on Caye Caulker and swim/snorkel at the split.

I'll try and get back here to let you know how it went.

Karen

[SeaPA1]

I am looking to do this myself. Has anyone actually got off the tender and went directly to the water taxi and did not go through a tour company?

 

Thanks.

 

I've done that, but it was a couple of years ago (around Christmas 2010). At the time, the schedules ran quite promptly. There were two competing companies, Caye Caulker Water Taxi Association and San Pedro Express. We went over with CCWT, came back with SPE (simply because timing worked better for us that way, didn't much care which company we were with). I think I read here that they merged a year or so ago, though I do not know that for sure.

 

We had a great time (we being me, wife, 2 boys age at the time 7 & 5). I prefer getting away from the crowds & doing things that are not the typical touristy thing; Caulker was the most enjoyable shore day I've ever spent while on a cruise.

[Luke gs Daddy]

I've done that, but it was a couple of years ago (around Christmas 2010). At the time, the schedules ran quite promptly. There were two competing companies, Caye Caulker Water Taxi Association and San Pedro Express. We went over with CCWT, came back with SPE (simply because timing worked better for us that way, didn't much care which company we were with). I think I read here that they merged a year or so ago, though I do not know that for sure.

 

We had a great time (we being me, wife, 2 boys age at the time 7 & 5). I prefer getting away from the crowds & doing things that are not the typical touristy thing; Caulker was the most enjoyable shore day I've ever spent while on a cruise.

 

 

Did you walk out of the pier alone and walk to the water taxi?

A few details on this please.

Feel safe anyone bother you? etc,,

 

Thanks.

I think this is what we will do.

What time did you leave Caye to get back to Belize City?

[SeaPA1]

Did you walk out of the pier alone and walk to the water taxi?

A few details on this please.

Feel safe anyone bother you? etc,,

 

Thanks.

I think this is what we will do.

What time did you leave Caye to get back to Belize City?

 

We did just go it completely alone. I'm not sure if things have changed, location-wise, for the taxis. When we went (as mentioned, 2+ years ago), San Pedro Express was located immediately adjacent to the "tourism village" where the ship tenders drop you off. Exit the fenced-in village, turn left, go into the courtyard of the first building you come to (the building was literally just a handful of steps, immediately on the other side of the chain-link fence that encloses the TV). When we got there, the SPE boat had just left; the lady suggested we go to the other company (Caye Caulker Water Taxi Assoc), who had one scheduled to leave in about 30 minutes (as opposed to an hour or so before SPE had another scheduled). So we walked down to CCWT, which was about a 5 minute walk, moving at a slow pace since we had a couple of kids with us. The boat left promptly, dropped some passengers at another island on the way, then went to Caulker.

When we arrived, we went right to SPE to book our return so that we wouldn't have line concerns at the end of the day. Hung out at the split, had a great, cheap lunch, a few beers, and a wonderful day.

 

I felt perfectly safe when we walked out of the village; as with a lot of places, when you first walk out there are a lot of people trying to sell you stuff or do tours with them. We politely said "no thanks" and kept walking. When we were headed to CCWT, we were not exactly sure where they were located, only had a vague idea. As we were slowly walking & looking, a guy with a young boy (probably 10) asked what place we were looking for; I told him, & he had the boy walk with us the last block or so to make sure we found it. I found the people I talked to - on the street, at both water taxi businesses, on the boat, on the island - to be very nice & friendly, enough so that we'll likely do a land-based trip there some time in the next few years, staying part of the time on Caulker & part of the time on Ambergris Caye.

 

I don't remember exactly what time we left to come back, but we did leave plenty of leeway. It's about an hour trip by boat each way, and we made sure to catch a taxi back that got us to the mainland 90 minutes or so prior to last call for the tender.

 

As mentioned, I've read somewhere (I think in here) that the two water taxi companies merged, but I do not know for sure that this is true.

 

Hopefully Wade the Gringo will come across this & post some more info. IIRC, he went to CC on a cruisestop some years back, fell in love with the area, and moved down there (think he lives on the bigger island of Ambergris Caye). He's been helpful in the past on water taxi questions/issues.

[Luke gs Daddy]

Thank you!! This is what I was looking for, this is what we are going to do.