Belize City

[maggie]

Deciding Lamanai Mayan Ruins, Mangrove River Cruise & Lunch vs Altun Ha Mayan Ruins, Scenic River Cruise & Lunch.

 

Any suggestions please. We are on the Caribbean Princess January 18 and making our excursion plans. Any help would be appreciated.

[Molliem]

We just returned from Princess cruise taking their tour of Belize since this was tender port. The tour included wildlife and lunch, which was terrible. We also did private tour of Roatan which included tour of island and mangrove tour by boat. This was about 5 hours and excellent. If you would like referral, please feel free to contact us directly at mowryltd@gmail.com for further information.

 

Elwin

 

Deciding Lamanai Mayan Ruins, Mangrove River Cruise & Lunch vs Altun Ha Mayan Ruins, Scenic River Cruise & Lunch.

 

Any suggestions please. We are on the Caribbean Princess January 18 and making our excursion plans. Any help would be appreciated.

[Stevesan]

Deciding Lamanai Mayan Ruins, Mangrove River Cruise & Lunch vs Altun Ha Mayan Ruins, Scenic River Cruise & Lunch.

 

Any suggestions please. We are on the Caribbean Princess January 18 and making our excursion plans. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic, Maggie. You'll find shipmates on the January 18 "Roll Call"

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1828087

Edited December 20, 2013 by Stevesan

[DrivesLikeMario]

We did Altun-Ha - just the ruins, no lunch or anything like that. We were SO impressed with this site! I couldn't believe we could walk all over the ruins! Some of the temples were really steep, over extremely uneven steps with no hand rail, so if you aren't very mobile, this is not a good place for you.

 

We had a 94 yr. old man climb to the top of the tallest ruin with us. He was amazing! Going down was the scariest, but this is definitely worth your time IMO.

Edited December 20, 2013 by DrivesLikeMario

[RickEk]

I just got back from this cruise last week. I did a cave-tubing excursion and was glad that I did... it rained ALL day. :)

[AKman2495]

We were there in November. It had been raining for about a month straight and all of the river type excursions had been canceled. We had a tour for the Xunantunich Mayan Ruins but that was impossible with the river so high. Princess rescheduled us for an Altun Ha tour and we got the notice and the new tickets the night before.

 

The trip to Alutn Ha was bizarre. Belize city is the pits and the roads in Belize are horrible. But, as others have said, the Alutn Ha ruins were amazing. It is true you can climb all over them-which is getting harder and harder to do anymore.

 

The guides were very knowable about the site and the buildings there.

 

I would recommend that tour highly.

[sminfiddle]

Deciding Lamanai Mayan Ruins, Mangrove River Cruise & Lunch vs Altun Ha Mayan Ruins, Scenic River Cruise & Lunch.

 

We scheduled BOTH on our B2B.

Altun Ha + Lunch + scenic cruise on the "Old River" happened on the first leg, Dec. 4th, Caribbean Princess. We don't regret the tour but ended up canceling the other tour you mention, second leg.

The tour group gets split into two and one group does ruins to lunch to River on their own bus and boat with one guide, while the other does ruins last.

A half hour lined up just outside the terminal and a "last chance" restroom break, precedes a standard bumpy Belize bus ride. When you get out, there's another comfort opportunity and you spend an hour among and on the ruins. Shorter bus ride to lunch which includes water or Fanta but you can buy more (or a beer). On to a boat from there and a long run down the River, stopping if wildlife is seen.

We saw monkeys, crocs, iguanas and the snouts of manatees, but each tour's wildlife can and will vary.

 

The boat was jam-packed, too full for us to turn around and a bad time for my wife. Standing still in the Terminal was a bad time for me. So we turned in our Lamanai ticket for the following week and stayed on the ship until just before lunch, going to Terminal 4 to get the fun little passport stamps.

 

Overall a good turnkey excursion. Bring sunscreen for the open Altun Ha area and boat.

 

Lunch was hot and on a plate but not overly filling.

 

 

~sent using Cruise Critic app~

[Roatanfans]

Altun Ha is a nice but fairly small Mayan site- if you've never been to see Mayan Ruins before you will enjoy it. If you've been to the more famous (and much larger) sights this will seem pretty small, but still a nice site not far away.

[philv]

Deciding Lamanai Mayan Ruins, Mangrove River Cruise & Lunch vs Altun Ha Mayan Ruins, Scenic River Cruise & Lunch.

 

Any suggestions please. We are on the Caribbean Princess January 18 and making our excursion plans. Any help would be appreciated.

 

We did the Lamanai Mayan Ruins, Mangrove River Cruise & Lunch in March this year. It was great! The river cruise was half the fun. The ruins will leave you in awe. Our tour guide was fantastic. I must admit after reading about Belize, I was a little pessimistic about this port. It's a very poor country and Belize City is a tough place. But our tour guide was very proud of his country and really left me impressed. p.s. Bring a rain jacket, rains a lot there, but as our tour guide said, "it's a warm rain." ;)

Edited December 20, 2013 by philv

[AKman2495]

Bring a rain jacket, rains a lot there, but as our tour guide said, "it's a warm rain." ;)

 

No kidding. I climbed to the top of one of the temples at Altun Ha just when a shower broke -it poured for about 10 minutes. My raincoat saved me.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Wow, I guess we were really lucky not to have rain! It sure was hot though.

 

I expected the poverty in Belize City -that's what travel is all about. You get a glimpse of how people live in other parts of the world. It expands your understanding, makes you grateful for what you have and makes you realize your First World complaints are nothing compared to what some people have to deal with on a daily basis.