Lamanai Ruins & River Safari

[whataboutport]

I am surprised you are allowed to climb on the ruins! Are any of them roped off like in Tulum?

[thebaddruid]

Tulum is more like look but don't touch but at Lamania and other belize ruin sites, you can climb and get up close. I have done Lamania and Xunantunich non-cruise ship shore excursions in Belize and they were best ruin excursions I have been on. Tulum was way too roped off and cleared away with tons of other tourist to really enjoy. One word of caution is that the temple of the jaguar is fun to climb up but the climb down is insane. When sitting at the top, you can't see the steps down since the steps are so steep.

[whataboutport]

I'm glad then I did Tulum first. I thought it was totally gorgeous there. The day we went was perfect weather and not crowed at all. And then topping it off with the beach with the view of the temples was awesome.

 

I remember I climbed some of the temples in Chitzen Itza (sp?) when I was a kid and was scared out of my mind climbing down. There were these local kids racing each other down the temple, wearing flip flops! This was back in the late 80s when it was still allowed. More recently I have been to the Great Wall and the steps are really steep and the platform you put your foot on most times doesn't even accommodate your whole foot. Is the Jaguar temple like that?

Edited January 26, 2014 by whataboutport

[noche_caliente]

Tulum is more like look but don't touch but at Lamania and other belize ruin sites, you can climb and get up close. I have done Lamania and Xunantunich non-cruise ship shore excursions in Belize and they were best ruin excursions I have been on. Tulum was way too roped off and cleared away with tons of other tourist to really enjoy. One word of caution is that the temple of the jaguar is fun to climb up but the climb down is insane. When sitting at the top, you can't see the steps down since the steps are so steep.

 

Since you've been to both, which one would you suggest for someone's first ruin visit? If you had to pick one to visit again, which one would it be, and why?

 

I think we are leaning towards visiting Lamania on our upcoming cruise mostly because the boat ride sounds more fun than doing the whole commute on a bus. But as of yet, I don't have enough information about the ruins to choose between them...

 

Thanks!

[thebaddruid]

Lamania would be a first choice. We are doing another cruise in September and plan on booking another excursion to Lamania. Even though our van broke down on the way back to the cruise ship, it still the best ruin tour we have been on. Make sure you have some good bug repellent and some ponchos in case it rains. Depending on the operator of the tour, you may get a Belizian lunch which is pretty tasty. The only down side is that you may be a bit rushed when you get to the ruins.

 

Xunantunich has a few good points if you can get a small group and get more times at the site. We asked our tour guide to take us to a place where we can get good local food and he brought us to a spot where locals ate at, it was really good. Both excursion I was lucky to be the only family and we got private tours of both places. I did the native choice tour in costa maya that had the 7 color lake and lunch also. The ruins part was not as good but that was mainly because we had a bad tour guide. The lake and lunch made up for it but I would not go back to Chacchoben.

[NereusJ]

I will tell you first hand Lamanai was one of the best excursions ever and we have been on a lot. It is true it takes your full day and be prepared to be literally the first few off the ship to start early. Very nice ruins with jungle atmosphere and nice river rider to get to it with plenty of wildlife. We used http://www.experiencebelizetours.com but it was a few years ago and they worked up a package price for the 5 of us.

[JimAOk1945]

In 2011 we did the Lamanai and River excursion on our Christmas cruise on Mariner of the Seas. We booked directly through the RC cruiseline. With the travel time and excursion time combined it was a long day but well worth it.

 

It was a good thing I booked it through the cruise line. Our bus got stuck in traffic on the way back and we were about 45 minutes late getting back to the ship.

 

Very glad we hadn't booked with a private company. I'm not sure the ship would have waited for us.

 

My wife took a lot of pictures. If you would like to see the slide show that she made, you can click on the link below. The slide show will play as soon as the page opens, but you can also go through the pictures by clicking on the thumbnails one at a time.

 

Here is the link http://nancysoasis.com/belize/belize.html

Edited February 9, 2014 by JimAOk1945

[fbricks70]

We had a great time at Lamanai...the river was beautiful!