Best Mayan Excursion on Pride

[Cruzin'Gal65]

My family and I are going on a New Years Cruise on the Pride. Having trouble deciding what Mayan excursion we want to go on. Any suggestions? We are stopping at Costa Maya, Belize and Roatan. Thanks for the help.

[ABQrobin]

Belize and Costa Maya both have Mayan ruins that are considered fantastic examples of the culture. If you really want to see ruins, those are the stops that offer you a great experience. Do one or both.

 

Roatan does not have ruins that can be reached from the cruise ship stops. They do have one of the most important sites in Mayan history, but it is far inland.

[bdink921]

We booked a tour in Coata Maya through Native Choice to the Chacchoben Ruins. Excellent tour, fantastic guides. We really enjoyed our day with them.

[legion3]

Highly recommend the Costa Maya ruins. They are not to far from the port, nice bus ride, thus they are not an all day affair like Belize. The area has lots of shade and is an easy walk and is not a super vast complex.

 

We took a 7 and 4 YO and they had a blast. Not a long trip and not a long day.

[nybumpkin]

We also did an excursion to Chacchoben with The Native Choice in Costa Maya. It was a wonderful tour - the ruins were about an hour away and Ivan, the compny's co-owner and our tour guide, gave a wonderful tour of the ruins. His family farmed the land where the ruins were excavated. After the ruins tour we ate lunch at a Maya family's house in modern Chacchoben village. (They are bilingual - Spanish and Mayan.) An absolutely wonderful experience.

 

This past August we did Carnival's Altun Ha and River Wallace excursion in Belize. It's also a very good tour - a boat trip up the river to a lunch stop, with lots of wildlife seen along the way. After lunch (we did a traditional Belizean lunch of chicken with rice, beans, and plantains washed down with Belikin beer), we took a bus to Altun Ha. You can climb some of these ruins. Then a bus ride back to the pier. I have some photos in my review at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2098938. This is an all-day tour; we had a little time to shop at the pier, mostly because the line for the tenders was very long. However, the Chacchoben tour coupled with lunch was also a long tour; it's much shorter if you do only the ruins tour.

[BigRed93]

We always go to Maya Chan for a beach day in Costa Maya, but Xunantunich in Belize was fantastic. We were still able to climb to the top at the time. Not sure if they still allow that.

 

 

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[Cruzin'Gal65]

Thanks everyone for your help. A lot to decide on. But it sounds like either Belize or Costa Maya is a win win for a Mayan tour.

[JimAOk1945]

We have visited the Mayan ruins in both Costa Maya and Belize. They are both fantastic and worth the time and effort to get there.

 

You might enjoy seeing the slide show my wife put together with her pictures for her website. They are available at the link below.

 

Mayan Ruins in Costa Maya and Belize

[Floridiana]

We enjoyed the Lamanai ruins in Belize the most. After a bus ride into the countryside, you take a small river boat which makes it very interesting. Lamanai is inhabited by howler monkeys, very eerie.

 

In addition, Belize is one of the ports where it is advisable to book a tour of some sort. The city is not a good place to hang out.

 

We also went to Chacchoben (Costa Maya, Mexico) which was much less impressive than Lamanai (Belize). We regretted not having booked a tour to one of more important ruins further away. An excellent guide can make up for it, but the ruins are what they are and Chacchoben is not one of the highlights.

 

In Costa Maya, you also have the option of not doing a tour at all. They have a brand new port area with swimming pool and shopping. We were told there is a beach and a fishing village nearby.

Edited October 17, 2014 by Floridiana