Best land excursion in Belize

[LabloverinCa]

We will be in Belize on the Grand Princess Dec. 13th. Never been there before. Can anyone recommend a good land excursion. We plan on snorkeling, etc. on other stops and would like to see the inland areas of Belize (rivers, nature, animals, etc.) Thanks !

:)

[Bob7]

Hey Lab, we're also looking at land tours, we'd love to see the caves, but prefer to walk/hike rather than do it tubing with a wet butt, and prefer private tours instead of ship tours. Tiger Cave at the Monkey Bay Sanctuary is only 45 minutes from the port, and they offer a nice tour, half hour on a jungle trail, and up to 2 hours in the large cave if you want, big chambers with stallagtites etc., for $60 p.p. And St. Herman's Cave at Blue Hole National Park is another half hour down the highway, $60 from one operator and $75 from another, and there are also nice trails there. The caves and other sights at Mountain Pine Park are 1.5 hours each way, sort of a long way.

-Bob

[LabloverinCa]

Thanks ! Sounds like what we are looking for. I also checked into Bannister Island, as they have a Manatee preserve they take you to, along with time on the beach and snorkeling out at the reef if you want. We planned to snorkle in Grand Cayman and Cozumel, but I'm not sure how good the Cozumel snorkeling is right now. I appreciate your input. The caves sound interesting and I love to hike !

Lori

[ute_fan]

I'd recommend the trip to the Lamanai Mayan ruins if it's available through your ship. It's pretty well an all day tour, but it includes a bus ride through the Belizian countryside, an hour trip up the Belize river (where you often see wildlife), and then a tour of the Mayan ruins in the jungle. We saw several varieties of birds, bat and a crocodile. There are howler monkeys in the jungle, which unfortunately didn't make an appearance for us, but many other posters have seen (or heard) them.

 

When we went it was hot and humid, but a very interesting experience.

[Bob7]

Thanks ! Sounds like what we are looking for. I also checked into Bannister Island, as they have a Manatee preserve they take you to, along with time on the beach and snorkeling out at the reef if you want. We planned to snorkle in Grand Cayman and Cozumel, but I'm not sure how good the Cozumel snorkeling is right now. I appreciate your input. The caves sound interesting and I love to hike !

Lori

Yes we're also planning some snorkeling. We wanted to snorkel some shallow wrecks instead of reefs, we did the Antilla II wreck in Aruba, awesome, tons of fish, and it was like a ghost ship, covered in coral, spoiled us for snorkeling reefs anymore. And Cayman has 2 easy ones, the Cali wreck near where the tender drops us off, kind of broken up, and the Ridgefield on 7 Mile Beach, partly submerged and partly above water, a snorkeler posted pics of it on the Cayman Activity Guide site. Haven't found any cool snorkeling in Coz.

-Bob

[LabloverinCa]

Snorkeling ship wrecks ! That sounds awesome ! Thank you for the information. I'll look it up and see where it is and how we can get there. Do you "go it on your own" or with a snorkeling guide ? We would rather go on our own if possible.

Lori

[Bob7]

Hey Lori, yes we like to go on our own too, either by ourselves or a private tour. For directions to the Cali, a cruiser posted that it was a 4 minute walk, you go left of the cruise terminal towards the Old Fort Monument (so if they mean Fort George then it's left facing inland not left facing the water). Go past the Fort Monument and small lighthouse. There will be a cove where vendors sell fish, and the Cali is where the white buoys are in the water, about 100 yards from shore. Another cruise said you can enter by going across the patio at Rackham's Pub and down the ladder at the water. Another said to use the dive shop to the left of Rachham's Pub (facing the water). I found one guy who posted some underwater shots while snorkeling the Cali, I think I can find the link if you want, it was pretty broken up but lots of stuff to see.

 

Oops, for the other wreck I meant the Gamma wreck, not the Ridgefield. The Ridgefield is far away. The Gamma is beached, half underwater and half above. A snorkeler who has done the Gamma several times said it's on the beach behind the Wharf Restaurant, just where 7 Mile Beach starts. Enter from a protected rough sand/crushed coral cove just north of the wreck. Lots of fish there, and someone saw a 300 lb Jewfish. I think this is the link to a shot of it from shore:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y169/divnpaul/13519_20.jpg

It's listing about 20 degrees, so the part you can see is above water, and the other side is submerged.

 

Buses run up and down for beach for $1.50 so no need for a $10 p.p. cab, and yer gonna need some beer money after, this gets ya thirsty!

-Bob

[LabloverinCa]

I thank you for the picture of the wreck and the directions to find it ! Sounds like something we can do on our own for the day and no need to rent a car. Less than a month til we go ! I'm getting so excited !

Lori

[montgomeryfamily]

Hey LabloverinCa, we have a roll call for the December 10 sailing of the Grand Princess. Why don't you come over to the roll call board and join us!!:)

[mikefromny]

We are going to Belize next month and are wondering if anyone has been on Royal Caribbean's Land Rover Cave, River & Jungle Adventure and can give us any feed back.

 

Thanks!

[Bob7]

I thank you for the picture of the wreck and the directions to find it ! Sounds like something we can do on our own for the day and no need to rent a car. Less than a month til we go ! I'm getting so excited !

Lori

Hey we've got a pile of Cayman info here on the Belize board :-)) You go before us, we go in March, when you get back would you post how you did at the Cali and the Gamma? You could put it on the Cayman board and call it "Cali and Gamma Snorkel" or something so I recognize it. And I'll buy you a beer at the next port.

Do you use flotation vests? ... we like them.

-Bob

[LabloverinCa]

Absolutely ! I will call my review "Cali and Gamma snorkle" ! Watch for it the week of December 19th. Thank you again for all the information.

 

This is only our second cruise. Our first was to the Mexican Riviera where we snorkeled in Cabo. We did have the vests on (felt kinda silly, but they really helped you float). I'm hoping to find snorkeling in Grand Cayman a bit "calmer" as I actually got a little sea sick in Cabo from the waves beating me up and down ! This is why I thought that if we snorkle from shore, we can go in and out as we please and are not stuck to getting right back on a boat (that was also rocking quite a bit !)

[Bob7]

Absolutely ! I will call my review "Cali and Gamma snorkle" ! Watch for it the week of December 19th. Thank you again for all the information.

This is only our second cruise. Our first was to the Mexican Riviera where we snorkeled in Cabo. We did have the vests on (felt kinda silly, but they really helped you float). I'm hoping to find snorkeling in Grand Cayman a bit "calmer" as I actually got a little sea sick in Cabo from the waves beating me up and down ! This is why I thought that if we snorkle from shore, we can go in and out as we please and are not stuck to getting right back on a boat (that was also rocking quite a bit !)

Ok that’s great! For the Cali a Georgetown local said it’s about 200 yards to the left (facing inland) of the tender dock, and to just “watch for signs”. Someone said there is a dive shop next to Rackham’s Pub but I haven’t found out what it’s called. We try to nail all the info down b/c we’re in port for so short a time, we don’t want to waste time finding out about stuff after we get there. All the cruise ships do $50 tours to the Cali, so there could be a crowd there if it’s a busy day. But with those weenies you can just pull off their snorkels and masks and they’ll be gulping water and off to the shore and out of yer way :-))

 

To get to the Gamma, the local buses run along the ocean road up through 7 Mile Beach every 15 minutes, with lots of bus stops, $1.50 p.p., so we’re hoping to snag one, they have color boards showing their routes, and the beach route is the colors yellow or lime green, one is express or something and the other makes more stops. They should let us off at the Wharf Restaurant where the Gamma is. That snorkeler who posted the shot of it has done it a few times, and said it’s great if fairly calm, so fingers crossed. If it’s wavy, the danger with exposed wrecks is getting pushed onto the metal, the tour guy in Aruba warned us about that with the Antilla II, it had some exposed parts. It’s cool if parts of the wreck are only several feet down, we could stand on one edge of the Antilla with our fins and balance and do a “King of the World” like Titanic. We took one of the $8 Walmart underwater cameras for snuba which printed pretty good shots, but didn’t have one for the Antilla. The ship sold the same thing for $27. Sometimes it’s fun to take fish food, makes for good shots.

 

Yes Wendy gets seasick very easily too, even if I just say “up and down” three times :-)) The patch works well for her, sometimes she uses the wrist bands too. Ginger caps didn’t help much. Hey we also did the Mex Riv, last March, no snorkeling, it did look rough even on the bay side in Cabo, and it doesn’t take much of a wave to bug a person. Did you snorkel around the Arch in Cabo?

 

We did snuba for the first time in Barbados last year. We probably wouldn’t do it again, too much hassle blowing your ears underwater all the time and being connected to the hose and raft.

-Bob

[jetskier]

We will be in Belize on the Grand Princess Dec. 13th. Never been there before. Can anyone recommend a good land excursion. We plan on snorkeling, etc. on other stops and would like to see the inland areas of Belize (rivers, nature, animals, etc.) Thanks !

:)

 

LabloverinCa,

We did the Lamanai ruins. It is an interesting trip through the countryside and then a 30 mile trip upriver to the ruins. On th river portion we were able to see a couple of crocs, bats, iguanas, Jesus bird, parrots. At the ruins, we saw Howler monkeys and a nice size tarantula.

Dave

[LabloverinCa]

Hi Bob

 

We did the Chileno Bay snorkeling trip in Cabo. Like I said, it was quite rough. Waves were constantly coming at us and bobbing us up and down.

I had to make my way to shore to take a break, it just had me too sea sick. I never even considered that I would get queasy while snorkeling !

[LabloverinCa]

Hi Bob

 

We did the Chileno Bay snorkeling trip in Cabo. Like I said, it was quite rough. Waves were constantly coming at us and bobbing us up and down.

I had to make my way to shore to take a break, it just had me too sea sick. I never even considered that I would get queasy while snorkeling !

[Bob7]

Hey Lori,

Yeah that would be a bummer. Do you get seasick if the ship rolls a bit? Caribb is usually pretty calm, and the Med, but the Atlantic is always rough, Wendy got sick on the calmest day all summer going to Bermuda (the crew said), just a nice steady roll.

 

Also if it's rough ya get water in your snorkel, we used to have ones with a ball at the top to stop water from getting in, but we broke them (fighting off sharks), and now they're illegal and not for sale, and they have some other method of stopping water that friends told us about, don't know how it works, but better than getting a lungful of salt water :-(( We usually just rent equipment now or use what the tours offer, but we've been getting crappy masks that leak if you go down a few feet, so our snorkel friends that we cruise with are going to find us a good set. Darn fins take up so much room in the suitcase, might be worth renting those for a few bucks.

-Bob

[LabloverinCa]

I was just going to ask if you bring your own snorkeling equipment or rent them. I may go out and purchase a couple of snorkles and masks, but rent the fins.....great idea ! If you have any suggestions for a good brand, let me know.

 

I'm hoping that the waters of the Carribean are nice and calm. I haven't been sick on the boat .... yet. I can feel the rolling motion (noticed it the most when we were in the casino for some reason) but on our Mexican Riviera cruise, it must not have been enough to make me sick, thank goodness ! Like I mentioned, the snorkeling was what got to me the most. It was all the looking down and bobbing up and down ! My, my !

I asked on another board if you can wear the Sea Band/Relief Band in the water and if they really work. I'm thinking about giving them a try.

[Bob7]

If you did fine sailing down the Pacific coast, the Caribb will be a breeze, unless there has been some recent storm kicking things up, it can be rough for a few days after one of those, but that isn't the season for them. The bands have to be put on properly to work, with the marble in exactly the right spot on your wrist. Wendy tho't it worked about half the time. But she loves the scopolamine patches, sold here under the name Transderm-V, works for 3 days, doesn't make her dopey, not supposed to drink but she has a couple with no prob.

 

Our snorkel friends found good ones at a great price, guess where? ... Walmart in FL. They took them back to the pool at the condo and tried them out, sitting on the bottom at 10 feet down, and no leaks. And they have the no-leak tubes. So we're thinking of getting sets of them before we board, we're in Tampa for 2 days with them before we sail, I think they said they were about $30. I can ask them which model they are if you want.

 

Yeah we might no pack fins, not just space but weight too, we've been burned on overweight luggage, last cruise flight we were way over, was gonna cost $50 extra, but we got a box and divied up the stuff (2 luggages p.p. allowed) so that each piece was under the limit, 50 lbs I think it was. Next time we're going to tie a duffle bag to the rolling suitcase in case we need to separate it and have an extra luggage to fill.

-Bob

[imatarb]

We originally booked an independent tour of cave tubing, but I am seriously reconsidering, as our 7-yr. old son might not get a kick out of the small, closed-in nature of the caves, plus the dark, etc.

 

Can anyone advise of any other tours we should check into, either independently or through RCI?

 

Thanks,

Lisa :)

[Bob7]

We originally booked an independent tour of cave tubing, but I am seriously reconsidering, as our 7-yr. old son might not get a kick out of the small, closed-in nature of the caves, plus the dark, etc.

 

Can anyone advise of any other tours we should check into, either independently or through RCI?

Thanks,

Lisa :)

Hey the thing he'll probably like best about the whole trip might be the ship pool :-) Kids his age might like the zoo tour, or if he's adventurous then the zip lining through the jungle canopy. Or if he loves beaches and water, the beach tour to one of the cayes.

[grngables]

LabloverinCa,

We did the Lamanai ruins. It is an interesting trip through the countryside and then a 30 mile trip upriver to the ruins. On th river portion we were able to see a couple of crocs, bats, iguanas, Jesus bird, parrots. At the ruins, we saw Howler monkeys and a nice size tarantula.

Dave

Did you use the cruise line excursion or an independent tour company? We are going on our first cruise Jan 30, 06 and thought this tour sounded good.

[jetskier]

Did you use the cruise line excursion or an independent tour company? We are going on our first cruise Jan 30, 06 and thought this tour sounded good.

 

Grngables,

This is one I would recommend booking through the ship due to the length of the tour. 1.25-1.5 hr bus trip one-way, a 30 mile boat ride up the river, about 2 hrs on site. The reason for booking with the ship is that the ship will wait on you to return even if late. If you book on your own and are late, the ship will leave without you. Dont worry about bringing water from the ship as it is furnished. (Or as our tour guide said, "you might as well drink it as you have paid for it") Once you get to the ruins, you will be treated to a light lunch of chicken, rice, coconut dessert and either soft drink or water. Be careful walking on the trails as there is a lot of trip hazards.

 

Dave

[cece067]

Hi. We are on the Grand on 12/10 also. Can't wait. I was wondering too about bringing our own snorkeling stuff and was glad to see the info on leaky masks. Has anyone been to the Mayan Plances of Cahal Pech?

 

Christine

 

p.s LabloverinCa. We are coming from central CA. Hope to see you on ship at sailaway party.