Goff Caye or Caye Caulker for snorkeling?

[tjoil]

I have read a lot about Goff Caye and Caye Caulker islands for snorkeling but I can decide which one I want to go to. Anybody who has been to either please tell your stories. Also, what is the best way book a tour. When we get there, through the cruise line or on a website. Hurry we will be on the Glory on March 11. Not much time to make a decision. Thanks for your help!! :eek:

[LizaMM]

We did the Goff Caye Snorkel when we sailed on the Carnival Glory.

 

I have not done a ships excursion in a while but I have to say I loved this trip!! We thought long and hard before we booked it.

 

A brief synopsis of our day....

 

We did the early excursion and booked online before the cruise. Our tickets were waiting in our cabin when we emabarked. On Tuesday morning we met at he White Heat Disco at 8:15AM. There were several excursions that met in this lounge but it was not a long wait until we were called.

 

We all "followed the Carnival Leader" to Deck 0 where we got right on the excursion boat. This is one of the nice things about booking through the cruiseline for this - no nead to worry about tendering times.

 

The excursion boat was a little to crowded for my liking but the guides were great and used the time that we traveled to Goff's Cay (about 30 minutes) to introduce themselves, tell us about the exursion and fit us for fins and hand out equipment etc.

 

We reached Goff's Caye and those that wanted to snorkel from the Caye got off the boat. The rest of us stayed on and the boat went out a bit. We jumped or used the ladder to enter the water. There were several guides and they were very good and keeping us all together, taking us to good spots along the reef and continually pointing things out. The snorkel lasted about 45 minutes.

 

We had a fabulous snorkel experience and saw lots of wonderful views!

 

We all climbed back onto the boat and then went back to he Caye where we had at least an hour to an hour and a half to relax and enjoy before returning to the ship. Truely a tiny island with a port-a potty on the dock, a hut that offered dome BBQ food and beverages and of course hair braiding and souvenirs. We set up our towels on the beach and just dozed!

 

We were back on the ship and had lunch and then we took a tender to shore and had time to ship and hang around.

 

I do not have a waterproof encasement for my digital camera and the "one time use water camera" photos I did not get to upload yet but you can see my photos from Belize in my link below in the album title Carnival Gory Cruise - Tuesday.

 

Hope this helps. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

[grizzy]

We have gone to Caye Caulker on our last two sailings. Two years ago we caught the water taxi and booked with a local on Caulker and last year we booked a private charter.

 

Click on my last two Explorer reviews below and let me know if you have any more questions.

 

Chris:cool:

[TravelWorks]

 

These all taken December of 2005...at Goff's Caye~ On our 4th trip to Belize. Have fun!

[TravelWorks]

We chartered a private boat...and snorkeled right from the shore of the caye...around the whole island...then slept/sunned for awhile, played on the beach, and then snorkeled again out on Goff's Reef from the boat.

 

We had a full 6 hours...it was awesome!

 

Here is some pictures from the snorkel:

 

????:

cruisephotos@gmail.com

[shannonwood]

Hi All,

 

I'm wondering if anyone can give me a price...or at least an estimate of what the private charter's on shore charge to take people to Goff's Caye?

[TravelWorks]

$40 to $60 per adult...around $25 for kids....depending on who you go with, how big your group is,....and if you pre-arrange it... or try to hook up with a group going last minute on the docks in Belize city....

 

Hope that helps and isn't more confusing.

[shannonwood]

Yes it makes sense! I know if you take an excursion from the ship, you get right on and don't have to tender in. But with a private tour, I guess you must tender in. Do the tour operators make themselves visible when we tender it, will I see anyone? Or should I/can I book something in advance...does anyone have a website? Do you personally recommend a tour company you've used in the past?

[MN Cruisers]

anyone have any good recommendations on private tour operators to either goff's or caye caulker?

 

Thanks!

[vermontcruiser]

Hi. I just got back from our first cruise and we did our own trip to Caye Caulker. Big mistake. If I were to do it again, I'd do an excursion set up by Royal Caribbean for several reasons. First, we were bombarded by people trying to get us to buy tours, things, etc., as soon as we got off the boat. I mean REALLY AGGRESSIVE, SCARY people. My husband and I were traveling with our 13 and 15 year old daughters, and we were shocked at the aggressive, sometimes nasty nature of these people. We finally found our way down the street to the sea taxi people where we paid $35 each to be transported roundtrip to Caye Caulker. It was about a 45 minute ride. We hadn't made arrangements with anyone to do a snorkling tour, and I wish we had. The public beach was filthy and there were no accommodations. We had lunch at a local restaurant, snorkled just a little, and got back on the sea taxi. Maybe it was a situation where I should have turned left instead of right getting off the sea taxi, but it was a dissapointing experience. :(

[atlantaCruise]

LizaMM wrote:

"We reached Goff's Caye and those that wanted to snorkel from the Caye got off the boat. The rest of us stayed on and the boat went out a bit. We jumped or used the ladder to enter the water. There were several guides and they were very good and keeping us all together, taking us to good spots along the reef and continually pointing things out. The snorkel lasted about 45 minutes.

We had a fabulous snorkel experience and saw lots of wonderful views!

We all climbed back onto the boat and then went back to he Caye where we had at least an hour to an hour and a half to relax and enjoy before returning to the ship. Truely a tiny island with a port-a potty on the dock, a hut that offered dome BBQ food and beverages and of course hair braiding and souvenirs. We set up our towels on the beach and just dozed!"

 

Can you snorkle from the beach there when they drop you back off at the Caye? I was hoping for more then 45 minutes, can anyone give me any ideas? We leave on the Glory on the 25th

Thanks

[TravelWorks]

Yes!

And you can actually just have them drop you off at the caye and snorkel from the beach the entire time! We went around the whole island with our guide...

 

It was very relaxing...and fun and easy to get back to the beach to hang out...

 

We also went snorkeling from the boat on a reef later on, but we had booked a 6 hour charter and had a long time to hang out and do what we wanted....

I don't know what your time frame will be like!

 

Have fun!

[LizaMM]

Can you snorkle from the beach there when they drop you back off at the Caye? I was hoping for more then 45 minutes, can anyone give me any ideas? We leave on the Glory on the 25th

Thanks

 

 

You can snorkel from the beach as well. If you take the excursion through the ship they will give you the option of going exclusively to Goffs Caye ( the boat stops there briefly first to let people off) or going off the boat. When the boat came back to Goff's Caye we could have kept our gear and snorkeled some more off the beach if we wanted. At that point it would have been a "free" snokel with no guide. If you got off the boat immediatly on Goff's Caye there was a guided snorkel also for about 45 minutes and then of course you still had the option to keep the gear and continur "guideless".

[atlantaCruise]

Thanks Travelworks and LizaMM, Will book it today. We will be there from 8 - 5 on the 28th. Did the ruins last time in Belize. So did I read right where the tour guide picks you up at the ship? Do not have to tender in 1st?

Thanks again, will post my pics when we get back.

[TravelWorks]

Thanks Travelworks and LizaMM, Will book it today. We will be there from 8 - 5 on the 28th. Did the ruins last time in Belize. So did I read right where the tour guide picks you up at the ship? Do not have to tender in 1st?

Thanks again, will post my pics when we get back.

When you book to go with the ship's tours that is correct....they pick you up at the ship...and they are one of the first groups off the boat.

 

if you book it privately...to go with a smaller chartered group...you have to catch early tender and meet your group at the pier...(which is what I do.) And then go from there...most the time the larger ships crowds are done at the cayes by the time I have been there for more than 30 minutes.

[momofzeke]

I know Goffs Caye has the bar-b-q chicken. Do they sell beer and other alcoholic drinks also? Thanks!

[TravelWorks]

I know Goffs Caye has the bar-b-q chicken. Do they sell beer and other alcoholic drinks also? Thanks!

 

I am not much help here.

I know they sold pop out of a cooler....but I don't drink, so I didn't ask about beer. Sorry.:confused:

 

When we chartered our private excursion...we asked them to bring additional snacks and pop and bottled water for our group as well...

 

I know the ship sponsered tour to snorkel turneffe atoll and then go to Bannister Island has some pretty big parties going on on their boats with rum punch and such...but there are usually 150 people on those boats!:eek:

 

I hope that helps.