Victor Bodden guide/driver recommendations? (MERGED THREADS)

[Shireenordway]

What was the name of the zip lines?

[esq007007]

What a great tour in Belize. Air conditioned private van, touring every spot we planned and more and at a fraction of the cost of what the cruise line would offer, if they did offer it. Add to that great customer service by Victor and you can't beat it. Highly recommend!

[JaniceB]

What a great tour in Belize. Air conditioned private van, touring every spot we planned and more and at a fraction of the cost of what the cruise line would offer, if they did offer it. Add to that great customer service by Victor and you can't beat it. Highly recommend!

 

Can you tell me where you went? We have a private tour scheduled just need some recommendations for sightseeing.

[Schusr]

My husband and I booked the Zip N Dip tour on Roatan through Bodden Tours. We were very pleased with our experience. The Zip portion included 11 zip lines, many more than we expected. The guides were terrific. They took pictures and we paid the $20 fee for the pics since we did not carry our camera with us while zipping, although you could take your own pics/videos with your phone. The Monkey Business was so-so. We did get to take our own pics with the monkeys, macaws, etc. The Dip part was a beautiful white sand beach and we spent about two hours there enjoying the blue carribbean waters. We were with a small group (9 people), and we had to agree on a return time to the ship, but that was not an issue. On the beach there were a number of vendors trying to sell various items or water craft experiences, but when you said no, they did not continue to bother you. It was easy to reach their kiosk from the ship to get with the tour group. Overall, I would recommend this tour.

[joetop2467]

This was our third tour with Victor Bodden tours over a period of about six years. This was our best yet with Tex as our guide. Roatan is such a beautiful island. We took a driving tour of the island with a visit to Tex's home where we saw dolphins and my grandson found a starfish in the mangroves behind his house. We then went to see the monkeys and macaws which we all thoroughly enjoyed. Great photo ops. Then we were off to the beach where the kids snorkeled for a couple of hours. Great day at a reasonable price of $25 each for the eight of us in our personal van.

[mhmotors4]

Toured with Ronald from Victor Bodden. Great guide that knew everything!!!! Even took us to a local eatery and had fresh Iguana. Thank you!!!

[Island Girl2]

Booked a private tour with Bodden. There were four of us and we had a wonderful time. My daughter and I went zip lining. It was the best zip lining ever. We had our own private guide and he taught my daughter how to zip upside down. We all enjoyed the monkeys and other animals. Next our driver suggested a small uncrowded beach for snorkeling. It was awesome. We could wade in to the reef and the variety of fish was amazing. We even saw an eel. We did a little sight seeing on the way back to the ship. Our time was over way too quickly. Had a wonderful day and next time we will book with Bodden again. Can't wait to return to this beautiful island! :):):)

[figmentslf]

We utilized the private tour available through Bodden Tours on our recent trip to Roatan and were extremely pleased. Being able to customize the tour to exactly what we wanted to see and do was well worth the $40 per person fee. The short video provided by Mr. Bodden made it extremely easy to navigate our way to the taxi area, where we took a short ride (over the pretty formidable hill!) to the actual tour area. Our guide was Homer and he was absolutely fantastic! Very knowledgeable about the island, it's people and their history and extremely helpful to these two senior citizens with entering and existing the van etc. He took us on an extensive tour of the island providing lots of colorful commentary. We had indicated in advance that we were interested in local arts and craft type shopping and he took us to a scenic overlook with lots of local vendors. We also visited the Cameo factory, Monkey Exhibit and took a private ride on the glass bottom boat. I had said I'd like to do a bit of snorkeling from an easy beach access point and Homer took us to the perfect little private cove that required navigating just a few wooden steps down into the water, There was a nice deck for those not snorkeling and some light refreshments available. I saw lots of fish and coral formations especially considering how close to the beach we were. All in all I would highly recommend Bodden tours and urge you to request Homer as a guide.

[houseflipper48]

We utilized the private tour available through Bodden Tours on our recent trip to Roatan and were extremely pleased. Being able to customize the tour to exactly what we wanted to see and do was well worth the $40 per person fee. The short video provided by Mr. Bodden made it extremely easy to navigate our way to the taxi area, where we took a short ride (over the pretty formidable hill!) to the actual tour area. Our guide was Homer and he was absolutely fantastic! Very knowledgeable about the island, it's people and their history and extremely helpful to these two senior citizens with entering and existing the van etc. He took us on an extensive tour of the island providing lots of colorful commentary. We had indicated in advance that we were interested in local arts and craft type shopping and he took us to a scenic overlook with lots of local vendors. We also visited the Cameo factory, Monkey Exhibit and took a private ride on the glass bottom boat. I had said I'd like to do a bit of snorkeling from an easy beach access point and Homer took us to the perfect little private cove that required navigating just a few wooden steps down into the water, There was a nice deck for those not snorkeling and some light refreshments available. I saw lots of fish and coral formations especially considering how close to the beach we were. All in all I would highly recommend Bodden tours and urge you to request Homer as a guide.

Do you happen to know where that private cove was that you snorkeled at, as that sounds like something we are looking for? thanks!!

[Raisencain]

We visited Roatan Honduras on November 30th 2016. We did the Fun and Sun tour. It was absolutely wonderful and I wasn't even feeling well that day but my highlight was the snorkeling and getting to see the adorable monkeys. Our tour guide was Kenny McCoy and he was such a nice young man 2 educate us on Roatan and their culture there. I would highly recommend Victor bodden and I would also say to ask for Kenny for a guide.

 

Dana Cain

 

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[haply]

We took our first tour with Victor Bodden off our November cruise. Unlike most reviews, it was not very good. We requested the monkey park, then to West Bay. Our driver first took us on a very long detour (opposite way away from where we wanted to go) driving around the slums for about 45 minutes. We then had to drive back where we came from to the monkey farm. The monkey park was OK. We were then taken to West Bay to the Henry Morgan resort. We thoroughly disliked West Bay. Henry Morgan was probably the best option for West Bay (large beach frontage, security, pool, farther away from the busier end). The food and drinks at Henry Morgan however were awful. We ended walking next door to Beachers where the drinks and food were much, much, better. West Bay beach was dirty and crowded (with only one ship in town too). The beach is very narrow. Boats are allowed to anchor right into the beach/ocean instead of at the dock. Pretty trashy with vendors and people on top of each other. Walked down past Infinity Bay and Tabyana, both which had very small beach frontage. Very disappointed and never plan on returning. If we ever go on a cruise to Roatan again, will stay on the ship or take a snorkeling tour off of the mainland.

[storm1507]

Toured with Ronald from Victor Bodden. Great guide that knew everything!!!! Even took us to a local eatery and had fresh Iguana. Thank you!!!

 

 

Do you remember the name of the place for the iguana?

[Kman228]

My family and I were recently in Roatan, and we used Victor Bodden tours. Our driver Howard was amazing! He took us to Daniel Johnson's Animal Rescue to see the sloths and monkeys, and Howard was very accommodating. He was very knowledgeable about Roatan, answered all of our questions, and made us feel very safe in a foreign country. We went to the cameo factory, several prime photo spots, and ate at an authentic Roatan restaurant (try the iguana.) Our teenagers said it was their favorite day of our whole cruise.

[MEinNJ]

We were on the NCL Pearl in Roatan for the day. Finding Victor's booth was easy. We booked the Fun n Sun tour and were on a tour with a total of 13 people, which was a fine size in a comfortable van. Our guide, Elyn Woods, who was actually a captivating guide. She clearly loves her island and eager to share her knowledge of herbal remedies, and had many in the group writing down recipes!

 

We drove around the island, stopped to a panoramic view with vendors, no pressure sales. Then off the VB Mo key Business, which we absolutely loved. It is very clean, not animal smell. We had a wonderful tour.

 

Then we headed to West End Beach for 2 hours. Someone in the group asked if we could stay longer, which Elyn was fine with, so we had 3 hours. How great is that! Elyn recommended a small local food establishment off the beach for lunch. The food was great, portions huge and pricing reasonable. While we ordered lunch Elyn put our towels on chairs at the beach so we would be together as a group.

 

This was a terrific day! She quizzed us on the ride back to the ship, offering pumice stones or currency as a reward for correct answers. So fun!

[rugrat]

Has anyone went horsebackriding while using Victor Bodden tours? Thought?

[twils2006]

Just got off the Norwegian Pearl after a 10 day Panama Canal cruise. Excellent experience with Victor Bodden Tour and if you get the opportunity to have Elyn for your guide you will not regret it. Such a lovely warm genuine person our group of 14 all loved her. So knowledgeable about the Island. She had collected a bunch of different plants all natural remedies for all kinds of ailments which she shared with us. Stories of her family and 19 siblings had us all laughing. Monkey business guide rushed us through so didn't care much for that but the monkeys and animals were great. We stopped at West Bay beach but our small group of 6 ate locally with Elyn instead of sitting on beach. Great experience all round. Learned a lot about the Islanders .

[DameAtSeaII]

Our group of 6 had a wonderful time at Victor's playing with the Monkeys on January 12th (MY birthday)! The birds are quite beautiful. I will say that many complain of "caged" animals, but it is quite evident that these animals are well cared for!

 

The afternoon at Banarama was pleasant ... only one of our party bobbed in the beautiful water, however, the rest of us enjoyed the shade of the tables and the awesome food and liquid refreshments. ;)

 

I would do this tour again just for the fun of the time with the Monkey's and the great food. I live in Florida, so beautiful beaches are available to me everywhere I turn.

 

Thanks for a fun day on the Victor Bodden Fun n Sun Tour.

 

Pat Wood

Edited January 18, 2017 by DameAtSeaII

[tbkb92]

Which tour did everyone book? We are looking at Best of Roatan Private Tour or the Fun 'n Sun Excursion.

 

Any input?

 

Thanks!

[spidybabe]

We did Fun and Sun

Safe sailing

[grinchnpooh]

just emailed our request for our Western Caribbean on Caribbean Princess.

 

This will be our first trip there, and after reading the boards till the wee hours in the am :D I decided not to book the Maya Key with our ship.

 

Hopefully there's another group, since we are only a party of 3 :cool:

 

thank you everyone who has posted and replied. :)

[xanax]

Just returned from that excursion. Ron was awesome. See my TripAdvisor review.

[bigwawao]

I spent a lot of time looking for a non ship tour company. All of the tours were either private (expensive) tours or beach tours. We are not exactly crazy about beaches. We were looking for a group tour of the island and found only one- that of Bodden's Fun and Sun tour.

Communication with Victor was fast and he emailed you like you were a friend and not a client; He answered all my questions promptly.

The tour itself was great. We had a great driver- I think his name was Jerry- who put us thru the predetermined route. He was a very careful driver. His english was not good. It was excellent! We had a stopover to actually handle a capuchin monkey and saw some other animals at Victor's place. Unfortunately Victor was not there. He was on the mainland. After going to the East end to victor's place, we were driven to the West End. We had a stop along the way where we were able to purchase some souvenirs and authentic Honduran coffee. Yes, US dollars were accepted.

At the West End, Jerry brought us to a nice place to eat. My wife is picky but she commented that she really enjoyed the food. Only thing is that I was expecting to be brought to the Bananarama beach club as per the description on the website but we were not. It was not a big deal though, as it was raining and no one wanted to swim anyway. I had just wanted to see the beach club.

Originally we were 15 booked from the NCL Getaway but when we arrived, we were down to 8 people,. Victor did not ask for a down payment. I guess this is why people cancelled rather easily. Which is fine for me- a smaller group :-))

Just one thing. When you exit the ship and walk out the gates, look for the sign Tours and Excursions hanging high up. Enter this little walkway and on the left, first booth, is Victor's booth. We got a little lost looking for this place.

Over all I would use Victor's services again if I should be back there. And I would highly recommend him too. Great communication; fair prices; nice minivan and a great driver/tourguide.

Toured Jan. 31, 2017

[spookygirl49]

Had a great time last week with Lany. We were a little slow getting off the ship but he was waiting for us when the taxi took us over the hill. He showed us around the island and talked about growing up there and living there now. It was much more interesting than a "canned" tour. We really enjoyed the Iguana farms but decided not to do any other attractions.

I would heartily recommend using Victor Bodden tours to anyone.

[63 Super Sport]

We enjoyed our private tour through Bodden Tours. Jerry, our guide, was very professional. We toured the island and the Iguana Farm. We had a great time feeding the Iguanas. Will use Bodden travels again.

[Radcruiser68]

We have had Tex and he is excellent. We request him every time we go. The one time he was already booked we had Ron Rivers and he was great too. I don't think you can go wrong with any of victors tour guides.

 

 

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