Has anyone heard of "Star Tours", or done "Tsunami Tours" in Caye Caulker???

[jennifer.c21]

We will be in Belize on May 3rd on the Carnival Valor. There are two of us, my husband and I. I have narrowed it down to three tours......

 

1. Coral Breeze

2. Star Tours

3. Tsunami Tours

 

There are so many reviews of Coral Breeze, so I have a pretty good idea of how that one will go. I would just like some more info. on Star Tours or Tsunami if anyone has had experience with these. Thank you!!!!

[HGPLynnE]

Hey Jennifer.C21

 

Be sure to stop by the roll call for the Valor departure of April 29. There is a great group of us meeting after sailaway on Sunday. Stop by and say hi. I know there is a group from the roll call heading to Caye Caulker.

 

Lynn

[hatchie]

We will be in Belize on May 3rd on the Carnival Valor. There are two of us, my husband and I. I have narrowed it down to three tours......

 

1. Coral Breeze

2. Star Tours

3. Tsunami Tours

 

There are so many reviews of Coral Breeze, so I have a pretty good idea of how that one will go. I would just like some more info. on Star Tours or Tsunami if anyone has had experience with these. Thank you!!!!

 

Hi- We are going to be in Belize on March 22 on Norwegian Sun. We are looking at these same 3 tour groups and trying to decide.

 

Have you heard any replies and made a decision ?

I wonder if there is a way to see if all 3 are certified tour operators (or soemthing like that) through the Belize Chamber ? I saw that somewhere suggested to check out tour operators but not sure where and how ?

 

We would like to snorkel shark ray alley and see the manatees. I saw a tour through Tsunami Adventures that does this, as well as Star Tours. It was more of an all day thing which I think we have time for because we come in at 8 and leave at 6.

 

Do all 3 offer to pick you up where you get off the tender ? I think that is an advantage.

 

I appreciate any suggestions !

[envirolawyer]

We are leaving next week on a cruise to Belize, and we have booked with Star Tours to go to Shark Ray Alley (for approx. 3 hours) and Caye Caulker. I'm very careful with the tours I book, so I did my research and they seem like a safe bet. You can use Paypal to pay them. I will let you know how the tour went when we get back. Plus, $45/person sure beats the about $100 NCL wants for nearly the same tour!

[ESR24]

I'm interested in hearing some experiences from Star and Tsunami tours as well! We're debating between those 3 companies as well!

[jennifer.c21]

No, I have not yet heard from anyone who has done tours with these companies. I think that they are all certified, at least that is what they say on their websites. One does pick you up at the pier after you tender in and the other you would have to take the water taxi to Caye Caulker. I can't remember which one is which. So we still haven't made a decision. I think I am leaning toward Star Tours based on a review I found online when I googled "Star Tours Belize Reviews." Let me know if you have made any decisions as well. Thanks for the reply.

[wack001]

Star tours, any contact inof or website.

Going to Caye Caulker on my own, hints.

[jennifer.c21]

Thanks for the reply. I know what you mean, I am very careful too when choosing and do LOTS of research first as well. Please let me know how it goes with them. Have fun!!!

[ALadyNCal]

I will let you know how the tour went when we get back.

How did it go & would you recommend them? Considering the same tour -- will be in Belize in less than two weeks :) Thanks!

[jojomacing]

Just got back from them last week. Was a little confusion at first to get where we need to go. They told us to go to the water taxi stand and it turned out the guide was waiting for us at the port. Other than that, it was great. Caye Caulker Island is really nice. Not much to do there which is what I liked about it but the water is so clear. You have to take a water taxi about 40 minutes from the port to this Island then from there you get on the Star Tours boat and it takes you about 3 minutes to get to the first snorkle spot. Stringrays everywhere. They were cool. We went to three different spots and snorkled for about 2 1/2 hours before we had to catch the water taxi back to the port. The guide was really nice. Here are a couple of pictures

 

 

 

[ALadyNCal]

Thanks for the info -- could not get any of your photo links to work tho :(

[jennifer.c21]

We just got back from our tour with Star Tours on Caye Caulker. We took the water taxi over to Caye Caulker. When we got there, there was not anyone waiting, so we asked for directions to Star Tours and walked about five minutes and we were there.

 

Caye Caulker is a really neat place. So unique and rustic. We wish we would have had more time there.

 

We ended up going with Leon. We were supposed to go to three stops, but for some reason, our cruise ship was ahead of Belize by two hours, so we had to tell him we had to go back earlier. He could not have been more accomodating. He made sure we got back to the water taxi in time.

 

Leon was amazing. I have never seen anyone work so hard to please. He took us to two spots. The first was with the sharks and rays. It was really amazing to swim with them. Next, we went to the reef and swam around, following Leon as he dove down to show us various creatures, fish, conch shells, urchins, and other stuff. He gave us fruit on the boat afterward, it was very refreshing.

 

We hated to have to leave early, but Leon took us right back to the water taxi, made sure we had tickets to get on, and then took the rest of the people on the tour (all three of them), to see a few other spots on the reef. These people were staying on Caye Caulker, not with a cruise ship, so they were able to continue the tour.

 

I can't say enough about Leon and what a kind and wonderful guide he was. I would definitely reccommend Star Tours. They really want you to have the best experience possible, and you can tell, by how hard they work to make you happy.

 

Also, their tours are never more than 12 people, so you get a very personalized experiece.

[ALadyNCal]

Great review :)

 

I don't think I've read before of people having to cut their excursion short and not do all 3 snorkel stops. Is that because you got a later start getting to Caye Caulker?

 

I had read there is a time difference between the ship & Belize time.

 

How long were you at Caye Caulker all together?

 

Thanks :)

[jennifer.c21]

No, we were off the ship on the first tender and got to Caye Caulker around 9am Belize time, which ended up being 11:00 am ship time. Before I left I thought we would only be 1 hour ahead of Belize and Roatan. It turned out that we were ahead by 2 hours which really screwed us up with local tour times.

 

Our tour in Belize started at 10:30 Belize time, 12:30 ship time. Our last tender to the ship left at 4:15 ship time, 2:15 Belize time, so we didn't feel comfortable taking the 1:30 water taxi back, as we would be getting back to the ship right at the departing time. Whew!!! Pretty hectic. So we only had 1 1/2 hours to do the tour to catch the 12:00 water taxi back, putting us at the tenders at 3pm. If we had taken the 1:30 water taxi back, it would have arrived at the tender pier right at 4:15 ship time. Is this confusing or what???? It sucked, since we really wanted to stay longer.

 

Our tour guide in Roatan said that in all his years doing tours for cruise ship passengers, the Valor had always been only 1 hour ahead of local time. I have no idea why it was so messed up.

 

So, we were in Caye Caulker from 9am-12pm Belize time, only three hours.