Itinerary Ideas - Cayaman, Roatan, Belize, Costa Maya?

[davidwhittaker]

We just booked the Valor leaving next Sunday! We are stressing about getting everything organized so quickly so any recommendations you could make would be a big help! We are a young, adventurous couple that likes to be very active. I also prefer to book our excursions through private companies rather than through the cruise. Is that safe in all our ports? Our ports of call are Grand Cayman, Roatan, Belize, and Costa Maya.

 

One general question. What is the cheapest port to buy booze?

 

Here is what I am thinking so far:

 

Cayman Islands: We've done stingray city and don't want to again (even though it was amazing.) We are thinking of just snorkeling from the beach, hanging out on 7 Mile, and doing some shopping. What are the best spots? Is it easy to find taxis?

 

I've also heard of people doing Jet Ski or Jet Boat snorkeling. Anyone have a good company that offers these, especially without stingray city?

 

Roatan: I think we are going to do a tour with Victor Bodden. We definitely want to do the zip lines and some snorkeling. Any other must do's in Roatan? Is there any good hiking?

 

Belize: We are leaning towards cave tubbing here. Will we have time to do the cave tubbing and some snorkeling? If not, is there a beach close to the port that we can hang out on after cave tubbing? What company do you recommend for tubing? Any good, cheap bars near the beach?

 

 

Costa Maya: I haven't looked into this much yet. I know they have great ruins here but I am not sure how exciting that would be for us. Any suggestions are welcome!

 

Thank you in advance for your recommendations!

 

Dave

[ballinafad]

When we were in Belize we booked a combo tour with ziplining and cavetubing which also included lunch and free bottled water for the day. It was with Cynthia and Nacho(I believe website is ncqadventuresdotcom.

 

We paid $110 each and the nice thing about this is that we were driven further than many other tours go so we only walked about 20 min. where other tours hiked 45min to 1 hour in sometimes very muddy slippery conditions. Don't forget your water shoes(they will ask you to rent them if you don't have any).

 

In Costa Maya, take a taxi to Majahual $3 pp. This is a little fishing village with many quaint bars/rest. along a stretch of beach. While there, enjoy cheap drinks, 45 min massage for $20 (right on the beach in a hut) and typical souvenir shopping. The port area was built by the cruiseline and while it is beautiful, it is much more expensive for shopping and drinks and food. Oh ya, while on the beach, we had an offer to go out on a boat to a snorkeling reef for $10. The water is very warm and clear.

[flitter306]

In Roatan definitely visit a nice beach. Tabayana is nice, but my parents went a couple weeks ago and said it was really crowded. There's another beach (possibly Coral Caye) that they said other cruisers went to and it was empty. I love being in the water and looking back at the beach and not seeing huge hotel towers!

[momofzeke]

Costa Maya: We did the Chacchoben Ruins tour with David & Ivan (independent tour). We really enjoyed it, but I wouldn't use the term "exciting" ~ LOL! It is a small ruins site, but pretty cool. David & Ivan are native Mayans who grew up on the site. http://www.chacchobenruins.com

 

We had friends who just had a beach day at Majahual and loved it.

 

Grand Cayman: There are good snorkeling areas within walking distance of the port. Lots of good information on the "scuba & snorkeling" board ~ I looked into this before our cruise, but I can't remember the name of the beach, sorry (we ended up doing a Carnival tour).

 

Enjoy your cruise! :)

[davidwhittaker]

Thanks for the ideas, especially Majahual, that sounds great. Can't wait to go!

[Donna n Francis]

Dave....here is the port website for Costa Maya http://costamayacruiseexcursions.com/SiteMap.htm

Check out the photos on this site too. It is beautiful.

 

I was in Costa Maya off the Carnival Victory in May 2005. We just took a cab to Mahahual in the morning and back to the port area in the afternoon. We did the same as ballinafad. We had a wonderful relaxing day here. I am glad we decided to just go to Mahahual instead of taking an excursion.

 

Hope you have a wonderful time on the Carnival Valor....I am on the Carnival Valor in 65 days:D.

 

Donna

[neshrink]

We did cave tubing in Belize through cave-tubing.com. and thoroughly enjoyed it. They take you on a bus 37 miles through Belize, so you really get a feel for the country. Then you hike through the rain forest, and personally I wouldn't have wanted a shorter hike because how often do I hike through a rain forest anyway? They do two caves instead of one, and have you link together with a group--ours had 7 people-- and each group has a guide that actually pulls you through the caves. Other groups were on their own and our tablemate got stuck on a rock and had to walk across the river to catch her group--she'd booked through the cruise line. We bought their company t-shirt, couldn't resist because the motto is "Butts Up" ( you'll hear it when the water is shallow or fish are biting). We didn't have time to snorkel afterward, but we didn't board the bus until 9:30am 'cause we're not morning people.

 

We rented jet skis in Cayman and did the stingrays and rum point. You could rent them on your own, but I think it's actually more expensive that way. We had two guides and five people in our group, so if we hadn't wanted to hang with the stingrays we could have just jetted around and joined the group when they finished. I think the place was called action sports--I'll find the website if you want to look it up.

[njs]

Costa Maya: We did the Chacchoben Ruins tour with David & Ivan (independent tour). We really enjoyed it, but I wouldn't use the term "exciting" ~ LOL! It is a small ruins site, but pretty cool. David & Ivan are native Mayans who grew up on the site. www.chacchobenruins.com

 

Enjoy your cruise! :)

We did the same tour - alot more reasonable price thru David and Ivan (and a smaller group) than the cruise ship took- Our teenage sons liked it, our daughter wasnt as thrilled - she would have loved a beach break:)

[caribbean dreams]

Roatan--Just grab a taxi and tell them you want to go Ziplining and then to the beach, tell them you don't want to go to a crowed beach, this is what we did and our driver took us to a great beach with lots of shade, free lounge chairs, restaurant, nice snorkeling and hardly any people, and $15 for an hour message, the drinks and food were good and there was no venders walking around, just one table that someone was selling shell at.The day was GREAT!

[letsgocruz1]

In Costa Maya, we went to the Tequila Beach Club near Majauhaul. Paid $25 pp for lunch, Mexican Snacks, and open bar, plus use of loungers and towels. We sat on the beach under a palm tree and had the greatest day! I highly recommend this place.

 

We bought our passes at the pier, but you can also reserve ahead of time. Ask for the cruise critic discount to get the $25 price. I don't know their website offhand, but if you go to the Costa Maya board, you'll find lots of info on it.

[junglecat]

David:

 

See if you can "google" some pics of Rum Point in the Caymans. We are doing Stingray City with our kids this time, but I would LOVE to get away to Rum Point. The water/beach looks picture perfect.

 

Costa Maya-Check out Tequilla Beach and email Otto. He's a fellow Hoosier that will set you up.

 

Good luck & Have Fun!

[B and B Rookie Cannucks]

We did the cave tubing .com with Yhony in Belize $45.00 p.p would do it again in a heartbeat! In Grand Cay rented jeep 4X4 and did the tour with island marketing it was $69.00 p.p and a great way to see the island and ended up at Rum Point again would do this again. In Roatan did Tabanyana beach got there early and staked our claim to some chairs in the shade it was a relaxing beach break after the exercise we got with the cave tubing the day before. Have a great trip wish we were going again! :D

[suebee53]

Junglecat,

See if you can "google" some pics of Rum Point in the Caymans. We are doing Stingray City with our kids this time, but I would LOVE to get away to Rum Point. The water/beach looks picture perfect.

 

I believe Nativeway is the only company that does SRC and Rum Point on their "Rays, Reef and Rum" tour. They were really excellent a couple of weeks ago when I was on the Victory. Having done just SRC several times, I really wanted my sisters and cousins to experience Rum Point beach as well, and everyone agreed it was an awesome excursion.

 

Sue

[davidwhittaker]

We rented jet skis in Cayman and did the stingrays and rum point. You could rent them on your own, but I think it's actually more expensive that way. We had two guides and five people in our group, so if we hadn't wanted to hang with the stingrays we could have just jetted around and joined the group when they finished. I think the place was called action sports--I'll find the website if you want to look it up.

 

I've tried to find a place called Action Sports without any luck. Are you sure this is the name? Were you able to find the website?

[neshrink]

The website is grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com, and the waverunners operate out of the Grand Caymanian Resort. They do both stingray city and Rum Point, and Rum Point is gorgeous. Our native tour guide said it's his favorite place on the island, and when we were there there were only about 10 people on the beach. I'm sure this site would be more than willing to customize something for you, they were very laid back and not at all swamped with people. Also, my son and hubby snorkeled Cheeseburger reef near the the Cayman port, just walked there and went in. Didn't see a huge variety of fish, and there's no where to leave your belongings while you snorkel.