No excursion?

[ROCsabresfan]

Is there anything to do here in Belize if we do not book an excursion? I have read that there is some shopping at Tourism Village, but is there anything else to do? We are going on Miracle on April 1st, and this is our first cruise. Any info on this port would be great.

[PaddleAddict]

Belize City is very poor and has crime. They keep the cruise passengers in a gated area that the locals are not allowed to enter. You can leave, but I would not recommend wandering around alone unless you really like to submerse yourself in the culture and you have your wits about you. I highly suggest getting an excursion at this port. It is a beautiful country with friendly people, but Belize City is not a very good representation of that.

I did the cave-tubing, zip-lining in the rainforest, which was beautiful. The country is near an amazing barrier reef, as well and has outstanding snorkeling and diving. If you want to go to a beach, book an excursion--there is no beach in Belize City.

[reddi]

Paddle Addict - who did you use for the cave tube - zip line combo? Were you satisfied? From what I've read, X-stream and Nacho & Cynthia are both good and about the same price. One or two people reported on another operator who is about $30 per person less, which is interesting since there are 5 in my family. thx

[PaddleAddict]

We used X-Stream and they were fine. I think if all you wanted to do was the cave-tubing, I'd choose cave-tubing dot com. They seemed to give a better cave-tubing experience (more guides, a little more lively) from what I could see. But they don't do the zip-line, which we really wanted to do. X-Stream was nice, though. We enjoyed our guide and our day.

[reddi]

Thanks for your advice!