Looking for basic snorkeling trip in Belize...HELP!!

[renee&felix]

We are just looking for a basic snorkeling excursion for this September. Not looking to do anything with the rays, since we'll be doing that in Grand Cayman, nor are we looking to snorkel with sharks. Really just want to experience the beautiful reef I keep hearing about, or visiting one of the cayes. Does anyone have any advice or websites I can check out? I would love a snorkeling trip that would be under $50ish dollars per person if available. There will be six adults in our group, and we are all newish snorkelers and all of us can swim.

 

Thanks for the help!!

 

Renee

[bbaileyfamily]

This is exactly what I am looking for also. We, twice in fact, have done Sting Ray City in Grand Cayman along with snorkeling. I'm looking also for a snorkeling trip away from massive crowds that goes to 2-3 snorkeling stops without neccessarily going to Shark Ray Alley.

 

So, anybody with suggestions for renee&felix and I, I thank you in advance.

Brad

[jennifer.c21]

:D :) :D :)

I would definitely recommend Star Tours on Caye Caulker. We used them when we were in Belize this past May. If you Google Star Tours Belize it will take you to their website.

It is a small, personal operation, and even though their tours do take you to see the rays, it was only for a few minutes and then you go to two different spots along the barrier reef. They may even be able to skip over the rays if you ask them to via email.

I corresponded with them via email for about a month or two before our trip. They delivered everything as promised, and then some! Leon was our guide and he was wonderful! There were only four people total on our tour, including ourselves. Leon worked his butt off to give us the best experience possible. We had watermelon and water on the boat between snorkel stops, and he was so friendly and informative during the trip, diving down deep to show us different sea life.

Also, you get to see Caye Caulker and wander around for an hour or so. It is such an amazing spot!!!

We were so happy with the way we were treated by Star Tours. If you use them, you won't be disappointed.

Also, they are part owners of the water taxi association you will use out of Belize City, so they arrange for your tickets and it is included in the price. I belive we paid $45 per person.

Good luck.:)

[renee&felix]

I looked at their website and thank you for taking the time to recommend them. That actually looks like something we'd be interested in, although I do have a question about it that maybe you can answer. What kind of boats do they take you out to snorkel in and how easy or hard is it to get into and out of them? The pics on the website make them look like those quite small almost rowboat sized boats and I would not be happy in that!! Do the boats they take you out in have a ladder any assistance to get you in and out of the water?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Renee

[jennifer.c21]

Before we went I double checked that the boat would have a canopy and a ladder to get in and out of the water, and it did. They told me all of their boats do. I think they have a couple of different boats they use depending on the size of the tour (they will only take 12 people max). Our boat was decent sized and had a nice amount of shade. We used a ladder to get in and out of the water and it was fairly easy. It's always a little awkward getting back onto a boat in the water, I think.

 

I couldn't find a bad review of them before we went. If you type in "Star" under the search option on the Belize thread, you can read more reviews.

[bbaileyfamily]

Hey, thanks a bunch!!! That's perfect. A good price and lots of snorkel opportunities. Thanks for the tip! Everyplace else I had found had just one snorkel stop along with Shark Ray Alley. Plus, I'm looking forward to exploring Caye Caulker.

 

Thanks again. I'm goinig to make reservations for the end of October.

Brad

[jennifer.c21]

:) :) ;)

I'm glad to help! I really hope you end up with Leon. Maybe you can request him, you will surely have an awesome experience!

It's so rare, in my opinion, to find people these days who are so genuninely eager and concerned about making you happy and satisfied with their services. Maybe it's just here in the US, I don't know. I want to send them as much business as possible. I hope you have an awesome time.

[jeff33436]

Hi-

Just returned from our cruise. I just posted here about our trip to Bannister island. The tour company was Coral Breeze and they were great! You get to spend time at Bannister Island on the beach for a couple of hours and also do a snorkel trip. On the way back to the port, they stop in an area to look for Manatees. We were lucky and saw 5 or 6 of them. Really nice trip.

[bbaileyfamily]

I know this is a different thread in a different port of call, but have you been to Sante Wellness Center in Roatan? I noticed in doing a search of "Sante" that you had posted a comment on them a while back. We are spending the day there on the day before we hit Belize. I'm looking forward to it. Have you been there?

 

And also, are those boats with Star Tours (back in Belize now) big enough to head out to the cayes and back?

 

thanks, Brad

[czechgal]

We went to Geoff's Caye two years ago and snorkeling was great! We used the ship's tour then. I know you can do private tours, too.

This year, we went to Bannister Island through Coral breezes. They used Hammerhead Sports to get everyone there, and I know you could just walk up to them on the pier and go too. MANY people on the pier selling excursions to snorkel. The snorkeling is not on bannister island, but 10" away next to the barrier reef. VERY beautiful. I have pictures of Bannister island on my webshots page, but no Geoff's Caye. If you do a search of Geoff's Caye on webshots, you can find pics of it (and bannister island for that matter).

 

here is the link to my webshots page. Let me know if it doesn't work, or just do a search for Bannister Island. http://travel.webshots.com/album/557735484kGeMKA

 

Have a great time whatever you choose. We love Belize and hope to go back many times!

 

LISA

[jennifer.c21]

bbaileyfamily,

Yes, we went to Roatan on the cruise, but not to Sante Wellness Center. We did a zipline/snorkeling/lunch break tour with Subway Watersports. We were picked up at the ship and went on the zipline first, then off to Palmetto Bay Plantation Resort to eat lunch and the go snorkeling off shore on a boat to a shipwreck. It was a great day, we got to do a lot. The only think is that we felt rushed since we did so much.

 

Also, I'm not sure about the Boats with Star Tours in Belize. Which Cayes do you mean?

[bbaileyfamily]

bbaileyfamily,

Yes, we went to Roatan on the cruise, but not to Sante Wellness Center. We did a zipline/snorkeling/lunch break tour with Subway Watersports. We were picked up at the ship and went on the zipline first, then off to Palmetto Bay Plantation Resort to eat lunch and the go snorkeling off shore on a boat to a shipwreck. It was a great day, we got to do a lot. The only think is that we felt rushed since we did so much.

 

Also, I'm not sure about the Boats with Star Tours in Belize. Which Cayes do you mean?

 

Jennifer---I'm talking about the actual boats you all used in your trip out to Caye Caulker and back with Star Tours that you mentioned earlier. Was it a big enough boat for you? Did it have a canopy?

 

Man, you WERE busy in Roatan! :) Quite an active day.

 

thanks, Brad

[jennifer.c21]

Brad,

 

Do you mean the water taxi out of Belize City to Caye Caulker? If so, yes, it is a big boat. Part of it has a covered, sort of "indoor" area. What they do is take people back and forth to the Cayes, and you will ride with a lot of Belize citizens too. It's their transport as well, not just for tourists.

 

It's a fast moving boat and it definitely helps to get on first and get under the shade.

 

Once you get to Caye Caulker, Star Tours has different, smaller (but very adequate) boats to take you on the snorkeling tour which also have canopies for shade and a ladder to get in and out of the water.

[jennifer.c21]

Brad,

 

Do you mean the water taxi out of Belize City to Caye Caulker? If so, yes, it is a big boat. Part of it has a covered, sort of "indoor" area. What they do is take people back and forth to the Cayes, and you will ride with a lot of Belize citizens too. It's their transport as well, not just for tourists.

 

It's a fast moving boat and it definitely helps to get on first and get under the shade.

 

Once you get to Caye Caulker, Star Tours has different, smaller (but very adequate) boats to take you on the snorkeling tour which also have canopies for shade and a ladder to get in and out of the water.

[bbaileyfamily]

Hello Jennifer----OK, duh, I get it now. I was thinking that the boat shown on the Star Tours website and the one you went snorkeling on was the same boat that took you from Belize City to Caye Caulker. I didn't realize you took a water taxi out to the caye. The website wasn't specific when they said;

"This tour includes transportation to and from Caye Caulker. We will meet you where you are tendered and drop you off there. "

 

I was just assuming it was all the same boat. So, has Star Tours already taken care of the water taxi fare when you get to the dock? Or how does that work?

 

What time did you leave the tender pier and what time did you return? Was there enough time in Caye Caulker to have a drink or two and a little looking around?

 

Sorry for asking so many questions. I just don't want to screw up and plan a bad outing. I've never done one yet on any of our vacations and I don't want our day in Belize to be the first. :)

later, Brad

[jennifer.c21]

Brad,

Don't worry. I didn't know that they weren't personally picking us up until the last minute. They're not too clear about that. Ramon, the owner of Start Tours, is also part owner of the Belize Water Taxi Association I learned. So, when you pay for your tour online, he leaves your name at the water taxi station in Belize City and you are taken care of. We had no problems with it, I think it's pretty common for him to do it that way for his customers.

 

The time issue. Whew, that was another story. We were on the Carnival Valor in May. I asked a ton of times what the time difference would be and could never get a straight answer. Turned out that in Belize and Roatan, our ship time was two hours ahead of local time. It did screw things up a bit, as far as us feeling rushed in Roatan and Belize.

 

Honestly, I don't think you will know how far ahead you will be from local time until you are on the ship. Even then, it was difficult for the cruise workers to give us a straight answer about ship vs. local time.

 

What we ended up doing in Belize was getting on the first tender off of the ship (just went down to where they were letting the first people off who had early cruise ship scheduled tours), and we let them know we had an early tour scheduled in Belize. They were totally cool and let us off on the first tender. You may need to show something that proves you have an early tour, we didn't.

 

Once in Belize, we walked straight out of the main terminal (just ask a few people and they will point you in the right direction), to the water taxi. It was a five minute walk. Yes, locals will pester you. But, both my husband and I both agreed that they were the most polite beggars we had ever encountered. One lady told us how far we had to go before the water taxi, and thanked us, even though we politely told her we didn't have any money.

 

Anyway, we were there so early that we waited about an hour for the water taxi. You can type in "Caye Caulker Water Taxi" in Google and you will get their schedule. We were paranoid of missing the ship on the way back, so we took the 12 or 12:30 water taxi back to Belize City from Caye Caulker. We could have probably gone on the next one, but we would have been cutting it close.

 

Leon, with Star Tours, took special care of us, knowing that we had to get on the water taxi earlier than we expected. He made sure we saw as much as possible, then made a special trip back to the dock early so we wouldn't miss the water taxi. He then continued the tour with the rest of our group (3 people who were staying out on Caye Caulker).

 

Sorry if I confused you more. Just let Ramon know via email that you are not sure how far ahead you will be from local time (every ship is different, it makes NO sence). Let him know you will get to him as soon as you can. They were great. They will wait for you.

 

I depended on these boards for help before I went on my cruise, so I enjoy helping other people if I can. Let me know if you have any other questions. Also, I get to live vicariously through you.

 

Jenn

[Schmuppie's Mom]

We went on the Coral Breezes trip which involved snorkeling, beach time, and manatee watching in Belize on July 3. There were 10 of us in our group (multi-generational) and it worked out great because the grandparents stayed on the beach at Bannister Caye with the younger kids while the parents and older kids went snorkeling. This gave us the option to let everybody do what they wanted.

 

We were bombarded at the port with tour operators :mad:, but instead we headed to the Wet Lizard and found the people from Hammerhead (the touring partner of Coral Breezes) waiting for us.

 

Even though the waters were a bit active (and my husband does get seasick frequently), we had a smooth 25 minutes boatride to Bannister Caye. It was a lovely, small island with everything you could want for a day of fun. We set up the younger kids and then headed off for the snorkeling.

 

We rode for another 10 minutes and the boat stopped out in the middle of the water. :confused: They gave us a quick demonstration and then everybody went into the water. The reef was quite beautiful, but the waters really were rough. My poor hubby actually got seasick while snorkeling! One little girl (she was 8) in our group got too close to the coral and got stung. The snorkeling was hard work... I really wouldn't let a child younger than 11 do it. (I kept thinking "thank goodness my 8-year-old isn't here, because right now I need to focus on taking care of myself!")

 

I truly felt that the staff of Hammerhead cared about us... even "Mr. Big" went snorkeling (and I don't mean Chris Noth from Sex and the City... imagine a huge guy), and thank goodness because a few times I didn't know where I was going, but I looked underwater, saw his huge tummy, and knew I was in the right place!

 

The snorkeling lasted for about 45 minutes, then back on the boat where they gave everybody cold water packets. We went back to the island for a few hours. Everybody had lunch and relaxed. One word of warning, and this clearly wasn't Coral Breeze's fault... I ordered the rice & beans plate from the small local restaurant, and found maggots in it... yikes!!!! :eek:

 

Finally, we went to see the manatees, in a beautiful little cove. We actually saw about 6 of them :D, and what a lovely sight it was. I'd heard other people at Bannister saying, "We didn't see any manatees" so we felt pretty fortunate. One hint here: Don't pay for the beach AND the manatee excursion... you'll get to see the manatees whether you pay for it or not. It's on the way back to the port.

 

Then back to the port of Belize! We felt we had a great, memorable day, good value for the money, and we'd highly recommend with no reservations whatsoever. :)

[sharks48]

If your ship offers a tour to Goff's Caye, they pick you up right at the ship - no need to tender into Belize City then go back out again. We did this and loved it. As I recall, it was in the range of $60 pp and, we felt, worth it. I have more about this in my posts on this board.