Ruins for Kids

[Garn]

I had our trip in March all planned out- we were going to do cave tubing in Belize, Mayan Ruins in Costa Maya, and a little of everything on Roatan.

 

Well, now we've rerouted to Cozumel, and it sounds like the ruins there require more travelling than makes sense. Plus, some of the folks in my group have health issues that make cave tubing inadvisable.

 

So, are any of the ruins tours in Belize kid-friendly? On the NCL website, they seem to be 7.5 hour excursions. I have a 6 year old (she'll be 7 then) and 11 year old, both fairly interested in history, but also fairly high energy... huge amounts of time just sitting around getting there aren't going to make them (or our fellow passengers) very happen. Of course, the river tours sound pretty cool, and they do like nature, so maybe it will be fine. Any ideas of which tours are best, or other suggestions?

 

Thanks!

[KandCsailing]

Bring the game-boys if they have them already for the bus ride.

[SingingPixie]

If I were you, and based on your descriptions of your kids, I'd do the Lamanai/New River Cruise tour (so the trip there is a bit more exciting than a bus ride) and then prep them a bit about Mayan history beforehand so they have some context of what they're seeing- I find that historical things are much more interesting if I know something about them going in. The sites are big, so they should be able to burn off a lot of steam while they're there- running around, maybe even climbing a pyramid. Then, they should be worn out enough to sit still for the ride back, assuming you bring books/game boys/etc.

[driftwood]

At this point I would agree with SingingPixie--we will not visit there ourselves until January 2008, but the individual who is planning our tours in Belize has been on the Lamanai and New River trip and really loved it. There is a bus trip, and a river trip, and significant ruins, so there should be plenty of opportunity for both rest periods and exercise. With luck you will see some interesting wildlife and trees and flowers as well. Your kids may actually be the perfect ages for the experience--it should be something they will remember all their lives.

 

If I find in January that I am being overly optimistic I will let you know--but my wife and I began visiting Mayan ruins (all in the Yucatan so far) only late in life, and I think both of us regret not having had an opportunity to become aware of them when we were young. Cruise tourism--just one more advantage of modern technology! And of course all the ruins have been a long time in readying for tourism--in our day most of them were still buried in the jungles. :D

 

One of the most beautiful books I have yet seen on the Maya has just been issued in the second edition: Maya Cities and Sacred Caves: A Guide to the Maya Sites of Belize, by Dr. Jaime Awe, Director of the Belize Institute of Archaeology. You can get it from the publisher, Cubola Productions, online at http://www.cubola.com/, for $18 US including postage. It is loaded with color photographs of Belize's ten most significant ruins sites and of three major cave complexes, and spends eighteen pages discussing the "stages" in Mayan civilization. The whole book is only 104 pages long, but it is the most concise--and gorgeous--book I know of for your purposes. It can take about a month to arrive from Belize if you order it--evidently there are mail issues, and of course it has to pass through U.S. Customs . . . .

[Garn]

Thank you all for your advice... I'll talk to the troops and recommend booking Lamani... and I'll get on ordering that book.

 

Thanks!

[beach410]

we rented a jeep in cozumel, so that we can tour the ruins at our own pace and then head to a beach to relax the rest of the day. It was great, the Island is small and easy to get around, you can find maps on line that highlight the ruins, they are small, but interesting. We never could find the lighthouse though, we then went to a very crowded beach with a water trampoline and iceburg for our boys, then 9 & 14, and enjoyed a great lunch from their bar.