Caye Caulker or Ambergis Caye?

[trishaedge]

My husbank and I are taking our first cruise on Dec. 12 on the NCL Dream. We have heard that Belize City is not the place to see. We were thinking maybe Caye Caulker or Ambergis Caye for snorkeling and relaxing. Any suggestions or pros and cons of either?

[stinkyfish]

hello, we just returned from a 7day on the explorer of the seas. we were pretty dissapointed with the snorkling at caye cauker. it's pretty much a dead reef with a few fish. the guide said the hurricanes killed everything. it was sad to see. hope this helps. don

[trishaedge]

Did you snorkele off of the island or go to Hol Chan Reserve or Shark Ray Alley?? That is where we thought we might go.

[karpowij]

Took the Shark Ray Alley/Ambergris Caye tour offered by Norwegian. The snorkeling was excellent but be forewarned that it is a very bumpy 40 minute boat ride to the reef/island. Ambergris Caye was funky and had some good bars/shopping.

[carbon]

Stinkyfish, I read your post several days ago. But now it is gone! I posted a question about the coral reefs since the hurricans no replys. So ambergis Caye,SharlRay alley and holChon park were still good?

[jmalstrom]

We are trying to decide about Ambergris vs. Culker also. We really want to snorkel the reef and not just sharks and rays. We were think the ships tour (NCL Sun) to shark ray and San Pedro, but can't tell if it's JUST shark ray alley, or if you get to snorkel the reef as well. Anyone know???? We do want to see San Pedro (La Isla Bonita ;))

[stinkyfish]

we went with coral breezes. i'm not sure what the name of the first stop was but we stopped close to shore near a pink building called the paradise hotel. this area was almost dead. next we went to sharkray alley which was'nt much better. you could tell that these two areas were pretty nice at one time because you see alot of coral skelatons.

[carbon]

After reading about coral breeze and the not so great snorkling I am wondering what to do in Belize???? Any suggestions?

[texascruzer]

After reading about coral breeze and the not so great snorkling I am wondering what to do in Belize???? Any suggestions?

We have been to Belize once before and did the Shark Ray Alley tour and were not real happy with it. Saw no nurse sharks and very few fish. Had to follow the leader and people would kick you in the face. Would not take this long ride in the rain with no top to the boat again. We will probably stay on the ship this time.

[yankeegirllost]

I would find something else to do. Snorkeling trip with Coral Breeze sounds very enticing on the website, but we didn't find it to be so.

 

First, the boat we were taken out in looked NOTHING like the boat in the photo. And when we met our guide at the pier, she had a little "surprise" for us - she said we were going to have to wait on some Carnival cruisers AND not only wait (which we did wait nearly an hour for them) but our excursion would be cut short since they had to be back at the pier earlier than we did. She said we would have to skip lunch but she would give us $10 off the price per person. We didn't know any better and so we agreed...it was only after we were knee-deep into the excursion that we learned we had a VERY bumpy 45 minute boat ride to the first drop site. There were 19 people on our excursion and we were literally all over each other in the water. I was kicked, swam over, and bopped several times in our attempts to stay with the guide and fight the current. I ended up getting cut by some coral - no big deal but it could have been avoided if I hadn't been literally pushed into it by some old guy swimming right on top of me!

 

Shark/Ray Alley was a bit disappointing. The rays were plentiful and we did see nurse sharks when we first stopped. But there was another boat very near ours and I think some of our wildlife was lured over there.

 

After the snorkeling and Shark/Ray Alley stops (which were both 20 minutes or less each), we traveled to Caye Caulker for a VERY BORING 40 minute stop there. Rainbow was not open and the places that were open, I wouldn't dream of stepping foot into. It was an extremely poor place and I can't say that I felt safe at all. I was ready to bid it farewell when we finally left.

 

Our excursion lasted 3 hours at the very most - and remember that 90 minutes of that was spent in route in the boat, and 40 more minutes were spent on a very poor island...so you can do the math and realize there was very little water time.

[newcruisers04]

This Whole Port Is Not Sounding Like A Place To Get Off The Hal Ship...and There Is Nothing Enticing About Guatemala Either....sad To Say We Might Be Spending A Lot Of Our Time On The Ship Instead Of In Ports Exploring The World. We Would Love To Hear Of Anything "safe" And Interesting In Belize City Or Guatemala If Anyone Has Something To Add....thanks

[trishaedge]

Thanks for all the posts on this one. I think that my husband and I will just take a ferry over to Caye Caulker and snorkel off shore there, walk around, check out the little restaurants and relax.

[LEtue]

I think that my husband and I will just take a ferry over to Caye Caulker and snorkel off shore there, walk around, check out the little restaurants and relax.

trishaedge ~ we will be in Belize next week on the Carnival Miracle and I'm disappointed to hear about the reefs :( Can you tell me a little more about the ferry to Caye Caulker? Where do we catch it and how long is the trip?

 

I have heard some tales about the ferries being very old and over crowded too. Anyone have any insight on that?

 

Thanks in advance!

[hadleys9538]

While I have never cruised to Belize, we spent a week there as a family on vacation a few years ago. We stayed at Ramon's Village on Ambergris Caye in a grass hut (actually a really nice grass hut) on the beach, and although we did do some snorkeling (and my husband did scuba dive a couple of times, including the infamous Blue Hole), I have to say we flew back to the mainland almost every day for the multiple fun things to do over there, including trips into the jungle to see the Mayan ruins (It was pretty incredible seeing the temples rising above the jungle). During our hike into the jungle, guides pulled tarantulas from holes and explained the plant and animal life, and pointed out the various exotic birds. We took a river trip where we floated past crocodiles sunning themselves, a tree covered in small bats, lots of termite mounts, etc. Spent a day in the jungle with a guide looking for howler monkeys. The guide actually got them to come close enough to take a banana from our 7-year-old's hands. He was thrilled! Went up into the mountain one day, where there is a beautiful pine forest and a natural water slide and perfectly clear water where we played for awhile.

 

This was a few years ago, so it was pre-hurricane. The snorkeling was decent then, and we have snorkeled all over the Caribbean, as well as Hawaii, but we really enjoyed those inland trips. It ranks as one of our all-time favorite vacations, and we've been very fortunate to have travelled many wonderful places, both by cruise ship and with land packages. Belize can be a wonderful place, and I'm not sure what your time constraints are, but we definitely found many memorable things to do while we were there.

[trishaedge]

trishaedge ~ we will be in Belize next week on the Carnival Miracle and I'm disappointed to hear about the reefs :( Can you tell me a little more about the ferry to Caye Caulker? Where do we catch it and how long is the trip?

 

I have heard some tales about the ferries being very old and over crowded too. Anyone have any insight on that?

 

Thanks in advance!

The website for the ferry is www.cayecaulkerwatertaxi.com and it has all the times and prices, etc. I believe that the ferry trip is between 30 and 45 minutes. I need to find out more about caye caulker though, I am worried because posters are talking about the snorkeling not being so great!

[TrqoisWtrs]

Just let me add in my two cents - we did a land vacation to Belize in May and stayed on Ambergris Caye. During our stay, we did an all-day snorkel trip that did include a short stop at Caye Caulker to shop, etc. It took us all of about 15 minutes to walk down the main street (hardly any shops and those that were open sold the same stuff). Where we met up with the boat there is a small bar there, name escapes me at the moment, where you could get a beer.

 

As to snorkeling, Belize is not known for good shore snorkeling, including Caye Caulker. IMHO, I would skip Caye Caulker.

 

However, Ambergris Caye would be great for a day. The main street has plenty of shops, some of them with really cool arty things, nice jewelry. There is one tiny great shop right next to Fidos Restaurant where you can get beautiful sterling silver and amber jewelry. Plenty of restaurants/bars, some $ and some $$$. One, Cannibals, has good cheap eats and is on the beach. So if I was going to take a water taxi, that is where I would go.

 

Just my opinion...:)

[carbon]

I have narrowed it down to cave tubbing with Reggie or a day on Ambergis Caye. Which would anyone recommend?

[leslierx]

I think ambergis caye sounds good. Does anyone know how long it take to get there by water taxi from belize city?

[Tony8489]

Thanksgiving week of 2004 my 15-year-old son and I spent 4 nights on Ambergris Caye and 3 at the Jaguar Paw resort. We highly recommend this trip. You get to see the jungle and reef attractions in depth with minimum transit time.

 

From Jaguar Paw you can river tube 5 caves and also walk into Crystal Cave which has formations. The other day there we visited 2 Mayan ruins, Xunantunich and Cahal Pech.

 

Ambergris Caye has a barrier reef parallel to it a mile offshore. There is abundant coral and sea life, but mostly down 40+ feet, very good for scuba but probably not that great for snorkeling. We chose this trip because we had both just been scuba certified. We also went to Hol-Chan/Shark Ray Alley for 2 dives and a snorkel. Lots of rays and nurse sharks on the snorkel. We also returned to Hol-Chan for a night dive.

 

Lighthouse Reef/Half Moon Caye is spectacular for the awesome reef diving as well as the Blue Hole. It's 2 hours one-way boat ride from Ambergris Caye and probably too far for cruisers to reach.