Star tours Belize??

[aamechs2]

Has anyone heard of this company? They run almost the same snorkel as Coral Breezes but cheaper. They have 1 tour specifically for cruise ship passengers. Thanks so much for any help you can give.

[aztravelgrl]

We did a snorkeling tour with Coral Breeze a few years ago in Belize and we had a great time..can't make a comparison for you though..we are going to use them again this December for a tour..aztravelgrl:)

[LA_FadeAway]

I've been looking into this too. From what I have found it, it seems Star Tours actually has you take the water taxi to and from Caye Caulker rather than picking you up in their boat. I'm not thrilled with that, since the water taxis only run every hour or so. I've found another company named Ecological Tours (ecotoursbelize dot com), that does the same tour for $55. I haven't seen a lot of information about them on these boards though and I haven't received a reply from them yet to the inquiry I sent a few days ago.

 

If anyone else knows anything about either of these companies, please provide some feedback.

[aamechs2]

Thanks for seeing that about the water taxi! I didn't notice it. I think we may just go with Coral Breezes then. It's still quite abit cheaper than the boat. Unless I see some more answers about the other one. I saw some about Eco tours, not sure if it's the same. But a few were not good reviews. This trip is stressin me!!

[aamechs2]

Actually the web site for Star tours Belize says that they pick you up where you tender in at Belize. Look at http://www.startoursbelize.com. Ok sounds like the same basic tour but no lunch option, except buy it yourself. I just don't want to be locked into going if it's pouring rain.....Like it is here in Texas tonight!!

[LA_FadeAway]

That is interesting. Maybe they changed things since that last review that I read about the water taxi. I'll send them an e-mail to get more information.

[ddakrt]

I was doing the same research and have found some negative reviews on Star Tours. Eco Tours on the other hand have had good feedback and their price is good.

 

I sent Eco Tours an email a while back and got a reply the next day, unfortunately they are not running the Shark Ray Alley tour on my specific day so I'm going with Coral Breeze instead.

 

From what Ive gathered Star does indeed use water taxis, Eco Tours have their own boat.

 

Good luck.

[LA_FadeAway]

Here is the reply I received from Star Tours today. At least they respond fast!

 

Hi,

 

Sorry, the $45 is correct. Yes, we transport you via the Water Taxi, which is included in the $45. Let me know if you have any questions. Have a great day.

 

Ramon at Star Tours

 

I'll have to try contacting Eco Tours again. I sent a message a week ago and never heard back from them.

[aamechs2]

OK I'll try contacting Eco tours also. It doesn't say that they snorkel at 2 places though like Star and Coral Breeze. But I would really like to save some $$ on this.

[LA_FadeAway]

I'm sure they snorkel 2 places. Everyone does both shark/sting ray alley and the "coral gardens". The coral gardens are beautiful!!! Unfortunately, Eco isn't running the Caye Caullker tour the day we're in port. We'll have to decide between Coral Breeze, snorkeling somewhere else this time, or taking the water taxi.

[aamechs2]

We're on the same cruise as you so I guess we'll do Coral Breezes. It's at least cheaper than the ships tour. We have 8 yr old twins so I know they will love snorkeling with the stingrays and sharks. Thanks for all your help!

[ddakrt]

Eco Tours does do both the Shark Ray Alley and Coral Gardens.

 

It's too bad they're not having that tour on your dates as well :(. I think we're decided to go the water taxi route and skip Coral Breeze, for a family of 4 it's a $80 saving...

[LA_FadeAway]

We're on the same cruise as you so I guess we'll do Coral Breezes. It's at least cheaper than the ships tour. We have 8 yr old twins so I know they will love snorkeling with the stingrays and sharks. Thanks for all your help!

 

Have you guys joined our roll call? We're having a big meet and greet. I can't remember if I saw you on there or not. We've snorkeled Caye Caulker before, so $79pp for something we've already done is a little steep. The ship tour goes to different spots over near Ambergris Caye, which is significantly further than Caye Caulker, so the price difference is actually not that bad when you take that into account. We don't really want to spend that much either though. I think we'll either take the water taxi to Caye Caulker or we may do the Bannister Island excursion and then take a snorkel boat from there. I think that would be a total of $59 per person and we'd at least get to see a different part of the reef. Still not sure though! :confused:

[travelingfamily23]

We just did this tour in June and LOVED it! I did a lot of reasearch online before hand, but we didn't actually book anything for this port. We got off of the boat and walked out of the terminal and found the water taxi station. We got 4 one way tickets to Caye Caulker. The taxi took about 45 minutes and when we got to Caye Caulker we walked just to the right and found Star Tours. We booked the Shark Ray Alley Tour and we ended up being the only family on the little boat so it was perfect! Our guide was Shawn and he was great. We snorkeled Shark Ray Alley, did a guided Barrier Reef Tour, and snorkeled the Coral Gardens...all for only $25 pp plus the water taxi fee ($10 pp each way 1/2 price for kids). It was the best day of our entire cruise. We held a nurse shark, pet stingrays, saw a moray eel, saw loads of tropical fish...Shawn pointed out each type of coral and told us about it...it was amazing. My kids said it was like swimming in a fish tank. We loved Caye Caulker so much we want to go back and just stay on the island. You can see some of my pictures here: http://www.travelandphotographytoday.com/caye-caulker

 

Oh yeah..There are two different taxis (Caye Caulker Water Taxi and San Pedro Belize Express). We took one there and a different one back. We bought our return tickets as soon as we got to Caye Caulker to avoid them being sold out at the end of the day.