Recommendations Please, Caye Caulker or Bannister Island?

[HAULNTA]

Recommendations Please, Caye Caulker or Bannister?

We are leaning towards a Coral Breeze tour but can’t decide between the Caye Caulker Snorkeling at Stingray Alley or the Bannister Island Manatee Watch, Reef Snorkeling, and Beach Break. We want; great snorkeling, a nice beach and a relaxing slow atmosphere lined with palm trees where we can truly enjoy the quiet, natural setting away from “party” crowds.

Any info would help,

 

Thank You.

[MamaParrotHead]

You may want to shoot an email to Mark at Coral Breeze...he's really good about judging what tour is best for what you may be looking for, and replies to emails quite promptly. :)

[canadarocks]

Recommendations Please, Caye Caulker or Bannister?

We are leaning towards a Coral Breeze tour but can’t decide between the Caye Caulker Snorkeling at Stingray Alley or the Bannister Island Manatee Watch, Reef Snorkeling, and Beach Break. We want; great snorkeling, a nice beach and a relaxing slow atmosphere lined with palm trees where we can truly enjoy the quiet, natural setting away from “party” crowds.

Any info would help,

 

Thank You.

 

I had the same decision as you and decided on the Bannister Island option. I read some posts here on CC that said that while the snorkeling at Caye Caulker is excellent, the beach is not..... and that the Bannister beach is wonderful.....We'll find out whether I chose wisely on March 18th! :o

[gargoyle999]

I just did the Coral Breeze Caye Caulker excursion two weeks ago. Snorkeling was good, saw a large Moray Eel and two HUGE puffer fish as well as other smaller fish. Sting rays were fun.

 

Was a large group though, some didn't seem to have much snorkel experience and that caused some issues. There was a lot of people on our boat, probably about 30, 2 guides went in the water with us. DW says Belize is a place she'd like to go back to for a land vacation. I'll probably look for a smaller group tour though next time we go back to Belize.

 

Some on our roll call went on the Bannister Island tour and had a good time. They saw Manatees as well.

 

Don't go to the Caye Caulker for the beach. There is not really much of one and only a few chairs where you dock and there was some trash and dead fish on it. I did have a nice pasta dish at the restaurant they use.

[excitedtocruise]

Do you think that the excursion is worth it? We are going with a large group of 11, some inexperienced snorkelers (a 7 year old), some expreienced. We are not going for the beach, but just to walk around Caye Caulker and the good snorkeling. Do you think that the boat was too crowded? Belize is suppose to have some of the best snorkeling around, was it "good" or "great". The sting rays sound like a lot of fun, some of us did this in Cayman Island's six years ago, and had a great time!!! The tour for the six in my family is expensive so I just want to make sure that this excursion is worth it or if you had to do it all over again if you would go to Bannister or on another tour???

 

I really appreciate your input!!! THANKS.

[HAULNTA]

Thank you for the info. :) Anyone else?

[NDCruiser]

I'm also trying to make this decision, and I have to book By Friday as we leave on Sat. The snorkeling is our priority, but we want a decent beach. Any last minute thoughts? Thanks!

[gargoyle999]

Do you think that the excursion is worth it? We are going with a large group of 11, some inexperienced snorkelers (a 7 year old), some expreienced. We are not going for the beach, but just to walk around Caye Caulker and the good snorkeling. Do you think that the boat was too crowded? Belize is suppose to have some of the best snorkeling around, was it "good" or "great". The sting rays sound like a lot of fun, some of us did this in Cayman Island's six years ago, and had a great time!!! The tour for the six in my family is expensive so I just want to make sure that this excursion is worth it or if you had to do it all over again if you would go to Bannister or on another tour???

 

I really appreciate your input!!! THANKS.

 

I would say overall it was "good". Mostly because I felt sort of rushed once we got going and couldn't really take the time I would have liked to observe all there was too see.

 

Now seeing the large Moray Eel and two monster huge puffer fish was great! :D

 

I think it's mostly a limitation on the time. It takes awhile to get out to Caye Caulker, then they stop there to drop off the lunch orders, then you head out to the first stop which is fairly close. Of course after the Sting Rays and going back to Caye Caulker for lunch you have the trip back to the port.

 

So I would say the spot itself has potential to be great, but since there is the time limitation the overall snorkeling becomes good. I would like to go back to Belize for a land vacation and look for a longer tour out to the reef.

 

The boat was full, only caused a slight problem when trying to get flippers on. For the Sting Rays you don't need flippers since it is not that deep (well if you're a kid or under 5ft maybe it's deep! :) )

 

The boat is about 1/3 covered and the rest open. I sat right in the back. Got soaked a couple times from the wake, but not too big a deal.

 

We didn't prepay for our lunch but we ate at the same restaurant as those who did. The pasta dish I had was really good. But because it wasn't pre-ordered it took awhile. So we didn't really have much time after lunch to explore Caye Caulker. Probably if I did the tour again I'd just pre-order to save time. My dish was more expensive than what I could have chosen from the pre-order though.

 

Went a little ways in along one road and stopped in a couple shops.

 

Now that I've swam with the Sting Rays, I think if I were on a cruise again and doing a snorkel excursion, I would look for one that maximizes the time in the water for snorkeling.

 

But if you have a group with kids and some inexperienced snorkelers, the time in the water snorkeling might be just right for you guys. Plus you get the Sting Rays, get to eat at a local restaurant and have some time to explore Caye Caulker.

 

The crew was very friendly as well and in addition to making sure everyone is ok in the water, will take time to point things out to you when snorkeling. Final plus is it's cheaper than a cruise ship excursion! :)

[tmackel]

I have been to Caye Caulker twice and Bannister Island once. The snorkling at Caye Caulker is a lot better then Bannister Island. I'd go to Caye Caulker if your more interested in snorkling. Go to Bannister Island if your looking for a beach break. Either way you'll have fun!

[excitedtocruise]

We swam with the stingrays in Grand Cayman's, but I heard that these are a little bit bigger and more spirited, should I be concerned?

 

Is there a restaurant that you would recommend on Caye Caulker?

 

Does Coral Breezes supplier water or refreshments on their boat?

 

Thanks for all the information, traveling with 11 is a bit different than when it is just me and my DH.

[barbra3]

Just got back from Western Caribbean cruise on RCL Independence of the Seas, we did the Coral Breeze tour of snorkeling and Sting Ray alley. This was a great excursion. My boyfriend and I have never snorkled before, and this was perfect for us. There were only about 15 on our tour, there were two guides that guided the tour around the reef. It was amazing, we had a great time and the 45 minutes went by so fast, we wanted to stay longer. The next stop was stingray alley, we were not that brave to get out of the boat for this, but it was amazing how many stingrays there were and how they swam right up to the ones brave enough to feed them. After this we went to Caye Caulker, a cute little island, very laid back, neat little island to stroll around on. We had lunch and then took a short walk through the streets. Very neat little island. Beach was not that great, but did have chairs and hammocks. If you're looking for quiet, offbeat setting this is it. I would definitely do this again! Coral Breeze was great I highly recommend this. Two friends of mine on this cruise did a snorkeling excursion through RCL and they were very dissapointed, they basically dropped the 150+ people and said go snorkle - one was a first time snorkler and got right back on the boat. The Coral Breeze tour guides took the group around the beautiful reef and guided us. We both loved it - I think this is the way to go!!!

[gargoyle999]

We swam with the stingrays in Grand Cayman's, but I heard that these are a little bit bigger and more spirited, should I be concerned?

 

Is there a restaurant that you would recommend on Caye Caulker?

 

Does Coral Breezes supplier water or refreshments on their boat?

 

Thanks for all the information, traveling with 11 is a bit different than when it is just me and my DH.

 

I don't think there is anything to worry about with the Sting Rays. There will be a lot of them though. I thought it was fun to get in the water with them. They will bring some to the surface with the Sardines so you can touch them too. I heard someone say the Sting Rays there don't actually have stingers or whatever they are called.

 

Don't know if that's really true, but what the heck...how often do you get to go swim with Sting Rays?

 

Coral Breeze uses a dock right in front of Tropical Paradise Restaurant so this is where you go if you pre-order lunch. DW and I didn't pre-order but we ate there too. I had pasta marinara which was pasta with a white sauce and had conch and shrimp and garlic bread. Since pasta with white sauce and seafood is one of my favs I thought it was good! :)

 

They do supply water, but it is not a bottle. It's a plastic pouch type thing. You rip off one corner and drink out of it which was fun to watch as it would sort of run down people's faces as they tried to drink! :D

[Will in sunny FL]

To snorkel in Belize go with Coral Breeze & the pre ordered local lunch on Caye Caulker.

The Banister Island we tried & it was so crowded that there almost were no chairs, no real snorkeling & it was a mad house !

Not fun & or relaxing at all ! This was on a Carnival tour.

Contact Coral breeze & check out their offerings.

Bill in FL