What to do in BELIZE or ROATON

[pavteam]

We went cave tubing with Major Tom in Belize and had a wonderful time in December. In Roatan we went to Fins & Flippers - Best Snorkeling we have ever done - even better than when we were in Okinawa! Make your reservations before hand - we made them on line the night before from the ship - it was $20.00 per person. If you just go there it's $25.00 per person. Wonderful place to relax and snorkel.

[Unicoidawg]

The cave tubing is a excursion were you go tubing on a river that runs through the mountain sides...... If you book through the cruise ship they only do one of the two caves and it is a bit shorter.......and more $$. We booked through http://www.belizecruiseexcursions.com/XstreamCaveTubing.htm and they include both caves in their tour. Now it is about a 45min-1hr ride in a air conditioned van to the river in the mountains. That being said I really enjoyed the ride because it took us through the country side and you go from being on the coast to the marshy landscape, then into a savvanah type terrain with the mountians in the distance(make sure you look for the sleeping giant) and then you reach the moutains. It was a very nice informative ride. Once there they will "outfit" you with a tube, headlamp, and a life jacket. Once the group is set you will hike into the jungle and wade across the river, go through a small cave and continue to the starting point. You can either just slide right in the river and go or you can choose to jump off the high rock for a grand entrance.......... The first cave is about 1/4-1/3 mile long and then you pop out to where the cruise ships put in. Then you enter the second cave and it is almost a mile long........... once out of the cave you float downstram probaly another 3/4 mile to mile and then you get out.......... Once done they have a set of showers you can use on site and they feed you fresh bannans and pineapple slices.....mmmmm good(Make sure you bring a change of clothes you WILL get wet). On the way back we stopped at a local roadside resturant and lunch is provided by the excursion, but the local Belikin Beer is not..... try it it's pretty good. We had an absolute blast and felt safe at all times with our guide(I can't remember his name??), he was very informative and professional......... I highly recommend this tour...

Unicoidawg:D

[welldone60]

In Belize try Captain your own boat thru Coral Breeze. You meet your guides in front of the Wet Lizard Bar, take a 15 min boat ride thru the city and pick up your boat. These are small 2-3 person outboards that are fun to drive. They take you thru the Mangrove tunnels and then up the Wallace river. We were on the River almost 5 hours. Saw lots of Wildlife. Great scenery. They take you back to the dock and there was plenty of time to shop and have lunch. No long rides, no big crowds, you can go as fast as you want or as slow as you want. You can stop and look around whenever you want. The guides are awsome. They are great at spotting wildlife and they know the area well.

[Akiba]

Just did Roatan first week of Feb and loved fin and flippers.If you pre book only $20 person person.Beautiful place and the food very reasonable at the restaurant by the pool and great fun foods.

When you walk to the small boat launce a 2 minuite walk from the dock when cabbies and tour hawkers seem to begg for business tell them you already booked for Fin and Flippers and they immedialty stop pestering you they must have a deal with fin and flippers to leave their guest alone.

Great peacefull beach and pool day no crowds like ship and great snorkeling at their own reef.:)

[dory627]

great thread! i am so unsure what to do at belize other than snorkel. we have to work with our budget and h's size but i hope we find something swell to do next week.

[bigasufan]

Altun Ha is in Belize.

[CorbinCatFan]

We relaxed when we did Belize by taking a private excursion to Caye Caulker. (Caye Caulker's moto is go slow.) There were only three automobiles on this island and was a diver's paradise.

 

Belikin Beer at the Split

 

Next time, we'll probably do cave tubing or a zip line canopy tour.

[MDSue]

I have scheduled this trip for April 8th. Do you have any further insight about his trip? What time of year did you go? I was hoping to see lots of native wildlife too, on the river cruise! There is not a opportunity to get in the water, is there? I was wondering wheather to wear suit under clothing?

Thank you!

We did a ship sponsored tour with Princess, in April that included a jungle river tour along with a trip to Altun Ha. The first half of the trip went via boat along the Olde Belize River. Along the way our guide gave us alot of history and pointed out a variety of wildlife. He was very good ar spotting different animals. We saw manatees [basically their snouts], dolphins, that followed us for awhile, black howler monkees, crocodiles [don't think you'd want to swim], native birds, bats and lots of iguanas along with some pretty plants and trees also. It was very scenic. We had a covered boat but some other tours didn't. I would bring bug repellant [i like the pre-packaged wipes] and sunscreen and a hat just in case the boat didn't have shade. At the half way point we stopped at a riverside restaurant where we were served a chicken and rice meal that was pretty tasty. After lunch we boarded a bus to the ruins which was about an hour drive. The roads were very bumpy and rural. Once at the ruins it was a short walk to the site [very easy hike]. Again the guide gave us alot of interesting history. For those who wanted, there was one ruin that you could climb. The steps are steep, but well worth the climb. the ruins were very nice. There were a few shops [not in view of the ruins, but near the parking area] the sold native woodwork and handicrafts. I bought a nice wooden bowl here that I love and it was a good but less than a similar one in port. I think this tour gave us a great view of the country of Belize and I really enjoyed it. I think it's suitable for just about any age group [it might be too long for young children] and ability.

[MDSue]

Altun Ha is in Belize.

You originally said Tulum Ha, which I thought might confuse others. You are right Altun Ha- Belize and Tulum is in Mexico:)

[skewsus]

Isla Roatan, Honduras. We had hired a private guide/driver Victor Bodden, off of the internet for $80. for the entire day. He was awesome. He took us to a zipline in the rainforest. He dropped us off at the top and picked us up at the bottom.

The zipline was our favorite adventure. It had 21 stops, 15 zip rides, 6 bridges that we had to cross and 1 rock wall to climb. The internet description did not describe the bridges or the wall or I probably would not have had the courage to attempt this activity. We were strapped into harnesses and walked down a steep hill to the first zip line. It was me, Bill and a young teenage guide. Each stop was a platform built around a tree in the rainforest. The guide would hook our harnesses onto the pulley and we would stand on the edge of the platform and sort of just fall off of the edge. The first one was definitely the scariest. It was so much fun though. The bridges were all different. One was just a tightrope and we had to hang on to two guide ropes. Another bridge was made up of wood 2X4s about 2 feet long, hung on to pieces of rope and once you stepped on you had to put one foot on another piece and then swing the other piece to the person behind you. Crazy! Another was a series of three wood cylinders so we had to bend down and crawl thru to them and then jump into the next one. Crazier!! The other bridges were much easier. Climbing the wall was something I did not know I could do and I had to use every bit of strength I had to climb up it. I really felt like I was on Survivor. It felt so good to make it and the rest of the course felt like a breeze.

After the zipline the guide took us to the Iguana Farm where Bill fed the hundreds of iguanas. They were all sizes, from babies to huge ones. They also had big turtles, conchs and fish. Spider monkeys and pretty parrots.

After the farm the guide took us to a primitive resort on a beautiful beach. We snorkeled off of the beach and saw lots of pretty coral and loads of colorful fish. For lunch I ate lobster, three tails w/a salad, baked potato, steamed veggies and coconut bread- $16.00. Bill had two large pieces of coconut grouper w/the same sides-$10.00. Probably the best food on the entire trip. Except for the chocolate melting cake. The resort had small air conditioned huts on stilts that rent for 50 bucks a night. We would love to stay there sometime. They also had a small straw market.

We were dropped off in town and did some shopping. We got some good deals on silver.

In Belize and we took a Catamaran from the ship and went snorkeling. We saw a large sting ray and lots of fish and coral. It was fun. Afterwards we had rum punch all the way back to the ship. It was a lot of fun!

Hope this helps!

[DEL67]

Almost any where you go in Belize is a long ride. In fact you pass by the road to Altun Ha on the way to cave tubing. That being said we have cave tubed several times and and been to Altun Ha. The first time we went cave tubing we thought it was fantastic (in August), the second time (in March) the water was lower so it was not as much fun.

 

In Roatan we went on a Victor Bodden tour which included ziplining, a little beach time and a visit to Victor's house to see the monkeys (you choose what you want to do.) The ziplining was fun, but very different from the zipline we went on in Costa Rica. In addition to ziplining they had various "bridges" you can cross (a monkey bridge, slat bridges, etc.) Note: There are at least 3 zip lines in Roatan which are configured differently.)

[august1963]

If the cavetubing.com tour is alot of travel (Belize), wouldn't the zip line tour through them also be just as much travel time?

[HockeyTown]

What exactly is cave tubing? Is this a Carnival excursion or do you do it on your own? Is this done in Belize?

 

Thanks

 

We did Cave Tubing in Belize back in 2004. I'm sorry, I dont remember the tour company. We had planned to book it before and then on the ship; but we procrastinated and didn't (even with everyone warning us about tender, not having time to get things done, etc.). Long story short, we got off the tender; were greeted (mobbed, but they were nice) with various tours; and we got 10 of us together wthin 5 minutes and rented a van and driver and we did the cave tubing ourselves; the exact same trip as the ship;and I want to say we paid $25-$30 pp incl grats and lunch. The place we went had an excellent BBQ Chicken place where the buses park; smelled SO GOOD. The tubing was definately family fun; nothing super fast (no, this is not white water rafting); just boring, comfortable, laid back tubing down very gentle water. what was very cool is you are in these very dark Caves; there are some points were small kids may get little scared; my daughter was only 9; but she loved it. she had her own tube; and you can get groups and everyone holds hands; of course you get separated; but you tube in and out of caves. I want to say the tubing itself was about 2 hours long; sorry, dont remember all the details...but it was probably the best tour i have ever done on any cruise (ranks up there with Dunns River Falls but more exciting!). Hope this helps a little!