Mayan Ruins-time to explore

[Puggs]

I have noticed that the tour guide descriptions (looking at several tour guides) for the Mayan Ruins (Altun Ha & Lamanai) says there is about 1 1/2 hour guided tour. My question is, do you get to walk around the ruins on your own at anytime or are you herded from the van to the ruins & back to the van. Thanks!

[alicam]

When we went to Altun Ha in 2005 we had a good tour of the ruins and then we could wander around and see things on our own...just make sure you're back when they want you....it's a long walk back to the pier

[vplsh]

We went on the Altun Ha tour with Belize Cruise Excursions last week and received an excellent guided tour by our tourguide Jenny. She gave us time to walk around, but to be honest it was so hot and we were hungry so most of us only walked around a few minutes before returning to the van.

 

I definitely recommend them. It was a great tour!

[crewsweeper]

Plenty of time to explore at Xunantutich(ms) as well. However, it's a long trek back on the bus and you have a lunch stop to go to. Most people on our tour spent their time climbing the temple. Once you've done that and walked around a bit, yu've pretty much seen the lay of the land.

[Toyz711]

for lamanai, the time is very tight...

an hour bus ride, an hour boat ride...barely time to walk the site and have lunch...then an hour boat ride and an hour bus ride, back.

plus, it's a thick jungle..the tour guide watches their tourists very closely. add to all of that, as the jungle (around lamanai) has been torn up for make room for farmers, more and more critters have made lamanai home.

our guide said "no" to wandering around by ourselves...did pause a long time as each site.

as it was, we got back 15 mins before the last tender.

howler monkeys: get upset and throw things at tourists (stayed quiet with our group, but tour guide was watchful every time the monkeys made noise)

snakes: jungle, they are there...one person, from this board, reports a BIG snake sunning itself in front of the mask temple. belize has many dangerous snakes and other critters.