Belize recommendations?

I highly recommend the cave tubing.

The next to agree...cave tubing! We used .bz - our tour was basically all day, and included all transportation, equipment, homemade lunch at the owner's outdoor (shaded) picnic area (chicken, rice, beans and salad, also rum punch if you wanted, otherwise soda. Super fun and we would do it again!

No lunch? I had rice and beans w/ chicken on my Xunantunich tour. Loved the view from the top of the highest structure.

 

I see Carnival now has a Lamanai tour as well.

Yes...we had lunch - about 30-45 minutes. Same as you - good food! And the view was amazing...just a very long trip!

I would love to go see Lamanai. That place looks amazing!

We did the Xunantunich Mayan ruins which was amazing. Great lunch but not enough food, IMO, one piece of chicken, rice and salad, I think. Everyone in our group said the same thing. People were hungry after all the walking and climbing.

My DD 15 and I did not climb the ruins, we were chickens and waited for my DH who did climb them.

We were originally going to go Cave Tubing but when we researched it and saw that other people's feet were linked under your arm by your face, we opted out.

Probably missed out on an amazing experience but we were all kind of grossed out by that. :eek:

We did the Xunantunich Mayan ruins which was amazing. Great lunch but not enough food, IMO, one piece of chicken, rice and salad, I think. Everyone in our group said the same thing. People were hungry after all the walking and climbing.

The secret is I have picky daughters who did not like the rice or chicken (or plantains), so the wife and I had extra. We also shared some of the rice with a person at our table so they could try the different hot sauces.

Pizza Pirate was the girls first stop back on board!

We've visited Belize twice. 1st time we booked cave tubing r us with David. We had a great time. I had informed David that my hubby was physically challenged & he hired a young man to carry his tube & help us in any way he could. It was awesome having the assistance & the tube ride through the caves was fun. 2nd time in Belize we did the river Wallace and the Mayan ruins. It was fun & interesting, but not as much as the cave tubing had been. Like others have said: it is a long bus ride to just about anywhere in Belize. The tender ride over is the longest I've ever experienced- about 25-35 minutes if I remember correctly. So take that into account if you book with an outside vendor.

Glad you enjoyed Altun Ha. I did a bus ride there and the river float back, as you said, the river was interesting with caimans and other wildlife.

 

However, I thought the ruins were small, absolutely terrible and horribly patched up and "restored". I've been to Chichen Itza, Tulum, Coba, Xunantunich, El Balaam, and Altun Ha would be at the very bottom of that list.

 

I'm hoping to get to Lamanai, Uxmal and Copan at some point, and have gone to some ruins several times, but I would never return to Altun Ha.

We have been to Uxmal (when we visited Progreso), and it was phenomenal! At that time we had a choice between Uxmal and Chichen Itza, so we took 'the road less traveled'. It was a slightly shorter bus ride, and I think that allowed for more sightseeing at the ruins.

According to your description, it looks like my brief exposure to Altun Ha would have sufficed after all. I agree that the site was small, especially when compared to Uxmal. However, I got the impression that there is more waiting to be discovered underneath all of that jungle growth.

Lama air ruins was one of our best excursions anywhere. Rivals whale watching in Alaska. Great for us and our 2 boys 10 and 13 at the time.

I am one of the few that didn't really enjoy the cave tubing. We used Jaguar Paw and the company was awesome, very friendly and helpful. The meal afterwards was fabulous-best rice and beans anywhere. I guess in my head I had pictured something different, more sunshine and wide open spots than there actually were. The caves were cold, dark, damp, there were bats, tree branches sticking out of the water...I was claustrophobic most of the time (that isn't something normal for me). It isn't something I would ever do again or recommend :(

Ugh. I can't type. My earlier post should have said Lamanai ruins but my phone is acting goofy and not letting me edit the post! Also we always book private tours and this was the only time I was ever nervous about it. Even with the distance we did make it back in plenty of time but we knew the risk before we booked. We decided fir us it was worth the risk because we really wanted to see the ruins and monkeys, etc.

We did cave tubing last time and it was meh. We can say we did it now. Belize has the second largest reef in the world so we are going to the Hol Chan reserve, Shark/Ray alley and stopping at Caye Caulker for lunch.

Since neither of have been there. I'd like to do some sight seeing/tubing and beach. Can that all be done in one day?!

If you do the cavetubing, you definitely get a lot of sightseeing on the way there and back. It's about an hour drive to the caves and the guides are wonderful and tell you about the history and make it a lot of fun. They show you things along the way and sometimes even stop to "try" things like fruit growing on the trees. It makes for a fun day. I have a listing in my signature line if you are interested and there's tons of pictures in the review (we have done this twice, so there's two reviews). We have used .bz every time and had an excellent experience.

Doing a beach requires you to book an entirely different excursion because in order to get to a beach, it's an island. We have done Goffs Caye and Starfish Island (which was called Bannister Island when we did it). I have reviews and pictures of those too in my signature line. :)

When we were in Belize in April, we did the Shark/Ray snorkeling by air. We went to Hol Chan and then Shark/Ray Alley. Hol Chan was the best snorkeling we have done anywhere. We booked through through ecotours, but I don't think I would use them again.

We were given bracelets then driven to the airport. They told us when we got there someone would be waiting for us and would recognize us by the bracelets. We flew on a Cessna over to San Pedro which was quite interesting. After waiting about 10 minutes inside the terminal, no one had approached us. We then started asking questions and found no one was there to meet us. One of the workers at the airstrip called Aqua Scuba who was supposed to be meeting us only to find they had no idea we were booked! They sent someone over and we walked with them to the dock where we were told they had never received an email booking our excursion. The owner did find someone to take us out and it was just the 2 of us. Our excursion was cut short due to the mix up, but the snorkeling at Hol Chan was amazing. When we got to shark ray alley, our guide had nothing to feed the sharks, so he had a hard time keeping any by our boat. He did manage to wrangle one and we got to touch it. Another glitch was my camera's memory was full (totally my fault) and I didn't realize it until we were in the water, so I got no pictures of the sharks.

We were kind of nervous to book this since since it involved flying, but everything turned out okay and we plan to do it again, just won't be using ecotours. Turns out, they just send an email to Aqua Scuba and don't even require a confirmation. They did tell me they will be requiring confirmation in the future, and they also refunded our money, but I wouldn't trust them again. Also, before I booked I sent several emails asking a lot of questions and even when we got there to check in, asked about our arrangements to make sure everything went smoothly, and was assured there would be no problems. When we called from the airstrip at San Pedro, she (Patricia), tried to blame everything on Aqua Scuba, which really ticked me off. Oh, and the worker at the airstrip told us this was not the first time this had happened.

I would definitely do this again, but I will either book everything myself or use shorexcursioneer.

When we were in Belize in April, we did the Shark/Ray snorkeling by air. We went to Hol Chan and then Shark/Ray Alley. Hol Chan was the best snorkeling we have done anywhere. We booked through through ecotours, but I don't think I would use them again.

 

We were given bracelets then driven to the airport. They told us when we got there someone would be waiting for us and would recognize us by the bracelets. We flew on a Cessna over to San Pedro which was quite interesting. After waiting about 10 minutes inside the terminal, no one had approached us. We then started asking questions and found no one was there to meet us. One of the workers at the airstrip called Aqua Scuba who was supposed to be meeting us only to find they had no idea we were booked! They sent someone over and we walked with them to the dock where we were told they had never received an email booking our excursion. The owner did find someone to take us out and it was just the 2 of us. Our excursion was cut short due to the mix up, but the snorkeling at Hol Chan was amazing. When we got to shark ray alley, our guide had nothing to feed the sharks, so he had a hard time keeping any by our boat. He did manage to wrangle one and we got to touch it. Another glitch was my camera's memory was full (totally my fault) and I didn't realize it until we were in the water, so I got no pictures of the sharks.

 

We were kind of nervous to book this since since it involved flying, but everything turned out okay and we plan to do it again, just won't be using ecotours. Turns out, they just send an email to Aqua Scuba and don't even require a confirmation. They did tell me they will be requiring confirmation in the future, and they also refunded our money, but I wouldn't trust them again. Also, before I booked I sent several emails asking a lot of questions and even when we got there to check in, asked about our arrangements to make sure everything went smoothly, and was assured there would be no problems. When we called from the airstrip at San Pedro, she (Patricia), tried to blame everything on Aqua Scuba, which really ticked me off. Oh, and the worker at the airstrip told us this was not the first time this had happened.

 

I would definitely do this again, but I will either book everything myself or use shorexcursioneer.

Same here and I try to tell everyone going to Belize that are not afraid of the water to do this excursion or the by boat one. Amazing experience.

First post ever. Please forgive the lack of frills.

My family and I just returned from a wonderful day with Eddy from Cavetubing.bz! We visited Alton Ha and the caves. It was amazing! Eddy was a knowledgable, fun, proud yet humble guide. I give him and Cavetubing.bz my highest recommendation!

Going on the Carnival glory, November 5 sailing, what would you recommend to do in Belize

 

Thanks in advance

I'm on the same sailing. I was having a hard time trying to find something we all wanted to do. I decided after reading some reviews and seeing pics and video of Goff Caye we are going there. We also have enough time afterwards to explore the port.

We are going back in Jan. and since we have done cave tubing we would do a tour with Belize Jeep Adventure.

Has anyone ever gone with them??? Looks like lots of fun and they are offering different tours as well.

also on the same Glory sailing

we decided to book with coralbreeze to caulker cay and snorkeling

also on the same Glory sailing

we decided to book with coralbreeze to caulker cay and snorkeling

Did you have any trouble getting coral breeze to respond? This is what we want to do. Has anyone had experience with them?