Best excursion in Belize?

Any suggestions on your favorite Belize excursions?

A self guided tour of the nearly empty ship along with relaxed, informative and lengthy conversation with the crew.

I never go ashore in Belize, I'm not a beach/snorkel person and there isn't much to see right at the port that makes the tender worth the trip.

Love cave tubing - I did it with cavetubing.biz and it was awesome and totally worth it.

We also did a tour of the city once just by finding someone at the port. He was wonderful and it was one of my favorite excursions ever.

I highly recommend getting off the boat in Belize - it is my favorite port in the Caribbean - the people there are wonderful and different than others in the Caribbean.

Any suggestions on your favorite Belize excursions?

I would recommend snorkeling or scuba because Belize is not the nicest port. I went on a tour of the so-called Mayan ruins (replicas as it turns out) and there was a stowaway on our bus carrying a machete. After he was found out it was pretty tense the rest of the trip. My mother and sister went to the zoo and they kept panthers heavily drugged behind chain link fences. Not the best. I would say book through Carnival for sure and just be careful. :confused:

A person on a current roll call of mine highly recommended the Shark Ray Alley and Hol Chan Marine Park Snorkel Excursion by Air. It is an off Carnival ran excursion. I personally have not been on the excursion, but after watching many of the YouTube videos me and the DW are very excited about this excursion. You tender in, take a taxi to the airport and fly for just about 12 minutes to the island that you depart from. Had to include video I have been watching since booking this excursion. Plan on writing a review and creating my own video of the experience when I get back.

[YOUTUBE]

The links above do not seem to be working/loading correctly, but if you are interested all you have to do is google the the title of the excursions and there is tons of awesome footage.

These are the excursions we've done in Belize:

http://belizecruiseexcursions.com/Lamanai_Belize.htm

http://belizecruiseexcursions.com/xunantunich_belize_excursion_tour.htm

http://www.cave-tubing.com/

We did the Rendezvous Cay snorkel trip thru carnival and really enjoyed it.

Love cave tubing - I did it with cavetubing.biz and it was awesome and totally worth it.

 

We also did a tour of the city once just by finding someone at the port. He was wonderful and it was one of my favorite excursions ever.

 

I highly recommend getting off the boat in Belize - it is my favorite port in the Caribbean - the people there are wonderful and different than others in the Caribbean.

I agree cave tubing is the way to go here.... highly recommend finding outside company for this. The ship charges to much, too many people and you do less. Just my two cents

Through Carnival we did Crystal Cave Tubing and Ziplining. I highly recommend. Very well run, and you got to see something of the country outside Belize City. We also did a very disappointing Reef Snorkel, again through Carnival. Worst snorkeling ever..... not sure why but the tour took us to some deserted outpost of the reef with nary an interesting coral or fish.

One of the worst places to go if you just stay in port. One of the best places to go with 3rd party guides for a wide variety of excursions. Our favorite is still the Lamanai Ruins tour. Got to ride through the countryside, take a long ride on a fast boat up the river (and back again), tour real ruins in the jungle, best tasting homemade food of the whole cruise, knowledgeable and nice guide. The big downside is distance from the cruise ship. You really put a lot of faith in the tour operator if anything goes wrong. However, I haven't found any mentions anywhere of such problems.

Go for it! Do something for sure! I have only been once and went to Xunantunich ruins through Carnival. From others on the ship I heard both the cave tubing and snorkeling were awesome!

Here is the video from the Carnival excursion to Xunantunich and it is FAR FROM a replica of some ruins! It is the real deal! Huge and impressive!

In fact, I feel horrible I did not get enough shots from up on top, but I was having a slight panic attack being that high up :o It is an all day adventure, but definitely a once in a lifetime type thing, plus you will get back to the ship on time if you go through Carnival, which we did of course and the only way I recommend going to Xunantunich. If you are into wildlife keep an eye out for the different birds, the monkeys, and the best part for me was seeing the wild tarantulas! Plus the lunch was great, and I can go on but reviews are all over for this particular ruin.

So long story short, if you go with cave tubing, snorkeling, or the Xunantunich ruins in particular, you will most likely have an incredible time and something you will always remember! I know these 3 activities were all at the top of my list so next time it will be cave tubing or snorkeling for me!

Enjoy, but definitely do something there! :D

Love cave tubing - I did it with cavetubing.biz and it was awesome and totally worth it.

 

We also did a tour of the city once just by finding someone at the port. He was wonderful and it was one of my favorite excursions ever.

 

I highly recommend getting off the boat in Belize - it is my favorite port in the Caribbean - the people there are wonderful and different than others in the Caribbean.

highly recommend the bolded, if you decide cave tubing! book through them, NOT carnival. cheaper, you get more, you do not have to carry your tubes on the 30 minute jungle hike, you do not have to hold on to other tubes to stay connected, tubes have both bottoms and backrests, all you can eat and drink at the owner's house.

also, i DO NOT recommend getting on the "ASHANTI" tender. its been known to catch fire....more than once. we were on it one of the times it did. :eek:

If we were to go back to Belize, as much as we did enjoy the cave tubing, we'd stay on the boat next time. It was a good experience, but staying on the boat will be best for next time.

We took a trip to Bannister Island. Used Coral Breeze but it has been a few years now. We enjoyed it, the weather was awful the night before and the snorkeling portion had beyond poor visibility but the ship cancelled their excursions to the same island so it was just our boat - we had about 35 people on the whole island, employees included. One of the best and most relaxing days I've had in the Caribbean.

Another vote for Xunantunich. Fantastic day.

We have also done the cave tubing and zip lining which was fun

DH is saying his favorite day in Belize is now spicy conch fritters and Belikin at the wet lizard. LOL.

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Would highly recommend cave tubing with Jaguar Paws Resort. They also offer several other adventure activities and provide transportation to and from ship.

http://chukka.com/location/jaguar-paw/

We just booked a cruise for Christmas time and we are so excited to be going back to Belize. The BEST excursion and one of our most memorable is the one in Belize.

We did the cave tubing and zip lining tour with Major Tom: (can't post the web page but just search Major Tom Belize and you will find him).

They were AWESOME!!!

The staff was delightful and made this all day trip a fun adventure from beginning to end. The ride to the caves was long but it was memorable as Major Tom and his staff gave us a nice descriptive tour of Belize along the way.

The trip we took included a delicious lunch.

My family still talk about this trip and remember it fondly. We look forward to booking another excursion with Major Tom and his crew for our Belize stop.

It is THE BEST!!!

This time we are just going to do the cave tubing.

WE LOVE MAJOR TOM AND HIS STAFF!! DEFINITELY RECOMMEND THIS EXCURSION.

If you love to snorkel, don't miss taking an excursion that takes you out by boat to the Barrier Reef (2nd largest in the world). Awesome snorkeling! :D

LuLu

One of the worst places to go if you just stay in port. One of the best places to go with 3rd party guides for a wide variety of excursions. Our favorite is still the Lamanai Ruins tour. Got to ride through the countryside, take a long ride on a fast boat up the river (and back again), tour real ruins in the jungle, best tasting homemade food of the whole cruise, knowledgeable and nice guide. The big downside is distance from the cruise ship. You really put a lot of faith in the tour operator if anything goes wrong. However, I haven't found any mentions anywhere of such problems.

Another vote for the Lamanai Ruins Tour. But do it through your ship.

We were on NCL Jewel last Jan and this was a highlight of our trip.

IT was our first time to Belize so we wanted to see the island.

This tour (at least on the NCL tour) Did a brief panoramic tour of Belize City, on the drive to the power boats (large and covered) we were given a great deal of information about the Island, and the culture.

Then a one hour Ride through the mangroves on the river with several stops along the way to look at wild life , an Amish (or Mennonite I can't remember which) farm and other interesting points along the route up the river to the ruins.

Once a the site..in the Jungle IT was an easy hike to the ruins. Beautiful to get to walk through the jungle for a little way. (a man with a cane in our group did it so unless one has severe mobility issues it can be done)

REMEBER: it is a jungle, it is hot and sticky and there are bugs. Bring bug spray, wear appropriate clothing and footwear (running shoes etc) One lady had high heels on :eek::rolleyes:

Then after a lovely little walk where we were told about the flora and fauna of the area we arrived at the ruins. I have been to ruins in Mexico including the most famous ruins at Chichenitza, and this was much better. IT is ruins of a village, truly a wonderful experience.

This tour is like 4 in on and is excellent value for the money.

Lunch is included but is rather late so eat a hearty breakfast before.

There were people of all ages on this tour. Kids to Seniors. And everyone (except maybe the lady in high heels lol) was very happy and full of smiles all day long.

We are going back to Belize on a Celebrity cruise this January. I will snorkel this time but Lamanai is well worth doing once!

Normally we do independent tours but because of all the moving parts for this, and the chance of delays and it being a tender port...we went through the ship and did not regret it.

I just got back from Belize, Navigator Aug 24th.

I've only been there once and the only thing we did was the Lamanai Tour.

We booked through Island Marketing.

1hr bus ride through the country side, long but kinda cool to see that much of Belize and get some history and info on country and culture while sitting in comfy seats with AC.

A break for a quick lunch, ours was chicken rice and plantains, quick and simple but pretty good actually.

45 min Boat ride on the New River, it was a lot of fun. You go fast and take some tight turns in a Maze of a river.

The Ruins are pretty impressive and you can climb them. There are several larger pyramids and all kinds of smaller structures.

I gave the tour a 9/10

We have looked at the Crystal Cave tubing and the others either through carnival or not, we are unsure what to choose. Were unsure about the long bus ride, the 20-35 min hike others have talked about then its a short tube trip, also that you venture that far out with a curfew to return..... We like the Hells Gate but are undecided there also.

highly recommend the bolded, if you decide cave tubing! book through them, NOT carnival. cheaper, you get more, you do not have to carry your tubes on the 30 minute jungle hike, you do not have to hold on to other tubes to stay connected, tubes have both bottoms and backrests, all you can eat and drink at the owner's house.

We have looked at the Crystal Cave tubing and the others either through carnival or not, we are unsure what to choose. Were unsure about the long bus ride, the 20-35 min hike others have talked about then its a short tube trip, also that you venture that far out with a curfew to return..... We like the Hells Gate but are undecided there also.

celestekelly13 - We would recommend cavetubing.bz (not biz) for all of KLD1019's reasons! MY DD (20 @the time) and I went last year from the Carnival Magic and had a Fantastic time! Ride there was informative - Driver notes points of interest and gives info on Belize and their history. Jungle hike is also informative - pointing out plants, insects, etc. - can even eat a termite if you want! :D So it's not like it's a boring ride or hike. bz also takes you floating down the river farther than the cruise line excursions do. You wear headlamps (provided) on your head for floating through the cave btw.

We had a blast cave tubing in Belize. But other than that, honestly, I wouldn't even get off the ship.

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celestekelly13 - We would recommend cavetubing.bz (not biz) for all of KLD1019's reasons! MY DD (20 @the time) and I went last year from the Carnival Magic and had a Fantastic time! Ride there was informative - Driver notes points of interest and gives info on Belize and their history. Jungle hike is also informative - pointing out plants, insects, etc. - can even eat a termite if you want! :D So it's not like it's a boring ride or hike. bz also takes you floating down the river farther than the cruise line excursions do. You wear headlamps (provided) on your head for floating through the cave btw.

You mentioned head lamps, are there any COMPLETELY dark areas, or tight small spaces? I saw that on some tours. Also was the bus ride over an hour? I get nervouse getting that far out if we break down etc....

I just did the Xunantunich Ruins tour with Carnival. It was not the most exciting tour I've ever done, but it was the MOST AMAZING tour I've ever done.