best way to do the zipline?

[jetengines]

We will be there in November and definitely want to do the zipline. What is the best tour to go on? There is one through Shoretrips.com that looks good and I have read good reviews for Shoretrips, but not necessarily for Roatan. Any thoughts???

Thank you,
Kimberly

[whendoweleave?]

Feedback from those who've been on zipline tours....it's hard to tell from the excursion companies which zipline they take you to.....don't want Gumbalimba (I think it is) as that's the one that had the death last year.....I heard Victor Bodden takes you to his own zipline on his property and it's not as "thrilling".....I think South Shore is supposed to be best, but I don't know. I definitely want the West Bay Beach option afterwards, but would like to know which zipine outfit I'm going to.

[crewsweeper]

We did the shoretrips zip line in May. It was very good, very long. You walk over a rope bridege at the end. Bring tip money with you on the zip. The facilities at the road side aren't elaborate. Go early. But you can get drinks and Honduran beer from a cooler. We booked this one versus Victor because a friend was going and had already book but had to drop the crusie at the last minute. We had a good time, though. You go to the beach afterward. Our driver waited for us at the zip and then came back when we asked him to to get back to the ship. I understand that Pirates of the Caribbean has a higher elevation zip line and may be almost as long in total distance as shoretrips.

[Seattlecruisers98021]

Hi Crewsweeper-Were you at the Southshore zip? Was that Rope bridge the only way down or is there a way around it? Don't think my daughter will try that. Thanks

[agrigar]

We used Victor Bodden & he took us to the Jungle Canopy tour & it was great.

[OZjones12]

pirates of the caribbean canopy zipline... Google it. They are great!

[looksandletters]

I'm having a hard time making a final decision on a ziplining company... has anyone done the regular zipline (not extreme) with Pirates? I see a lot of reviews on Pirates, but it seems like it's all on the extreme line.

If you booked through shoretrips, was it thrilling enough for you?

[lh9789]

Originally Posted by looksandletters

I'm having a hard time making a final decision on a ziplining company... has anyone done the regular zipline (not extreme) with Pirates? I see a lot of reviews on Pirates, but it seems like it's all on the extreme line.

If you booked through shoretrips, was it thrilling enough for you?

We are having a hard time making a decision as well. Can anyone add to these notes?

Gumbalimba Park- even though it had a death last year I'm not ruling it out, because from the pictures I see on sites like Picassa and Flickr, it seems to be the most jungle-y one, as opposed to having a lot of meadow area. They are wearing yellow helmets. If you've done this one, what else did you get to do at the park- see/touch monkeys, go into a cave etc? Was is a ship's tour or through a private tour operator?

Victor Bodden's Mayan Jungle Canopy in Sandy Bay- has NO helmets in the pictures I saw, some meadow area(seems like more meadow than we'd want--I want it to be a true treetop canopy tour), but has the opportunity to play with Victor's monkeys next door and at no extra charge. If you've done this one, what was the approx percentage of treetops and percent of meadow? Are helmets offered?

Pirates of the Carribean Canopy Tour- white helmets seem optional. They offer 2 options: Regular option has 14 runs (which is more than the other locations) and the Extreme option of 8 runs which are very long and sometimes higher. Which of these options did you do and was it mostly treetops?

Somewhere I saw pics of a zipline runing through a cave-- where was that?? Anyone know which zipline run that Island Marketing (tour company) uses? Thanks!

[go noles]

I could be wrong but I think I understand that shoretrips and island marketing both use south shore. Can anyone confirm?

[jetengines]

Island Marketing and Shoretrips both do the South Shore. I believe they may even share the same van for transportation.

[looksandletters]

I just found a great comparison chart of all the ziplines in Roatan on Rony's website, thought it might be helpful to people in the same indecisive position as me:

http://ronystours.com/activities_rates.html

Just scroll down a bit. I'm going to review this chart with my boyfriend tonight so we can finally make a decision!

[lh9789]

Originally Posted by looksandletters

I just found a great comparison chart of all the ziplines in Roatan on Rony's website, thought it might be helpful to people in the same indecisive position as me:

http://ronystours.com/activities_rates.html

Just scroll down a bit. I'm going to review this chart with my boyfriend tonight so we can finally make a decision!

That IS very helpful! I was working on my own Excel spreadsheet version when you came up with this comparion chart. It has all the same categories, except I had an additonal category of "treetops or meadow" (for the majority of the area that you traverse over). I think Victor Bodden's Mayan Jungle has more meadowe than trees, judging by the pictures I've seen.

I've decided to use Pirates of the Carribbean. Thanks for passing the info along!

[looksandletters]

Originally Posted by lh9789

That IS very helpful! I was working on my own Excel spreadsheet version when you came up with this comparion chart. It has all the same categories, except I had an additonal category of "treetops or meadow" (for the majority of the area that you traverse over). I think Victor Bodden's Mayan Jungle has more meadowe than trees, judging by the pictures I've seen.

I've decided to use Pirates of the Carribbean. Thanks for passing the info along!

You're welcome! Are you doing the Extreme or regular? We are still undecided!

[crewsweeper]

Originally Posted by Seattlecruisers98021

Hi Crewsweeper-Were you at the Southshore zip? Was that Rope bridge the only way down or is there a way around it? Don't think my daughter will try that. Thanks

Sorry for the delay in answering your ? I just saw it today. Yes the swinging bridge is the only way out. It's about 3 -4 feet wide with board planking so it may be scary for some but it's not going to break on you.

[lh9789]

Originally Posted by looksandletters

You're welcome! Are you doing the Extreme or regular? We are still undecided!

We're doing POTC's Regular option. More runs and rope bridge sounds more fun to me than the Extreme option. Plus it's my first time zipping, so I may not want to go so high (insert chicken noises here!). I made the reservations, and the Pirates person was good about responding the next day with a confirmation number.

Does anyone have advice on picture taking? My boyfriend and I really want picture of ourselves zipping, so we are planning on letting 1 person go between us. Hopefully that will allow me time to take a take a picture of him taking off, otherwise I think I'd be too busy with the harness etc. Perhaps then at the next platform, he will have time to take a pic of me coming in for a landing (we each have our own camera). Will this plan work? Also wondering how to manage photos/video WHILE zipping??

[Seattlecruisers98021]

Originally Posted by crewsweeper

Sorry for the delay in answering your ? I just saw it today. Yes the swinging bridge is the only way out. It's about 3 -4 feet wide with board planking so it may be scary for some but it's not going to break on you.

Yep we just got back...my daughter was the one that I thought would fear the bridge and she chose to stay at camp carnival that day. It ended up being a great day for the teenagers in our family. Southshore was PERFECT for the 3 teenage boys we took. The runs were high enough and long enough to impress these snowboarding, skateboarding, dirt bike riding adrenaline junkies...but not so bad that their chicken mother wouldn't go for it too(with the guide)

[crewsweeper]

Glad you had a good time. Do they still have the little monkey? SIL really took to it.

[Seattlecruisers98021]

I think I remember seeing a cage out on the deck outside where they put our gear on. But quite honestly I was trying to coordinate this operation for the 6 of us and don't recall what was in it.

We went to Victor Bodden's Monkeys after the ziplining. We discovered monkeys prefer banana chips to actual bananas. And be wary of their backsides! My son was peed on!

[mjlfg]

Originally Posted by looksandletters

I just found a great comparison chart of all the ziplines in Roatan on Rony's website, thought it might be helpful to people in the same indecisive position as me:

http://ronystours.com/activities_rates.html

Just scroll down a bit. I'm going to review this chart with my boyfriend tonight so we can finally make a decision!

I can't thank you enough....I think Rony's website is FABULOUS. It gives me everything I need to plan our Roatan stop in Dec! Just wanted to thank you for sharing! : D