Best ruins, rainforest, snorkel - Belize, Cozumel, Costa Maya, Roatan?

I know there is a ports of call section, but wasn't sure which one to post on for the questions I have.

We are sailing to Belize, Cozumel, Costa Maya and Roatan in February. There are about 20 or so of us

and some want to do the ruins and some want to do a rainforest type excursion.

My question is, of these 4 ports, which would be the best to do what in? We've been to all these before

but I'm not a ruins type gal so I've never done that. We did do the cavetubing in Belize which was

awesome and you do walk through a rainforest type section getting to the river.

I know many of you have probably done these types excursions several times and I knew you would know

what was best.

Send me your thoughts so they can make an informed decision!

Thanks in advance!

#1 -- Ruins in Belize - Xunantunich (did it and loved it) or Lamanai (plan to do it next time). You can climb the pyramids in Belize, too, so that much better. Yes, they are about a 2 hour bus ride from port, but the tour guides give wonderful talks on the way there about the Mayans and also the modern Belize cultures, tons of info Time goes fast and you are there before you know it. Tours also include a lunch which is very nice. Can sleep on bus on way back to port.

Roatan has no ruins on the island. The Mayans never made it out there. The ruins are on the Mainland, which would mean a plane flight to and from, more cruises do not offer for that reason.

Cozumel... only a few tiny ruins on the island, the ones on the mainland require travel, ferry then bus. Some are only an hour travel (Coba and Tulum) each way, but then Chichen Itza is gigantic and 2-3 hours travel each way, so leaving very little time to see it. I recommend a land tour there so you can spend a half day, really amazing but not for only 45 minutes quicky tour with 5 hours travel.

I am a real Mayan culture junkie, so I do try to visit sites when I can. Best one I have visited by cruise ship was Uxmal, from Progreso. Wonderful excursion. Chichen Itza is also amazing, but we did it as a land vacation so we could really see it all.

I have photos on my Smugmug website of all, see signature list.

robin

We were in Belize last April and did a private excursion with Belize Exotic Adventures, i think, to Altun Ha. It was much cheaper than ship excursion. This site was only about 45 min from the port so we felt ok booking with a private firm. Our guide Natalie was great!! We were some of the first ones at the site. We got a really good local lunch. And she stopped at a few little places when we asked. That was our 3rd cruise and our first non-ship excursion. Some people are twitchy about Belize but everyone was great. We had a group of 8, we were in a decent van with cold air. They have to "check-out" of the port with their destination and number of passengers. All of this quelled any remaining apprehension. We set everything up by email a few months ahead of time, paid cash, had a blast!! This all being said, the next time we go to Belize we want to do more ruins but due to distance from port would most likely book through the ship but maybe not. I believe i did put up a review on the Belize board that should have more information.

I've been to several Mayan ruins sites and by far, the most amazing I've seen is Chichen Itza.

I also enjoyed Dzibanche because of the wooded venue.

I'd say the most underwhelming for me was Tulum.

DW and I faced the same quandary, I wanted to see some Mayan ruins and she wanted to do something where we could see wildlife. We chose the Altun Ha Mayan Ruins/River Wallace shore excursion in Belize. We started off with a 2 hour boat ride that took us up the Belize River where we saw practically every type of wildlife that called the river home. Then we rode a bus to the Altun Ha site where you are allowed to climb one of the pyramids if weather permits. We felt it was well worth the money.

Best for me, probably Chichen Itza. The only problem as mentioned earlier is the travel time from Cozumel. 2.5 hours both ways by bus then the vomit comet ferry for 45min both ways as well. You'll be first off the boat and last on despite only being at the ruins for 1hr.

While Chichen Itza is the most spectacular ruin, it's distance is a problem. Tulum - the only site right on the coast, with it's intact tower overlooking the sea, is a good alternative.

Roatan for snorkeling. We went in Cozumel recently where we always enjoyed snorkeling and the reef is struggling. Brown coral and not nearly as many fish as years ago.

Lamanai Belize hands down the best cruise excursion we have ever done. I did a review on it on Tripadvisor. https://www.tripadvisor.ca/members-citypage/Purplegrapefruit/g291978