Looking for help with excursions

[cman67]

We're going on our first cruise in February and looking for recommendations for excursions when we're in Roatan. Can you give me your top 3 excursions (either through the cruise line or on your own)

Thanks for the help!!

[Beckaroous]

We're going on our first cruise in February and looking for recommendations for excursions when we're in Roatan. Can you give me your top 3 excursions (either through the cruise line or on your own)

 

Thanks for the help!!

 

We took an island tour with Juan Carlo. My recommendation is to put up a notice on rollcall that you want to get a total of 4 people for Juan Carlo (Makes it $20 per person instead of 25) You get a nice tour of the Island, a really good guide who is not your driver, a stop at the Iguana farm for $8 (only go if it is sunny) $2 stop at the Monkey sanctuary (DO IT!!) and then a stop for beach and lunch and the nicest beach on the island. We were not able to enjoy the beach because it was right after a huricain and the water was ruff but the resteraunt was amazing 1 entree feeds to. If you like conch get the grilled conch it will be the biggest and tastiest conch you ever had. There was time at the end to shop in town. GREAT TOUR!!!!!

 

Another option which people enjoyed a lot was Fins and Flippers for $20 you get to enjoy a very nice resort type environment with a pool and great snorkeling. We had this as our backup.

 

Hondurus seems to rely totaly on tourism and they are EXTREAMLY NICE people. When you get off the ship there are HUNDREDS of people waiting to give you a tour and for a good price once you walk outside of the the ships terminal. Do some research on what EXACTLY you want to see and hire a guide for the day. It should not be more than $20 per person for the day. You could probably find it for Much less as there are SOOOO many and only a handful get jobs. $20 should get you the WHOLE DAY!!!!

 

ENJOY!!!!

[Host Kat]

Howdy, cman67!

 

Read the Sticky thread titled What is a ROLL CALL and how do I find mine? at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=44773. The thread will tell you about the Cruise Critic Roll Call Forums and how they are the place for you to get to know the other Cruise Critic members sailing with you before the cruise. Your fellow Roll Call members may have the type of information you need posted in your Roll Call thread. In fact, your Roll Call thread is the ONLY place on Cruise Critic where members can post about sharing tours, excursions, transportation etc.

 

Per the Guidelines we all agreed to follow when we registered for our free membership:

 

Miscellaneous

Basically, an ad is an ad. So, please no posting of "looking for roommate" type posts, tour shares (except in ROLL CALL threads), giveaways, ebay links, etc. etc.

 

I hope this information will be helpful!

Kat

'Tis the season to be jolly...

[traveljunky99]

There many activities/tours. What are you interested in? We did an island tour which gave us a good flavor of the island + zip lining which was also a lot of fun.

[crmc]

Which zip line did you do? We're trying to decide on one.

[traveljunky99]

CRMC, We did the Mayan Jungle Canopy (Bodden Tours). Since, we were travelling with 2 young kids we chose the Mayan zipline as we could take the kids along. There are other ziplines which are higher, longer........http://www.boddentours.com/zipline.htm

[2CrusinOldies]

Which zip line did you do? We're trying to decide on one.

 

We are going to be here in February as well and are already booked with Bodden Tours, however having Zippped Lined before, we recommend you save your Zip Lining adventure for Costa Rica. The views are breathtaking, especially looking down at the clouds!:D

 

**What ship are you sailing on and when? **

[2CrusinOldies]

We're going on our first cruise in February and looking for recommendations for excursions when we're in Roatan. Can you give me your top 3 excursions (either through the cruise line or on your own)

 

Thanks for the help!!

 

I just saw your countdown clock and we will be on the same sailing as you! This is not our first cruise so if we can be of any help, just ask. :)

Where are you from?

[rasta]

Fins and Fliipers for sure. It is super close to the docking area so you wont waste travel time...litterally 5 minutes from stepping of the ship to stepping on the island. Snorkeling is availablee right off a pier on the island, really good food, good food/beer prices and beautiful grounds.

[3rinDenver]

We just got back from our trip on the Valor and Roatan was our absolute favorite stop! We booked the kayak & snorkel excursion through the ship and ended up having an amazing time snorkeling Half Moon Bay and kayaking parallel to the West End. It was so well done and just a relaxing, amazing day. Loved it. :)

[wkelly5688]

We're going on our first cruise in February and looking for recommendations for excursions when we're in Roatan. Can you give me your top 3 excursions (either through the cruise line or on your own)

Thanks for the help!!

 

Fins n Flippers resort.if you want to relax in a tropical paradise, enjoy good food and cold drinks. They also have a nice pool, gardens, animals, snorkeling and massage. It was a wonderful way to spend a day. They have a website.

 

Bill

[jollycruise]

We just got back from Roatan and we rented a car and had a wonderful time!

[Flyguy35]

We're going on our first cruise in February and looking for recommendations for excursions when we're in Roatan. Can you give me your top 3 excursions (either through the cruise line or on your own)

 

Thanks for the help!!

 

I did the Pirates,Birds and Monkeys tour and it was great. At the end, you can spend time at the beach. A great tour for people with kids for sure. I would recommend booking a tour through the cruise ship at this location as there has been some unrest on the island over the past few months. If you do decided to book a private tour, I would not pre-pay just incase the ship does not go into the port.

 

Have a great trip!:)

[jacobbear01]

Just back from Roatan on Norwegian Pearl. Absolutely loved Roatan. We did the Gumbalina Park & Tabanya Beach excursion. First went to Gumbalina Park. Excellent tour, crossed Rope Bridge-it is still there, walked into manmade Pirate cave, had encounters with Parrots and Monkeys. Beautiful park. Went with my kids 7 and 13 and all loved it. Next stop was Tabanya Beach. Water crystal clear-great snorkeling. Beach chairs were plentiful and lunch was provided-burgers, chicken. You could stay at the beach and leave at your leisure until 3:30. Highly recommend this excursion.

[Bobug]

Just back from Roatan on Norwegian Pearl. Absolutely loved Roatan. We did the Gumbalina Park & Tabanya Beach excursion. First went to Gumbalina Park. Excellent tour, crossed Rope Bridge-it is still there, walked into manmade Pirate cave, had encounters with Parrots and Monkeys. Beautiful park. Went with my kids 7 and 13 and all loved it. Next stop was Tabanya Beach. Water crystal clear-great snorkeling. Beach chairs were plentiful and lunch was provided-burgers, chicken. You could stay at the beach and leave at your leisure until 3:30. Highly recommend this excursion.

 

We are going to Tabyana beach also but our excursion doesn't include food....can you buy food there when you want?

[crmc]

Our group of 3 children and 4 adults had a great day in Roatan. We booked a ziplining tour at South Shore through Island Marketing Ltd. We went to the meeting place, where we were told to stand and wait until others booked on the tour arrived. Fortunately, the other group of 5 or so arrived a few minutes later. A van then took us to South Shore. The guides there were competent and efficient. One of them took the 4 year old and zipped him down the first cable first. The same guide rode with him the whole time, and Andrew loved it! The 8 and 11 year olds went on their own. We all had a lot of fun, and the views were great. We had a little rain for the last few runs, but it didn't hamper us. South Shore uses a double cable, and the equipment looks to be in good shape. You wear a glove on one hand to use as a brake if you're coming in too quick. We returned to the van, and were driven back to the office, where we'd left our things. They had pictures for sale at that time. We were then driven to West Bay to Fosters Beach Club. (There was an option to return directly to the ship, if desired.) We went up a couple of steep wet dirt roads that we wondered if the van would be able to get up, but it did. We were each given a ticket for a complimentary drink, and offered beach chairs. Two of us had our own snorkeling equipment, and a few others were walked to a place to rent it. It was quite a ways down the beach (to the left if facing the water). We were told that was the best snorkeling area also. It was a great area. There were shallow mazes of reef to snorkel through and lots of fish. A couple of hours later, we were driven back to the ship. I'd highly recommend this tour.

[puggy2008]

We just got off of the Pearl on Sunday. We booked through e-mail with Cynthia & Diana and had Juan Carlos Rodriguez as our guide. Diana's em is: jacksong2005@yahoo.com There were 6 of us. It was $20. pp for the entire day. He had a comfortable, air-conditioned van and was a wonderful host. We did the zip-lining, which he recommended we do first to avoid the crowds. That was a great idea as we were the first ones there. After that we wanted to go to the beach so he took us to a private hotel beach, rounded up lounges and an umbrella, watched our belongings while we frolicked in the ocean and helped tote our stuff back and forth. We then wanted to have lunch at a local restaurant and he took us to a great place in the West End area, right on the beach. I had the lobster meal which was $20. for 2 tails, salad and potato. Beer was about $2. The kicker was the tax which was very high. It was a great time, relaxing and stress free not having to worry about where we were going. I would highly recommend doing this. The day can be anything you want.

[cman67]

We just got back from our cruise last night and just had to post about our experience with Victor Bodden tours. We had reserved a tour for 9 people but at the last minute 2 more wanted to join us at the last minute. They followed us off the ship not knowing if they could come with us or not.

First thing to mention is the poverty of Roatan is noticeable almost immediately. The street outside of the port area was crowded with people trying to sell you stuff. Not that this doesn't happen at other ports but it's different in Roatan. With that said I at no time felt in danger. A simple "no thank you" and they moved on.

There was a Bodden tour representative right out side the port area that pointed us toward Victor. I asked if he could accommodate the extra 2 people and he said that wasn't a problem. We were supposed to have Tex but ended up with Victor since he vehicle fit all 11 of us.

We started the day by touring the island. At one point we ended up on a high point on the East side of the island and could see out over the port - the view was stunning. Great place for pictures. We moved on to the West side to visit Victors zip line and monkeys. some of the 11 went zip lining while the others played with the monkeys. We all met Victor's wife and oldest daughter who were just wonderful people.

We ended the day at one of the West Bay resorts having lunch and swimming.

A few thoughts:

The poverty was a great lesson for our two children. We've always told them how lucky they are. At 16 and 17 they are great kids and very respectful but sometimes forget how lucky we all are. In the future when they complain about not having something I will always be able to help them to remember some of they poverty was saw on Roatan.

In contrast to the poverty was the absolute beauty of this island. Just stunning! Pulling into the port with the mountains in the immediate background was a site to see.

Victor Bodden is just a wonderful, graceful man. He made our day on the island the best of all 4 ports we visited. He seems like such a gentle, caring person. I'm not sure if one can judge a person in such a short time but all 11 of us saw wonderful things in Victor. He made our day!

[MDSue]

Although I haven't had Victor personally for a guide, I have emailed him back and forth many times to plan our trips to Roatan. We had one of his guides on our first trip and are looking forward to using him again in April. It is so nice to deal with him, truly one of a kind.

We really felt special having our own driver giving us a custom tour suited to exactly what we wanted to do. This island is the highlight of our cruise. If you just get away from port it is wonderful.