I need an affordable tour guide

[LaShelle2]

I have read good reviews about Victor Bodden. People posted they booked his gguides for $25pp but the website says it's $40 pp. There are only 2 of us? For $80 we could just do the ship shore excursion.

 

Can anybody reccommend something more affordable? All we want do do is go the beach, and maybe have a drive around the town to see some local sights. I'm not interested in monkeys, iguanas, jipining, snorkelling, etc. I don't even want to shop, except maybe a few postcards.

 

 

Will I be ok getting a cab once we get there? How much will it cost for 2 people. I am single travelling w/ my 17 yr old son, so I want to feel relatively safe, though we're not super afraid of locals.

[cheeseheads1]

Last year we booked a family of four for 4-5 hours for $100. Cheapest excursion of the cruise and well worth it. Why don't you email him at Victor Bodden Tours. Look on the net it may take a few days but he will reply and you can tailor your trip to your likes. We did some sightseeing and then went snorkling. We had Tex and he was great and we never felt uncomfortable. :)

[MDSue]

Victor does charge $40 per person when it's just 2 people, that's for the entire day. I can't think of any ship tour where you'd get anything close for that price. You could do something like Fins and Flippers for $20 pp, but you wouldn't get a tour of Roatan with that. I'm not sure I'd risk just picking some random person when you get off the ship, the port area can be a little intimidating.

Maybe someone here knows someone who charges less, but the tour I took with Victor's guides was the best $40 [plus tip] i've ever spent. You only have to do and go where you want. They tailor your day to your wishes.

Maybe you could just try and grab a taxi over to the West End area for the day. There's plenty to do and see over there and it's on the other side of the island, so you'd get a mini-tour on the way over.

[5MNtravelbugs]

We just got back from Isla Roatan and had a great tour with Delrie Enet Welcome. Very apt last name! She was very knowledgable about the island and customized the tour to our interests. We had not pre-booked and found a van after we got off the ship, and she was the guide. The cost was $20 per person. We went to the pirates of caribbean zipline (we paid that entrance fee) and we were done before others arrived! That left the rest of the day to really SEE the island. We went to Tabyana beach (beautiful), drove thru many different areas and saw and heard the lore of the island. We learned about their housing, many plants, animals and the history of the island. She even took us to a shop to get honduran candy to take back to work with us. Was an insightful and relaxing day.

[LaShelle2]

do you have contact infor for her? I am a single lady travelling, so I would be more comfortable with another lady.

[5MNtravelbugs]

Yes, I have some info.

Delrie Welcome

Calabash Bisht

Bay Islands of Honduras CA

Phone: 011-504-3387-6468

Good Luck and have a great time!

[LaShelle2]

no e-mail address :-(. Guess I'll have to pay for an international call

[TxLnghrnz]

no e-mail address :-(. Guess I'll have to pay for an international call

 

A word of caution...be sure to check with your long distance carrier for rates to Roatan. We got hit with $8+ per minute calls to the Mayan Princess in Roatan a couple years ago...so once you add that into the cost, you may not be saving much money over the other tour guides!

 

Have a great trip to Roatan!

[cometcruising]

This one our favorite port. Mostly because of the hospitality of Juan Carlos. I had emailed him prior to our cruise and when my family of four got off the ship there he stood waiting for us. It was peace of mind with all the chaos! We paid him $20 p/p. He stayed with us the entire day. We did snorkeling, got beach massages, went to another beach, had lunch, went and saw the monkies (what a riot), shipwrecks and finally some shopping. It was an awesome day! He is so knowledgeable and a lot of fun! His email is islandertours@yahoo.com. Please tell him Lori and Bill say hi if you arrange services with him.

[pazandak63]

has anyone used Cynthia and Diane recently? Contact info?

 

I am returning in January of 2010 and have used them on prior trips to Roatan...

 

Thanks> :o

[friend of Eeyore]

This one our favorite port. Mostly because of the hospitality of Juan Carlos. I had emailed him prior to our cruise and when my family of four got off the ship there he stood waiting for us. It was peace of mind with all the chaos! We paid him $20 p/p. He stayed with us the entire day. We did snorkeling, got beach massages, went to another beach, had lunch, went and saw the monkies (what a riot), shipwrecks and finally some shopping. It was an awesome day! He is so knowledgeable and a lot of fun! His email is islandertours@yahoo.com. Please tell him Lori and Bill say hi if you arrange services with him.

We had arranged a tour with Victor Bodden, and ended up with Juan Carlos - apparently he gets some of his tours from Victor as well as independently. We had a WONDERFUL day - we got to do whatever we wanted. We had no interest in the cameo factory, so we skipped that, and had some other nice experiences. (Well, except for the monkey peeing on my head..... :o) I would definitely recommend Juan Carlos to anyone. (We've checked out his website - it's the same Juan Carlos we had.)

[js]

I know this thread is from 2005, but I have been in contact with Juan regading picking my family up at the pier, taking us to Mayan Princess and return trip back to ship for $30 pp.

My ship does not get in until 10 am and he informed me he will go pick up our day pass at Mayan Princess before getting us to make sure we get in, which will be wonderful.

Does anyone have any information good/bad before I give a deposit and spend $150.

Thank you very much.

[goldie888]

This one our favorite port. Mostly because of the hospitality of Juan Carlos. I had emailed him prior to our cruise and when my family of four got off the ship there he stood waiting for us. It was peace of mind with all the chaos! We paid him $20 p/p. He stayed with us the entire day. We did snorkeling, got beach massages, went to another beach, had lunch, went and saw the monkies (what a riot), shipwrecks and finally some shopping. It was an awesome day! He is so knowledgeable and a lot of fun! His email is islandertours@yahoo.com. Please tell him Lori and Bill say hi if you arrange services with him.

 

My sister, her children and I used Juan Carlos for our New Year cruise in 2005 and we had a wonderful time. This year I am returning with my husband and hope to find Juan Carlos again. Thanks for the info to contact him.

[40yearcruiser]

We were on Carnival Valor last month with a stop in Roatan. We booked with Victor Bodden, at the recommendation of our son. Our guide was Ali. Because there were just the two of us, I posted on the rollcall for our cruise that we would like to share the tour to bring the cost down from $40 pp to $25 pp. Another couple on our ship saw my post and wrote back that they would like to join us. We met at the CC meet and greet on the ship and got acquainted. We had a fun day together.

 

We did not want to do the zipline but went to Victor's monkey farm (loved the monkeys), had a nice tour of the island, and went to Halfmoon Bay. We had indicated that we'd like to do the glass-bottom boat ride, advertised on Victor's site at $15 pp, but instead Ali took us to a boat much like a semi-submarine where we sat under the water with big windows that only cost us $25 pp. The views of the reef and all the fish was terrific. We also swam and snorkeled at Halfmoon Bay before returning to the ship.

[BeadBabe]

I used Rony Bennett of RonyTours. (Website same name.) He has a "freestyle tour" which for a flat rate, he'll take you anywhere you want to go. And is happy to make suggestions

[lindseesmom]

We used Rony too and his e-mail address is ronyroatan@yahoo.com

We had a great tour! It is well worth it. We saw the sights, the beach, went to the elementary school. We enjoyed the tour very much!:cool: