Belize with a 7 yr old

[Grannycb]

We are going on the Carnival Legend for a Thanksgiving cruise with a stop in Belize. I'm stumped for an activity a 7 year old would enjoy. There don't appear to be many little kid friendly things listed in the shore excursions from Carnival. Has anyone had a successful family excursion in Belize? Please share your experiences.

[A&Jfamily]

We are going on the Carnival Legend for a Thanksgiving cruise with a stop in Belize. I'm stumped for an activity a 7 year old would enjoy. There don't appear to be many little kid friendly things listed in the shore excursions from Carnival. Has anyone had a successful family excursion in Belize? Please share your experiences.

 

My son was 8 when we went to Belize the first time. We did Goff's Caye where you can either snorkel from the ship or shore. We were even able to take the then almost 3 year old with us on that trip and he just plated on the beach with us while we took turns snorkeling with the older. The next year, we did Sgt. Caye snorkel and the mangrove kayak. He had a blast - the little one had to stay behind, of course because he was too small for the boats.

 

There is also the zoo - but I would book through the cruise line as it seems rough outside the chain link fence surrounding the small port area.

 

The other thing I have thought my boys would like is the Altun Ha river cruise to the ruins. We took my DS at 8 to the ruins Chachobeen and he really enjoyed them (that trip was from Costa Maya). Altun Ha will be my choice whenever we return to Belize.

[sbhdmh]

We took dd, who had just turned 5, on the ruins and river tour in January. She had fun but it was not at good as I had hoped. We were pretty rushed at the ruins. We had built up climbing on the ruins and we were so rushed she didn't really get to do much exploring. The guide allowed her and dh to quickly run up one pyramid while he was talking. The group then had the opportunity to climb one pyramid - very treacherous climb up and down. The guide didn't climb with us citing "bad knees".

 

The main reason I booked this tour was so dd could see monkeys in their natural habitat. The guide assured me that more than 90% of the time they found monkeys. We, sadly, were in the other 10%. We saw one crocodile sleeping on the shore, several types of birds and some bats. That was it for wildlife. We also "saw" manitees but seeing manitees meant looking out over still water trying to spot the 4" or so of their snouts that they put about water for a few seconds at a time. I think my reasoning was good but I wish I had done a combo of the ruins and either zoo or one of the preserves instead. Maybe if we had seen the monkeys I would have felt differently.

 

Although we usually do things on our own we did ship's excurion in Belize because of the safety concerns I had read about. If you arrange a private tour make sure to do it in advance and be sure they meet you inside the fenced area. There were large groups of men just outside the fence and I have read a lot of scary stories from people who decided to explore on their own.

[RoadTripFanatic]

We did Goff's cay with our DD when she was 7. It's a very nice private beach w/ a port-a-pot. (Well two years ago) We had a nice time just relaxing and playing on the beach.

Another suggestions would be the Belize Zoo. It's a beautiful zoo.

[lowestar]

We were in Belize in early February on the Independence. My dh and dd (10) did the Lamanai (sp) tour, but I knew my dd (7) would never last on that one. She and I did the Wildlife Encounter (something like that) through RCI. It was a river boat ride where we saw manatees, crocs (or were they alligators?), insect bats, all kinds of interesting birds, etc. We then stopped at the Old Belize Inn for a lunch. After lunch, we took a bus to the Belize Zoo where we saw lots of animals. The highlight of the zoo for my dd was seeing the tapir (quite a few actually) which is the national animal of Belize. Most of the animals were quite different we see near us (Ontario Canada). Anyway, she LOVED this tour, and I enjoyed myself too!

 

I would recommend a ship's tour for this port. I don't normally mind doing independent tours, but for Belize with the long tender ride, safetey, etc., I felt more secure going through the ship.

 

Have fun!

[MellowMel]

We are going to Belize in December on Royal Caribbean with a 7-year-old and I was looking up excursions just last night. I was disappointed because there were few things for his age group that I thought he would be interested in.

 

I did find two and maybe Carnival has something similar. The first one is Mayan Palaces of Cahal Pech. I think he'll like exploring the Mayan area. This trip isn't as lengthy as some of the other Mayan excursions in other ports. The other one is a private island beach break.

 

Good luck!

[Grannycb]

I found this tour that says younger children can go cave tubing. http://cavetubing.bz/tours/cruise/pgdiv.1 Has anyone done this?

[Citizen Jane]

When DD was 5 we did an independent excursion to the Belize Zoo and Altun Ha. Because the tenders were running slow in rough waters we had to rush a bit at Altun Ha (went to the zoo first because the animals are more active earlier in the day). Now, I admit that we lucked out because our guide's father had worked in the wildlife service so our guide knew all of the animal's "calls" and could get them to come nearer to us or look our direction, but it was great.

 

I'd definitely recommend the Belize Zoo. We were going to go there next week until DD begged to go horseback riding. The minimum age for the ship's excursion was age 12, but we booked independently (with the same firm we used before in Belize) at a really great site where the age is usually 8, but since DD has ridden before (on her own horse the last time) they were fine with us coming--she'll turn 7 within a week of the excursion. The excursion is at a ranch in Belize which actually has a lodge where people come just for riding vacations.

 

Sorry, I digressed, check out the website for the zoo and you'll perhaps see why I am actually disappointed we aren't going there on this trip:

 

http://www.belizezoo.org/

 

It is not like zoos in this country where you are at a fair distance from the animals. You have to keep a constant eye on your kiddo not to put fingers in the fencing because it is right up against the walkway...particularly cool for looking at jaguars. They actually do rehabilitation of jaguars there which is pretty neat.

[Gonz]

We just got back last night from our cruise and stop in Belize. We took our 3 and 6 year old out to Bannister Island with Eco Tours, on their website the tour is called Gallows Reef and Beach. There's a price for just the beach day, or you can pay a different price that includes snorkeling out on the reef. The beach was excellent, calm water and that great water trampoline you can see on their website. I would definetely do that again.