Belize - Bannister/Snorkel Questions

[tbmrt]

We have planned to snorkel in Cozumel and do a humanitarian tour in Guatemala. Thought we'd just like to do a Bannister Island beach day in Belize to keep cost down a bit.

 

NCL's tours aren't posted yet for October, but I'm sure the Belize beach day through NCL will be more pricey than a private operator's. That being said, from what I read, taking the ship's tour would eliminate the tenders and water taxis from port which would be a benefit. Am I correct? Any recommended company to just do a beach break at Bannister? I understand you cannot get there on your own.

 

We also considered taking a snorkel tour, but Coral Breezes goes to the Sting Ray area as part of its trip and we did this already last year on another trip. We would prefer to snorkel elsewhere without this stop. In the past it seems that we were on the boat more w/very limited snorkel time.

[sunlover5]

We just did Bannister Island/snorkling through Coral Breeze. If you want to have beach time they drop you off first. If you want to snorkle you stay on the boat. If you do snorkle there is not much beach time for you. Our guide was excellent and we had good snorkling. We booked through Coral breeze but it was actually Hammerhead watersports who conducted the tour. We would book with them again.

 

Can't compare it to a ships tour. We debated which way to go also, as we didn't want to be on boats all day. It wasn't bad, we had time to shop in town before grabbing the tender back to our ship so it didn't seem like we were on boats all day.