Belize Snorkeling - Is it "better" than Hawaii?

[Goobaroo]

Hello Friends!

 

We will be visiting Belize in September 2010. From the get-go I have been thinking "We are visiting Belize, they have a barrier reef, we MUST snorkel!".

And of course, given this directive, if we DO snorkel I don't want to mess it up! So I have been reading and searching and agonizing about which tour, which tour company, will we understand "Belize Time", and so on!

 

We are not expert snorkelers, but we are experienced. And we have had the good fortune to snorkel off the Big Island in Hawaii on several occasions, truly amazing adventures each time.

 

Here's my question -

Has anyone snorkeled in BOTH Hawaii and Belize? (cruise ship excurions)

And if you have, is Belize really "all that", compared to what we have enjoyed in Hawaii?

I'm starting to wonder if I may be getting too worked up about this visit to Belize, just looking for some perspective I suppose!

 

Thanks much!

[missingmaui]

We've done land-based vacations in Hawaii and Belize. We snorkeled Black Rock and Molokini Crater around Maui, and Shark Ray Alley and the reef surrounding Ambergris Caye in Belize. The snorkeling was totally different. I'll upload some pics from both in a minute.

 

The main differences we noticed were the water color (more blue in Hawaii, more green in Belize). We didn't notice any turtle grass around Maui and it is abundant in Belize. In Hawaii, we saw many more varieties of fish, while in Belize there were more nurse sharks and rays. Both places had lots of turtles (amazing!).

 

Our experience may vary from others, but we loved snorkeling in both places. We'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite, because they were so different in the areas we snorkeled. I don't think you can go wrong with snorkeling in Belize. I would take a tour that includes Shark Ray Alley- the water is fairly shallow compared to the areas we snorkeled in Hawaii, so you get a very unique barrier reef experience. You won't be disappointed!

 

I'll post a link to some pictures as soon as I get the uploaded. Good luck with your decision!

[missingmaui]

I just realized that you asked mainly for cruise ship excursions, but I know that Molokini Crater and Shark Ray Alley are both included on excursions. :o I hope this helps!

 

Hawaii pictures:

http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/ff137/marympierce/Maui/

 

 

Belize Pictures:

http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/ff137/marympierce/Belize/

[Sandyscrusin]

Thanks for the pics Missingmaui. We will be in Belize for the first time in Jan. and I am looking forward to snorkeling.

[Sandyscrusin]

Really sad news. I was doing some research on the area and poachers have moved into Shark Ray Alley and killed most of the sharks. It's just heartbreaking.

[missingmaui]

Really sad news. I was doing some research on the area and poachers have moved into Shark Ray Alley and killed most of the sharks. It's just heartbreaking.

 

 

That's terrible. It was one of the highlights of our vacation in Belize. The tour operators were adamant that we not engage the sharks, and only interact if they initiated the contact. We were told that it is part of a protected marine sanctuary. It's makes me sick to think that such docile creatures are being killed.

[kujobie]

Really sad news. I was doing some research on the area and poachers have moved into Shark Ray Alley and killed most of the sharks. It's just heartbreaking.

 

Nonsense. Where did u get this info?

[mysparky]

Although not through ship excursions, we've done a good deal of snorkeling in Belize and Maui.

 

I think that one of the biggest difference in snorkeling between the two is that Maui has plenty of excellent snorkeling from the shore, but snorkeling in Belize pretty much requires being on a boat.

 

As far as Belize goes, snorkeling around Ambergris Caye is fantastic - tons to see in terms of fish, sharks, coral and incredible visibility. However, Ambergris Caye is quite a distance and is really only feasible if you fly there.

 

This year we snorkeled on the reef near Bannister Island and we didn't see as much. The coral gardens are incredible and we saw some cool eels and sea cucumbers, but we definitely did not see the variety of fish that we saw out around Ambergris Caye. I would not rank it as one of my top snorkeling spots and due to somewhat choppy water and the current, would say it's more difficult.

 

I loved snorkeling in Maui and we covered several spots in both the Wailea and Kaanapali areas. Great variety of fish, eels, etc and the water was always calm and I found the snorkeling to be pretty easy (once you could get past an entry difficulties).

 

I know this isn't exactly what you were looking for, but hopefully it provides you with some useful info.

[Will in sunny FL]

Before going to Belize look up Coral Breeze Tours for a super snorkeling trip off of Caye Caulker as well as a great local lunch on Caye Caulker.

We go with them two times each year & highly recommend them.

Bill in FL

[Goobaroo]

Before going to Belize look up Coral Breeze Tours for a super snorkeling trip off of Caye Caulker as well as a great local lunch on Caye Caulker.

We go with them two times each year & highly recommend them.

Bill in FL

 

 

Thanks to everyone for your informative responses! And I am relieved to hear that the poaching is internet urban legend!

 

 

I am leaning toward Coral Breezes, have a few last questions about them if you don't mind!

• How many people are generally on the boat with you? One of my main reasons for choosing a private operator option would be to get away from a large crowd of kicking snorkelers!
  
• Do you snorkel in a line with a guide? Or do you have some freedom to swim around a bit?
  
• In researching the Carnival Turneffe option, I have seen several people mention that the current is strong there, you should be a strong swimmer. Is this a concern with either of the Coral Breezes trips?
  
• Stingray Alley/Caulker or Manatees/Bannister? Have you done both trips? Pros/Cons to either one? Snorkeling "better" at either of the two locations? We've never seen a manatee in the wild, but I sense that the chances of seeing one are "hit or miss"? My husband isn't a huge stingray fan, but if the snorkeling is better on that trip, I'd opt for stingrays.
  
• Crazy question: Best non-seafood dining on Caye Caulker or Bannister? Hubby doesn't do fish (but I sure do!).
  

Thanks so much for your willingness to share your knowledge with us first-timer's!

 

Cheryl - CA

[Mishtar]

I have never been on either of the tours your looking into but I have been researching them as well. I know of two companies for sure that do the tours. Coral Breeze and Eco Tours.

I am not sure of how many people the Eco Tours take on average or the Coral Breeze but from looking at the pictures the Coral Breeze Boat has seating for 40 People.

Coral Breeze charges $75 pp with lunch or $69 with out lunch. Eco tours only has a $60 pp tour where you buy your own lunch, so savings of $9 right there. Eco Tours has a min pax of 12 people listed on their site, I just wrote them to see how hard it is for them to normally get that many. (would suck to book it and then be told not enough people booked so you cannot go) Corral Breeze mentions they do not have a min pax requirement.

Lastly Eco tours also has an option for $105 per person min 2 pax where you can catch a puddle jumper over to the island and then you go out on a boat with maybe 4 -6 people max to snorkel. They use Aqua Divers as your snorkel boat.

 

One last option lol. You could just book your flight over to Caye Caulker through either Tropic Air or Maya Island air for $67 per person and then book directly with Aqua Divers for $25 pp. So this would total $92 pp. If you book seperately it is also then a $6 cab ride to the airport and then another $6. when you fly back to get back to the port. The Airport is 5 mins from the port and takes about 5 mins to get off the plane and into a cab from what I have read. So grand total would be $98 pp for a savings of $7 each if you book it on your own. Nice thing with Eco Tours is they would meet you right in the Cruise port and take you over to the airport so you would not have to step outside the gate alone to hail a cab.

 

I found most of this info on in this post.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1069185&page=6

 

Hope this helps you out some!

 

Don

[mykdsmom]

MissingMaui - The snorkeling pictures of Belize are amazing, thanks so much for posting them. We are trying to decide if we want to do this excursion and I think your pictures just clinched it for me. We will be there at the end of June and can't wait.

[Goobaroo]

Just wanted to thank everyone for your responses!

Especially the pictures to compare and contrast Hawaii ocean from Caribbean ... very interesting to see how much different the color of the water is!

After many hours of pondering and going back and forth, we decided to do the cave tubing in Belize since it is the only place we can do that. And will snorkel in Grand Cayman and Roatan.

Feels good to finally make at least a few decisions as we get closer to this great adventure!

 

Happy Cruising To All!

Cheryl ;)