Altun Ha from Belize City

[visibilityunlimited]

If anyone has been to Altun Ha while in Belize City I'd like to hear about how you made the journey--by Ship's excursion or private. Did you enjoy the visit and how long did it take from the port to Altun Ha, visit the site and return to the port? In your opinion, was this an adequate amount of time? Did you make any other stops during the excursion that you would recommend? Thanks

[JTRiker9]

It is about a 45 min ride by bus to the site and well worth the views. Now there is a tour (Carnival) River Wallace & Altun Ha Ruins (something like that) that give you a boat ride to a Spot where you can eat and rest then continue by bus to site and ride bus back to Dock. and visa versa. There is a company that offers the same tour for less than the ships and does about the same thing. Really worth it either way.

FYI every tour operator Prides themselves to have you back to dock to in-time to shop and catch the last tender back to your ship. Enjoy.

[xrayann06]

We just found a guy holding up a sign, negotiated a price, and went on our way! Probably wasn't the smartest thing but there were about 12 people in our group and it ended up being on of my favorite excursions!

 

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[FlaGrl4Evr]

We did the Belize City and Altun Ha tour with the ship. We had a good time and felt we got our money's worth.

 

We got a narrated tour of Belize City, as our bus drive through. The tour guide was a local and shared points of interests with commentary on both the good and bad issues concerning the city.

 

 

The drive to Altun Ha was well over one hour. We were handed a bottle of water as we exited the bus and warned NOT to refill it at the site as the water here was non-potable. We were given a restroom break, (being your own tissue as there were none in the stalls)

 

After our break, we we're given a very good and comprehensive tour of the site with plenty of time for pictures and questions.

 

After the tour, we we're allowed 30 minutes of shopping time at the open-air stalls. The prices were good and you can get some deals here compared to the port area. Additionally, some of the wares here were handcrafted as opposed to the cookie-cutter souvenirs in the port area.

 

There were a few vendors selling food items such as pastries, meat pies, cracked coconuts and sugar cane. In my honest opinion, it just didn't look sanitary. Some folks had their food items displayed uncovered on blankets. With the hovering flies, it just didn't look appealing.

 

We returned to our thankfully air-conditioned bus for the return trip.

 

On our way back, our bus was stopped by what I believe was the military police. One guard entered the bus, spoke to our driver, looked around the bus and then let us proceed on our way. We didn't ask so really not sure why we were stopped or what was said.

 

We arrived back at the port with a apx. 90 min of free time before the last tender.

 

My thoughts on the tour:

 

It was a one in a lifetime experience and worth the money that we paid.

 

I'm glad we booked with the ship as the tour busses were air-conditioned and comfortable. Some of the independent tours used older school busses which would be fine if you were travelling in cooler weather....we travelled in the warmer months so the a/c was a blessing. Also, the site is a long drive so being on a ship's tour gave us some level of comfort.

 

The trip is long so bring your own individually wrapped food items and bottles of water. We brought granola bars, bags of mixed nuts and bottles of water with the Crystal Lite mix-ins. We also brought some wet-wipes ..which came in handy.

They locked the bus up while the tour was going on. The bus driver allowed us to leave our little bag of snacks on the seat so we didn't need to lug them around. We snacked on the trip back.

 

Bring a travel pack of Kleenex....no TP was available....also no soap or hand towels to dry your hands...so a heads-up on this.

 

All in all it was a memorable excursion and I would recommend it highly.

 

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Edited March 20, 2016 by FlaGrl4Evr

[visibilityunlimited]

Thanks to all for the information.

[2PinaColadas]

I just did the Altun Ha excursion with Island Marketing/Belize Excursions. We took a shuttle/van that got us there in about 45-50 minutes. Excellent tour guides, Kendra and Herman (also our driver), who let us go at our own pace while keeping track of ship time. After the tour we had a late lunch, which was very good. They also gave us one bottled water-- I took extra.

 

I really enjoyed this excursion and would do it again. I would also recommend it to friends and family.

 

And I did this tour solo-- it was very safe.