Best port to explore on your own?

[CherryBlossom55]

Hello, thank you in advance for your advice! My husband and I will be visiting Cozumel, Belize, and Mahogany Bay with our 4 children, 20, 18, and 2 sixteen year olds in March, which port would be best to explore on our own? We are adventurous and love history. Thank you!

[LaShelle2]

Don't do Belize on you own. It's not very safe. The other ports are fine.

[SPacificbound]

Cozumel, we have done it many times while on land trips.

 

Definitely not Belize.

[xeroxme]

Cozumel only. Belize or mahogany bay on your own is a bad idea. Mohagany bay is part of Honduras. Some of the highest murder rates in the world. Belize I would be more worried about being robbed than killed. But stay with a ship tour. Cozumel is def the best of the three

 

 

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[CanobieFan]

In Belize there isn't anything to do immediately outside of the (gated off) port area. The area surrounding it was just houses and such. It didn't look dangerous, it just didn't seem to have anything worth looking at... I did an official excursion through a cruise line there, since I don't care about the little junk stores in the port area.

Cozumel is just like walking around any other beach town. I wouldn't stray too far off of the main road along the beach, although I did walk several miles up and down it. I wouldn't go too far on the interior without at least speaking Spanish, personally. But I never felt any sort of danger or uncomfortableness with anything there.

And as far as Honduras goes, my cruise got diverted any missed the port in Roatan.... but those people here comparing that Island to Mainland Honduras is kind of silly. Because you could say the same about Mexico and yet Cozumel feels a world away from all the issues they have......

[sanger727]

Definitely Cozumel. Can take a short taxi ride into town and there's restaurants and shops to explore. Not sure where the beaches are.

 

Don't leave the port area of Belize without a tour. We did a tour of roatan so not sure about that one.

 

 

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[LHT28]

Mahogany Bay is a purpose built port if you want to see the island do a tour either private or ship's tour

The island is beautiful

 

Belize do a tour with the ship or just stroll the dock ares lots of shops & food places

 

Cozumel there are several dock so depending on where the ship docks you may need to get a taxi to see the sights

 

do some research & check the PORTS OF CALL forums then decide what you want to see/do

Edited January 4, 2017 by LHT28

[Cruisin'Christine]

For Cozumel, I would consider going to Chankanaab national park on your own (by taxi). There, you pay a fee to get in, and then can use the pool with swim up bar, ocean for swimming and snorkelling, beaches, etc. Also, you can pay an extra fee to do swimming with the dolphins or swimming with the manatees. So cool!

 

For Belize, we took a private tour to the Belize Zoo, which was really good.

[Floridiana]

For history lovers: A ship's tour to the Mayan Lamanai ruins. They are fairly remote, longish tender ride first, then bus ride, then river boat ride. You are allowed to climb on the highest pyramid. I loved the howler monkeys in the trees above the ruins. Each time a new boat approached and people walked into the forest, they got really upset and howled.

Some people do this as a private tour, but I would be a nervous wreck because of the distance from port. Ships wait for their own excursions but not for others.

 

Mahogany Bay on the island of Roatan is in walking distance to a beach. As said before, the port is in a new shopping area built by Carnival (?). Roatan is pretty but not worth a lot of money for an organized ship's excursion. We went to a botanical garden with birds, monkeys and iguanas, but we are just 2 not 6!

 

Cozumel's port is in a beach town, easy to walk around, very busy with multiple cruise ships in port.