Altun Ha Trip on our own

[Eller]

Has anyone ever done a van trip to Altun Ha NOT arranged by the cruise ship? Wondering how it went and who you booked with. Hoping for safe drivers so we can really enjoy the trip.

 

Eller

[cruz guy]

Yes...we did last Dec.

 

There are licensed guides available at the port. As you get off the ship tender, go to the right (facing the port). You will see a desk there that offers tours to Altun Ha. If I remember correctly, there are several "desk" areas, but they all work for the same group.

 

That's what we did and got a great tour. It was the driver/guide, 5 of us in a minivan. It was great and very reasonable. If I remember correctly...about $35 -40 per person. It was great being in a small group of just 5 of us with our guide. I would recommend it.

[driftwood]

One tour provider is offering a half-day "Belize City and Altun Ha" tour for $55 per person, or several different full-day tours including Altun Ha and other popular destinations in combination for $99 per person. Not everyone will tell you what they are charging for the tours before you arrive--I suppose there is a lot of competition, and perhaps there is room for negotiation, but these are 2007-2008 prices for one company and may give you a fair estimate.

 

There is an additional note, "All full day tours include pick up and drop off from Belize City in Air conditioned Transportation, entrance fees, lunch and soda, bottled water and guided tour. All prices are inclusive of GST Tax."

 

Perhaps I should also observe that the same company offers full-day tours of "Lamanai and New River" and of several Xunantunich combinations for the same price per person. Only Altun Ha is offered as a "half-day tour."

[Toyz711]

i don't think they can do lamanai on a 1/2 tour, it was a hour bus ride to get to the boats, an hour on the boats...2 hours at the ruins and then the same going back. very interesting trip, but a long day. this is one trip i recommend during through the cruiselines, just to do time (got back 1/2 hour before last tender) and condition of transportation (saw 1 bus broken down). we had 29 people on our ship's excrusions..certainly not the crowds you expect from a ship. a very private, well run tour..if anyone knows a tour guide name "jewell", she was great.

[driftwood]

It would not really be possible or desirable to do either Lamanai or Xunantunich as "half-day tours," and I too would recommend using ONLY your cruiseline's tour--if they offer one--to go to either of those. Xunantunich is pretty far inland; and Lamanai, on the far side of the New River, is not so quickly accessible as Altun Ha, which is an easy drive from Belize City.

 

Altun Ha should be a safe bet. :cool:

[judyzoo]

I did this earlier this year. I had signed up the for Altun Ha tour with a private company (whose name I don't recall), but when I got to the "tourism village" I found out that I was the only person who had signed up -- so the trip was cancelled, which was just as well since I had no desire to ride alone into the jungles of Belize with some tour guide who I didn't know.

 

But the company found another similar tour for me and just transferred my payment to the new company -- which was something like Belize Cruise Ship Taxi Tourguide Association. It took maybe an hour or perhaps a bit longer for the arrangements to be made and for the new company to gather enough people for our tour, but it was finally done. We had about 10 people, so it was a nice cozy group and, since I had left the ship first thing in the morning, we had no worries about getting back to the ship on time. I don't exactly recall the cost, but it seems like it was, as cruz guy said, around $35-40 per person. And certainly well worth it. Our guide did some narration as we drove through Belize City, then we had the bumpy ride to Altun Ha and a thorough tour of the ruins

[KT32]

We just got back from Belize and used Belize Exclusive Tours for a Belize City & Altun Ha tour prices were in line with what earlier posters noted. We found the tour to be excellent. I can't compare Altun Ha to other Mayan sites as it was the first I've visited, but it was impressive for what I was told was a relatively 'minor' site.