Altun Ha Tour advice

[robinlbe]

Trying to decide on which tour group to use...

Any info (good/bad) on Belize Exclusive Tours and BelizeCruiseExcursions.com??

 

Thanks!

[driftwood]

. . . and ask (outside, at the bench of the Radisson Taxi Drivers' Association) for a taxi driver named Daniel Itzá. Tell him what you want and he will tell you what it will cost. If the price is right for you, that is the way to go; and you will even have a good and responsible driver as well as a licensed tour guide. He drives a comfortable blue van, and you will find out later why that is important to you. :rolleyes: If you like snakes or would like to see some that are rare and/or beautiful, ask him if he would mind taking you to see the Snake Man on the way to Altun Ha!

 

I can recommend Mr. Itzá firsthand, but I have been assured by Major Tom that the Radisson Taxi Drivers are all dependable, and I have certainly found them all likeable, so do not hesitate to accept the services of another driver--if you like the looks and sound of his vehicle . . . . It's a rough road to Altun Ha! :)

[hargis]

We just got back from belize and used

experiencebelizetours.com.............

 

Fantastic!!! Tour included a stop for lunch at a fabulous place. The tour guide, Allen, was so friendly and gave a fact filled, interesting presentation.

 

For those that use a wheelchair, they have a handicapped accessible van.

[robinlbe]

Thanks for the advice...

We did walk to the Radisson...and would you believe, Daniel Itza' ended up being our tour guide? He did a great job. I would recommend him to anyone!

[driftwood]

Well, robinlbe--did you go to Altun Ha after all? Where's the narrative?

 

Daniel Itzá fans might be interested in reading this recent article featuring him prominently:

 

http://www.denverpost.com/travel/ci_11266822

[JAC999]

We are first-timers set to be on the Carnival Legend starting 2/22. From the boards here, I get that it is safe to do many shore excursions using independent operators, but that it is important to not go too far (I've learned for example, that no one recommends going with an independent operator from Cozumel to Tulum because the risk of missing the ship is substantial). Carnival is not offering an Altun Ha tour so I'm wondering if those with experience think it is a reasonable thing to do.

 

Thanks.

[harryjr]

We are first-timers set to be on the Carnival Legend starting 2/22. From the boards here, I get that it is safe to do many shore excursions using independent operators, but that it is important to not go too far (I've learned for example, that no one recommends going with an independent operator from Cozumel to Tulum because the risk of missing the ship is substantial). Carnival is not offering an Altun Ha tour so I'm wondering if those with experience think it is a reasonable thing to do.

 

Thanks.

 

There are several tour operators at the tourism village that will take you to Altun Ha and return with plenty of time to make the last tender. One tour company that we were very happy with (very conscientious about timing) is experiencebelizetours.com--we reserved ahead of time with them but it was a personal tour (4 of us) that included lunch as well as some special requests that we had made. Some have had success just hiring a taxi for the day and had no problems returning on time. Consider this: these folks largely depend on the ships' passengers for their livelihood, so they would be killing their business if they got a reputation for being late. Relax and enjoy Belize--we did.

[driftwood]

Altun Ha--unless combined with some other tour--is always classed as a "half-day" tour, an under-thirty-mile run up the Northern Highway and Old Northern Highway to a relatively compact and very attractive site. Any licensed tour guide will do a great job for you if he has a good vehicle and a sense of humor. Walk up two blocks north of the Cruiseship Terminal to ask one of the taxi drivers of the Radisson Taxi Drivers' Association what he would charge you for a tour if you want a real bargain. Don't book at any desk! For you will just increase your expense and your guide's overhead.

 

The only reason Carnival may not be offering the tour that I can think of is that the Old Northern Highway is a bone-rattler, and perhaps too many returned passengers have whined about it. It is worth choosing a tour guide who owns a newer Toyota van, for example, if you are able to find one.

 

If your ship does not depart before 4 P.M., this is probably the "safest" expedition you can book. Ask your guide about the "Snake Man" on the way to Altun Ha; if you would like to see a rare and occasionally dangerous collection of native serpents--and even, perhaps, handle some of the harmless ones--there is nobody like him!

[traveljunky99]

We did the Altun Ha tour using one of the local taxi's that we picked up at the Radison Hotel (a short walk from the port).

This tour can be done in about 4 hours. The roads are pretty bad, part of the adventure!!!

It was nice to have a van to ourselves as we could do the tour at our own pace.

This is probably the easiet tour to do. Most reviews rate the other ruins (Lamanai....)much higher. But they are all 7 hr trips.

[driftwood]

traveljunky99 makes an interesting observation, and if you are really interested in visiting Mayan ruins and don't mind devoting your whole day to learning and and going about, there are two other major sites available: Lamanai, with a fairly astonishing variety of pyramids; and Xunantunich, a relatively short-lived but stupendous set of structures.

 

Lamanai is visited as part of the "Lamanai--New River Cruise." The taxi or bus drives you fifty miles north on the fairly excellent Northern Highway to let you off at the boat dock, where you join at about 10 A.M. a high-powered speedboat for an hour and a half cruise down the New River. The first hour is spent observing river wildlife--birds, bats, crocodiles--and plants with narration by your captain; the next half-hour is spent racing downriver to arrive at the Lamanai site. You dine on rice'n'beans brought by the crew of your boat--it's a very nice lunch with cold drinks--and tour the site until about 2:30 or 3 P.M., when you reboard your boat and return in one hour to the original boat dock. The drive back to Belize City takes about an hour, so the whole tour--no matter who takes you--is engineered to return you to the Cruiseship Terminal by 4 P.M. This trip is worth the money for the birdwatching alone, but the site is large and a little strenuous to walk and/or climb.

 

Xunantunich is on the far side of Belize, about sixty miles inland down the Western Highway (also in good repair but perhaps more heavily traveled than the Northern Highway). Douglas W. Reynolds, Jr., has posted a number of photographs of Tulum, Altun Ha, Lamanai and Xunantunich on Google Earth, if you want to comparison shop. (The best of the Xunantunich pictures is listed under Sheila M. Reynolds, however). Obviously Xunantunich, too, is an "all-day" trip, but the site is very exciting and perhaps the ferryboat ride across the breathtakingly beautiful Mopan River is something you won't want to miss!

[JAC999]

Many thanks for the thorough and helpful responses to my question.

[driftwood]

In discussing the time frame for the "Lamanai--New River" Tour, I seem to have missed an hour--never mind: the fact is that you will be returned to the Cruiseship Terminal in time to get your tender to your ship, no matter who takes you on the tour--thousands before you have made it! Ships don't exactly hightail it away from Belize City--whether they are travelling north to Cozumel or south to Roatan for their next port of call, they are in no hurry in the Gulf of Nicaragua. Any tender in Belize could catch them up!

[BonnieVA]

I went to belize excursions dot com to look over their offerings. The Lamanai excursion looks fantastic but there is a min age of 6. Our youngest will be 5 yrs & 7 mos when we're down there. What are the reasons for the age minimum ... long drive? Are there any operators that will take 5 yr olds?

 

Thanks

[driftwood]

BonnieVA, at the time we went (January 2008), there was only one company providing the actual boat trip and site tour combination, no matter who brought you from and to Belize City. It may be that this company has liability insurance specifying no children under six.

 

But as a parent I would observe that there are a number of reasons to consider your child's stamina, as the tour is in some ways rather arduous. In Belize the sun is everywhere, and it is no joke. Slather on the sunscreen, for God's sake see that everyone wears a hat, carry water with you, drink it sip by sip whether you think you are thirsty or not, and for Lamanai at least--and perhaps anywhere you go outside Belize City--you will wish you had used at least a little insect repellent. All the transportation is nonstop--an hour on a bus or in a taxi, an hour and a half in an open-air boat, just to arrive at the site; the path into the site, although paved, is rather steep of ascent; the site is comparatively extensive, and although there are a few benches (and a restroom in the museum onsite), it can prove quite a hike even for those not so rash as to scale any of the pyramids. The temptation to scale at least one of them, by the way, is almost irresistible, although you quickly discover that getting down in one piece is far more difficult than scampering up--Mayan structures are sometimes breathtakingly steep. If you and your loved ones survive the site itself, there is ahead of you another hour on the river and another hour on the road.

 

A visit to Altun Ha and perhaps the Snake Man might provide you with a significant Mayan experience while being much more "family friendly." But only you can be the judge of your own family's hardiness/foolhardiness. :rolleyes:

[traveljunky99]

BonnieVA, I concur with Driftwood. Not sure how well your 5 yr old will handle a 7-8 hr trip. We took our 2 and 5 yr olds to Altun Ha. I think that was enough of a trip!!! It is a very easy walk around the ruins + you can climb most of them for some nice views. Altun Ha is probably not as impressive as the other ruins (I have only read reviews about the others), but it is an interesting place and is probably a better alternate(a parents opinion!!) for people with young children.

Enjoy.

[BonnieVA]

OMG, I just typed in a long post & my computer or this site lost it ... got an error message when I clicked "post". So this will be brief:

 

My 5 yr old has tons of stamina & could handle the trip better than my 10 yr old but we've decided to maybe split up ... I take the 2 older boys to Lamanai & dh takes younger 2 somewhere else.

 

Do you walk through a lot of jungle to get to Altun Ha like you do Lam? My oldest was very disappointed when we were diverted from Jamaica on our last cruise & we were disappointed in Cozumel. DS calls it a tropical desert - so flat & scrubby. He really wants to explore the jungly areas. If we all went to AH, would we get to experience the "jungle"/tropics like we would going to Lam?

 

Thanks! Hope THIS one posts.

[traveljunky99]

Not much jungle really between the parking lot and the ruins:)!!. However, once you are at the ruins it is pretty dense all around. Not sure if there are trails. we didn't venture too far from the ruins.

[driftwood]

No there is no "jungle" at Altun Ha--what an idea! Even the Belize Tourism Board has described Altun Ha as "a well-manicured park." [Destination Belize 2006, p. 76] Which it is. You are lucky to find enough trees for shade! BUT as it seems you are a young couple capable of bouncing four children, you might find the excursion to Lamanai as romantic for the two old folks as it will be exciting for the four younguns. Here is the secret: no one in Belize is going to ask to see your passports. While the UDP government installed in February 2008 is making a long slow climb out of the criminal morass established over the previous ten years by the PUP, actually indicting the former Prime Minister and his catspaw as well, no one is too excited by authority as you find here in the United States, and a "slide" of five months in the age of a six-year-old will never prove a capital offense. I still would not take a babe n arms to Lamanai, but I have little doubt that anyone who can survive being a fourth child will have the time of his life in the jungles of Lamanai--and on the trips there and back! Only an attack of half-eaten fruit or other delicacies raining from the deft fingers of the noisome howler monkeys in the jungle canopy of Lamanai might dampen his enthusiasm--but even those rather cranky creatures seldom take aim at children!

 

After all, this is Belize, "where Indiana Jones meets Jacques Cousteau," [ibid., p. 68], usually with rather comical results. Go for it! You won't be disappointed!

 

All kidding aside, I believe it is fair to say that an excursion to Lamanai will prove the educational experience of a lifetime. :cool:

[BonnieVA]

LOL!! Driftwood, you have such a way w/ words! That last post cracked me up. You are so kind to say we are a young couple ... we both had big b'days last spring & it was a very difficult one for ME. But then you call us "2 old folks" in the same sentence. I guess if you balance them out you come to what we really are ... youngish/middlish??

 

Anyway, yes, we are youngish & fit & healthy. Our kids are all fit as well & all play sports. They will be 16, 13, 11, & 5 when we travel this April. We are an active family.

 

My biggest concerns are:

- Getting back to the ship on time - but you seem quite confident that we WILL!

- I'm more worried about the younger 2 being bored on the boat ride than I am of them losing stamina. 1.5 hrs on the way there seems kind of long. But the prize at the end seems so remarkable, between the ruins, the jungle & the creatures (Does partly-eaten howler monkey food hurt when it hits you in the back, lol? Do those monkeys have good aim & & strong arms?).

 

I have found a tour op that does not specify a minimum age & their price is reasonable; they have been highly recommended on this board & thread. They also offer a ride to the baboon sanctuary; has anyone been there & have any comments about that excursion? It's pretty short & I'm not sure how much jungle experience we'd get. But do you think we should still look into the private taxi drivers at the hotel (ie, do those drivers escort you all the way to Lamanai?)?

 

I'm open for suggestions.

[driftwood]

Yes, VirginiaBonnie, long posts DO disappear for no reason at all on Cruise Critic--if you would like to write me, I am usually available at dreynolds@aol.com.

 

1. It is not possible to miss your ship in Belize unless you have been incarcerated. The Gulf of Nicaragua is large and there is no place to hide a ship on its leisurely crawl up or down the coast. Also Belizeans do not have enough food for themselves to be sharing any with leftover tourists--THEY WILL GET YOU BACK TO THE SHIP. Almost all of their openwater boats could outrun any cruise ship--even their tenders, which are Belize-owned and operated.

 

2. In many ways the cruise down the New River is the more exciting part of the tour. You will see birds and animals and plants that are not native to Virginia; and after the guided nature tour at about the midpoint (an Amish farming community laconically called "Shipyard"), the boat is shifted into high gear and shoots on down the river at a speed guaranteed to delight your SIX-YEAR-OLD as well as everyone else.

 

3. Howler Monkeys, known as "baboons" in Belize, are great fun for the natives, who have learned from childhood when, how, and how quickly to duck gifts not only of "partly-eaten howler monkey food," but of fully digested and excreted howler monkey food as well, which the powerful and skilled creatures in the canopy delight in sending--so tourists tend to be the lucky recipients, and the guides get to chuckle about the day's adventure over their rice'n'beans in the bosom of their families later in the evening. You may not see too many in the jungle at Lamanai. But on the other hand, one good baboon can be one too many. Boredom does not exist at any point on the Lamanai-New River Cruise Tour.

 

Any tour provider can get you back and forth to the New River dock--including taxi drivers. Considering the size of your party I would RECOMMEND making a deal with a taxi driver in the street, as they will give you a package deal no one will be able to beat. They probably will NOT accompany you on the boat to Lamanai, but they will take the whole package payment and pay for the Lamanai tour-cruise-lunch from the money you give him. Your captain and his crew are your tour guides down the river and on the Lamanai site, and they do an admirable job. DO if you are physically able help the guides carry the coolers full of food and drinks up to the picnic area--you may give Americans a good reputation in the world again! :D

[Theologator]

We are first-timers set to be on the Carnival Legend starting 2/22. From the boards here, I get that it is safe to do many shore excursions using independent operators, but that it is important to not go too far (I've learned for example, that no one recommends going with an independent operator from Cozumel to Tulum because the risk of missing the ship is substantial). Carnival is not offering an Altun Ha tour so I'm wondering if those with experience think it is a reasonable thing to do.

 

Thanks.

 

That's odd - we're cruising on Carnival Legend leaving 1/25/09 and Altun Ha is listed on a couple of combo tours (Altun Ha + Belize City, or + River Wallace)

 

I found a highly recommended tour guide named Donald at

http://www.*************.bravehost.com/

 

or email him at zipbelize@yahoo.com

[driftwood]

The most dangerous tour to attempt independently in a cruiseship day is Lamanai, as it is pretty much guaranteed to take seven hours no matter who is driving. But anyone with a sturdy vehicle can get you in and out of Altun Ha with hours to spare--there is no river tour and the site is only about 25 miles north of Belize City.

 

But a couple of days ago I visited the Carnival website and was astonished to find they are offering a Shore Excursion to Xunantunich, which is sixty miles inland almost on the border of Guatemala. If you are sailing on Carnival, want to take a cruiseship-sponsored shore excursion, and want to see a significant (although relatively short-lived) Mayan site, JUMP FOR IT! The ferry ride across and view of the Mopan River as you enter the site would be almost worth the price! Here is a photograph my dw took during our visit to the site in January 2008--I think you will find it speaks for itself! ;) And this is just one of the many structures located there: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/7527621

[Theologator]

Driftwood - THANKS so much for your posts here. We're cruising on Carnival Legend 1/25with a stop in Belize. I was all set to go to Altun Ha, but you have me very interested in Lamanai (or Xunantunich). I gather your favorite is Lamanai?

[driftwood]

The Mayan ruins in Belize seem so far to be the best-kept secret in the Western Hemisphere. Belize has been carefully excavating and restoring them since at least the 1950's, and more sites seem to be found every day. During our two-week stay in Belize, dw and I were able to visit four sites in Belize, and Tikal in Guatemala. To choose among them might be impolitic: as with human beings, each is unique, each has positive features, each has minor inconveniences.

 

Altun Ha is the "tamest" site to visit--no jungle, the excavated portion contained in a fairly narrow compass, a few shady trees and benches beneath them; in general not especially strenuous to visit if one can stand the rattling few miles along the Old Northern Highway; nor, however, is it especially dramatic in aspect. But the site continued for many, many centuries, and was occupied when the Spanish arrived. At Altun Ha was discovered the Jade Head, which is probably the most significant Mayan artifact ever discovered anywhere--but of course it is locked away in a vault and you will not see it. You might on your way be able to visit the Snake Man and admire a wide variety of native serpents, almost all of which are quite beautiful. The Snake Man will desire a pretty generous tip--but then, he has many mouths to feed . . . . Last year he barely survived a fer-de-lance bite to his face, so I suspect you will not see him handling a fer-de-lance today with the same reckless abandon he used during our visit--a few months before his unfortunate accident.

 

Lamanai has the widest and perhaps most remarkable variety of architecture--as Altun Ha, it continued century after century--pyramid temples at every turn on the path--but it is the site most difficult of access and most insecure of getting back on time for the "last tender." We did observe--from our room in the Radisson Fort George--that usually the cruise ships were under weigh by five p.m. Belize time. But there were never rumors of any passengers left behind during our two-week stay, and that is the sort of thing that would have made the evening news. Lamanai is demanding: anyone desiring to visit Lamanai will need strength, stamina, a lot of bottled water and protection both from tropic sun and tropical mosquitoes. But many have taken the cruise just for the nature tour, as the boatride down the New River moves gradually from savannah into jungle. Of the three sites, this is certainly the most "Indiana Jones" one. Even Belizeans are excited by it and make the excursion on their days off.

 

Xunantunich is perhaps the most dramatic cruiseship-passenger-accessible site in Belize--the frieze you see in Sheila's photograph is in fact a reproduction of the ancient frieze which was excavated and then reburied after it had been studied by scholars. The advantage of this, of course, is that the antiquities are protected almost inviolably, while we can see the structures in virtually the original glory that the builders intended. This is a later site than the other two, so some of the blockiness which seemed "typical" of Maya architecture has eased into very attractive rounded corners on the structures, and everything seems clean, clear and "whole." Xunantunich is a sixty-mile bus trip down the Western Highway almost to the border of Guatemala, with a very short ferry ride across the Mopan River, which in itself is very beautiful. From the crowns of the structures at Xunantunich you may look westward over the Peten into Guatemala--but of course the scenery is about the same in all directions--mostly canopy. According to the great Belizean scholar of Mayan antiquities Dr. Jaime Awe, Xunantunich was built late and abandoned a short while after it was constructed for reasons not yet absolutely clear, so it has not the enormous history of the other two sites. You will not have time before you depart to locate and purchase his splendid paperback book on Mayan sites in Belize (AND Tikal in Guatemala), but if you see a display while you are in Belize--it is quite reasonable, and copiously illustrated--I recommend you buy at least one copy for yourself, and if you have friends, stock up!

[keelea2200]

Went to Altun Ha April 27th 2011 booked belizecruiseexcursions.com with x-treme tours it was $42.50 and included lunch. M&M was our tour guide he was the best tour guide i had on the 4 tours on this trip. He knew the information on the ruins and everything we asked and more about everything you might want to know about Belize. the lunch was a spicy chicken rice and a potato salad, it was very good. So i would recommend this tour with M&M.:D