Closest ruins to port?

[seasideny]

I'll be in Belize (NCL Pearl sailing April 12th) and wanted to find out the how far the ruins are from the port. I'm travelling with ny dh, 2 ds and dd (10 months old). I'm up for anything but my family is less enthusiastic to see ruins than I am.

 

I don't want to book an excursion because they all seem very time intensive, especially with a baby and the possibility that I will be sunburned. My dd is used to being out all day but I'm hoping we could find a driver/tour guide from the port and have them drive us to the closest ruins for a few pictures, etc. and then back to the ship, port for a bit of shopping.

 

Any suggestions?

[Toyz711]

that leaves out lamanai...you can't drive there. bus, boat and touring the ruins (which are great, BTW) it is a full day's excursion.

on our cruise, the tours to Xunantunich were cancelled...the tours were not able to get back to the ship on time.

don't know that much about Altun Ha. but for just a few photos, don't think it would be worth it. you will need to get out and walk the grounds to get the look of the area and ruins.

is there any way the kids can spend the day with DH and you do a tour?

[seasideny]

Thanks. I would love to go alone but the family (aka dh) likes to do everything together, especially for safety reasons.

[Toyz711]

too bad, the NCL tour to lamanai was wonderful. great tour guide, really nice bus driver. the speed boat trip was great, even had another guide "helper" along to watch for critters and keep an eye on people that couldn't keep up.

since lamanai is sooooo remote, the howler monkeys throwing things was the worse thing to happen (to the group behind us).

[SingingPixie]

Altun Ha are the closest ruins to port- I think about an hour's drive or so? Maybe a bit further, with the last bit on very bumpy narrow roads. I'd suggest you do a combination tour (either combined with the Belize Zoo or with a boat ride on the River Wallace) so your family that isn't as into ruins could see some animals. That would be a nice compromise.

 

The Altun Ha ruins are small-ish- basically three big temples if I remember correctly, all located close together. Even if you climb the Temple of the Masonry Altars (65 ft high?) you can tour them in about an hour.

[Tinker326]

We did the Altun Ha Ruins last week with a 6 & 3 year old through the ship.

 

My advice only- so take it for what it is....

 

I, for one, dislike ship tours-I prefer small, more personal experiences-

 

However, in this particular port, with small children, I would not chance hiring a car at the port and just going. Maybe if it were just me or DH, I would. With kids, no way. On our ship tour, we boarded a bus with an armed guard. I'm also fairly certain that our driver & our tour guide were armed too (but not 100% positive). There are reports of ambush on the roads to the ruins (all the ones in Belize & Guatamaula) and at the ruins themselves. Not to say it WILL happen or it's FREQUENT...but the reports are out there... So to just hire a car and go- would make me highly uneasy with small children.

 

The outside tour companies are very highly recommended, but as someone mentioned already- the reports of the roads out there scared me out of that. Because Belize was the ONE port I did NOT want to be left behind at. ANd after going over those roads- they are absolutely correct. The potholes were big enough to swallow Rhode Island and we hit them at about 50mph.

 

I just gave a review in another thread called 'looking for report of Altun Ha' if you want to read it. We stayed in a group and the ruins were accessible for children- so they could climb over some mounds and such. The river was great for them, they loved the wildlife. For me, it was worth every penny for security reasons in this port...

 

I have been to most of the ports on all Carribean cruises (Eastern and Western) with my children and Belize was the only time I ever felt 'uneasy' - although not 'unsafe'- with our guides/guards.

[seasideny]

Thanks for the insight. I'm still working on going on a ship tour to the ruins with just maybe one of my sons.

[mamajules]

My son and I did an outside tour to Altun Ha through Island Marketing - they picked us up inside the port. There were supposed to be 10 of us on the tour, but 4 didn't show up, so it was only my son and I and another family of 4. Our guide was Javier and he was great. It was a four hour (total) tour. When we got in the van, he put the van's clock on ship's time. Along the way, Javier stopped the van a few times along the road to show us wildlife, or an unusual native plant. When we got to the ruins, he led us on a personalized tour, and was SO informative and entertaining. As we were finishing up and heading back to the van, two large buses had arrived with the cruise ship tours. I thought the ruins were beautiful. A few large temples, and other buildings. The grounds are well maintained and it is easy walking. You can climb up all the temples. We were back at the port with plenty of time to look around, do some shopping, and my son got a henna tattoo. I would recommend this tour to anyone.

[Monthend]

My son and I did an outside tour to Altun Ha through Island Marketing - they picked us up inside the port. There were supposed to be 10 of us on the tour, but 4 didn't show up, so it was only my son and I and another family of 4. Our guide was Javier and he was great. It was a four hour (total) tour. When we got in the van, he put the van's clock on ship's time. Along the way, Javier stopped the van a few times along the road to show us wildlife, or an unusual native plant. When we got to the ruins, he led us on a personalized tour, and was SO informative and entertaining. As we were finishing up and heading back to the van, two large buses had arrived with the cruise ship tours. I thought the ruins were beautiful. A few large temples, and other buildings. The grounds are well maintained and it is easy walking. You can climb up all the temples. We were back at the port with plenty of time to look around, do some shopping, and my son got a henna tattoo. I would recommend this tour to anyone.

 

 

Did you have lunch on your tour?

[mamajules]

Did you have lunch on your tour?

 

No we didn't, but it wasn't listed as part of the tour. My understanding is they do offer that now. We got a little snack inside the port at a shop after we got back.

[modem9]

We just returned from our cruise yesterday, including a stop in Belize. We had booked a private excursion with Ignacio Quan to Altun Ha for our group of 6 and it turned out perfect, a wonderful day. The tour took 4 hours from pickup to dropoff. We included a brief tour of the city and then drove to the ruins at Altun Ha. The roads in Belize are not great and the last 14 miles to the ruins are on basically a 1 1/2 lane road with lots of bumps. Once at the ruins, our guide Nacho led us around and gave us good narrative on the history of the site and the excavation. We were able to climb on all the ruins and totally enjoyed doing so. I highly recomend this as a 1/2 day excursion for those who don't want to spend time at the beach. The ruins are plenty large enough and give a good sample of the Mayan culture. We did not choose do include lunch with our tour but it was an option if we wanted.

 

At this time of the year, Belize is two hours behind Carnival cruise ship time. Belize is also a tendor port and it takes 15 - 20 minutes to get to the terminal. Because of tendering, private tours need to allow extra time to get ashore as ship booked tours get priority over private tours for tender tickets. It took us about 2 hours after arrival before we were able to get to the terminal. We were still back at the ship 2 hours before the last tender.

[starglazer]

I was planning on taking a ruins tour. But after reading about the bumps on the road, I do not if I will go on these tours. I have muscle problems if I am going to bounce around, I much lather have something else to do. I want to do some shopping, I am looking for a hot sauce that DH had when he was station in central America and the rum that is 30% proof. Do anyone had any ideal where I can get this.