Western Caribbean Excursions

[SardisGrandma]

What are the best and worse excursions at Belize,Cozumel, Isla Roatan, & Costa Maya? Or do you like to venture out on your own...where to & how?

Thanks for all info.

[maxamuus]

In Belize i would recommend going cave tubing. It was such a unique experince. It was the highlight of our cruise. We used the guys at Cavetubing.com and highly recommend them. Told Yhonney i enjoyed the adventure and mentioned i was a cruise critic member and he gave me a free beer so i am biased. ;)

 

Roatan we did the snorkeling thru the ship and it was pretty amazing too.

[ladycaveat]

In Cosumel, it is definately swimming with the dolphins . . . booked directly with the Park (darn, can't remember the name of the park but it begins with a C and it's about a ten minute cab ride from the pier). In Belize . . . "play" with (snorkle with) the stingrays . . . booked through Coral Breeze.

[sewut]

I just got back from a cruise that included Cozumel. I booked the underwater mini subs through Cozumel Watersports dot com. Excellent excursion. You ride scooters underwater. You have your own air tank and ride around about 20 feet below the surface. The guide take excellent care of you and show you sea creatures and take pictures of you with your camera. It was well worth the $75 we spent. (Carnival charges $125 for the same tour.)

 

Sewut

[A&Jfamily]

Cozumel - Chankanaab park for a great beach day, included in your price for the swim with the dolphins

 

Belize - cave tubing or some kind of snorkeling. There is very little to the town that is "safe" - I wouldn't venture out of the fenced area without being on a tour. Or if you have no other stop to see some ruins, I would do Altun Ha here.

 

Hondouras - We have done the monkey's @ Gumbalimba park and gone to Tabayana beach - we loved both. Tabayana is a beautiful place. A lot of people recommend Victor Boden tours - I will use him if we go back.

[TakeMeAway1001]

Belize~ we have used Yhonny twice, once for Cave-tubing and once for their ATV Jungle Tour, both were amazing and Yhonny is a great guy!

 

Cozumel~ we go to Paradise Beach, great food/drink/activities, we have had massages and gone parasailing.

 

Roatan~ Victor Bodden, we did sightseeing/monkeys/and ended up at the beach Carnival uses Tabayana (sp) but right next to them and we were the only people on our section. Our guide got us some snorkels and he sat with our stuff while we used the beach, I can't recommend him enough :)

 

Costa Maya~ we took the bus to the beach area and had some great drinks/food/ and two amazing massages way up high in a hut :)

[whendoweleave?]

I see in your bio that you're in the south...the Sardis I know in the south is Sardis Lake. Is that where you are? I'm right outside of Memphis and will be taking the Western Carribean route on the Triumph in January. It'll be my 2nd cruise and hubby's first. So hope he likes it, as I adored my first cruise and plan to do many more! I'm trying to decide on excursions, too. As interesting as the cave-tubing sounds, I've read too much about the water being really cold at the time of year I'm going, so I guess I'll do it another time.

 

Looking forward to more replies on this thread!

[SardisGrandma]

Thanks all for the great advice. Whendoweleave, yep you right I am at the lake.My daughter & I are booked on the Dream May 1 2010 for the western caribbean.This will be my 3rd cruise & her first. I've seen Victor Bodden's name mentioned a lot on the boards. Does he have a web site? In 2007 on the Glory we were suppose to go to Costa Maya & Belize but the hurricane changed our itinerary. Does anyone know which of these 4 ports, Coz,CM,Belize or Roatan is the best & cheapest place for tacky souvinirs? I'm not interested in diamonds, jewels,& high end pottery. But I do love T shirts,sarongs, costume jewelry,& great cheap dust collectors.

[jayscore]

I might add, cave tubing may not be the best that time of year. We tried it in Belize last April, and it was dry season. This makes the river quite shallow, and our guide wound up dragging us through the caves by my ankle, and finally with a rope! And we had to assist by pushing and scooting, and wound up walking part of it.

Don't get me wrong, if the water was up, I'm sure it would have been a great experience!;)

[SardisGrandma]

Wow I couldn't find this thread. way down on page 5. Well I've learned to check coralbreezetours, boddentours, & & and....and... oh poop CRS syndrome just kicked in. ok better get a tablet & pen. But then I'll forget where I put it. Yall remember for me its on the bar by the cards.

[TakeMeAway1001]

Thanks all for the great advice. Whendoweleave, yep you right I am at the lake.My daughter & I are booked on the Dream May 1 2010 for the western caribbean.This will be my 3rd cruise & her first. I've seen Victor Bodden's name mentioned a lot on the boards. Does he have a web site? In 2007 on the Glory we were suppose to go to Costa Maya & Belize but the hurricane changed our itinerary. Does anyone know which of these 4 ports, Coz,CM,Belize or Roatan is the best & cheapest place for tacky souvinirs? I'm not interested in diamonds, jewels,& high end pottery. But I do love T shirts,sarongs, costume jewelry,& great cheap dust collectors.

 

http://www.boddentours.com/

[Cigar Dude]

Cozumel, I'd suggest Paradise Beach. Tell Tom I said hi.

 

Roatan, I'd suggest Fins and Flippers. Fantastic facilities and overal experience.

 

You're on your own with the others. Belize just didn't "do it for me".

 

Our cruise did not stop in Costa Maya last year, so I have no advise there.

[SardisGrandma]

Cigar dude, weren't you on a roll call for the Gory Sept.8, 07? That was when I first discovered boards & I remember your avatar ( the dog) It is so good to see you again.

[Terre]

My favorites are:

 

Cozumel: Nachi Cocum; Paradise Beach

Belize: Xstream Cave Tubing (depends on the time of year for this; can't do it during the rainy season -- water's too high)

Isla Roatan: Fins and Flippers; Sante Wellness Center (for a massage)

 

We have not been to Costa Maya. We do venture our on our own most places. We've rented jeeps several times in Cozumel and really love driving around to the opposite side of the island. It is not commercialized and very beautiful.

[vplsh]

I'd highly recommend Belize Cruise Excursions (all one word dot com for their website) in Belize. My daughter and I used them for the Altun Ha ruins tour and they were great. They also do cave tubing if you're interested in that.

 

In Cozumel, we booked a private taxi tour with Gerry by contacting cozumeltours@hotmail.com. $95 for the first three hours and $25 per hour after that. He took us all over the island and it was great.

[Jrabbit128]

Belize - Cave Tubing all the way! But get there as early as possible. When we went, we were the first group to leave the port so we got there very early. Because of this, our tour guides took us very high up in the river and we were able to explore one additional cave and were in the water for about 1/2 hour more. He pointed out to us that, had we come later, where we would have started from. We saw a ton of people getting ready to go as we were passing.

 

Honduras - Go play with the monkeys at Gumbalimba park. Me and the hubby loved it so much, to this day he can't stop talking about wanting to go back. But again, go as early as possible. We were the first group to leave to Gumbalimba park and when we got there, there were 8 monkeys there. They were playing with all of us. My hubby was even trying to teach one to climb into his bookbag so he can take it home with us. It was alot of fun. We then went down to the beach for a while. We decided to go see the monkeys again about 3 hours later and only 3 monkeys were there. When we asked the trainer where the rest of the monkeys were, they said that they are napping because they were playing all morning with the people so they are up in the trees.

[SardisGrandma]

Again I love all the info. Keep it coming

[amjdcm]

belize-cave tubbing

cozumel-underwater scooters

roatan-fury catamaran

[Travel Alot]

What are the best and worse excursions at Belize,Cozumel, Isla Roatan, & Costa Maya? Or do you like to venture out on your own...where to & how?

Thanks for all info.

 

 

I used Island Marketing...google it. Lots of excursions to consider. I did Fins and Flippers in Roatan...it was great. Belize...I used X-stream for cave tubing...lots of fun. In Costa Maya...I did use Carnival for the excursion...some sort of beach break with unlimited drinks....also could do the dolphin thing there, although I did it in Cozumel at Chankanaab. All were good, although should have done Chankanaab on my own...ship excursions are pricey! Have fun on your cruise!

[BaseballMomof4]

I haven't seen anyone suggesting Xcaret here so I will. Went once before and are going again because there is so much to see and do there we weren't able to do everything we wanted to.

 

http://www.xcaret.com/

[Terre]

Wow I couldn't find this thread. way down on page 5.

If you click on User CP at the top, it will take you to your threads and you can find this one pretty easy.

[crzycick]

Roatan we did Fins and Flippers, it was amazing! Loved it.

 

In Belize we just went with a company when we got off the boat, I think it was Fab Tours maybe? Got a reduced rate and went to a gorgeous private island (especially gorgeous if you go to the other side, hardly anyone did and it was the most breath taking). We also got to go on a snorkel trip and it ended up being 30pp

 

Grand Cayman we just shopped and took a taxi to a beach.

 

Cozumel we went shopping downtown, but off the main road. Our cruise next month we're doing Nachi Cocom after months of research

[cjackso8]

Out of the four, I've only been to Cozumel. I was on the Inspiration in January, and we did a carnival excursion where we took mini rhino 4x4's to a lighthouse, mayan ruins, and then snorkeling. The company that does the tours was super professional, and it was a lot of fun. Cruising on the Glory in January. Cant wait!:D

[SardisGrandma]

thanks for the info

[rednose83]

I see in your bio that you're in the south...the Sardis I know in the south is Sardis Lake. Is that where you are? I'm right outside of Memphis and will be taking the Western Carribean route on the Triumph in January. It'll be my 2nd cruise and hubby's first. So hope he likes it, as I adored my first cruise and plan to do many more! I'm trying to decide on excursions, too. As interesting as the cave-tubing sounds, I've read too much about the water being really cold at the time of year I'm going, so I guess I'll do it another time.

 

Looking forward to more replies on this thread!

 

We went Jan 2009. The water was cool but not uncomfortably freezing. We hardly got wet after the initial wade through but that dries during the hike. Don't miss this because you think you'll be cold!