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Belize for a family of 4


bcarney

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Family of 4 (2 kids age 7 and 9) will be stopping at this port next spring.  Any suggestions on activities that would keep all of us interested?  Looking at RC and non-RC excursions; my preference is to book through the ship but seeing the inflated prices I can easily be persuaded to book elsewhere.  Not too interested in snorkeling though - been there done that.

 
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If you have never done any of the Mayan ruins from Belize (Altun Ha comes to mind) I would definitely recommend those. It's a very long day but well worth the time.

 

We went on a combination river "cruise" and Mayan ruin trip which was one of the best excursions I have ever been on. I was as sick as a dog (bad cold) but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

I will say...this (Mayan ruin or river cruise) is another situation where I would NOT recommend going on a non-RCI excursion. Even though the prices may be high-ish for the RCI-sponsored trips, these distant and lengthy excursions are just too high risk, IMO, to do with a non-RCI vendor. I'm sure they are very reputable but there are just waaaytooo many things that can go wrong with a trip that far from the ship.

 

Belize City is another of those places where I would not necessarily recommend aimless meandering. Belize City is a dirty, crowded, poor city with very little in the way of walkable points of interest. I do NOT meant to suggest that it isn't safe. I have never felt unsafe there...there's just not that much of interest in the city itself. If you're not interested in beach stuff then I think the Mayan ruins and/or the river excursion would be great. I loved them both !

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Totally agree with WAAAYTOOO, I just did that excursion last week and loved it. The river portion was fun, seen howler monkeys, alligators, iguanas in trees and birds.

That said I found we spent too much time on river and not enough at ruins.

And aside from the security of not missing the ship another good reason to book through Royal is they put you on the first tender and you get to wait in the theater.

And I agree about Belize city, very run down. The drive back to the ship was draw dropping, these people have nothing and get no support. No effort at all to make things look decent. Although I hear some of their islands are very good places to live.

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Totally agree with WAAAYTOOO, I just did that excursion last week and loved it. The river portion was fun, seen howler monkeys, alligators, iguanas in trees and birds.

That said I found we spent too much time on river and not enough at ruins.

 

Was this excursion called "LAMANAI & THE NEW RIVER SAFARI" on the RC site?    

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If you have never done any of the Mayan ruins from Belize (Altun Ha comes to mind) I would definitely recommend those. It's a very long day but well worth the time.

 

We went on a combination river "cruise" and Mayan ruin trip which was one of the best excursions I have ever been on. I was as sick as a dog (bad cold) but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

I will say...this (Mayan ruin or river cruise) is another situation where I would NOT recommend going on a non-RCI excursion.

 

Do you happen to recall the name of this excursion?  We did Tulum when we did Cozumel in 2004, and plan on Chichenitza (?) this time (though I wish I didn't have to bring the kids) so I'm not 100% sure about doing another Mayan thing, but I'll check out out just in case. 

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Honestly, if you have done Tulum then you have already done the best Mayan ruin ever (IMO anyway). It is so beautiful there right by the ocean. If you have already done the ruins thing I would consider something else.

 

I actually cannot remember the exact name of the ruins/river combo but I read the description of Lamanai and New River cruise and it sounds just like what we did, even if it was called something else back then.

 

IMO this would be a perfect thing for a 7 and 9 year old. We saw lots of BIG crocs in the water and as Jerel said, there are lots and lots of other very cool animals on the river.

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Honestly, if you have done Tulum then you have already done the best Mayan ruin ever (IMO anyway). It is so beautiful there right by the ocean. If you have already done the ruins thing I would consider something else.

 

This one was chosen by my wife; she's normally the type that says "whatever you want, dear" but for this stop she said "we're going here. Period.".  I'm not going to argue with that, LOL.

 

 

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I think the excursion we took had Altun Ha in the title. Also Tulum may be better with a cool view but Altun Ha is still worth seeing, their ruin towers look bigger.

I have heard great things about Tulum, looking forward to seeing it in February. I like how they work it so the sun hits different things at different times of year, like the snake during the equinox.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I read on the Tripadvisor forums that the tender ride to Belize port is 20 minutes and this means the tender queues are much longer - so it's best to do a RCI trip as they get you off first. We've actually booked a snorkelling trip that collects you directly from the ship - which seemed like a good idea to save time. The ruins do look good though if you like that type of thing!

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