altun ha & the olde belize river

We booked Altun Ha with Vitalino Reyes at Cavetubing.bz. It was awesome! Such an amazing company! The ruins were peaceful and pretty. This is the first Mayan site I've ever visited so I have nothing to compare them to but felt it was worth the drive from Belize City.

Simply amazing. Altun Ha is such a well preserved site that allows you to get much closer to the Mayan edifices than at Tulum. Not only are the pyramids so much bigger but you can actually climb on them. Our guide gave a very informative explanation of the structures and then we were free to explore on our own. The luncheon was not fancy but tasty. The river tour was quite interesting with lots of wildlife. We got to see alligators, bats, howler monkeys. iguanas, manatee noses and a bottle nose dolphin who surfed in our boat's wake. I would recommend this tour to any one interested in antiquity. Though the paths are well maintained this site could be quite challenging to wheelchairs.

If you have not seen Mayan ruins and are in the Belize City area you need to see these ruins. We had very knowledgeable tour guides who explained the history of the area and the ruins. There were several structures to see and you can go up the stairs to get a better appreciation for the structures. There were also some local merchant stands in the area to buy souvenirs. As in Mexico you can haggle with the merchants.We also got a tour of Belize City along with the history of Belize.

A different world, worth taking the bumpy road to see. Dont miss the local chicken and fried plantains in the local take out place - delicious !

If you arrive at Belize City on a cruise ship you'll probably have been encouraged to book an excursion. If you consider a trip then Altun Ha, a Mayan site is recommended. It's only an hour by coach from Belize City and the site is sufficiently large to keep your attention. There are several local vendors selling merchandise, much of which has been hand made by the seller. When you return to Belize City take a walk outside the tourist ringed port and see more of the local culture. Belize does have something of a poor reputation when it comes to crime but if you keep close to the main streets and markets I think you'll feel perfectly safe. But don't "flash the cash" - don't attract attention, keep handbags, money and expensive cameras out of sight and you should be fine.

There is nothing to see down thereThe food is terribleSpend a long time in a bus to get therePyramides almost destroyedRiver is fine but you only could see some manatees

Altun Ha was an amazing site. We took a tour bus as our time was limited. Guide was very knowledgeable.

Alta Ha was great - reviewed in another posting.The river ride was awesome.Our guide pointed out the local wildlife and offered several photo ops for birds and reptiles.The ride was at time fast and other times slow, several areas were no wake zones.Would do this again.

As part of a Seaduced tour, we traveled up the Old Belize River to the Manatee look out (didn't see any manatees). Nice mangrove trees and beautiful birds. From there we boarded a van to take us to the ruins. Our trip was on the weekend, and our group was one of 3 other groups there. Small ruins with interesting features. It is where a priceless jade statue was discovered.

We took this as a shore excursion during our Norwegian cruise. Overall it was a great experience. The tour guides were very informative and gave a good overview of Belize. We got to see a little bit of Belize City as well during the drive. Altun Ha was impressive, even after we had already visited some of Mexico's Mayan ruins in the past (including Coba and Tulum). Would have been nice to get more time to spend there (we were only given about 40 minutes or so). The roads to get there are quite bumpy and very narrow. Our coach bus was also not in the best of shape, and at one point we thought it might not make it! The boat ride down the Olde Belize River was beautiful, and we did indeed see monkeys and crocodiles as advertised, though not the manatees (except for perhaps a split second blur of a white mass popping out of the water that most people didn't catch). Only big negative here was for those sitting at the back of the boat like us, we couldn't hear the tour guide at all because of the motors. Otherwise it was a fun shore excursion, and would recommend to others.

Altun Ha is well-preserved, partially excavated, and small enough to cover all of it in an hour or two. We climbed to the top of the main pyramid and had a good view. The drive is a reasonable trip (less than an hour each way.) Three of us hired a taxi and guide from Belize Inland Tours (Big Jason) just behind the cruise ship terminal. Our guide, Dean Dawson, was a pleasant fellow who showed us the city, the surroundings, and took us all the way to Altun Ha. He had good knowledge of the site and took us at our speed. He showed us a few other interesting spots on the way back. The price was reasonable and we were very satisfied.

We took this as an excursion from our cruise. We enjoyed this and the kids did too! Wear comfortable shoes and take bug spray!

My husband and I went on this tour while on a cruise and it was great. PROs:- great ruins tours with history- tour guide was very informative, to the point I started to lose interest when she got pretty far in the details.- see wildlife- fun boat ride- great staffCONs:- long slow bus ride through fairly downtrodden areas- overpacked boat with very little cover so we were in the hot sun all day (other boats doing the tour on the river had a lot of shade cover, but ours had only a small cover)- I came out with a number of bug bites- Unexpected large food expense - bring your cash. $26 for 2 crappy burgers and 2 bottled local beers.- people at the ruins trying to get all of your money through water, shops, pics with baby crocs, etc.- it would have been nice to have more time at the ruins- it ran WAY longer than our cruise ship told us it would, so I didn't have much time in Belize outside of the excursion to do other things. It ran about 6 hours for the whole thing. The whole reason I picked this tour was because I would still have time to do other things in Belize.

Loved this excursion! It was a perfect combination of activities. The motor coach ride to the ruins was so interesting. Our two very knowledgable tour guides, Amalia & Shauna, did a good job of depicting what everyday life is like in Belize, along with showing us landmarks and giving lots of history. The ruins were amazing. Amalia was particularly knowledgable about the ruins. Her parents are both Mayan decent and they truly value their heritage. She was very passionate and thorough with her descriptions and history of the different temples. Then, if you chose, you were allowed to climb up the top of the ruin. I chose to stay on the ground and enjoyed exploring around the property and was amazed at the beauty, flora and wildlife. There was a small market of local vendors selling their crafts, if you were interested. We boarded the bus and headed over to the 'resort' for lunch and to take the river portion of the tour. Lunch was a belizian commodity of black beans & rice cooked in coconut milk. Then we boarded the boats. I so loved this portion! Got to see monkeys, crocs, manatees, Dolphins, etc etc. It was definitely a highlight of the whole trip!

On any trip to Belize, you must visit the Mayan ruins with Altun Ha being the most popular. Bring your camera, good walking/climbing shoes, sunscreen and bug repellant. You can get burned and bitten quickly in the jungle! Just the sheer size of these ruins and the knowledge of who they were built by is amazing in itself. Wondering how they were built is still a mystery given the size of the structures and the size of the peoples! Our local guide, Fred Lopez, was extraordinary in his knowledge. We booked this excursion through Shorefox!...didn't visit the river but did include the Belize Zoo...another must!