Suggestions ROATAN & COSTA MAYA? Things 2 DO?

[ttt]

We will be cruising on the EPIC, Oct 30 and really looking forward to it! Do you suggest any individual, self organized excursions for Costa Maya and Roatan besides the NCL organized land tours? Any DO´s & DONT´S for these two ports?

 

[Mbandy]

In Costa Maya, I always avoid the little "Shopping Mecca" at the end of the pier and head for the little village of Mahahul. Here's a suggestion for a beach break.

Costa Maya Beach Break Exclusive for Cruise Ship passengers

In Roatan we used Bananarama Dive resort for a snorkel trip.

Cruise Shippers | BananaramaDive Eco Friendly Beach Front Resort | PADI 5 Star Dive Center

Enjoy! :beach:

 

[George C]

Rotan has a excellent Doplhin encounter, we have done it several times
All Inclusive Roatan Resort & Roatan Diving | Anthony's Key Resort

 

[Jeanie]

Costa Maya we explored the Mayan ruins thru Native Choice last April - excellent & cheaper than the ship excursion.

Costa Maya Excursions, shore activities in Costa Maya, tours and travel information

Costa Maya has a wrap around pool with swim up bars on the pier, a beach & shopping. a nice place to spend the day

 

[Zacko]

If you like to fly and see Roatan from a different perspective then a seaplane tour might be fun.

My Daughter and I did this when we cruised on the Carnival Dream back in July. It was really cool!

Here is a link to my website where I took a some pics.
Isla Roatan and Bay Island Airways - Thoughts - www.houserphotography.net

There are several different packages you can just fly around or fly to the Pigeon Keys and snorkel for 1.5 hours. Unfortunately there was a thunderstorm so we did not get to do the snorkeling, so we just flew.

 

[zydecocruiser]

I'd snorkel at both.

Tabyana Beach in Roatan. It is part of West Bay Beach and is where Bananarama is also located.

Carnival Valor Roatan Sept 6, 2006

Costa Maya got hammered by Hurricane Dean, but there is still some snorkeling there:
Costa Maya Dec 2008, Sail and Snorkel, Malecon, Chac-Chi:
NCL Spirit Christmas Cruise - Dec 2008 - Costa Maya
NCL Spirit Christmas Cruise - Dec 2008 - Costa Maya Snorkel
NCL Spirit Christmas Cruise - Costa Maya Snorkel - pg 2
NCL Spirit Christmas Cruise - Dec 2008 - Costa Maya Malecon
NCL Spirit Christmas Cruise - Dec 2008
NCL Spirit Christmas Cruise - Dec 2008 - pg 5

 

[wcbeitz]

we like to use Caribbean Shore Tours the Shore Excursions Guide in the Caribbean as they have tours in lots of different ports.

 

[july694]

We booked a horseback tour at Fosters Resort in roatan. We got lucky and wound up getting a 2 hour private ride from the resort across through a wooded area to a cliffy area where you could stand above the sea (was absolutely breathtaking) then rode to the beach the local guide stopped whenever we wanted and told us all about the island. The horseback guide, taxi driver who picked us up at port and the resort owner were all siblings. Quite memorable excursion.

In belize we walked off the ship and booked a snorkel trip through belize excursions we went to ambergis caye and snorkeled with the rays and nurse sharks and then they took us to the great reef there. On the way back we stopped at the island they lived on and had a local beer. Also very memorable. Hope your excursions are as wonderful as ours were.....