Hi, all - I was curious about your favorite Ambergris tours. We've been once before and loved snorkeling at Hol Chan. We've also done Mexico Rocks and Shark Ray Alley. Are there some other fun tours that you enjoyed? What about going to see manatees? Or going to Caye Caulker for the day? Are there snorkeling tours that go to those? Any other ideas or favorites? Thanks for any guidance you can give me.

I checked out our hotel's website and found some tours I'm interested in.

There's a sail to Caye Caulker that include Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley as well as lunch on Caulker. I think that would be fun since we've never seen Caulker before, and we love Hol Chan.

There's a Bacalar Chico sail with three snorkel stops and lunch at Rocky Point. How do you think the snorkeling would be for this area? I'm not familiar with B.C.

There's also a manatee watching tour that goes to St. George's Caye and Goff's Caye and includes a BBQ lunch. What are these areas like? How do you think the snorkeling would be? This trip also includes a stop at Caulker.

There's a birding tour that takes a 40 minute trip around the leeward side of Ambergris. Any idea what kinds of birds would be in that area?

And they also offer a sunset sail. Definitely think we'd be up for that.

I'd appreciate any feedback anyone has if you know about these areas. We're looking forward to going back!

I responded to your thread on TA. As I said there, I love sailing/snorkeling on the Lady Leslie. Very comfortable catamaran. Love the crew. Snacks/drinks are very good.

When we went to Bacalar Chico our beach barbecue was right by Tranquility Bay, on far north Ambergris. We walked over and checked out the bar/restaurant. From there, you can actually swim easily to the reef. As I mentioned, we saw manatees in the canal between Belize and Mexico.

I think the cruise ships may have tours to Goff's Caye, I'd check and see if they do, and if the ships are in port before I headed there.

We've seen manatees at the Swallow Caye sanctuary. They're cool to see. Many, many years ago we also snorkeled with them which I don't believe they allow anymore.

St George's Caye has a resort and what looked to be vacation homes. I don't know if there's any good snorkeling offshore.

Goff's Caye (haven't been there) is just a tiny speck. We've been to Sergeant's Caye which is similar. You can snorkel off the caye. I believe cruise ships offer tours to both so I would definitely check their schedules as Jean advised.

Caulker is like a smaller, more laid back version of Ambergris. You can easily visit Caulker on your own via water taxis as well.

Thanks for all the good advice. How do you visit Caulker via the water taxi - are the taxis all over the island or in one central location? Any idea how much it costs?

You guys got luck with the manatee sightings!

There are several water taxi companies and they have set schedules and fares. I can't remember which one we took but here are a few:

http://www.cayecaulkerwatertaxi.com/

http://sanpedrowatertaxi.com/

http://www.belizewatertaxi.com/

That's perfect, Patty - thank you! What is there to do on Caulker? Any thing that's a not miss?

There's not much to do on Caye Caulker. That's the attraction

Ah, gotcha! I didn't want to feel rushed, but sounds like going for lunch and exploring a bit would be okay.