Favorite vacation spot

[over9five]

Any insight on Grand Turk and Curacao? looking into a cruise for January that stops at these new ports for me.

Curacao is probably my favorite. We took a tour on a trolley/train kinda thing, and then sat at an outside restaurant right along the inlet. You can relax and watch the Queen Emma bridge swing open and close for the boat traffic. Great place for walking. That tour ended there, easy walk over the bridge and back to the ship. Curacao is just a nice place with nice people, hope I get back there someday.

We like Grand Turk also, been there twice. There's a lighthouse at the north end of the island that's great for walking (walking is what we do best!). You will need transportation there, it is NOT walkable from the ship! There's cliffs there, and the water is so clear, we could see rays swimming from the top of the cliffs.
Where the ship docks, there are shops and a big Margarittaville. It's also a nice beach where you swim literally yards from your ship.
We like to walk up the beach maybe 1/3 of a mile to Jacks Shack. It's a little outside place that's a bar, and they have food too. Try the Turks Head beer, I loved it. Wifey says say hi to Cooper, that's their dog!

 

[brapkurst]

I have very fond memories of a family cruise that stopped in Grand Turk in May of 2009. It is a small island maybe 2 miles wide by 6 miles in length. The port is the typical very touristy affair with not much of the local culture which I like to take in. My younger brother and I decided to leave this trap and rent a gulf cart to explore the island. Stopped at a local cabana and a beautiful deserted beach on the western side of the island and also made our way up to the lighthouse and cliffs at the northern end of the island.This lighthouse is part of an old US Navy base whose remnants remain surrounding it. A SCUBA dive to see the "Grand Turk Wall" is also a must do as others have informed me.

 

[over9five]

We went to Belize on the bc cruise. IMHO that was the best excursion of the cruise. Atv's through the jungle and then cave tubing. I'm sure everyone behind my atv still hates me because I was so excruciatingly slow on mine. Great excursion not through the cruiseline. trplnkl found it and shared it with us, Cave-Tubing.com: Belize Cave Tubing, Zipline, ATV Tours

We're seriously considering this cave tubing. I see they do it without the ATV ride also, which I don't see wifey being successful at.
It says there's a 1/2 hour hike through the jungle tho.... What do you do with your sneakers, shorts, towels whatever when you get to the tubing part???
​And the price is waaaayyy lower than you'll ever see on a ship excursion!

 

[cheryl]

We're seriously considering this cave tubing. I see they do it without the ATV ride also, which I don't see wifey being successful at.
It says there's a 1/2 hour hike through the jungle tho.... What do you do with your sneakers, shorts, towels whatever when you get to the tubing part???
​And the price is waaaayyy lower than you'll ever see on a ship excursion!

If we ever go back there I'd use that company to do cave tubing again. We saw the gigantic ship's group and our smaller group was definitely having a better time.

The tripadvisor reviews of their excursions are pretty much great: Cave-Tubing.com - Belize City - Reviews of Cave-Tubing.com - TripAdvisor I'd probably skip the atv portion of the excursion because I was so bad at it and probably ruined it for everyone that had the misfortune of riding behind me on the trail. They also offer a zip line tour which might be fun if you're okay with heights.

My recollection of the cave tubing portion of the excursion: There was a bus ride to the foot of the trail. Personal belongings were left on the bus. When we got off the bus and they handed out inner tubes etc. for us to carry up the jungle trail to the shallows of the river. There was a slightly steep hike uphill. The water in the river was colder than we had expected but that felt pretty good after the hike up there.

We always wear water shoes when in an area with water and rocks etc so I'm pretty sure we wore those instead of sneakers, although I don't actually remember what shoes I had on. I don't remember anyone complaining about their footwear getting soaked but if you're concerned about that then pick up some water shoes before you go. I think we got ours at Target.

We floated down the river through the caves and every once in a while the guide told us to go "butts up" which means lift up your rear end or it's going to get dragged over the rocks. The bus picked us up downstream with our personal belongings and towels etc. Our one regret is that we didn't take a gopro or waterproof camera.

 

[over9five]

If we ever go back there I'd use that company to do cave tubing again. We saw the gigantic ship's group and our smaller group was definitely having a better time.

Not only that, the exact same excursion from Carnival is $95 per person.

Through the group you linked, it's $50 per person.

​I'm going!

 

[BSWALKS]

This is going to be a cool place to catch the meteor shower.

 

[DS]

This is going to be a cool place to catch the meteor shower.

Where are you? I wish I was there too,it looks sweet

 

[BSWALKS]

Same place as last 4 years. Newfound lake, Bristol, New Hampshire.