Best adventure tour in Belize?

I have a maximum of 10 days and am looking for a guided adventure tour (I'm going alone, so I need a group to join). Has anyone ever used any tour companies they recommend? I'd love to see Mayan ruins, do a zipline, all that fun stuff. I'm in great shape and love to be active, so no beach resorts where you sit around with a frozen drink all day :) I'd be flying in from SoCal, so I don't need to shave a lot of time off of my vacation days for travel. Also, I'm on a budget...basically I need it to be under $1,000. Some tours I've looked at are outrageously expensive for what they are. Also, I'll be going in February (drier season in Central America). If I can't find something in Belize, my other choice is Vietnam!

Hi Lauren, You don't really need a tour group for 10 days. All you need is a travel book. There are buses, lots of travelers like yourself and you can do individual tours when you get there. In fact I don't think you will find an inclusive tour for that money.

Check out my blogs and travelogues, linked on the main pages of the collections below - lots to do and see in Belize! The Rough Guide, the Moon Handbook, and the Fodor's Guide to Belize all have suggestions for trips. With 10 days I'd head to the San Ignacio area for caving, canoing, etc., do an overnight trip to Tikal in Guatemala, spend 1 night in Flores, then take the morning bus from there straight to the dock in Belize City and and ferry to Caye Caulker for the rest of your days.

You can definitely do a great 10 days in Belize without joining a group trip. I am confident that if you kept your accommodations cheap and were careful about your tours, you could easily do it for under $1000. I would recommend spending a few days on Caye Caulker to do some snorkeling or diving. There is a really friendly backpacker vibe there and you'll have no trouble meeting people. Travel via water taxi. When you get back to Belize City head to the bus station (you can walk there down the main drag, just try not to be a conspicuous tourist) and take a bus to Belmopan, then connect to the bus to Benque. Get off in San Ignacio. If you base yourself right in town in one of the hotels/hotels, you can do some great day tours to ATM cave, Tikal (if you want to get crazy), kayaking, hiking and other popular stuff. You can go to Xunantunich by yourself on the local bus or via collectivo taxi. There are plenty of tour operators in San Ignacio looking for single travelers like yourself to fill up their vans. No need to book stuff until you get there. And don't be afraid to bargain!

This is my favorite site for researching budget accommodation in Belize: http://www.toucantrail.com/

Good luck!

I agree with Cotton tree, do Caye Caulker first. Tina's has the largest number of backpackers. It will be easy to meet some other travelers who want to do the same activities as yourself and you can travel together to San Ignacio to do the tours, and maybe even visit other parts of Belize.

Try experiencebelizetours. We bought ours there. Hope this helps too http://travel.mongabay.com/belize/

If you're not comfortable doing this all on your own, a good alternative to package tourism is to do some research ahead of time and enlist your hotel and its staff to help you plan excursions, etc. Thorn Tree is a great place to get a sense of what to do and where to go -- look for ideas that appeal to you and map out a rough itinerary. Then, spend some time on TripAdvisor and similar sites to decide where you'll be staying. (If you're not an experienced solo traveler, you should probably book hotel rooms for at least the first part of the trip.)

Check out the hotels' websites -- they often have links to companies that offer excursions, or tell you about activities you can arrange from the front desk. (You can do this even if you don't decide to stay there.) You probably won't get the rock-bottom prices this way, but you'll most likely avoid fly-by-night tourist ripoffs. Most decent hotels want their guests to have a good experience at a reasonable price.

Look for organizations that can help you. If you're in southern Belize, for example, you should consider booking some stays in Mayan and Garifuna villages through the Toledo Ecotourism Association -- a fantastic experience that you probably won't get if you go with a commercial tourism operator. Again, comb through the Thorn Tree posts about Belize to find inspiration and information.

By the way, if you do end up in Vietnam, be wary about sham tourist outfits. There is vigorous competition for tourist dollars in this ostensibly communist country, and while there are some great bargains out there, it's also possible to get ripped off. One common scam is Sinh Cafe. The original Sinh Cafe is one of the best and most reputable tourism outfits in Vietnam. But every other huckster and scam artist in the country has now opened a tour office and borrowed the "Sinh Cafe" name. (Trademark enforcement is apparently pretty lax in Vietnam.) It is not an exaggeration to say that there is a Sinh Cafe on every other block in the old quarter of Hanoi. So, if you do decide to book your vacation ahead of time, make sure you know what you're getting.

Luckily, with the exception of Ha Long Bay, night trains to Sapa and a few other hugely popular activities, you should be able to book your activities once you get there. Look into Hanoi Kids and its sister group, Saigon Kids, which are nonprofit organizations that provide free city tours run by college students looking for the opportunity to practice their English. This is a fantastic experience.

Also, I'm going to plug a specific property in Vietnam: Jungle Beach just outside of Nha Trang. This is one of the best travel experiences I have ever had. Period.