Lamanai Unveiled: Belize's Premier Mayan Jungle Quest

Ignacio our boat driver and guide through Lamanai and Elvin our driver were both fantastic! Personable, knowledgeable, and entertaining. The drive was fairly long (1.25 hours?) but it was well worth it. The boat ride was really pretty and the tour of Lamanai was educational and very interesting. Lunch was really tasty too.

Super fun boat ride. Super cool Archeological Site where you can climb the steps of an ancient ruin. Super delicious lunch by the river. Don't miss out

This tour was amazing from beginning to end! We were a little hesitant about booking it because we were coming from Ambergris Caye so the travel to and from would add quite a bit of time, but it was 100% worth the travel time! From the moment Elvin picked us up at the airport, we were treated like old friends. He kept the hour long drive to the river boat interesting with lots of information about local sights as well as Belizean culture on the whole. Colin and Alberto were absolutely incredible tour guides on the river and the temple grounds. Colin could spot a critter/bird/monkey/iguana/tarantula from seemingly miles away, and Alberto's knowledge of the history of the ruins was truly astounding. I could follow these guys around for days! My only regret is that I couldn't convince every person in my vacation group to take this excursion. Truly the experience of a lifetime.

The tour guide was well informed and made the trip fun. The temples are well preserved and the museum adds to the overall understanding of Mayan culture

Reaching these beautiful temples by speed boat in the middle of the jungle is just a great experience

I contacted Up Close Belize while I was still in the United States because I really wanted to see Lamanai and I wasn’t sure that we could start our tour from Caye Caulker, where we were staying. I ended up exchanging multiple WhatsApp messages with their manager, Kim, who was very helpful. At the end of our exchange, she said that if I had any more questions, I should just call her, which I did and I cannot believe how extraordinarily helpful she was. Not only did she answer all my questions about that trip, she also spoke to me about other activities that I might do with my husband while we were in Belize, even though these other activities didn’t directly involve her company. We have followed up on some of her suggestions and our trip is much the richer for them. Our trip to Lamanai did have one hiccup, but it was an immediately taken care of in a very professional manner. And after that, it was a seamlessly organized and executed trip. Our driver picked us up at the Belize city ferry and drove us out of town to a dock, where we boarded a boat that took us to Lamanai. The site itself is fascinating and we were lucky that there were not that many other people there. It felt like we had the whole site to ourselves. Our guides were very helpful and knowledgeable, and also provided a lovely lunch. Then we got back on the boat that took us back to our driver who drove us back to the Belize city ferry. During the course of our guided tour, we also met some other people who were such a pleasure to be with. All in all it was a wonderful day and a memorable one, thanks to the logistics provided by Up Close Belize.

Our tour guides are knowledgeable and we're able to answer a lot of questions from our group. I noticed that the temples in this archeology site has one major difference from the temples in Mexico. They have mask of human and jaguar on the wall of temples.

I used UpClose Belize for a last minute tour on my last day in Belize. The tour I wanted wasn't running, but they were able to offer a place on tour to Lamanai instead, which turned out to be a great day out. Their driver Dean was waiting for me at the ferry terminal, and had my bag retrieved from the porters in record time! The drive to the river launch was smooth and on arrival, Dean had our group seated on the boat in prime position!! Our river guide Vlad had an enthusiastic and eagle eye for wildlife along the river, and shared his wealth of knowledge around the Lamanai site as well. The tour around the ruins was fully guided, but still allowed time to climb the ruins if one wanted to. Following the ruins tour, lunch was provided before we made our way back to the river launch by boat. Thanks team for a great day. The day went smoothly, and there was great communication from the team throughout the booking process!

Our guide Amir was wonderful. Very knowledgeable and he took great care of us. I would recommend him to anyone heading on this trip.

The van showed up 55 minutes late, with operator ignoring my first outreach to learn if we’d been abandoned. The van that did arrive was dirty and in poor condition, then driven dangerously over the speed limit in an attempt to make up some of the time. The boat section and guide were good and knowledgeable. The van on the return trip went slow, stopped for treats for his young and restless daughter whom he brought along. In all an avoid-if-possible trip.