People often ask me, is it safe to get off the cruise ship in Belize? Yes, the cruise lines would not take you there if it were not safe. if you have an organized tour, even better if it is with King David Belize Tours. In this post I will share an interview with King David Belize Tours
Please read along to find out why you should book your next tour with King David, in his own words.
When I realized our cruise would be visiting Belize, I started researching “must-see tours” and “Best Tours Belize City from a cruise“.
Many reviews came up, but all the best ones had one thing in common. King David and Altournative Belize Services or King David Belize Tours. Because of this, I booked my family with David for the Altun Ha Mayan Ruins tour on our cruise this past December on the Carnival Dream.
If you go to Tripadvisor and lookup tours for Belize City Altournative Belize Services or King David Belize Tours comes up #1 of 115 other operators.
King David and EnTourage have over 590 Five-star reviews.
The only poor review that I saw blamed King David for bad weather.
perfect score of 5 Star reviews!
See King David reviews on Tripadvisor.
David Castillo brings experience, passion, and a love for what he does to any tour. Please see for yourself in this informative interview. Kristina Sullins, Gallivanting Souls Travel Agency and Cruise 101 Blog
Questions to the King
What is the name of your tour company?
My company name is AlTourNative Belize Services. We are also called King David Belize Tours.
How did you come up with that name?
“AlTourNative” is a play on the word alternative.
That is what I am, a wonderful alternative to an overcrowded and impersonal tours service that you may experience with others.
I am David among many Goliath companies in this business.
I am your humble servant ready to serve you.
Please tell us about your experience and the number of tours you have done
I have been guiding since 2005, and since then, have received over one thousand reviews for other tour companies and over 500 reviews for my business.
However, since my first year working for myself (2014 ), I have already sold over 1,200 tours, mostly to cruise ship passengers.
What is your background?
A local tour guide in Belize for the past 16 years. Previously, I worked for other tour companies as a freelance guide always getting great reviews for them and as a result, I made that leap of faith to go on my own in 2014.
I am a licensed and insured tour operator recognized by the Belize Tourism Board.
I am a member of the Belize Gold Standard Program
I always dreamt of becoming an archaeologist. Cause I loved history. But I can’t picture myself sweeping dirt all day long, so by becoming a tour guide , I am living my dream.
Working at a research center in remote areas of Belize where students form Santa Monica College come to Belize to do digs each year.
I was fortunate to witness some of these digs personally, and I assisted the student archaeologists gather their data.
I have participated in various archaeological symposiums and I have taken various courses about tourism.
You have so much knowledge to share with guests visiting Belize. Where did you get this knowledge?
David Castillo
Its something I love with a passion because I share part of my history with the world.
Are you a tour guide or tour operator and what’s the difference? Are there any benefits to using one over the other?
Both. Tour operators are the owners of the business and take on the responsibilities of the business.
They are the ones who sell the tours, but the person who owns the business can also be a tour guide.
Tour guides by law are not permitted to sell tours because of insurance purposes. Some guides however, still do. Guest don’t know any better, perhaps they got the guides name from a previous guests or message boards.
As a tour operator, I carry insurance valued $40,000 USD and passenger liability insurance.
The vans we use for our tours all have this insurance.
What is the advantage of owning your own business?
The advantage is, it’s good to be your own boss.
Build your own dreams or else someone else will hire you to built theirs.
Why should (cruisers) book with you and not your competition?
Our service is what makes the difference.
It’s not about the number of guests we take per day. It is about the quality of our service that our guest receive from us. We are here to serve.
The tour guide makes a big difference when we have a passion for what we do. Seeing is Belizing.
David Castillo,Altournative Belize Services
What tours are available to (cruisers) and which ones do you recommend?
Tours can be customized in a variety of ways, and there are many choices of single tours or packages.
Single tours or packages
- Cave Tubing
- Zipline
- Howler Monkey Sanctuary
- Belize Zoo
- Altun Ha Mayan Temples
- Lamanai Mayan Temples
- Xunantunich Mayan Ruins
- Cahal Pech
- Tikal Mayan Ruins
Most of these tours can be combined. Some single tours take about 4 hours, and most combo tours take about 6 hours.
Prices vary depending on size of the group. The more people in your group the better price point.
Longer tours are available to those staying on the island and not on a cruise. Email for availability or check website.
What ports do you service?
I am based in Belize City and can only do tours from the Belize City port. I am not able to service the port where Norwegian Cruises docks. I might be able to recommend a tour guide there however.
Through networking I can also recommend guides in Roatán.
What is your favorite tour and why?
My favorite tour is Cave Tubing combined with Altun Ha Mayan Ruins because you get to experience a wide cross-section of Belize and experience two Mayan worlds: The cave and the temples.
You can contact me by email, on Facebook or Facebook Messenger, or on WhatsApp.
Send email to King David
Contact King David on Facebook
Call via Messenger WhatsApp at + 5016351514
If you want an extraordinary tour and want to really learn the history of some of Belize’s greatest sights, call on King David.
Let me know below if you have done a tour in Belize or a tour with David Castillo and Altournative Belize Services.
Updated: November 2021
We all know that COVID put a stop to travel and cruising What has King David Belize Tours been doing over the last 20 months during the Travel Ban to prepare for guests return to Belize?
Soon after Covid 19 hit Belize, the Government closed all cruise ports and soon after closed the land border and the international airport. During this lockdown, the Belize Tourism Board required all tour operators to take a course that will help us mitigate the spread of covid and so we are able to prepare to reopen our doors to our customers. Today I am Gold Standard Certified based on the online course the Belize Tourism Board had offered us. Up until today, there are a few who still have not reopened their doors.
I have implemented the 9 steps required in order to achieve Gold Standard status by the Belize Tourism Board.
This means, we have implemented sanitizing stations, we log our staff temperature and our guest just to make sure they don’t have a mild temperature at the beginning of the tours. We sanitized our vehicle after our guests get off the vehicles. But most importantly we keep our guests in our little bubble.
Should any guest develop any symptoms while on tour, we have developed a plan of how we can minimize the spread of covid.
Sanitizing before and after is key
Want to read about our family’s experience on the Altun Ha Tour.
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