When I cruised last month, 2Ks Adventure Tours provided my friend and I with a free excursion, but my opinion is fully my own. Without a doubt, this is one of the best Roatan cruise excursions out there.
When I cruise, I love to experience all the things I don’t do at home. I am an adventure seeker, and many Roatan cruise excursions provide different options. Our first time to Mahogany Bay, we went horseback riding and had a great time. The next time, we did the official Pirates, Birds and Monkeys excursion through Carnival.
This time, I wanted to incorporate all the things into one day. My friend had never been on a cruise, and I didn’t know when she’d have the opportunity to visit again. I also wanted to minimize the cost of our day, as we planned to enjoy the spa aboard the ship and spend money elsewhere.
Need even more cruise port options? Check the list at the bottom of this article.
I researched various options for Roatan cruise excursions and found 2Ks Adventure Tours. We chose to do a zipline tour with the monkey and sloth sanctuary, but they offer many other options from snorkeling to parasailing to mangrove tunnel tours and more.
Our tour also included a trip to an organic chocolate factory and a rum tasting. Depending on the size of your group, you can customize your tour to include the options you want. As Tiffany (one of the owners) explained to us, your guide is at your disposal for the duration of your tour.
While many people, especially new cruisers, tend to be wary of tours outside the official cruise ship, 2Ks Adventure Tours requires that you aim to return to the port two hours before your scheduled departure. That ensures you won’t miss your ship and reduces your stress.
The big advantage? The cost for the 2Ks Adventure Tour (and Roatan cruise excursions outside the line in general) tends to be significantly less. When we travel with our whole family, this saves us money.
And honestly? We had a far better zipline experience that day than I had in the two that I’ve done through cruise lines in the past. We didn’t have 200 people with our group where we walked up one step, waited, then walked another step. I honestly almost asked to do it a second time because it was that good.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Need even more ideas for what to do in Roatan? Here’s the master list!
Who is 2Ks Adventure Tours?
Our guide happened to be one of the owners of the company. Tiffany and her sister started it and named it after her niece and nephew who love adventure and the activities on Isla Roatan.
They have a great website with an active chat, and they maintain a strong Facebook page, as well. One area they don’t feature but that I find useful is that they are also active on WhatsApp. Once you get aboard your ship, you can’t easily call people internationally in many cases, but the WhatsApp app provides you with a way to ease your mind if you want to verify anything before your tour.
2Ks Adventure Tours handles anything from 2 person tours all the way up to groups of 45. Depending on the size of your group, you have a vehicle to fit your needs from a personal car to a minibus to a full size bus for larger groups.
For Carnival, to meet your tour guide, you must leave the cruise terminal area. The walk takes less than ten minutes from the ship (and took us closer to five), but it can be intimidating if you haven’t done this before. Just trust that you leave the cruise terminal and turn left, then walk up a hill and past the security and down a hill.
Once you get to the top of the hill, you see all the tour operators waiting for passengers. You have no safety concern walking there. Simply look for the 2Ks Adventure Tours sign, and meet your guide.
On the way back, tours drive past security and drop you off at the same place as other Roatan cruise excursions, so you have a shorter walk back to the ship.
Other cruise lines dock their ships in an entirely different area, and they will provide you with the information you need.
About the Sloth and Monkey Sanctuary with Ziplining Roatan Cruise Excursions
We had a fantastic time on our day of Roatan cruise excursions. The drive to the sloth and monkey sanctuary took the longest time, about 20 minutes, then the chocolate tour and rum tasting were just minutes away. You zipline at the sanctuary through the jungle.
Ziplining portion
Our guide locked our valuables in the car, which made it easier to enjoy ziplining. I didn’t realize until we started that the guides could have taken our photos with phones had we let the guides hold them for us. All you need for this excursion is your camera and cash for tipping/money to purchase souvenirs.
Ziplining includes 11 lines. The entire experience takes about 45 minutes from the time you start. I appreciated that we walked up to the first station and zipped a couple lines then walked up a bit more. This made it less exhausting than had we walked to the top and ziplined all the way down.
My previous experience ziplining was fun but felt cramped and rushed with all the other people. We always had long lines and longer waits. This tour let us experience all the rush. One guide went ahead of us and one behind us the entire time rather than having set employees manning each station.
Once they saw we enjoyed the experience and were comfortable, they encouraged us to have fun. They had us do a running start, then we went upside down before we did an upsidedown spread eagle. They even had a special attachment where they zipped with us and we flew like Superman. Seriously an amazing experience.
At the end, we had the option to view photos of us zipping. We could purchase the entire package for $20. They email the files to you, so you don’t have to carry a CD or thumb drive with you.
Monkey and Sloth Sanctuary
Once we tipped our guides and removed our equipment, we visited the sanctuary. This included more than just monkeys and sloths, and I loved seeing that the animals did not appear stressed the way they have in other sanctuaries I’ve visited.
We started with the monkeys who live in large bamboo enclosures. Each enclosure has two or so Capuchin monkeys, so they have plenty of space and company. The monkeys enjoyed clambering all over us and chilling out while our guide fed them sunflower seeds.
We spent maybe five minutes with the monkeys (I could have hung out there all day) before moving to the birds. We saw toucans – the national bird of Honduras – and visited with the macaws. Again, they loved to climb on us, and it was fun to take photos with them.
The sloths were not in enclosures and live further from the other animals. I’ve seen sloths before but never been able to touch them. On this tour, we held and hugged the sloths just like babies. That was definitely a bucket list item for me.
After we held the sloths, we had time to admire a mama with her baby though we obviously didn’t touch either. We enjoyed just watching the sloths move slowly on their perches.
As we walked back to the entrance of the sanctuary, we encountered additional animals from the tiny white tail deer to capybara, the largest rodent in the world (but they’re cute). The guide gave us a small handful of food for the white tail deer who enjoyed eating from our hands.
Organic Chocolate Factory Tour
The organic chocolate factory was not quite what what we expected. When I think factory, I envision a larger start to finish operation. While you can see the workers with the chocolate through a glass at the back, they simply wrapped chocolate bars while we visited.
That said, the store has a setup near the front that provides the history of chocolate and a depiction of how they make chocolate. An employee walks you through both and shows you examples of product at different steps.
The best part? After that, you head to the back of the store to sample small bites of chocolate ranging from dark to chili flavored to white chocolate. From there, you can browse the items for sale. We purchased 18 bars of organic chocolate for $12 and chose some really fun flavors.
No one pressured us to purchase anything, but we chose to. The chocolate bars came in neat flavors like cookies and cream, coconut, cranberry, and more. They offer far more than the samples provided.
The store also offers a small coffee bar with a variety of coffee and hot chocolate options. That said, I wouldn’t consider that a chocolate factory. I found the information presented fascinated and the chocolate tastes great – I wish we’d bought more. Go to it with the right mindset.
Rum Tasting
From there, we drove just a few minutes to a rum tasting in a large store. They offer six different rums with six different rum cakes to sample. Unlike the rum tasting we had in Belize, the store didn’t charge for samples.
The staff pouring samples have great personalities, and they knew about the product. They answered all our questions.
The rums ranged from coconut to spiced to chocolate to a cream (like Bailey’s) and cakes to match We tried vanilla, 151 proof, chocolate, spice, banana, and coconut. You can purchase both rums and cakes, though they don’t pressure you.
Don’t forget to wander out back. There we had a fantastic view of the coast, and saw a very cool little bar with rum drinks. They weren’t expensive and had fun flavors. Unfortunately, they had no more chocolate pina colada, which we wanted to try. Doesn’t that sound amazing?
Who knew you could pack so much into your one day Roatan cruise excursions?
Other Tidbits for Roatan Cruise Exursions
You can customize your tour to meet your preferences with the group or if you take a private tour. Take items out you want to skip or add others in. The guides are at your disposal.
Because 2Ks Adventure Tours works so often with the various attractions, they negotiate lower admission prices than you get on your own. This ensures you have a fantastic tour at minimal cost.
The guides receive training to ensure they are knowledgeable about the area. Tiffany answered every question we threw at her, and we loved learning more about the local area and culture.
One challenge we faced was the roads. Isla Roatan has had an unusual amount of rain that prevented annual road repairs. This left the roads in poor condition in many places – all Roatan cruise excursions will find this. That slowed us down going to and from the ship as the guide had to avoid huge potholes. Cross your fingers the rain stops and roads get repaired soon.
When you arrive at your tour, you need to pay in cash then. Make sure you bring money to cover your Roatan cruise excursions. Unlike many other companies, 2Ks Adventure Tours doesn’t require a deposit or payment upfront.
What Roatan cruise excursions have you done?
Here are all the fun options available in Roatan.
Looking for more cruise excursions? Here’s a list of my favorite experiences
- Once in a lifetime cave exploration in Cozumel
- Snorkeling in Grand Cayman
- The best excursion in Roatan
- Exploring the Great Barrier Reef in Belize
- Pirates, Birds and Monkeys in Roatan
- The most unique experience in Curacao
- Catamaran tour in St. Lucia
- Jolly Roger pirate ship in Barbados
