Cave Tubing questions?

[klmorg]

We were there on 12/22/09. I wore some cheap water shoes that I bought at Wal-Mart. They were the perfect footwear. The walk is quite long and the pace was a little fast for me. I am 52, overweight and I have a knee problem, but I made it! The tubing experience is well worth the walk.

 

Thanks beachmom! I think ours are the WallyWorld water shoes, so it's good to hear some firsthand experience. So it sounds like you leave everything else in the bus/van, and only take whatever you'll be tubing with, which probably isn't much, right?

[dvweb2]

It is a bit of a walk..went with cavetubing dot com...and the guide found out I had neck surgery a couple of years ago..so the guide carried my tube after about the first 3 minutes...they have stopping points and will go at your pace...a guy in our group of 51 had a prothesic leg and used a cane so I am sure that the guides from this company will help you just like Omar and the guys helped us.

At the end of the hike, did you go through a couple of dry caves before getting into the water? Some of the sites indicate you do but I am trying to figure out if those are real caves or just some openings and if there is someting to see in those like the major tom site seems to indicate...?

[CBeachMom]

Thanks beachmom! I think ours are the WallyWorld water shoes, so it's good to hear some firsthand experience. So it sounds like you leave everything else in the bus/van, and only take whatever you'll be tubing with, which probably isn't much, right?

 

Leave everything on the bus that you would like to keep. My son-in-law lost his glasses at the end of the tubing run. The current is quite fast at the start/end point so they just got swept away. I had a waterproof camera on my wrist and some tight fitting sunglasses. Everything left on the bus was safe and untouched when we returned.

[maggieworkman]

How do you know if you are going to "the other caves"? I've heard a few people mention these and I don't think we would want to do those. If its rainy and they want to bring us to "the other ones", can we refuse?

 

Maggei

[realtrip]

Excellent question Maggie.

That is the only thing making me hesitate about the excursion. We will be in Belize in March, what are the odds on being rained out?

Thanks

[Seechell]

We went cave-tubing with Major Tom the beginning of November and it was great! Although it did rain a little (you are in a rainforest!) it was not enough to cancel any activities. As long as the water level is OK, if it's not thundering and lightening you should be fine. Because I wear glasses the rain drops caused me to see "spots" at times, but even with the spots I'm happy to have seen the beauty of the area. The guides were very safety concious, informative, and most of all, fun! I would defintely recommend Major Tom to anyone wanting to go cave-tubing.

[Zubsin]

Ok I'm convinced to try a non cruise excursion and cave-tubing.com is my choice...did they feed you? And did anyone include the ATV trip as well? Donna

[chloes_mom]

I saw one company is offering a special cave tubing excursion for kids under the age of 8. (Belizecruiseexcursions dot com) Has anyone done this? My dd just turned 5 but is big for her age (height and weight) and is a good swimmer. They say they have special child size equipment for the kids. Most of the companies say that they start at 10.

 

It sounds like this would be too much for my mother, who is not terribly fit, but it might be nice for dh and dd to do together. Any input would be appreciated.

 

cavetubing.bz will allow children under 8. They have grerat prices too! They will even attach their tube to yours, and it is very safe! Small groups, and they always stay with their guide, unlike the larger groups. search this site or tripadvisor.com for their info.

[addicted2cruizin]

Do the tubes have "bottoms" in them or is your bottom touching the water?

[CandiBar]

no bottoms in the tubes, and cheap water shoes work great! We went a couple years ago with the carnival group and we had a nice dinner of red beans and rice and chicken (and some cashew wine) yummy! Going again this year but with cave-tubing.com this time. Sounds like pretty much the same kind of tour for half the price. Can't wait to share the experience with my parents who missed out last time! From what I have heard they do feed you, however if you are running late they may skip the meal to get you back to the ship in time.

[cloudydrms]

I hate to ask the same question that many others have asked, but after searching through 5 pages of questions and answers, I still haven't figured out the answer.

 

I understand that the hike to the alternate caves used when the water is high is kind of rough and steep. I don't think I could hack that. But really how is the hike to the regular caves? I'm overweight, but can hike without any problem as long as the trail is pretty flat. Give me a long incline and I'm in trouble...huffing and puffing. Can anyone give me some insight into the steepness of the trail.

 

Cindy

[PnkyandtheBrain]

The trail along the river up to the regular cave locations is mostly a small slope. There are several locations where you have to go up or down some stairs (say 8-10 in a group), otherwise it's just long, fairly smooth. I really didn't notice the uphill that much until I turned around, then I could see in some areas that we'd gone uphill a fair bit.

 

I can't imagine anyone who can walk around normally during the day having any issues completing the hike, and if you have a guide who is stopping along the way to show you about the nature of the jungles, you'll have several chances to rest too.

 

Brad

[cloudydrms]

Brad,

 

Thanks for the specifics on the hike through the forest. I kind of suspected that it was pretty tame, and I'm glad to hear that it is! Really looking forward to the whole adventure - ATVing and tubing. I've never done either anywhere in the world let alone through a rainforest. (Pause for a moment just to remember how blessed I truly am.)

 

Thanks again.

 

Cindy

[mleng]

My wife and I just went on a 6-day cruise on Independence of the Seas with RCCL with a stop at Belize City. We took the cave tubing excursion with X-stream and really enjoyed it. For detailed review, see it on Trip Advisor at http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR..._District.html

 

I will just put down a few key points here:

 

1. Don't try to combine multiple activities. Just cave tubing by itself is enough. Belize port uses tender boats and it takes a long time to get off, especially since cruiseships hold the first few ships for passengers who book the excursions through the ship. On our trip, the official arrival time is 7, but we got on the first tender open to the non-excursion passengers at 9. As a result, the 5 and half hour excursion didn't end until after 3. We even had to rush our lunch. If you had booked another activity like zipline or ATV, you would have had to rush through it.

 

2. Some tour operators only take you through one cave. X-stream took us through 2 caves. It really made a difference. When booking, be sure to verify how many caves they would take you through.

 

3. The lunch provided by the X-stream team was amazing. Because of time constraint, we basically had take-out food instead of eating in. I could only imagine how wonderful it would have been if it were served right off the stove.

 

4. Belize's famous Cashew wine: it's very sweet, basically a dessert wine. If you like this kind of the wine, by all means you should buy a bottle. It cost $7 at the duty free shop at the port, but can be had for $5 in regular Belize grocery stores. My wife and I had visited Belize in April 09 and got a bottle. We liked it so much that we came back to Belize this trip and bought another bottle. I would have bought more if I had better ways to transport it than stuffing it in the bag with my dirty laundry and hoping the airline luggage handler wouldn't be too rough.

 

5. On our April 2009 trip, I went on the tour to Altun Ha. It was ok, but wasn't great. There was only so much you could do to look at those rock pyramids.