Cave Tubing Choices?

[Heatherkaa]

We have kids, including a 5-yr old, to include in our cave tubing excursion for early April. I've read all the postings about the dangers and scary events that happened to folks who tried this during the rainy season and such. This shouldn't affect us in our timeframe. Since we river tube often in Texas (Guadalupe River, New Braunfels is awesome), we and our children are comfortable with this excursion and know the proper safety precautions to take.

 

Anyway, there are only 2 cave tubing companies that accomodate 5-yr olds as far as I can tell. One offers the least expensive tour at $45 a person. Another offers 2 tours, one at $55 and one at $75. The higher cost one apparently enters the river from a different location that is supposed to be prettier, safer, and less of a walk. As well, it includes lunch in a restaurant, access to a resort, and a short visit to a small butterfly farm. The other tour, I've been told, is through a "government" entry/area that is not as nice, more crowded, and has an outdoor lunch. So I'm leaning towards forking over the extra bucks for the more expensive one, but just wondered if anyone could really speak to the differences between the tours or knew anything more about this.