what tour goes through the most caves during cavetubing??

[1stcruiser1]

I was just wondering if all the tour companies have a set number of caves that they tube through or does it just depend on the river at the time. I would like to choose the most caves and hear different amounts of caves in the reviews ad wondering why that is. Thanks

[sbnuggie]

Well that didn't answer your question now did it?

 

I have seen the various advertisements about different amounts of caves and was curious as well.

[1stcruiser1]

I guess there is no answer! I did book with Major Tom for March. Probably any tour is fine so I stopped obsessing about it! I am just so glad to be going to Belize that I will have a great time no matter what. (I hope!)

[illiniwahoo]

we went this january. Iforget exactly how many caves we went thru, but at one point, the guide told us ok now we're in cave 2 - but we never went outside from cave 1 to 2. so i'm betting most people actually do the same amount of caves. we were waiting for some people to finish ziplining so we did do an extra cave but it was the most boring one. the other caves were much cooler, so i would not worry if you do the extra one or not

[enjoyinglife]

How cold is the water?

[illiniwahoo]

cold. i definately shivered at some points. (jan 20th)

[MAO]

COLD!!

The tour is definately worth it, it's an experiance you won't get anywhere else. Major Tom has a good group of folks working for him and they are safe.

[shelby_36]

Is it always cold? We are going in July

[MAO]

that might make a differance, we were there in Jan. so it was cooler air wise! But you have to consider the water in the caves doesn't see light to warm it up so they are bound to alway be fairly cold, I can say for sure that Jan. was COLD:)

Maybe someone else would have experiance with July cavetubing.

Have fun!!

[shelby_36]

I figured it would be a "cooling" trip but I don't want to freeze my butt off.

 

Also do you guys know if everyone has to be in their own tube? Will my 9 year old HAVE to use her own tube or can she stir on my husband or at least be tethered to him? I think she'd be fine on her own but she is a little nervous.

[irky416]

Is it always cold? We are going in July

 

 

We went in July and from all the comments on here I was expecting the water to be freezing. Believe me, I am a baby when it comes to being cold and getting in cold water - I used to not go in our pool unless it was ~76 degrees because otherwise I thought it was too cold. I did not think the water was cold. It was cool, but after sweating while hiking through the rainforest, it felt nice and I never shivered or felt cold.

[GinDon]

We used X-tream Cave tubing company (booked independently) for our adventure in 2007. The end of October, water cool, but not cold. We actually did three caves. The first one was a walk-through. Then two big caves that you float through. A great time!

[cricket59]

We used http://www.belizeansun.com/ for our tours in 04, 06 and are going with them again this April. The owner (Ken) will change his basic tour to fit your needs and should be able to answer your question about your 9 year old. Just send him an email, he will work with you. We chose to skip lunch and had local snacks and drinks in the van so we could spend more time on the river. In April of 06 we did the cave tubing with a group of 12, grandparents were early 70's and our youngest was age 10 (he is very small for his age). Each carried their own tub, includes head lamp and life jackets, which we all wore, some groups we saw did not. It was an easy walk to where you start, be sure to bring water shoes that strap to your feet (not flip flops). To get into the river you hold your tub on your backside and walk backwards off the edge (maybe 2 foot drop) lots of fun, keep the camera ready. We floated through the first cave with only one other group, came out briefly and went into the next with several hundred people, this is where the cruise ship tour starts. When we floated out of the second cave all the cruise ship tour people got out and we floated down the river another 45 minutes, this was our favorite part. The sun felt wonderful, the cave is defiantly chilly. When we were there the river was low and it was, for the most part, a slow float and we used our arms a lot to paddle us along, and sometimes heard "butts up" so we would lift our bottoms so they wouldn't drag. Some tour groups would hook themselves together (using legs) with their guide in the front doing all the paddling and went much faster then our group.

 

As for your 9 year old, I don't know if she will be able to go in your tube, but you can easily hook your feet over her tube and stay connected. There is one spot in the second cave on the right side that has a curve in the wall, several of us got swept into this area and were flipped out of our tubes, but since we wore our lift jackets it was not a problem. You and your daughter should stay more to the left and will have no problem, don't let this spot stop you, it's only one small area. This is for the most part a relaxing day, not a huge adventure. Also take along one of those disposable water proof cameras, we did not get any great pictures in the caves, but lots getting in the river and when we floated down river after.

 

Hope this helps, have a great time! :)

[travelntreats]

;)

 

:D

Jaguar Paw does the MOST caves on their river excursions because their guests have MORE TIME.

The Resort is situated at the mouth of the last cave.

People using other Tour Operators must leave from the Government Park which is an extra 45 minute walk to get to where Jaguar Paw begins.

Then it's an additional 45 minutes back to the park after people doing their trip at the Resort have already left the water.

There's more time to do more caves and still get back to the ship on time.

Plus, you eat lunch right there as well. Not get in a car and drive to a restaurant

That saves MORE time!

Jaguar Paw is Private, and the FIRST in Belize to do Cave Tubing.

They're great!

I swear, I don't own stock in the hotel. Ha1 ha! I just really enjoyed my time there! I can't tell you enough!! I feel like I discovered Belize's best kept secret! Who knew??

This is the most inaccurate bunch of malarky I have ever seen as I have been cave tubing several times, and it is a 3 minute walk from the park to the river, and once finished with the cave tubing, a 3 minute walk back to the park. The walk from the river, after coming down from the Government Park, to go to the caves, is about 25 minutes all told. In other words, it takes about 35-40 minutes from the government park to the caves. Easy and interesting because it actually goes through two nice small dry caves with beautiful stalactites.

 

After investigating this puzzling push of wrong information, I found out that the major tour operator, Cruise Solutions, NO LONGER uses Jaguar Paw facilities for cave tubing, but instead, switched to the govenment park, and is also providing a very large and modern restaurant and other services at the government park. So just about ALL cruise guests from the cruiseships visiting Belize now use the very large government park with lots of open space, a huge modern bathroom, and plenty more rainforest experience as well as more floating time on the open river, which is VERY popular.

 

Cruise Critic would be well advised to watch out for this kind of bashing against a government facility that is obviously doing well, if it now attracts all the cruise passengers.

[Maureen4]

I went to the belizeansun.com website and it shows that they are using Jaguar paw for cave tubing.

 

We used http://www.belizeansun.com/ for our tours in 04, 06 and are going with them again this April. The owner (Ken) will change his basic tour to fit your needs and should be able to answer your question about your 9 year old. Just send him an email, he will work with you. We chose to skip lunch and had local snacks and drinks in the van so we could spend more time on the river. In April of 06 we did the cave tubing with a group of 12, grandparents were early 70's and our youngest was age 10 (he is very small for his age). Each carried their own tub, includes head lamp and life jackets, which we all wore, some groups we saw did not. It was an easy walk to where you start, be sure to bring water shoes that strap to your feet (not flip flops). To get into the river you hold your tub on your backside and walk backwards off the edge (maybe 2 foot drop) lots of fun, keep the camera ready. We floated through the first cave with only one other group, came out briefly and went into the next with several hundred people, this is where the cruise ship tour starts. When we floated out of the second cave all the cruise ship tour people got out and we floated down the river another 45 minutes, this was our favorite part. The sun felt wonderful, the cave is defiantly chilly. When we were there the river was low and it was, for the most part, a slow float and we used our arms a lot to paddle us along, and sometimes heard "butts up" so we would lift our bottoms so they wouldn't drag. Some tour groups would hook themselves together (using legs) with their guide in the front doing all the paddling and went much faster then our group.

 

As for your 9 year old, I don't know if she will be able to go in your tube, but you can easily hook your feet over her tube and stay connected. There is one spot in the second cave on the right side that has a curve in the wall, several of us got swept into this area and were flipped out of our tubes, but since we wore our lift jackets it was not a problem. You and your daughter should stay more to the left and will have no problem, don't let this spot stop you, it's only one small area. This is for the most part a relaxing day, not a huge adventure. Also take along one of those disposable water proof cameras, we did not get any great pictures in the caves, but lots getting in the river and when we floated down river after.

 

Hope this helps, have a great time! :)

[oreomycat]

We went with Vitailano (cavetubing.bz) I do not know if it was because we were a very small group or not, but we had the option of walking further so we could go through an extra cave on the way back. No extra cost involved!