Belize Things to Do Tips by Dabs

Cavetubing.bz Caving Review

We used cavetubing.BZ for cave tubing from our cruise ship. We got the 1st tender off the ship as instructed and followed their instructions to find the guide. The owner's son, Vitalino Jr., was our driver, he gave us a lot of information on Belize on the hour drive to the caves. Our group was 12 in total, 8 that did just the tubing, 4 that did the zipline and tubing. We only saw the ziplining group before and after the cave tubing so we didn't have to wait for them to zipline. The walk through the jungle (do not ignore the note about bug spray if you are a mosquito magnet like my husband!) was not strenuous but you must be able to carry an inner tube and walk for 30-45 minutes. The guide stopped at various points along the way and showed us glue trees, had us taste termites, showed us poisonous trees and then the remedy tree that was next to it. Groups were racing past us so I'm guessing that their guides weren't showing them much of anything.

We passed by a point where he said that the cruise ship tours started so their tour was shorter as everyone gets back out at the same place. Once we got to the launching spot, we were eased into our tubes (no jumping or falling back into them) and hooked together in two lines of four. My husband's feet were under my armpits and I held onto the tube handle of the woman next to me. The current of the river this time of year when it's drier is very gentle and slow, this is not white water rafting, at least not in this season, it's a leisurely float down the river through some caves. The guide was with us the whole time guiding the rafts and we didn't break apart until the very end. The caves themselves are interesting to see and at one point everyone turned out their headlamps and we were in complete darkness.

After we finished up we changed clothes and then went for lunch prepared by Vitalino's family using his grandmother's recipes at Vitalino's Patio. They served us chicken, beans and rice, cole slaw and some fabulous rum punch, all very yummy. And then we headed back to port with plenty of time before the last ship tender.

If you are going cave tubing, I would highly recommend these folks, it's clear that it's a family run business, that they care about their customers safety and that they are enjoying the tour and Belize.

My only complaint was that the tubes used were a little hard on my neck, it might have been the position I was sitting in but if you have neck issues, you might check out VIV which has the tubes with the head rests.

The cost including lunch was $45 per person, they did not require a deposit and you paid in cash after the excursion.

Address: Western Belize

Website: http://cavetubing.bz/

Cave Tubing Caving Review

We decided to go cave tubing after reading a lot of reviews on Cruise Critic, we hadn't done it on our 1st trip and it seemed like it was the most popular cruise excursion. There are a number of independent operators that run this trip for cruise passengers, I narrowed it down to two and finally decided on the most popular, Cavetubing.bz. The other one I was considering was VIV, a newer company that seemed to have better inner tubes with headrests but I ultimately decided on Cavetubing.bz because of all the positive feedback on Trip Advisor.

All of the trips appear to go to the same spot, Nohoch Che'en Caves Branch Archaeological Reserve, based on the crowds coming and going, our guide estimated that on a busy cruise day that around 3,000 people do the cave tubing! But some of the trips do less of the river than the others, specifically the ones booked as shore excursions from the cruise lines.

From the port, it takes about an hour to drive to the cave sight, they outfit you with an inner tube, lifevest and helmet and then you set off for a 30-40 minute walk through the jungle to get to the caves.

You have to be fit enough to carry your own inner tube, but the walk wasn't strenuous and the cave tubing itself is like a lazy river. It wouldn't have been my 1st choice of an excursion had I not been to Belize before but we had already snorkeled at Shark Ray Alley and had already seen the Mayan ruins at Lamanai so we decided to do something different. You can combine cave tubing with ziplining, a stop at the Belize Zoo or some of the tours also included a stop at Altun Ha, another Mayan ruin.

For my review of cavetubing.bz, see the next tip.

Address: Western Belize