Cave Tubing in Belize

[gatorgram]

The young adult's in our cruise party will be cave tubing in Belize. We are older and were wondering if the walk would be too hard for someone with walking and leg problems? Thank's in advance for your advice.

[Tampa Bay Irish]

We went with the cave-tubing.com group and they were great. I must tell you that it is about a 20 minute walk from the bus drop off point to the area where you enter the water. It wasn't an easy walk through the rainforest but it wasn't a killer walk either. One of the guides even carried my daughter's tube for her. Cave tubing is a very unique experience.

[saw1953]

The walk to the river is not strenuous and I don't think it took very long but if it is with the same guide that we used you can't walk into the water. You have to fall backwards off a small cliff and land in the tube. It was a wonderful excursion but that part of it surprised me a little.

[maggieworkman]

The walk to the river is not strenuous and I don't think it took very long but if it is with the same guide that we used you can't walk into the water. You have to fall backwards off a small cliff and land in the tube. It was a wonderful excursion but that part of it surprised me a little.

 

What?? That is the first I have heard that. We did not have to do this.

 

Here are a few pictures of the walk. My 65 y.o. mother did it, but my DH carried her tube most of the way. And my teen girls kept an eye on her so she didn't trip.

 

 

 

Assorted debris and roots sticking up to watch out for

 

Occassional rocks that stick up that can trip you

 

Watch out for the tarantulas! I took this picture as I walked on by!!!

 

Here is where we got in the tubes

 

 

Hope that helps.

 

Maggie

[Ruggled]

We had one lady in our group who was a bit less mobile than the others due to a foot injury.the guides carried her tube for her and she took it slow. There are a set of steps built into the caves that you will have to go through (down and then back up) toward the beginning of the walk. This was probably the most strenuous part for her. Past that, the path was pretty flat.

 

We were able to walk right into the water (though a few of us chose to jump off a cliff before getting into our tubes). There was no falling backwards into a tube for us at all.

 

As to the walk..if you take it slow, I don't see it as an issue.

[golfadj]

Walk is about 1/2 miles and I thought it was an easy pretty flat walk when we did it a few years ago.

 

However you have to cross the river before the walk and when we did it strong current and that was harder than the walk in my opinion.

[crusinpsychRN]

Our walk was slippery, rocky and about 30 minutes. We had to jump onto the tube. Fairly strenuous.

[kujobie]

I would NOT do this tour if you are not in at least decent physical shape. When we did it a few years back, the hike was about 40 minutes, at a good pace. We went with cave-tubing.com as well. There are several places where you can enter the river and I think the cruise line tour is a shorter hike and subsequently fewer caves. While the trail is pretty smooth, there are some uneven areas and elevation changes. I would also recommend wearing old sneakers that you don't mind getting wet or thick-soled rubber sandals with a strap on the back. Flip flops are no good unless you don't mind holding them in your lap because as soon as you get in the tube they are going to come off and you'll be chasing them down the river. And those thin, flimsy, dollar store rubber/nylon beach shoes are no good either. Just not comfortable during the hike, and if it's necessary to walk on the river bed. When we went, there were several spots where we had to get up out of the tube and walk down river due to water level too low. The river bed is all rocks.

[2 rednecks]

our walk was at an easy pace, multiple stops to point out plant life, flowers, faces in the stone, and storys. It may have taken 30 min but wasn't that bad. walked to the edge of the water and gently sat back into our tubes. Our group was a mix from teens to seniors. The trip was Unbelizable, had a great time

[kdoc84]

I booked with cave-tubing.com and our guide was nice enough to carry a couple of the young girls' tubes for them. There was a river in the beginning that you have to cross that has a strongish current but there is a rope that you hold onto the whole way across. The walk was about 25-30 minutes through the rain forest and it wasn't tough. The toughest part was at the end when we had to walk down a steep set of stairs and then walk down a VERY steep platform onto a floating dock. We then dropped backwards off the dock into the floats. The guides were all very helpful and aided us along the way.

 

 

There you can see the steep platform that leads to the floating dock. That was probably the worst part. Now with all this said, I don't think it's smart for someone with mobility issues to attempt it because of this last part. However, if you've booked through Carnival or some other local company, then you may not be going to this drop off point, as some other pictures above have shown.

[pkrchkr]

My family members did the cave tubing in belize in Feb 2011. I didn't go since I am regular blood donar and Belize( anything outside the city) is on the malria risk so I chose not to go. The went with young kids ( 6 and 8yrs) and did not have any problems with the cave tubing itslef but my DS got bit by a mosquitoe in the van the took too and from the caves and now she ahs to go thru Malaria test evey 6 months for the next 2 years...Just a word to the wise.. take repellent with deet with you and put it on before you get into the vans and when you get out of the water.. I gld I did not go but now I get to donate my blood and enjoy everyones pictures too.. life's good:D

[pyroguy]

There you can see the steep platform that leads to the floating dock. That was probably the worst part. Now with all this said, I don't think it's smart for someone with mobility issues to attempt it because of this last part. However, if you've booked through Carnival or some other local company, then you may not be going to this drop off point, as some other pictures above have shown.

 

Yes, kdoc84 is right. When we did it in 2009, the Carnival excursions stopped quite a long way before the cavetubing.com excursion did. This is why you see the post about the "small cliff" and having to jump in.

 

When did that little dock get there? We did this in June 09 and it wasn't there...we had to jump in off the cliff (a few tried to scoot down the rocks and slide into the water, but I think they scuffed their hineys.

 

IMO, cavetubing.com was a much better excursion. We met up with the other groups later (from Carnival's excursion) and the groups were HUGE and you could tell they weren't as personable or having as much fun as our group was.

[maggieworkman]

We used Reggie and did not have to jump off the cliff or go down that steep slope (see my picture above to see where we got in the water). We also had the benefit of going through the extra cave.

 

Maggie

[mcampb2811]

My family members did the cave tubing in belize in Feb 2011. I didn't go since I am regular blood donar and Belize( anything outside the city) is on the malria risk so I chose not to go. The went with young kids ( 6 and 8yrs) and did not have any problems with the cave tubing itslef but my DS got bit by a mosquitoe in the van the took too and from the caves and now she ahs to go thru Malaria test evey 6 months for the next 2 years...Just a word to the wise.. take repellent with deet with you and put it on before you get into the vans and when you get out of the water.. I gld I did not go but now I get to donate my blood and enjoy everyones pictures too.. life's good:D

 

Thank you for your regular life saving donation. Many people don't realize that they cannot give blood when they travel in the Caribbean.

[smurfm69]

We did this last year with Major Tom and his crew from cave-tubingdotnet and it was one of the best excursions we have ever done. Cheaper than Carnival and we got to see and do a lot more. The groups were smaller than the Carnival excursion as well.

[MandynJim]

We went many years ago now with Cave Tubing with Reggie and we had his son take just my husband and I and it is in my top 2 excursions of all time! I LOVED it and the hike was not strenuous. The hardest part is carrying your intertube. But I'm sure the guides would help you do that. We had the opportunity to jump off a small cliff into the water but didn't have to. We also got to do more caves then the cruise ship passengers because there were only 2 of us!

[punkysmom]

It was AWESOME!

I am in fairly good shape. I run regularly and take an interval training class 2x's a week and I would NOT recommend anyone in not good physical shape to do this. It is a workout. I sweated my butt off... you are walking/hiking in humid temps and while it is only a half hour walk and for the most part the terrain is flat you will be hiking up and down and on stairs and in the water. I would NOT want my 60+ year old parents doing it.

[MissDiva1]

We had a few people in their late 60's who had no problem......you don't have to jump off a cliff and they will carry your tubes. We went with

http://www.cave-tubing.com/

[tiggerfan616]

My husband and I had our young son (7) and had no trouble at all. Our guide Minor Tom from www(dot)cave-tubbing(dot)net was wonderful. My husband is not in the best physical shape and I have had 6 knee surgeries and we were able to make the hike without a problem and carried our own tubes, but as mentioned Tom's guides will carry your tube for them. My son had trouble with his so my DH and I were taking turns carrying it, Tom saw that and took the tube for us. They also make stops and give little bits of information about the local plants and animals....try the termites they are minty!!!

 

You can jump off a cliff, my 7yr old did, everyone on our ship who saw him for the rest of our trip kept raving about his jump, he loved it.

And no you dont fall into your tube, you just sit in it, if there was any problem I had it was getting low enough to the ground to get in mine, im 5 foot 11. Major Tom is all about safety as a past president of the tourist association in Belize he has fought hard for alot of regulations that have been implemented to keep the tubers safe.

We had a great experience with Tom and cant wait to return to Belize and tube again.