Footware for Cave Tubing?

[Sydney66]

My family of 6 will be cave tubing (with cavetubing.com) next week and would like suggestions of what the appropriate dress code is. Should we just wear our bathing suits trecking through the woods? Or should we wear t-shirt and shorts and just get them wet on the way down? Also, footware - I hear Tevas are the best but I dont want to purchase them just for the trip. I was thinking an old pair of sneakers but I would rather not have wet feet for the rest of the day. For those of you who have done this before... any suggestions?

[starketcher]

I took an old pair of tennis shoes, but wore my sandals on the bus and changed into my tennis shoes before our walk. When we stopped for lunch, we just left our shoes at the resturant. It is a poor country and although my tennis shoes were old to me, they would be a good pair for others.

 

I just wore my swimsuit on the walk & cavetubing and brought a change of clothes for afterwards. They have a bathhouse which is pretty much on par with the bathhouses in campgrounds in the US.

[springfire]

We went to Target and purchased $5.00 water shoes. You can walk in them and the water goes out. Old tennis shoes are good but they get real heavy after they get wet. Sometimes the locals will buy the watershoes that you are wearing for $5.00. The choice is yours, whatever you are most comfortable with.

[ezjack1825]

I found some watershoes that even lace up over at WalMart last week. They were red/black or a putrid blue/lime green for the guys. My lady has tiny feet so she has kids ones. Light pink/white or Light blue/white. The kids ones have laces and a bead thing to tighten them versus actually tying them. I think they were like $6.88

[Sydney66]

OK, I think Im starting to understand.... But it sounds like you can leave your clothes in the van before you start your walk or with your guide before you jump in the water? Im guessing we will bring towels and will want to have them for when we get out.

[starketcher]

You'll probably want to leave the towels on the van as well. Where the tubing stops is where the vans are parked (not literally, but within a very very short walk). We just walked back and got our stuff and changed in the bathhouse for the ride back.

[Cruisin2Sun]

OK, I think Im starting to understand.... But it sounds like you can leave your clothes in the van before you start your walk or with your guide before you jump in the water? Im guessing we will bring towels and will want to have them for when we get out.

 

Yes, you're correct. the only thing you should be carrying when you leave the van is probably your waterproof camera. You have to carry your tube and lifevest (strapped on the tube) through the rainforest about 1 mile. the time goes fast because it's all so interesting. The driver locks the van, and when you're finished, you can get your stuff out of the van, towel, clean clothes, etc. and change if you want. My daughter and I left the van wearing a pair of nylon shorts over our swimsuits, although some people just wore swimsuits alone. The tour guide said that we might feel some small "nibbler" fish....that's all my daughter needed to hear, and she decided she was wearing shorts over her bathing suit..LOL. BTW, no one on our tour felt any nibbler fish.....

 

We did get those watershoes described above from Walmart. They were great - comfortable to walk the mile in, held up well, dried quickly, and rinsed out well too. They were only about $6-7 pair. Girls/women's color choices were either pink or light blue, don't remember guys' colors....

[Sydney66]

Bought the WalMart shoes. At $5, how can you go wrong?? Thanks for all the info!!!

[june2006]

We will be tubing also the end of June ... same company. I have the walmart water shoes. Also glad to know we can leave our backpack in the van. Does anyone reccommend leaving their money behind ... that scares me :eek: I would rather get something waterproof to bring with me.

[DEL67]

Last summer I wore old sneakers because I wanted more of a sole for the walk than most water shoes provide. However, after reading some posts about the sand and sun shoes at Walmart, I invested in a pair ($6) and wore them when we went cave tubing again last week. They were great - as comfortable as sneakers, but lighter weight and dry relatively quickly.

[KtBarker]

Another great shoe for cavetubing is crocs. They run around $30, but I've gotten so many other uses out of them that they were worth it. Best part is they dry instantly so you don't have to bring a second pair of shoes for the day.

My friends rented water shoes for $3 before we started, and out of the 3 that rented one complained they were falling apart, and the other two said they were fine.

We cruised with Tom *********, and everything was safely locked in the van including things like digital cameras/extra cash. One thing that made us nervous was when we paid our own entrance fee, and paid for the food, we did not realize that this was just deducted from the total package price and thought we wouldn't have $ to tip. It wasn't a problem the $53 was still the total we paid, it was just our responsibility to pay the correct individuals along the way.

 

And we all hiked in our bathing suits... Tom said he shares business with the other sites like cave-tubing.com so I would have to assume that your trip will run very similiar to ours, and it was a blast! Enjoy!