If you are planning a day in Belize—maybe on a cruise stop—you probably have already figured out that the country’s top day trips are zip-lining through the jungle and cave tubing through spring fed, underground rivers.
When we watch the Travel Channel we see people have a blast doing both of them. Okay, the Travel Channel makes practically everything look like fun—but who cares, when we took our first Caribbean cruise together in 2010 we were pretty psyched when we saw the excursions in our cruise catalog.
Only problem: Both were priced out of our budget.
What to do? What to do?
Feeling a bit desperate, I went to Cruise Critic, an online community of people who love the cruising lifestyle. News to me: If you want to go cave tubing or zip-lining in Belize—or any number of cruise excursions worldwide—you don’t have to book your excursion through the cruise line. It’s easy to book on your own and there are plenty of reasons why you should consider it.
Four advantages to booking a private tour
- Cost is a fraction of the price that the cruise ship charges
- You’ll be in a smaller group
- Lunch is often included
- Guides are committed to getting us back to the ship in time
But who to use? I wanted a safe, professional tour company that would meet us at the dock and promise—no, swear—to bring us back from our adventure in plenty of time. I mean, sure I wanted a memorable experience, but I didn’t want it marred with worrying all day that we’d get back to the cruise ship before it sailed.
Booking our cave tubing and zip-lining tour
Armed with a short list of possibilities, my search finally brought me to Vitalino Reyes’ family-owned business, Vital Nature and Mayan Tours.
Booking through a cruise line requires little more than the click of a button but it wasn’t that much harder to book our excursion. All it took was an email. They got back to us quickly and confirmed a few days before we cruised.
Thanks to the pre-trip confirmation we could relax on our cruise without wondering if we’d have anything to do when we docked in Belize.
Our day in Belize
Our email confirmation had told us to walk through the cruise terminal at the port and look for a representative holding a cavetubing.bz sign. (Non-cruise line vendors have to stay outside the terminal itself.)
We wound between the crowds gathering in the terminal and hesitantly exited on the other side. Aha! Sure enough,there was the sign, and iti was held by Vitalino himself, the owner of the company. He smiled and thanked us for having decided to book with them, then dashed my hopes that he’d be our escort for the day when he turned and introduced us to our guide, who escorted our group to a clean and comfy passenger van.
Our destination was Nohoch Che’en Caves Branch Archaeological Reserve, an archaeological park 35 miles out of town but we got an extra bonus as we drove out of the city. Our tour guide and driver offered to give us a brief tour of Belize City. Well, that was a nice idea and we all jumped at it, especially since we wouldn’t have time to see the capital city on our own.
No wonder all the forums said it was not a good city for sightseeing: Many of the buildings had been devastated by the hurricanes that repeatedly batter the country and the infrastructure was pretty beaten up. It was actually so unattractive that we didn’t even want to take a single photo. (What does that tell you?) That said, a lot could have changed since we were there in 2010….
Our interesting day in Belize begins
Having interesting, knowledgeable and friendly guides makes all the difference, especially in a once-in-a-lifetime, memorable adventure such as this. Both our driver and tour guide were very good conversationalists.
As we drove along through the countryside our guide related more about the history of Belize, the Maya, and the culture of their country, and our driver chimed in occasionally. He explained they, like most or all of the guides, were Mayan/Belizean, which makes me wonder. I’ll bet that combination has created some very interesting cultural traditions.
Decision time: Should we zip-line in Belize?
Once at the park we split into two groups: cave tubing alone vs. cave tubing plus zip-lining. This was decision time. How to choose? Cave tubing alone would give us the opportunity to take a longer route, tubing through more caves. On the other hand, if we wanted to experience both, we would start further down the river and only tube through a couple of caves, but the zip-lining would be an additional charge.
Ultimately Dan and I opted to spend all of our time in Belize tubing the entire route. We reasoned that zip-lining would be easier to find later, somewhere else. (Years later, we still think we made the right decision.)
Butts up!
As he handed out safety gear (I’ll give you the safety details at the end of the article) our guide explained the procedure for safe tubing. “As you tube down the water,” he said, “use your arms like oars. Also, the water can be extremely shallow. If you hear ‘Butts up!’ lift your rear ends out of the water.” He advised us that if we didn’t heed his warning we might end up caught on the rocks—or worse, bruise our back ends, which could make for an uncomfortable ride back to the ship.
Equipment in hand, we started off through the rainforest. I stayed close to our guide so I could hear him above the friendly laughter among our fellow tubers. It was fascinating to hear his comments as he pointed out the flora and fauna along the path.
It was an easy walk from the parking lot to the river. The hardest part was crossing a small tributary on our way to our departure point.
Dan and I entered the water by jumping off a rock.
View from atop the rock. They moved before we jumped.
Some people have written that the trip down the water is exhilarating. Maybe it depends on the time of year and how much rain the river is carrying but for us, it was quite relaxing. We just laid back and enjoyed ourselves as we meandered downstream, grateful for the many clouds overhead that shielded us from the hot sun. Our life preservers made for good neck rests.
All we needed to do was listen for an occasional “Butts up!” and keep our feet hooked to the tube ahead of us. (Note: They use cables now; I’ll tell you about it at the end of this article.)
Our photography regret
Because we had chosen tubing only, we had started further upstream and we got to tube through more caves. It’s hard to take photos in darkness though, which is why we have no shots to show you from our time underground. We tried though. We made a mistake by setting our cameras to a higher ISO because that resulted in another problem: graininess.
Dan did as much as he could with the poor quality of our photos. Still, I think a poor photo is better than none at all. Do you agree?
It might have been a silent sightseeing excursion for some, but it wasn’t on our journey. As we entered the caves our guide told us more about how the river system worked and how it had created the nine caves in the area over millennia. Inside the caves we also heard about the geological formations we were looking at.
Coming out of a cave
Tubing along, the river became a bit more populated as other tour groups joined us along the way. Each group seemed to have its own departure point. I felt a bit sad for those who were joining us later in the trip; they would miss the third cave we’d been through upstream and the beautiful scenery we’d already seen.
Lunch
No hiking back needed: Our van was waiting at the end. By this time we’d built up an appetite. After quickly drying off and changing in the park’s well-equipped facilities, we headed down the road to Vitalino’s home base.
We sat down to plates of authentic Belizean food cooked from his grandmother’s recipe and were offered a deliciously refreshing punch made from the native rum (non-alcoholic drinks were also available). As memorable and fun as the tubing had been, for foodies like ourselves this was probably just as much of a highlight.
Fresh and local, our chicken, rice and beans dish was seasoned the way the Belizeans like it and the rum punch was a lovely balance of fruit and local rum. My biggest regret about our entire excursion is that I didn’t get the recipes for both of them.
Once everyone had had their fill of rum punch, we all jumped back in the van. Our guide’s wife and family joined us on the ride back. When we arrived back at the dock in plenty of time for sailing, I knew: This had been a great day.
Do it yourself
For more info: visit their website, Vital Nature and Mayan Tours.
Price: Varies by excursion. Click here for details.
Contact: Send an email to [email protected] or phone (from U.S) 011-501-602-8975
Safety: “We were the first Belizean company to fully comply with the safety requirements instituted by NICH, and have been doing so since 2011. And we now have even more modern tubes with the latest conveniences including cup holders, chainlinks, and head rests. We have new Petzl helmets, Petzl L.E.D lights and life vests.”
NOTE: We have not been compensated in any way for this review.
Comment below
So what’s your style—book with the cruise line, or do it yourself? Would you opt for a full day of cave tubing, or would you prefer to split your day 50/50 and add in some zip-lining? … Or maybe you’ve done it already? We’d all love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for sharing.
