Just got back from our Carnival Legend cruise on April 27, 2008 and coulnd't wait to give my review of Cavetubingbz.com.

I originally emailed Vitalino Reyes about the availability and price for our family group of 17 people, ranging in age from 20 someting to 70 something people and also asked about restrictions and limitations of who should or shouldn't go. Vitalino called me at home and I told him that the final head count was 10 people out of the 17. The night before we arrived in Belize, my 70 something parents decided they wanted to go cavetubing , so the group of 10 turned into a group of 12.. My father has 2 artificial knees and 1 artificial hip and is an insulin dependent diabetic and my mom has an artificial knee also. We snuck on one of the first tenders, along with the cruise ship people who paid 3 times the price then we did. We walked out of terminal 1 as instructed and there he was with our family name in his hand. I advised him that we now had 12 people instead of 10 and it was not a problem, even though he had a large van that we could of all crammed in uncomfortably. Vitalino had a wonderful friend named Peter who drove 3 of us in his Kia Sportage for the 1 hour drive to the caves, and gas costing 5.00 a gallon (US dollar/10.00 gallon Belizean dollar). We arrived at the caves and Vitalino got our tubes and his son handed us our headlights for the caves. We were escorted down the trail and crossed the shallow river and continued to hike. The trail was rocky and my dad just had watershoes on. Vitalino gave my dad his croc shoes to put his shoes into to cushion his feet , and Vitalino went barefooted. After about 10 minutes of hiking, Vitalino asked if my parents wanted to take a shorter route then the rest of the group because the walk was about 20 minutes more. I stayed with my parents and Vitalino stayed with the 3 of us, while Vitalino's son and another guide took the other 9 upstream. We got in the river and Vitalino pulled my parents up stream into the opening of a cave and we turned on our headlamps and saw bats hanging upside down. Our group caught up with us and the site of them with their lamps on looked like floating candles in the dark. It was just beautiful! We were treated by such caring, kind people that really knew what they were doing. The cruise lines try to discourage and scare you about not getting back to the ship on time. We got back in plenty of time and even enjoyed some of Vitalinos rum punch and bottled water on the drive home.
PS:(the drivers were not drinking the rum punch)

What a great memorable family affair!

If you are planning to be In Belize this is the man to see. If you are looking for the run of the mill tour then find a different guide. Vitalino will take time to show you as much as you want to see. YOu get to pick you adventure with him. I went cave tubing and to the Belize Zoo with Vitalino and had a great time. You are able to handle snakes and a tarantula if you would like.

Vitalino offers a great tour and a very personal experience.


Visit www.cavetubing.bz for more information.

After much research on TripAdvisor.com, my husband and I decided to cave tube with Vitalino. From the inital email (Judy Wilson takes care of all of the emailing/reservations) to the trip back to our cruise ship, EVERYTHING went flawlessly. We had a small group of 12. The experience of cave tubing was so much fun...we enjoyed the beauty of the rain forest and the cave systems. We were lucky to have such a personalized tour...the huge cruise ship tours (of 60 plus cruisers) certainly did not have the personal attention we did. Vitalino (AKA Vitamin) took us through a cave system that the other tours did not go through. It was so peaceful..eventually our tour met up with the cruise ship excursions, but have the 15-20 minutes to ourselves was wonderful and breath-taking. We were initially hesitant about booking an independent tour, but would do it again in a heartbeat. We were back at the cruise ship with plenty of time to spare...

We're just back from our Royal Caribbean cruise to Belize/Cozumel/Key West in early April and I have to say I had the best time in Belize.

The best decision we made was to book a cave tubing outing with Vitalino Reyes, a local guide and nature officionado in Belize. I originally got his name from right here on TripAdvisor where he was already getting rave reviews. This excursion was was fantastic and it was fantastic because of him. First of all it wasn't nearly as expensive as the excursions booked through the cruise line nor was it as crowded.

We passed several of the cruiseline arranged groups as we were floating down the river through the caves and they were massive (40 people and more) and unorganized. The ratio of guides to clients was insufficient to offer the attention or safety needed for groups that size.

With Vitalino, we hiked further through the rain forest, learned more and tubed through more caves than the cruiseline groups. As those groups were leaving the water, we still had more ahead of us to explore! Later, on the way back to port, we stopped off at a nice roadside eatery for a delicious meal and refreshments all included in the price we paid for the tour.

Vitalino met us in port as arranged, even though we were delayed getting to shore because the cruiseline tries to make passengers who did not book excursions with them wait until last to leave the ship. Since we had to tender into shore in Belize, this caused about an hour's delay from the appointed time we had arranged to meet, but he was there, polite and prepared.

He was so interesting. It was hilarious as he was tried to teach us words and phrases in different languages of the region. It made for a very funny drive though and before we knew it we were at the park! Of course he told us all about the forest and it's inhabitants ( we tasted the termites and cohone nuts and Begonia stems (which I loved)). On the way back he pulled
over and picked a cashew fruit so we could taste that too. That was really something. I had no idea that cashews grew on top of a fruit and that the fruit was so juicy and delicious.

I am so glad I went to TripAdvisor and got advice on who to hire for that excursion. They were right on the money. Can't wait to get back to Belize and hook up with Vitalino again for some of his other excursions!

If you're going to be in Belize, do yourself a favor and book with Vitalino Reyes - you will not regret it.

V. Sanders