Itinerary
an hour and twenty minutes drive will take us to the parking lot. your experienced guide leads your group on an easy 45-minute hike to the cave. Walk along the bank of the Roaring River, which you’ll cross three times before arriving at the cave entrance. To prepare your group to enter the cave, your guide provides a historical overview and safety briefing. The water passage allows you to splash and play as you wade through the water, which may come up to your ankles, knees, waist and even neck . sometimes requiring you to swim. At one point, you’ll climb up to a ledge to enter one of the most attractive parts of the cave, where archeologists have recorded more than 1,000 pieces of pottery and 14 human sacrifices. To explore this chamber, you’ll be required to remove your shoes in order to protect the natural surroundings, including impressive formations like rock columns, stalactites, stalagmites, citrines and flowstones. your guide will share fascinating details about ancient Mayan rituals and ceremonies that once took place deep under the earth.
Stop At:
• Actun Tunichil Muknal, Belize
• Belize Family Adventure, San Ignacio Belize
See Availability.
Ko-Ox Han Nah (Let's Go Eat), 5 Burns Avenue, San Ignacio, Belize
Traveler pickup is offered
We provide complimentary pick up for hotels within San Ignacio Town, hotels outside of town, a small surcharge applies
9 hours(approx.)
Returns to original departure point
Minimum height requirement is 40 inches
It is recommended that you wear closed-toe shoes, comfortable clothing that can get wet, a change of clothes and bug spray.
Not wheelchair accessible
Not recommended for travelers with back problems
Not recommended for pregnant travelers
No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
Travelers should have a moderate physical fitness level
Hotel pick up and drop off is for hotels within San Ignacio town limits. For hotels outside of San Ignacio, a surcharge applies.
Pair of socks is required as portions of the cave shoes are removed.
No cameras allowed
This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund
This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 15 travelers
Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Posted By : Samantha_M
The cave itself was amazing and well worth the trip. Specific to this outfit, there were some unusual experiences that made parts of the trip slightly uncomfortable. Our main complaint was with our guide who seemed to be treating women as less than capable of completing the same physical feats as the men in our group. He did not take the time to ask people what they were comfortable doing, instead making assumptions based on our body shapes and sizes while not helping those who actually needed it. He also made some sexist jokes that weren’t appealing, including the trope about four rings in marriage and bad mothers-in-law. I would have rather just focused on the history of the cave and people that used it.
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-05-14
Posted By : CeeBeeKalso
ATM is definitely a unique experience. Our guide was very knowledgeable and interesting. The after cave lunch was quite good. A perfect ending to a long, tiring excursion. Because I’m a regular hiker, I thought this excursion would be pretty easy. While it wasn’t strenuous, it was more of a workout than I expected because of rock scrambles in the cave. Helpful hints….I could have used a shoe better than my very lightweight water shoes. A few hours of walking across rocky terrain plus walking in socks in part of the cave gave me some very sore feet. If you’re subject to motion sickness, don’t sit in the back of the transport van. The dirt road leading to ATM will test you.
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-05-03
Posted By : Wintercoll
We had Ben as our guide. He was one of the first ten guides that led tours through the cave. He was very knowledgeable and clearly cares deeply about the cultural significance of caves. The cave was awesome. The water was just the right temperature. There were tight spaces and a far amount of scrambling but as a relatively fit couple in our 60s we had no trouble keeping up and took a far amount of ribbing about our age. Ours was a group of eight-- a nice, couple from Calgary and a sweet family of four from New York. They were great caving companions and Lily, the cook, made an awesome lunch. Definitely glad we did it and well worth the price for the experience. In case it's not made clear to you...you need socks...not water socks for part of the cave. Going barefoot is not an option if you care about preserving the caves interior....they are trying to protect the ground from the oils on your feet. Feel very fortunate to have gone while there are still a reduced number of guides leading tours. My understanding is that they will be doubling the number of visitors soon and I fear it will be overcrowded in the cave and disrupt the artifacts.
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Posted On : 2024-04-24
Posted By : Joseph_C
Amazing experience. Had no issues with the drive to and back to our lodging. Our tour guide, Patrick, was excellent. Couldn't have asked for a better person. We ended up seeing him and the driver in San Ignacio on another day and he offered to give us a ride back to our lodging. Lunch was rice and beans with chicken and salad cooked by a local lady. It was amazing and probably one of the best meals we had.
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-04-19
Posted By : Nicole_A
This is one of the cooler things I’ve ever done. Manuel was a fantastic guide and made sure everyone was taken care of. He was very knowledgeable and had a great sense of humor. Would highly recommend this to anyone who is interested. The food was also good.
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Posted On : 2024-03-27
Posted By : louisebQ7384IE
It is not for the infirm or small children. But if you can walk, climb a little it’s totally worth it. Don’t think twice. Only possible with a trained guide.
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Posted On : 2024-03-17
Posted By : Peter_A
The guide was good but didn't give us much time to view the formations - he held the only decent light (we were asked to use a low light on our helmets for some unknown reason) so a lot of the time we had to cheat and turn our lights up to see any of the impressive bits. I think it might have been so he could show us the cheap "this formation looks like an old woman" items but we'd have preferred to see the glory of the rocks.
Take your own snacks if you value your wallet - we stopped at a "random" supermarket with no prices on anything to get food for the trek and it cost us about £8.50 for a large-ish bag of salted crisps and a Snickers. Then it turned out there was no opportunity to actually eat it at any point, so why did we stop at all...purely to get ripped off...?
Also, they asked us to bring a change of clothes. We did. But then it turned out there was a dress code, so I couldn't go bare chested and my other half couldn't go in her swimsuit, so we had to soak our change of clothes. Our bad in some ways, but unless I'm totally blind the details on the ticket didn't explain this.
Having said all that, the cave was spectacular (when we secretly allowed ourselves to see any of it) and the end point was worth all the squeezes through tight openings at weird angles, cold water, sharp rocks, awkward climbs and mild claustrophobia. There was also a two-mile hike to the cave which was quite cool as we had to cross the river 3 times and the view up and down the river was lovely.
In the end we got back quite tired to the starting point and the lunch was sitting ready for us just served and it was pretty nice - Belizean chicken, rice with beans, coleslaw, tortilla chips and a really good salsa. Little bit of hot sauce and quite a big container of rum punch which wasn't very strong but was still a decent addition.
So although there were clothes issues and the rip-off supermarket, those minor negatives were worth the experience.
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Posted On : 2024-03-17
Posted By : Evelyn_M
Patrick was our guide, excellent service. Learned a great deal just walking to the caves. In the cave it was incredible and the information we received from our guide amazing. My sister and I are older and received the best treatment we could have asked for.
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Posted On : 2024-03-16
Posted By : Dan_L
+100 to what’s already been said - amazing experience, fantastic guide (Manuel), food pretty good, but just a unique, memorable time.
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Posted On : 2024-03-15
Posted By : Stephanie_D
We weren’t quite sure exactly what to expect but this experience far exceeded our expectations! It was truly a unique experience including a lot of history with a mix of adventure. We spent much more time than expected in the cave and saw so much more artifacts then we could have imagined. It does require a lot of walking, some balance and ability to adjust in different spaces including dark spaces and tight crevices.
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Posted On : 2024-03-14
