We like to take a cave trip and would welcome experiences from travelers to Barton Creek, Caves Branch and Actun Tunichil Muknal.

We'd also like to take a river trip on the Macal/Mopan. Do all the guides typically start at the same point? Any guide suggestions (we have a car, so we could meet up at a destination). Are they all about the same length of time?

I highly recommend the Actun Tunichil Muknal. Go while you can. It's an amazing experience, but it is not for the soft traveler. You have to jump into a freezing pool of water to swim into the cave and there are a lot of climbing, sliding, balancing and general leaps of faith. The guides generally are excellent (and funny). I say go while you can because I can't imagine these caves will be open for these types of tours in 10 years. You get to walk right through fields of bones and pottery, some of which have already been broken by careless visitors (which is why they make you walk through barefoot). It is a once in a lifetime experience--go for it.

We canoed the Macal from the Jungle Camp to San Ignacio, floated the Mopan from San José Succotz Village (west of San Ignacio) for an hour or two, and did the Black Hole Drop at Caves Branch - all recommended.

We just returned from Belize and we stayed at Ian Anderson's Cave Branch Lodge. We were there for 4 nights and did and an all inclusive package that included our meals and the choice of 3 full day adventures. One day we did the cave float which was excellent. You might want to check them out. The accomodations far exceeded my expectations, the food was fabulous and the adventures were true adventures. http://www.cavesbranch.com/

I agree with the above poster that the ATM cave is not to be missed, as long as you are in reasonably good shape and up for an adventure. There are only a couple of companies that are allowed to operate tours there... we used Mayawalk and were very happy. We also did a cave tubing trip with them which was a lot of fun and much more relaxing than the ATM. Both tours left right from the Mayawalk office in the middle of SI, so all transportation was provided, and both were basically all day trips.

I hope this is helpful. You are going to have a great time in Belize!

I second Ian Anderson's cave branch jungle resort. it was excellent.

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