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Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave: Explore the Mysterious Mayan Underworld and Enjoy a Local Lunch
4.9
162 Ratings
San Ignacio
Embark on a thrilling adventure to Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave, the mysterious Mayan underworld. Swim through crystalline waters, explore hidden chambers, and enjoy a local lunch.
Embark on a thrilling adventure to Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave, the mysterious Mayan underworld. Swim through crystalline waters, explore hidden chambers, and enjoy a local lunch.
Duration:
9 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- ATM Cave Belize- Actun Tunichil Muknal - 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…
- ATM Cave Belize- Actun Tunichil Muknal - 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.
What's Included
- Local guide
- Hotel pickup and drop-off within San Ignacio Town
- Use of all necessary equipment
- Bottled water
- Lunch
- Local guide
- Hotel pickup and drop-off within San Ignacio Town
- Use of all necessary equipment
- Bottled water
- Lunch
What's Not Included
- Gratuities
- Hotel pick-up and drop-off outside of San Ignacio Town
- Gratuities
- Hotel pick-up and drop-off outside of San Ignacio Town
Additional Information
Explore the hidden chambers and crystalline waters of the Mayan underworld at Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM), featured in National Geographic! Swim into the mysterious cave, which the ancient Mayas considered to be a portal to the underworld, known as Xibalba. This day trip from San Ignacio includes a 1.5-hour round-trip hike in Tapir Nature Reserve and…
Explore the hidden chambers and crystalline waters of the Mayan underworld at Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM), featured in National Geographic! Swim into the mysterious cave, which the ancient Mayas considered to be a portal to the underworld, known as Xibalba. This day trip from San Ignacio includes a 1.5-hour round-trip hike in Tapir Nature Reserve and lunch at the cave entrance. Climb, crawl, swim and play in the water passage as you enter the caverns, and delight in the refreshing waters of the Roaring River before and after your spelunking adventure.
- 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.
- 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
Location
43 Burns Avenue
Burns Avenue
Unit 2
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.9
(162 Ratings)
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Puja_b
Dec 7, 2024
100% recommend - Perfect day! The driver was friendly, the guide was great. Organized, informative. Warning this activity is not EASY especially for the elderly (50-60+) and especially if you're not in shape. Couple of VERY tight spaces and lot of the time you need to hold up your body weight or crouch down.
Review provided by Viator
Philosophy_w
Dec 6, 2024
Amazing! - This was a once-in-lifetime, bucket list type of experience. The cave is incredible, and seeing Mayan artifacts so close—right by your bare feet!—is amazing. Make sure you bring socks—you have to remove your shoes at a certain point in the cave, so they require you to have them.
Review provided by Viator
834yvetteb
Dec 1, 2024
Unforgettable experience - A truly incredible experience! Highly recommend. I will never forget this excursion. We took kids ages 8-13, and they were absolutely thrilled. You do need to be able to do some climbing and swimming (with a lifejacket).
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Rochellaf
Nov 26, 2024
What a Day! - The ATM cave tour was a day we won’t forget. This trip is the whole package- geology, history, biology, and theology! We learned so much from our incredibly experienced guide, Eric. We started off in a large group but then broke up into a group of six. This tour is very well organized and safety is a top priority. But, this is not a trip for someone with physical issues. There are many parts that require strength and coordination. To start, we crossed a river three times before getting to the caves. Once we got there, it was swimming, climbing, and careful steps to make it to the end. The stalactite and stalagmite formations are fantastic! Once you get to the end, you are in for an unforgettable experience. Seeing the Mayan pottery used for sacrifice and the skeletons that were crystallized is mind blowing. No photos are allowed so the only way to see these artifacts is to see them in person. It is a long day, but so worth the time!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jens_m
Nov 23, 2024
Fun trip to the cave - It was fun moving through the rivers and in the cave. Moving deeper into the cave and finally seeing the Mayan artifacts is the best part.
Review provided by Viator
Yuenchingwong
Nov 11, 2024
Once in a Lifetime Journey - Amazing experience… once in a lifetime. Our guide Ben Cruise is part of the original crew that first discovered the ATM cave and was very knowledgeable and helpful throughout the whole journey. There are multiple pots and skeletons that tells the story of how the Mayans lived and the sacrifices they did. Amazing tour!
Review provided by Viator
Steffani_h
Aug 15, 2024
Amazing- do it! - This was an incredible once in a lifetime experience. Swimming through the Mayan cave and maneuvering through rocks. Stunning formations! Sooo many artificers in one place. And our guide Glis was very helpful, knowledgeable and funny!
Review provided by Viator
Adelle_k
Jul 28, 2024
Goonies adventure - This was such a memorable experience. Our guides were very knowledgeable, Abraham was so patient guiding us through the cave. Highly recommend for anyone searching for an Indiana Jones adventure. It is a highly active and athletic activity. Recommend wearing proper footwear and being Comfortable in water
Review provided by Viator
Fern
Jul 9, 2024
ATM Caves with Belize Family Adventures was a total highlight - Actun Tunichil Muknal or ATM Caves were amazing thanks to our excellent informative good-humoured guide Gliss from Belize Family Adventures who kept us all safe with his expert guiding This tour required us to wear hard hats with head torches for most of it, walking on the flat on wide well cleared jungle paths for approx 1km to the cave entrance from the park entrance wading through three parts of a river, swimming (the only swimming required) for about 5m at the cave entrance and walking (plenty uneven terrain) and scrambling over rocks wading through water for more than 50% of the trail inside the cave, squeezing between rocks (quite tight in a few parts) for approx 2.5km inside the cave and the same in reverse to return to the park entrance Gliss pointed out the artefacts, some skeletal remains of the humans sacrificed and gave us a good outline of the Mayan culture Cameras including mobile phones are banned (only photos I took are of the guide Gliss and the huge cornfield en route) The only thing cave visitors are permitted is a water bottle that must not be left behind
Be prepared to be wet throughout the cave visit and a bit cold when deep inside the cave
Lunch prepared by the Belize Family Adventures staff was excellent Belizian rice with beans, chicken stew and coleslaw, a salad for the vegans/vegetarians This tour averages about 5h and most cave visitors are ravenous at the end Transport to and from our hotel was included We had an excellent driver Jamed who shared his knowledge about plants trees and agriculture in the region
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Rosa_l
Nov 30, 2024
Cool experience, tour company needs work. - The experience of walking through the caves was incredible. I had an amazing time even though I have a fear of darkness and small spaces. The guide made sure that we were all safe and moving along fine with the rest of the group.
The actual artifacts and bones that we saw were a bit less exciting than I imagined they would be. The guide hardly had any real information to tell us about the cave they were left in, it was all just a lot of theories and speculation, plus he rushed us through all the explanations in order to let other groups by so there wasn’t much time to discuss or ask questions.
The company itself is very unorganized in my opinion. There wasn’t much information about what to bring/what not to bring until the morning of. I was told what I was wearing was fine but then after we were already all the way to parking lot of the caves they told me that I needed socks, which I didn’t bring. I also wasn’t aware we weren’t allowed to bring phones or cameras inside the cave, which I can somewhat understand but I wish I was told beforehand. The woman who was in charge of the drive and lunch was a bit rude and very, very unclear with any instructions she gave us.
Overall this was a good experience but only because it was cool to swim and climb through the caves.
Review provided by Viator
