17° 11′ N · 88° 46′ W · Maya Mountains to the Caves Branch River · Ground 10
Three hundred feet into a hole in the jungle.
Then the river carries you under the country.
Belize is limestone with a rainforest on top, which means the adventure here goes down rather than up: into a sinkhole on a rope, down a waterfall in two stages, up the side of a Maya pyramid for the only view over the canopy, and finally into a cave on an inner tube with a headlamp. Scrolling means falling. We show you every stop on the way down, with real prices, and we say plainly where the booking platforms have nothing.
Stop 1 · Sinkhole rappel · Actun Loch Tunich, Caves Branch
300FT INTO THE HOLE
Ninety minutes of steep jungle, then a rim with nothing beyond it. The first ten feet are the ones that argue with you. The last hundred take you down through the treetops into a hole that really does look black.
Booked with the lodge, not a platform. Ian Anderson's Caves Branch runs this one itself and rates it five out of five sweat drops; GetYourGuide has nothing for it. The photo shows the karst hills this country is made of; the sinkhole itself sits in the jungle above Caves Branch.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
You climb through rainforest to the top of Antelope Falls and then go back down the front of it on a rope, in two stages, with the water hitting your legs and the canopy opening up underneath you.
Almost nobody books this online. These tours carry a single review each on GetYourGuide, which says more about where cruise passengers go than about the rappel: Bocawina is in Stann Creek, hours south of Belize City, and most guests come from the lodges around Hopkins. The photo shows a waterfall in the neighbouring Cockscomb Basin, not Antelope Falls.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
Stop 2 · Waterfall rappel · Bocawina, Stann Creek
250FT OF WATERFALL
Stop 3 · Maya pyramid · Xunantunich, San Ignacio
130FT OF PYRAMID
A hand-cranked ferry across the Mopan River, a walk through the plaza, and then stone steps with no railing. At the top you are level with the treetops and can see into Guatemala.
The gentlest stop here, and the one everyone remembers. No rope, no harness, just steep stone – which is exactly why it is the only 130 feet in these grounds that a family with small children can stand on top of. Combine it with the cave tubing and you have a full day.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
You walk into the jungle with a rubber ring on your shoulder, sit down in the river and let it take you. The daylight closes behind you, the headlamps pick out the roof, and for a while there is nothing but the current.
This is what Belize is searched for. Cave tubing alone accounts for roughly 4,400 searches a month in these grounds – more than every rope, rappel and zipline here put together. Cruise ships feed it, so go early or go from San Ignacio rather than Belize City. The photo shows a jungle creek in the Cockscomb Basin, not the Caves Branch River.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
Stop 4 · Cave tubing · Caves Branch River
0FT · ON THE RIVER
A river swim into the mouth, a scramble through the dark and then a chamber of Maya pottery and skeletons left where they fell. The best-reviewed single tour in the country – and not for anyone who dislikes tight spaces.
Belize strings its cables above the same rivers you float through. No operator here publishes a height above the forest floor, which is the only reason ziplining is not a stop in the fall above.
The Belize Barrier Reef starts a short boat ride off Caye Caulker and San Pedro: shark and ray alley, seven-stop snorkel days, the Blue Hole further out. The most-booked water in the country by a wide margin.
Caracol hides two hours down a forest road and holds the tallest building in Belize; Lamanai is reached by river boat through howler monkey country; Altun Ha is the half-day version from Belize City.
| Activity | Pulse | The number | Duration | From | Reviews | Bookable online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Hole Drop · Caves Branch | 5/5 | over 300 ft into a sinkhole | half day | not on GetYourGuide | — | book direct |
| Waterfall rappel · Antelope Falls | Book now → | |||||
| Rappel & zipline · Bocawina | Book now → | |||||
| El Castillo · Xunantunich | Book now → | |||||
| Cave tubing · Caves Branch | Book now → | |||||
| Cave tubing & zipline · Belize City | Book now → | |||||
| ATM cave · San Ignacio | Book now → | |||||
| Cave kayaking · Caves Branch | Book now → | |||||
| Reef snorkelling · Caye Caulker | Book now → | |||||
| Caracol · Chiquibul forest | Book now → |
You float down the Caves Branch River on an inner tube, in and out of the caves of the Nohoch Che'en reserve – “Big Cave” – in the foothills of the Maya Mountains, with a headlamp for the dark stretches. On GetYourGuide it costs about $69 to $115 per person, usually as a five- to seven-hour day with transfer. It is the single most-searched thing in Belize.
Yes, but only with the lodge that runs it. Ian Anderson's Caves Branch describes a rappel of “over 300 feet above the basin below”, the last hundred of them down through the rainforest canopy, after “a 90 minute vigorous, steep uphill hike”. Minimum age is ten and the outfit rates it five out of five for effort. No booking platform sells it.
Bocawina Rainforest Lodge states you “rappel 250 ft down the waterfall in two stages”. It sits in Stann Creek in the south, next to the lodge's own zipline course of nine lines and fourteen platforms. On GetYourGuide the rappel alone is about $146, the rappel-and-zipline combo about $219.
It has 553 reviews at 4.9 stars on GetYourGuide, more than any other tour in the country, and costs about $132 for seven hours. You swim into the entrance, walk and scramble through the cave, and end in a chamber of Maya pottery and human remains left in place. It is not a trip for anyone uneasy in tight, wet places.
Because nobody publishes a number. Belize has plenty of cable – Bocawina alone runs nine lines over 2.5 miles – but no operator we found states how high above the forest floor you actually fly, and this site only prints heights it can source. The ziplines are listed under “also on these grounds” instead.
Belize City is where the cruise ships dock and where the cheapest cave-tubing and zipline combos leave from; San Ignacio in the west puts you next to Xunantunich, Caracol, the ATM cave and the same caves with fewer people. For the rappels at Bocawina you need the south – Hopkins or Dangriga.
On GetYourGuide (Sept 21, 2026): cave tubing from about $69, a Maya site from about $70, reef snorkelling from about $75, the ATM cave about $132, the waterfall rappel about $146, and the rappel-and-zipline combo about $219. The Black Hole Drop is booked directly with Caves Branch and is not priced here.