Rio Secreto Underground River Tour with Crystal Caves

Fabulous ! Really interesting and great guide . Only negative and was small was the hanging around at the start waiting for other groups to arrive

We went on this tour, and it was fantastic! Benito was great. They ask you ahead of time if there's anyone who doesn't know how to swim. Someone in the group we were in didn't know how to swim, so she piggybacked off of Benito through the deeper parts. I saw another guide doing that with 2 other tourists too. They provide you with lockers to put your stuff in, and you hold onto the key until the tour is over. There are dressing rooms so you can change if you didn't wear your swimsuit under your clothes. You cannot take anything into to the caves for 2 reasons. 1) If they let you bring in a camera, you are less likely to pay attention to where you're going, and might hurt yourself, and 2) if you have jewelry on, it is possible for it to get caught on the stalagmites/stalagtites in there. There are other reasons too, but those are the safety reasons. We learned about the shiney mold growing in the caves, the calcium that floats on the surface and also creates a sand like floor to the cave. We learned the flirtation that the Caves create that provide suitable water for the city. You will be required to take what is best described as the ice shower before putting on a wetsuit. You can elect to not wear a wet suit, but you still have to take the ice shower. We were told the shower temperature was the same as in the Caves. I'm no expert, but I feel like the showers were a bit more frigid than the caves, but I also didn't get to shower with the wetsuit on. Those wetsuits are tricky, especially if you are more of a pear shaped person, who'swet from the shower, putting on a wet wetsuit, when you were handed the wrong size (bless the young man that thought I was smaller than I was). Walking to the cave I started regretting my choice to pour myself into a wetsuit. It keeps your heat in, so you may sweat like a hippo on your short journey to the Caves. Once in the Caves, you could still be ungodly hot. Once in the water, you will be glad you wore a wetsuit (unless you like 77° water year-round). Once out of the Caves, we started peeling off the top part of our wetsuits almost immediately (back to hot again). Its possible that the wetsuits are easier to take off, once you've lost some of your weight in sweat. Afterwards you get to eat an authentic meal at the restaurant. It's nice. It was a nicer lunch than on other tours. There's some variety, but not loads. It was decent. My partner enjoyed it very much. The bus drivers were great too!

Danae was great! We really enjoyed the caves and we learned a lot. The food was excellent too. The staff was very helpful.

Underwater discovery is very fun. Caves were pristine and the water is safe. Operators organized it very well. Enjoyed every minute of it!!!

This tour was super COOL! Swimming in the cave was such a fun experience and the buffet lunch was delicious, very authentic food! We purchased the pictures and they were worth it, they looked great. Really enjoyed this tour and would highly recommend!

We had a great time doing this experience. It was serious spelunking -- wetsuits, a little bit of swimming, and all in a very dark cavern. We had headlamps so it wasn't scary though my 8 year old son did get a little freaked out when we turned them off at one point. I've never done anything like this so definitely it's an experience I won't forget. The tour is long 45 minutes? 1 hour? and time seemed to lose meaning down in the caverns. We couldn't bring our own phones/cameras so if you want photos, you have to pay for them. A photographer comes along with you and takes a lot of photos. The photos are very expensive so be prepared to pay 100 if you want your whole roll.

Perfect

Overall: This tour was amazing. I highly recommend it. Solo, group, kids - great for all ages. I got picked up from Cancun so the ride down was about an hour or so. I completely forgot the name of the bus driver and chaperone, but they were great. The chaperone was funny, he kept the bus alive with his little jokes at 7:00 AM. Once you get to Rio Secreto, you are divided into language groups English and Spanish/Portuguese - I believe I heard some French, too. From there you take a van to meet up with your tour guide to get prepped. The ride is about 10 mins and it's a bumpy, dirt road so if you get motion sickness take some non-drowsy dramamine or chew on some ginger. Once you arrive to meet up with your tour guide, you will be taken to the lockers and shower. They require you to shower before heading into the river. Also, no earrings, watches, etc. in the river. After that you'll be given water shoes, helmet with light, wetsuit, life vest, and a hiking stick if you want one. I highly recommend the hiking stick. There's a 5-10 mins hike down to the river - the path is uneven, slippery, and there are some poisonous plants and trees on the way to the river so you don't want to trip and land on something that can harm you. Right before you head down the river you will be blessed by a Mayan shaman. You can opt out of that if you want. After the blessing it's time to head down to the river. Words cannot even describe the feeling you get just looking at this place in person. If you think the photos are beautiful just wait til you see it with your own eyes. Unfortunately, there are no cameras of any kind allowed, but they do have a photographer following you taking photos for purchase at the end of the tour. Price per photo is 25USD or purchase the entire package for 99USD. I purchased the package because our photographer was great, and I wanted memories of this magnificent place. The photographer was really happy I liked his photos after I told him I was going to purchase the package. We only get to see 10 of a really long and deep underground river that's still being explored and mapped out til this day. The revenue from this tour helps conserve and protect the rest of the river/nature reserve which is roughly 1.5 million years old - let that sink in no pun intended. The buffet they provided after the tour was decent. It's food, and I was hungry so I ate it. Don't expect to be given Michelin star food or authentic Mexican cuisine here. My tour guide was Lu. She was awesome. She provided information about the river, history, and made sure we didn't slip or fall by lending out her hand every time we came across a difficult path. I went on this tour solo and was grouped with some older folks - which I love. My group was lively and entertaining. We all looked out for each other along the way. In the end, I'd do this tour again as they continue to discover more of this underground river.

This was our second visit to Rio Secreto. Wonderful experience with an awesome guide. Well worth the money.

This was an amazing tour and well worth the time away from the all-inclusive resort. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and passionate about preserving a natural treasure.

This tour was very special. Going into this wonderful cave with an excellent guide like Carlos was an amazing experience!. He managed with a lot of skill and safety two groups in different languages. Very recommended tour and guide.