Grutas Candelarias Camping & Tours | Established Campground

spent the day in the community and did two of the tours.both were great. underground tubing experience is awesome
we tried the local dish Kak ik, and thought it was worth it
it is a good place to live the Qeqchi culture and lots of Nature and adventure around
notice: locals' native language is Qeqchi,not all of them speak fluent spanish

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What a Day! After The huge Road To come (we came with an european RV - 7m - traction) we did it.

We came the whole day to the community after the bridge. We were inviting for a birthday and to eat and drink. It was awesome.

We recommend it 100%!!! Just be careful if it s a rainy day!

50Q/night/vehixule

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We really enjoyed this place. Learned a lot about the local community and K'iche' culture. This is a community project where the income of tourism benefits the whole project. You need to speak some Spanish to interact with the locals (and some only speak the local Maya language). Contrary to the experience below, our guide was really talkative and we enjoyed the cave tour, didn't do the tubing. Price for camping and cave tour was 250q for two, didn't negotiate.

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stayed here for a night. we made it with our 2 wheel drive sprinter van, but the road is rough. interesting place to visit as so remote, the community can only be accessed via a walking wood bridge across the river, they have suffered from bad flooding in 2016 and everyone in the community works towards building it. the plastic trash situation in the community though is really sad to watch... the campground is clean, facilities a bit runned down (toilets and cold showers). we paid 75q for camping and 100 each for cave and tubing. it was beautiful but our guide Fernando was not very talkative so not our best experience! we enjoyed it but I don't think it is a must do.

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Somewhat remote place across the river of indeginious people. Great, basic place with friendly locals around. Paid 100per night for 2 adults and 25per night for our 2 year old. Did the dry cave tour and tubing for another 200per adult, both was a great experience! Life vests and flash lights are provided. The road to get there is a little rough and steep in some sections but after rain was no problem coming back in our camper van. We did get stuck on the way out the gate of the property since it was very muddy and the gate is unfortunately placed. Locals had to cut down a tree for us so we could make the tight turn...

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Love this. Great caves. 75q pp.
Bring flash lights and shoes with good tread.

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50Q pp we stayed outside the fence in the main parking/turn around. The fit for our truck camper inside the fence would have been tight. The locals that live across the river rise very early and all catch tuk tuks here so there is a lot of noise before 7 am. Nice people run this place.

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Stayed two nights. Road in is very good. Steep for short runs but not problematic. Camping was nice. Very cool in the evenings, not any mosquitos for us. We did the cave tour and the tubing. Enjoyable and informative. The river is a nice spot to cool down and swim a bit. Very neat place. They offered to make as many meals as we liked. We had two dinners and breakfast. Simple and very good.

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After a short smalltalk we paid 200 Q for camping and the tubing tour for two people.

Camping area is quiet and green, facilities rather dirty and simple.

The tour was fun but our guide did not tell us anything. We tried to get him talking but he only gave short answers. We were hoping to learn more about the cave and the community but were disappointed.
Also the headlights they provide were very dim. After the tour, another guy (not our guide) told us to press the button 4 times in short succession to turn the light to a higher level. No idea if that helps, but might be a helpful advice.

We would probably try one of the other places that offer access to the caves next time.

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If you really want to discover local indigenous culture with nice people, this is the place to go! The caves belong to them (and not to other people around trying to use them) and they really know the history. The tubing activity is fun, the traditional meals are good and all the money is going back to the community to develop projects... The prices are way lower than other places and the persons really make the difference. You definitely should go there, in the community of Mukbilha for a Candelaria experience ...and even more!

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As described by others. What I want to add is that the Mayan community of Mucbilha has an unfortunate history with a long struggle for the Mayan people to retain ownership and administrative control of the property. The story is complicated, with its roots likely in the genocide and subsequent displacement of the indigenous highland people during the military dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s. The point is, your tour money goes to the community, not to a private company, and half goes into a fund for community development (schools, medicine, etc.). This is a beautiful little community with wonderful people, and they could use your support as they learn to be good stewards of the caves and the river that flows through them.

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Arrived in the afternoon and agreed on a price for camping and two tours (cave and tubing) the next day. Initially they wanted to charge 420Q for two persons in total which seemed to be expensive so we negotiated it down to 280Q in total (it’s 3 hours in total with a private guide)
The next day a big group showed up and instead of having a private tour as agreed they wanted us to join the group or wait 3 hours for the guide to come back for us which we found not ok so we decided to leave and not do the tours. Paid 50Q for camping, basically dry camping because shower & toilets were not working and anyway looked very dirty so rather expensive too.

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Lovely spot, friendly staff, nice campsite. After a bit of gentle negotiating, we paid 250Q pp for the dry cave-tour, the tubing cave-tour and 2 nights camping. I'm sure we could have got a bit more discount if we had tried harder, but we were happy to pay that price. We enjoyed it all, but if you only have time or budget for one tour, I would definitely do the tubing tour. Guide only spoke Spanish, no English.

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Very nice place. We were first quoted 50Q pp for the caves tour, 100Qpp for the tubing and 25Q for camping. After a tough negotiation, we ended up paying 200Q for everyting (2 people). We really enjoyed the tubing into the massive cave! The road is not bad at all (to clarify the first comment), just a bit steep during 100 meters but all cars can do it. Nice people too!

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Road is not so bad to get here. Really interesting spot - walk across the skinny bridge and talk to the local community there! But very noisy with buses constantly coming in and out starting very early in the morning.

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Nice people, freshly built facilities. Cute little camping area, flush toilets, and cabanas available (85/Noche).

We were first quoted $100qtz/pp for cave tubing, $75qtz/pp for a dry tour, AND $40qtz/pp for camping.

We got them down to $300qtz/pp for everything, which still seems a tad expensive.

The tours were nice, about an hour each. Dry tour at Cueva Venado Seca was really great. The guide was really good, although our Spanish is limited so we missed a lot of his explanations.

Tubing was fun and refreshing, but the river is very low so there was really no current. We basically paddled/walked our tubes the entire way.

Facilities are great and the guide we had was passionate and knowledgeable, plus proceeds go to the local community.

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The peoples are so nice there and the place is awesome. We did the guided cave tubing tour. It was great! Toilets are clean and nice. We payed 100 Q per car/night for dry camping.

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Nice place to stay and friendly people. New price 50Q pp and Tubing 85Q.

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Camping in the grass was 50Q for two people. Cabanas would be 85/pp. Cueva Aquatica (cave tubing) was 75/pp for approx. 1.5hrs and was very refreshing + beautiful! Cueva Seca (dry cave) would have been 50Q/pp. To provide lunch it would be 35Q/pp but the cook was away when we stopped by. The area was beautiful + the people were wonderful - we definitely recommend stopping here and could have stayed another night or two :)

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Community run campground, cabanas and tours....Very friendly...all is basic and clean... The long tubing tour was great.....They will feed you a set meal brought over from the village, very acommadating.

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Excellent tubing and we got out of camp easy...no rain and we did in motor home that's not a 4x4.. Recommend it just not in heavy rains

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Crazy coming in to camp...very steep, so beware - you will be scared.. its 1.6 km of nerves...Nice river to dip your trembling heart n cool down for next day's adventure of tubing...Q 50 for camping, Q 100pp tubing

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From the main road you have to drive 1.6km off-road to reach this place. It's the entrance/parking area to the Grutas and Tubing Tours. The road gets very steep, rough and narrow. 4x4 recommended (we were able to make it with our trailer, but that wasn't funny) We did't see any showers or restrooms, but it's probably available if you ask. They charged us 50Q (car & 2 persons) but not sure if that was an official price. It was raining all time so we only did the short (20min) guided tour for 25Q pp to the "small" cave (it's actually amazing huge!) Flashlight needed/recommended. Note: Driving distance from Santa Elena is about 4h (including a stop at ferry) roads where in really good shape, no potholes, some Tumulos (bumps)

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We drove from the main road out here. It was a very muddy, very steep road. When it rains, only recommended with 4WD. Here was a big place, think you could stay well here. The Candelaria River goes right through here, but we've seen anywhere where you can rent what could or so, it was already too late.

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