Depends on your budget. Chaa Creek and Blancaneau are both luxe and closeby. Given that ther is nothing major really around ATM itself, I recommend staying somewhere nearer to San Iganacio which is a cute town full of stuff to do. I stayed at Table Rock Jungle Lodge and LOVED it. It's right in the jungle on the river and sleeping to the sounds of birds and holwer monkeys was memorable.

Not in that river inside the cave.

Being able to climb a jungle gym will be far more important than being able to swim well. While the water does get deep in places, there is no current whatsoever, and the guides provide life jackets for anyone who wants them (and it might be mandatory for little kids - there weren't any kids in our group, but we saw small children in other groups, and all of the kids were wearing life jackets.)

Mayawalk Tours

Hi Penny, The answer depends on whether you mean cave tubing in the ATM Cave or elsewhere, but the answer is most likely a no. There are plenty of restrictions within the ATM cave (both natural and man made). For instance, you will have to squeeze through many tight spaces that would be impossible to do with a tube. Because of government regulations you aren't even allowed to bring shoes and cameras inside (due to fears of the damage they can cause), so you can forget about tubes. If you mean a tour that takes you to the ATM and then caving tubing elsewhere later on, that is possible, but unlikely since the ATM tour lasts pretty much an entire day by itself. At any rate, you would be better off booking them separately.

There are a couple small squeezes, but they're brief. If you're a smaller person I would not think they'd be overly bothersome.

Hi Erica, You absolutely will be fine. There are some tight spaces, but as long as you're not claustrophobic, you'll be good. (There's just a couple tight squeezes but most is wide open.) If you are claustrophobic, there may be some issues inside the cave itself in these couple areas. Otherwise the hike through the jungle, before and after the cave, is easy. The cave walking/ river walking is pretty easy too with shoes that have good traction and can get wet. I used my Keens and was totally fine. It's just the cave itself is mostly a river walk, which was really cool. I say definitely do it.

There is no minimum age requirement to visit the ruins. Since there is a fair amount of walking I’d recommend 6 and above unless you are willing to push a stroller uphill a bit or carry the child.