Gouffre Géant de Cabrespine — Attraction in Carcassonne

We visited the Gouffre Géant de Cabrespine in October with 10 people including 6 children and are absolutely thrilled. The sheer size of the cave is absolutely impressive. There were hardly any other people in the cave which gave us the feeling that we could explore the whole place to ourselves. There is an audio guide for adults and an audio quiz for children, which could even be solved in teams of two (2 headsets per device). The German localization of the guide is excellent. The team of the Gouffre Géant de Cabrespine is very friendly and a nice young lady took the time to explained everything to us in excellent and accent-free German, which was a nice surprise. The highlight is the glass balcony which leans about 20 meters above the "abyss" and opens 250 meters of free air below you. Besides the obvious highlight, the cave offers many other beautiful and also worth knowing things, starting from the history of the actual exploration, bats that you can observe with a little patience and even the roots of a black oak tree that have made their way from the surface to the cave. Absolutely recommended if you are in the area around Carcassonne or Narbonne. Next time we visit, we will definitely do the via ferrata or the kayak tour on the river at the bottom...

Beautiful show cave, defiantly a must-see if you are in the area. The cavern is huge and unique, with amazing rock formations and crystals. The walkways are well-maintained and the cave has been almost perfectly preserved (unlike other caves in the region); none of the stalactites or crystals have been broken off, and there are extensive barriers in place to prevent vandalism.

This attraction is very popular but the group sizes are small, if you don't book ahead you will likely have to wait an hour (even on weekdays) before you can go in. It is better to book online beforehand. There is a nice cafe and shop next to the cave, as well as a short walking route (around 5km) where you can see a ruined Cathar castle and an ancient tree, whose roots go into the cave.

The only negative point is that the tour guide (who you must stay with at all times) speaks through an extremely loud tannoy system, which could be half the volume and still be loud. The main issue with this is that if you are using the audio guide, as the in person tour guide is only in French, you literally cannot hear the audio guide (even on maximum volume) until the tour guide has finished speaking. This makes it very difficult to follow if you are not a...

Long story short - the cave exploring option is absolutely recommended; it is a good level of difficult, yet extremely rewarding.

This was an ultra last minute decision to go - we had tried to check out on the website at 1:00pm not knowing the registrations for the "2/3 Cabrespine’s Accro Cave" close at that time, and the wonderful staff were able to slot us in last minute after we called them!

Florian, our guide, was very friendly and helpful throughout the spelunking. It was quite difficult in some areas, and when they say you should be in good physical condition, they mean it. The descent requires coordination of both upper/lower body strength as well as being able to simultaneously manage your safety harness lock through the lock slides.

You zip line multiple times during this journey and you may need the strength to pull yourself up if you don't catch the landing spot (which is often very small).

There are 3 or so tightrope/bridge obstacles throughout the journey. They are extremely fun.

Final tips - remember to dress light, you will get hot as you exert yourself throughout this journey - the bodysuit/gloves and helmet they provide to you are extremely high quality, and you dont need to worry...