Belianska Cave — Attraction in Vysoké Tatry

The cave itself was nice. But the one star is for the extreme bad experience I had in the tour on 02,October,2022 at 14:00, the last tour of the day.

To have the right to take photos and videos requires a purchase sticker. Which I had. On one told mewhere to put it, so I sticked it on my shirt and the upper part of my chest. During the tour the guide used the strong flash light directly into my eyes MULTIPLE times! She didn’t speak any English and was being very rude. I showed my purchased filming sticker, guess what was the excuse she gave me “You didn’t stick it on the filming device”. Well, if anyone would have told me before hand, or if there was any sign that reminds the guest to do so, I would. There are so many ways to ask if I have to stickers in a more comfortable and polite way. Instead, the guide decided to flash the strong light into my eyes in a dark cave. It is not okey. Since I was the only Asian in this tour, I pointed at my sticker, and my face, telling her was it enough to recognize my face in the cave now? Very unprofessional staff they have.

The duration of the tour is 70min. When we come out. It was exactly 60min. We were rushed very badly, guide asked us to hurry(that was the only English words she said during the whole tour), and in the end of the tour she just walked very very closely to us in a very uncomfortable manner, trying to push us away from the tour. What’s the point just to run and climb up and down if we couldn’t stop to see and take the photos we wanted. Seriously, if I knew it was like this, I wouldn’t come. The previous tour started at 12:30, and at 14:00 before we go in I saw the previous tour came out. The time they had was 90min. Feel the difference? We had to walk, climb very fast, almost running up and down in this cave. And because of the rushing, my friend hit his head at one place. If we could just walk in a careful manner, none of this would happen.

At the Galleria hall, the music/light show is included in the tour. The funny thing here was the guide she took a short cut and went faster to the galleria. We heard the fading music playing before we arrive. And when we arrive the music finished! Yes, it just finished! Well, we were glad at least we made it to the light show part of it. Does it sound okay to you? It was certainly not a good feeling for me in honest words.

WHY THE RUSH and RUDENESS?

Well, for the rushing part, my theory is this: it was the last tour of the day and of the week. She just wanted to finish her work faster.

But for the rudeness. God knows why.

Over all, it’s worth visiting even if you have to climb up 1km for 25min to get to the cave entrance. Please note that they do not accept card payment. And pray if you are lucky to have a good guide for the tour.

I truly hope on one would ever have this experience like I had...

The cave is beautiful, the experience - awful. First off, you need to hike up a steep hill for about 20 minutes to reach the entrance. There are no signs or information regarding what types of payment methods they accept up there. After hiking up to the entrance, we waited in line at the cashier to purchase tickets. To everyone's surprise, they don't accept credit card. A national monument of Slovakia, one of its top tourist attractions - and they don't accept credit cards. Go figure. They do offer to exchange US Dollars to EUR (plus an exchange fee). However, this significantly slows down the line, as they have a single cashier working there, and anytime a tourist wishes to exchange currency (since they don't accept credit cards), the cashier needs to call in the "supervisor" to sign some pieces of paper. The whole thing is beyond absurd, and lacks efficiency or even common sense. They really need a person with basic business acumen and customer experience to revamp this derelict place.

Second - you need to pay a special fee if you want to take pictures. Yes! The 10 EUR/adult admission doesn't grant you the right to take any types of photos - even with your phone! The fee for photo rights is another 10 EUR, which grants you a special sticker that you need to wear. During our tour, we encountered two groups of tourists who were being harassed by the staff (mind you, the staff is mostly made-up of young 20-year old local girls), who were threatening the tourists that because they saw them taking photos without paying the photo permit, they will be subject to a 50 EUR fine upon exiting. I was just flabbergasted by this. Who in their right mind harasses paying tourists for something like this? Either allow EVERYONE to take photos, or figure out a better way to monetize on the cave experience. Of course, the cave staff said to those tourists that if they pay the 10 EUR photo fee right there on the spot, they would "let it slide".

Don't get me wrong, the cave is beautiful, and the lighting and stairs make it an enjoyable place to visit, but the customer experience is non-existent. It's what keeps these Eastern European monuments from growing in popularity and recognition. Their policies are grandfathered from cold-war era socialist regimes, devoid of today's customer demands.

Lastly, the tours are offered roughly every 20 minutes, yet they're all in Slovakian. When half your customers speak German, Spanish or English, why not have tours offered in those languages spread-out...

Warning: Don’t look at the one star reviews for this place. They’re all so stupid. Some examples. It’s cold. What did you think it was going to be?! It’s a cave not a beach in Hawaii. The tour was in Slovak. Hmmmm… Where is this cave located? In Slovakia!!! Who would have thought that a place in Slovakia would have tours in that language. There were a lot of stairs. You do realise caves are formed naturally. Not everything revolves around you and the cave isn’t going to make itself flat just because of you. Of course there is going to be stairs involved. Seriously use some common sense people. Unfortunately there are more examples but I don’t want to elevate my heart rate too much.

Onto the actual review:

The tour guide was pretty funny. We were listening to the tour in Slovakian but there was also Polish audio from speakers in the cave system. The lights were placed really well and illuminated the cave nicely. I liked the concert part at the end which played music and lights turned on and off. I just wish the tune could’ve been better 😂 I don’t know how to phrase this but be warned of the steep climb there. If you can’t manage the climb there, then probably don’t bother going in the caves. Give yourself enough time to get up. Another tip is to go during a time that is less busy because apparently the queues can get quite long. Luckily when I went during a school day I think, there was no queue at all! The annoying thing was that taking photos and videos cost €10. €10! That’s a scam. No one in my group bought it yet everyone was taking pictures. They need to...