Gruta de las Maravillas — Attraction in Aracena

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If there were 6 stars, this would get them!

A most amazing place to visit! Just WONDERFUL.

This is the 2nd largest grotto in Spain, with at least 3 huge chambers, lakes, stalagmites and stalactites galore and masses of weird and wonderful sights.

You have to reserve your place on a guided walk, your hotel will tell you the opening times. We arrived at the ticket office at 5.15 and got two places on the 6 o'clock walk.

WARNING: this is a kilometre and a quarter of walking up and down, on slippery uneven floors, alongside sheer drops (with a guard rail) and with loads of steps. Not for those with walking difficulties or fear of heights. At one point you have to walk on an uneven path and bend down to avoid hitting your head - if you have poor balance it's a bit tricky.

Having said that, it was a wonderful experience. Cool inside - averaging 17 degrees Centigrade all round, it was delightful after the fierce Andalusian sun outside. The walk takes about 45 minutes, depending on how often the guide has to stop to tell people not to touch and make sure that they didn't get left behind.

The grotto is 50 metres high at one point, and you are only 100 metres under the castle and church on top of the hill. Which means that when you walk up to the castle, the ground underneath is hollow. Scary thought . . .

There is no English spoken nor any guide in English. But it's basically just what they told you in school. You know: Mites go up, Tights come down. :-)

One thing he told us was that the best time to visit is in the day or two after heavy rainfall, because then there are spectacular waterfalls in the main caverns.

But even without that, this was a real highlight of our week in the Sierra de Aracena.

They take photos of you in family groups inside the grotto and sell you the prints - go on, buy them, these poor people are trying to make a living!

And do give the guide 2 or 3 Euros - it's not a...

The lights installed really underline the color of the water and little lakes inside. It’s not the biggest or most impressive cave visited in Spain, but definitely within the best lit in the key points. I advise you buy tickets online as it’s only with grouped tours. The village is nice to visit as well, many places to eat to you won’t get bored. The no photos rule is simply absurd and as a normal consequence no body respects it, has the logic of it has always been like that rather than an actual rationale of how it could harm the environment (in the Nerja cave they explain exactly that and why you can’t take flash photos and it makes perfect sense & people resonate), while they have so many strong lights installed in carved places in the actual stalagmites so the arguments of no photos have no fundament in fact. They also take a photo of you with a green screen at the entrance and sell you a pic of “you in the cave” which is embarrassing, it would be more acceptable to take a small fee to let you take photos in the extent of not delaying the group, which would be the only valid argument for prohibiting them photos.

The guide was nice and told us lots of interesting details about the history and formation of the cave, super...

This is one of the most amazing place in this part of Spain. Very well lighted and very well explained by Rafael. Colors, water rocks, spaces are all a kind of comoposition difficult to even imagine. The visit takes about 45 minutes and is 1,2 km long. Too short too me. It was like 10 minutes walking through narrow and small holes in the rock. Then, big salas with all kind of stalactits and stalacmits makes it magic. Different minerals, different colors in the walls, on the ground, inside lakes,... Some lakes are 14 m. deep. Some lakes grow and water has to be sent outside before flooding the cave. Shapes in the rocks are spectacular. This is a nice family visit. Kids and no kids will enjoy it. Temperature is 16 or 18 degree and humidity almost 100 per cent. Price is fine and explications are great. No photos allowed. If can book online you will enter wothout any waiting time. There are many souvenir shops just close to the entrance also many bars where to have some tapas or ham from this village.

Just an excellent choice that worth a...