National Museum and Research Center of Altamira — Attraction in Santillana del Mar

If you want to enter expect an affordable entry fee (3€ pP) good quality online guide nice replicas and unfriendly staff. It's better to get an online reservation for entry otherwise you may have to wait several hours.

Very disrespectful towards indigenous groups and absolutely NOT children friendly. No animals/dogs allowed.

We came to visit explicitly for the replica of the cave (neocave). Immediately after entering the replica building we were told to be quiet (baby saying 'dadada') and shortly after I was guided out of there with my 1yo because he was simply trying to talk. We had waited 1,5hours to be able to enter and have only seen about 10% - but none of the paintings. The same time of our visit there were at least three different groups with tour guides and many others talking as loudly as they were in a tavern. We are very disappointed and will not recommend going there with children.

In the additional exhibition it is stated that there are videos of indigenous people shown. Some do not want to have their deceased relatives displayed in such videos. So it is stated 'those have been warned'. In full: 'To many aboriginal communities it is disrespectful and offensive to depict people who have died. Communities who may be offended are warned that the following documentaries may contain such scenes.' This is absolutely disrespectful towards indigenous groups. If the museum KNOWS that some indigenous groups do NOT want those people displayed and even puts up a warning it is still NOT OKAY to show those videos to the public. End of story. No consent means NO. Do not show it. Additionally I found many of the information panels provided a very euro-centric and white supremacist view. For example at the part 'human evolution' - Why are all of the depicted people white? Information about La Dama Roja de El Mirón says 'The woman was robust, 35-40 years old, dark skinned and in apparent good health' and it's briefly mentioned next to one picture. But the drawings of the other information panels only show white people which might mislead into thinking only white people existed back then.

I would not...

This a museum and replica of the Altamira cave that brings together lots of info about the many sites of Cantabrian paleolithic cave art in one place. Well worth a visit, but I have criticisms too, see below. We didn’t book in advance, and got in at 10am with a short (10 min) wait, but we are probably past the peak of summer visitors.

Pros: In Sept 2024, it’s 3€ for full price entry, so super cheap. This means regardless of my criticisms below, it’s well worth a visit. The museum brings together lots of info about all the caves in the area, so could be of interest alongside a visit to another cave too. The replica cave is very well done, and after your timed entry, you get plenty of time to take a good look at it. The temporary exhibition of art by Mauricio Antón was great (it finishes on 13 Oct 2024)

Cons: The museum is rather chaotically presented, and needs more thought if it wants to actually teach people anything. As a visitor I would recommend watching or reading something about the caves before attending so you get more out of it! Information is presented in a very random order, and there is a lot of detail without any overarching narrative. The staff also refused to allow us to move around it backwards, even though the info about the actual painting techniques was at the end of the exhibition! The English translations of the Spanish texts are at best average. I would expect better at a world heritage site. The neocave was constructed in 2001 and still looks great, but this seems to be when the audiovisual exhibits were also made. 23 years later, they could do with an update, as they feel very much...

My family and I came here on a Sunday, hoping to visit the reproduction of the famous cave of Altamira, one of the most prominent forms of rock art from the Paleolithic age, recognized by Picasso as the mankind's acme of art ... The entrance tickets on Sundays are free, and so, when we stopped over on our travel from Guipuzcoa to Asturias, we found them all booked out. Anyway, we were able to visit the museum, which was also free, fun and educational! We spent a couple of hours inside, amazed by spear ends, choppers, harpoons, and then by the many forms of rock art and mobile art on display. The visit covers a whole lot of aspects of archeology as a science and of material culture of the Paleolithic man, through videos, little windows, panels, etc etc, that will leave both adults and kids entertained. After the initial letdown of finding out that we had no hope of going in, the visit to the museum itself turned out to be absolutely fascinating. The facilities are well kept, and include bathrooms, a gift shop and a cafeteria (on Sunday, open...