Spring is upon us and that means Spring Break is RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER! I mean, how does that even happen? Wasn’t it just Christmas?
If you’re looking for an amazing vacation for your family I would HIGHLY recommend checking out the Mammoth Cave area. There is seriously so, so much to do that you’ll have to go more than once. Put it on your bucket list. It’s a stunning place.
And our most favorite place to visit when we are there, hands down, is The Hidden River Cave and Cave Museum. It’s our happy place. You just can’t miss it. I recommend it to everyone. Here’s why.
1. It’s located in Horse Cave, Kentucky and it’s right in the middle of the historic downtown arts and shopping district! So cool. Horse Cave, Kentucky is super interesting! They have an award winning cell phone tour and over 50 buildings that are on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Hidden River snakes under the streets and sidewalks of the town and you can trace the pathway of the cave under your feet by looking for the change in the material they used for the sidewalks! Really neat.
2. Hidden River Cave has it all. From mild to wild. You can really make it your own adventure. They offer great affordable package deals for families. Choose from the easy guided underground river walking tours, off-trail wild adventure tours, zip-lining and rappelling at the mouth of the cave, gem stone mining and the American Cave Museum.
You can stay all day and do it all, or choose your favorite activities to try.
3. It’s close to home. Especially if you’re anywhere near the Cincinnati area, this is a “must visit” destination. And it’s only a couple of hours away!
4. Rappelling! We rappelled 70 feet into the mouth of the cave! My daughter LOVED this. It was her first solo rappel. The guides we had were the most incredible sweet couple you can imagine. Maria and Clayton made us all feel very safe and secure. My son was pretty nervous about all these activities and they gently assured him and were so kind.
5. They have a zip-line over the mouth of a cave. We all did the 300-foot zip-line over the largest natural cave entrance in the area! So fun. This was my son’s first zip-line! He did great after he watched us first. And the sweet guides made him feel so safe.
6. GEMS! The kids panned for gemstones and got quite a haul. Then the wonderful staff helped them each identify what gems they got. That was really neat. They knew a lot!
7. The American Cave Museum is the largest one in the world that’s dedicated to caves. It’s super interesting and we learned so much. The museum was honored by The Nature Conservancy Magazine as “a little bit of Smithsonian in rural Kentucky.” So cool! The exhibits are state-of-the-art and feature all kinds of aspects of the cave from groundwater science to natural history.
8. Guided Cave Tours. We did the guided walking tour along the underground river, which was very easy and on a path. We learned a lot about the history and our guide, Peggy, was just the best! She was so knowledgeable and fun and fascinating! We couldn’t get enough of her.
10. Aannnd then, we stepped it up and Peggy took us on a 2 hour off-trail WILD ADVENTURE CAVE TOUR! It was amazing and we can’t wait to do it again. Maybe we’ll try the 3 hour one next. It was just spectacular to get so up close and dirty. The Adventure Tour was even featured by Mike Rowe on his “Dirty Jobs” series! LOVE THAT GUY.
There are countless other fun activities in the area and several State Parks, National Parks and National Landmarks to check out. So you can spend a long weekend there or even a whole week and have plenty of awesome things to do. You can see things like Lincoln’s birthplace and boyhood home, Mammoth Cave, Fort Knox, and even some of the Bourbon Trail.
There are so many diverse activities and sights to see that you need to plan on staying overnight. And BONUS it’s really close to The Mammoth Cave Jellystone, which is where we always stay and seriously has something for everyone. And they just expanded! Be sure to check them out.
If you’re looking for a place that has it all this Spring Break, look no further than Kentucky and DO NOT miss The Hidden River Cave! It’s the best. I can’t recommend it enough. Amazing staff, so much to do and all at very affordable prices. We just love it.
For more information check out their site and also on Facebook.
I’ve never yet been to Mammoth Cave. I’ve always wanted to go though! I’m glad to see it’s open again 😀 (I understand it had been closed due to an endangered bat population a while back). Thank you SO MUCH for sharing your family adventure with all of us here in Cyberland! I really REALLY want to go now! Idk about the rappelling BUT I can definitely do the walking tours! Looking forward to good things ahead…..