You Have to Visit Luray Caverns

Luray Caverns gift shop and café as seen outside

Today, I went on a trip to Luray Caverns. My mother really wanted to go so, I thought, "why not go now and with my girlfriend too?" and off we went. We left our dog, Lady, with my aunt.

After my experience, I can wholeheartedly say that you absolutely must go see the Luray Caverns in your lifetime. It is a sight to behold. The road trip there was also pretty special.

I sat in the front passenger seat, and took several pictures like this one

The trip to Luray took an hour and a half. We arrived early before they opened around 8:30 AM. We would later find out that was a good idea because that meant we were the first ones to go through the caverns themselves and would therefore basically have the experience to ourselves without people getting in the way or other disturbances.

The empty Luray Caverns parking lot

While it is mostly "just rocks" the allure of Luray Caverns is in how the rocks formed. We were unfortunately ill-prepared so we opted for the self-guided tour but if you get there at the right time the "Discovery tour" can be overheard.

There were stalagmites and stalactites galore as we walked our way through the caverns. A tip for anyone who may decide to follow in my footsteps is try to watch your head and your step. You can slip due to the water on the floor and the surface is rather slippery on it's own.

You could also bang your head on a stalactite or even trip over a stalagmite.

Tickets cost $32 per adult. Our initial reaction was "what?" when we heard the price, but honestly it was pretty worth it. The ticket also includes entry into the car and carriage museum, which is one of my favorite museums ever. It does not include, however, the maze or the rope adventure park.

A grand total of $96 to go into the caverns if a hefty fee but it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see these rock formations in person. We were more than happy to pay the fee. The following are my favorite pictures from Luray Caverns.

After the caverns, we headed to the Car and Carriage Caravan Museum. There's not much to say about it except that it's awesome. Most of the cars have their engines taken out or visible, so you can see the evolution of the inner workings of the cars.

After all that we headed to a local restaurant but after finding out they're closed we decided to just go to the McDonald's next door. Unfortunately, we didn't get to the Heritage Village, the maze, or the Rope Adventure Park, but I'll be sure to go next time.

Overall, the experience was very good. The staff in all the places we went were very nice and you could feel the southern hospitality. I'm very glad we took the trip because we also hit the Shenandoah National Park while we were there. A truly life-altering experience.