Robinspo

On my recent trip to Mallorca, I visited two caves with my family. It was my first time so I wanted to maximize seeing local attractions (over shopping, eating, or even resting).

Here is a one-day itinerary where we saw two very striking caves: Cuevas del Drach (Dragon Caves, €17) and Cuevas de Artà (Caves of Artà, €16). We had a car, so going between both from our accommodation in Palma was rather easy.

1. Two caves: an overview (Porto Cristo + Artà)
2. Post-cave activities (Manacor)
3. Overall notes

Stop 1: Cuevas del Drach

The main attraction of Cuevas del Drach, or the Dragon Cave, is the blue pool of water at the very end. They light it up with blue lights to make the pictures even more stunning, and there’s an amphitheater where you can relax while watching a classical music performance. It’s beautiful, even if a bit “touristy.” The musicians play chamber pieces while riding boats across the pool, so as an orchestra kid, I had an amazing time. A ticket was €17, and that includes a free boat ride across the water to the exit.

Visitors are not permitted to record the chamber music performance, so here is a picture of the area pre-show. There are lots of seats so we were not worried about getting a spot. Plus, it’s on a gradual incline so I was able to see the boats, even from the back of the amphitheater. It’s a unique experience, and the acoustics are great.

At the end of the boat ride, you’re dropped off towards the exit of the cave, where there’s only a few more flights of stairs to climb up before we re-entered daylight and grabbed a snack.

Outside of the cave itself by the admissions booth, there’s a cafe with plenty of outdoor seating as well as a souvenir shop. And with lots of parking, this attraction was quite tourist-friendly. I see why it’s so popular!

It feels like they know their audience – there were plenty of things to make tourists comfortable, as I mentioned above, and there was a shaded pagoda where we queued up, amusement park-style, as we awaited our timed entry.

Overall, this is quite an easy place to visit with a large group of tourists, or to visit with your family.

Stop 2: Cuevas de Artà

Firstly, the drive to this cave was so scenic, way more so than taking a regular highway to Stop 1. The last leg of our journey up the mountains in Artà made the adventure feel less like we were seeing a place optimized for tourism and more like a stopover at a lookout point. (Though of course this place was friendly for tourists too).

Please note that this set of caves was rather deep, and there are a lot of stairs to go up and down. Admission was €16, including a guided tour which was definitely worth it. Thankfully our arrival coincided with the 4:45pm tour, the last one of the day.

Unlike the Dragon Caves where we were left to our own devices, the tour guide explained the chemical composition of the stalagmites and pointed out some “famous” ones – in English, German, and French! That alone was impressive, but I also felt like I learned something. We saw the formations called “sheep,” “elephant,” and many more like the Queen of Stalagmites (picture above)

Other notable ones were called: the Flag of Rome (45m), Organ (40m), and Diamond. Can you recognize a few of them below?

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, we went to “hell.”

And boy, was it a performance! From these steps, we sat and watchedthe cave light up in different colors in time as music played from hidden speakers. Very unexpected, but maybe I should have known by now.

Stop 3: Manacor

This city is famously where tennis star Rafael Nadal is from, so we had to take a look. The museum was closed by this time, so we just walked around.

Dinner was okay, but we did stop by an amazing churro place called El Rincón del Churro, and the store owner gave me and my aunt a tour of the kitchen:

If we had time, it would have been interesting to visit the Rafa Nadal Museum, but you can add that to your itinerary!

Instead, we explored the city center, shopped, and called it a day:

Overall notes

This itinerary’s focus was all about the Caves, with a dinnertime stopover in Rafael Nadal’s hometown of Manacor. (I honestly am not enough of a fan to have added Manacor to the list otherwise, but it was a convenient stop to check out on the way back home to Palma from the eastern coast.)

As for the caves, I’m glad to have visited both because they each offered a different experience. I’d never experienced such a theatrical cave visit, nonetheless in two different locations! But I liked the experience more than I thought I would. The novelty definitely contributed to my delight (take notes, Howe’s Cavern in New York!). 

I’ve listed out the benefits and drawbacks of both, in case your itinerary can only accommodate one visit:

	Pros	Cons
Artà	Tour guide (multilingual), more interactive (such cute names for the stalagmites and stalactites!), scenic drive.	More uneven stairs (and lots more of them), no food on-site so you would have to plan a separate stop if needed.
Drach	More family- and large group-friendly, with a refreshment area for food, drinks, and souvenirs.	No guided tour, quite impersonal and no descriptions (but it is just a cave, so it is pretty straightforward).

Save this for your next trip to Mallorca – hope you enjoy!