DNI number required to book El Castillo Cave

Thank you. That worked.

Matt

It may be useful to know that Las Monedas cave is right next to El Castillo, a short 10min walk on a flat walk around the mountain, and visiting both caves in the same morning or afternoon may be a good idea. Very different caves with different cave art.

Unfortunately the Monedas cave has spotty open hours in June and is not open on the day we need. At least according to the ticketing website. For now we are planning to see Castillo first and then drive to Altamira. For context, we are driving from Bilbao to Asturias on this day so trying to maximize Cantabrian sites along the way.

Matt

Altamira may be somehow disappointing, it´s actually a museum and a (IMO, not too good) replica of the real cave. There are many other caves in the area, just in case. Funny Las Monedas is not available...normally, one visit goes after the other.

I've actually been using your previous posts to guide my choices here, so thank you - it is much appreciated. We had originally planned for Altamira to be a top site of our trip, but we've since tempered our expectations based on yours and others posts. Our plan is for for 4 caves on this trip (5 if Monedas is open): El Castillo, Altamira, Tito Bustillo and (in France) the Grotte de Niaux. We've been to Lascaux II, Niaux, Font du Gaume and a few other minor caves in France, with Niaux being our favorite (hence the return trip). In your opinion, are those 3 Spanish caves a decent selection or should I be prioritizing others? For what it is worth, my expectations are that nothing will be as good as Niaux or Font du Gaume - and that's fine. The Spanish portion of our trip spans from Irun (east) to Ribadesella in the west.

Thank you,
Matt

Hi Matt...Tito Bustillo is amazing, but it normally attracts lots of people. At El Castillo and Las Monedas you can request a fully private English tour, paying 55eur per cave, and it´ll be just you and the guide (otherwise, it´s in Spanish and price is 8eur per cave, if I´m not wrong). I like this one, you need to hike up for a while, but really worth the visit and the views, https://cuevas.culturadecantabria.com/covalanas-2/, if you can fit both El Castillo and Covalanas on the same day it´d be great (or Las Monedas). In the Basque Country we also have great caves, but all with cave art are closed to public due to conservation issues, a very good replica is the one at Ekain, https://www.ekainberri.eus/en/, UNESCO World Heritage.

And the visit to the replica of Altamira is just fine, as you are interested in cave art and Paleolithic, it may be of interest, the replica has very good reproduction of the paintings but it does not resemble the real thing in temperature, humidity, floor...as other replicas.

You might want to keep looking too if there is flexibility in your plans after you buy the tickets because times may open up. That’s what happened in the days I’m going. Castillo and Monedas showed closed on one day but have since opened up some times.

For anyone else, get tickets for Tito Bustillo and El Castillo as soon as you know your schedule. There may tickets 2 or 3 weeks ahead of your trip but times will be very limited. Other caves in the area (El Pendo, Hornos de la Pena) are less popular and have more availability. Covalana is pretty popular too so might be worth looking into, Mike.

Thank you Mikel and KC. I booked Tito Bustillo this morning (thanks for the heads up about its popularity) as it was already down to just a few time slots to accommodate 4 people during our week there in late June (but we got the 11am time slot we wanted on one of the days so all is good). El Castillo is booked as well. I think I will wing it for Altamira and Monedas and potentially Covalana and Ekain.

Thanks for all your help!