NERJA, SPAIN – 25 October, 2026
The city of Malaga in Spain would be our last stop on the Viking Cruise. Christine and I had talked about getting a private guide/car but when we looked around, the options weren’t appealing (not much to see), then, out of the blue Christine looked at the “on shore options” that we could pay for and found a trip that I’d be interested, a visit to Nerja Cave and it would only cost US$145.
It turned out that on the cruise we each got a US$170 credit to spend. We could use it on drinks that weren’t “free”, like a Brandy Alexanda for Christine and a Pina Colada for me (I only had one as it wasn’t that good LOL). Any of the $170 that we didn’t use, just stayed with Viking, so we’re 2 days from docking and I’d only spent $20, so I had money to burn So, I booked into the cave trip.
I knew that the cave was a show cave, so didn’t have high expectations. So, a little bit about the caves
Caves of Nerja (Cueva de Nerja) are a series of caverns close to the town of Nerja in the Province of Málaga. Stretching for almost 5k the caverns are one of Spain’s major tourist attractions. The caves were in modern times in 1959 by five teenagers, who entered through a narrow sinkhole (1 of 2 natural entrances). A third entrance was created in 1960 to allow easy access for tourists. The cave is divided into two main parts (1) the show galleries open to the public, and (2) an upper gallery which is what was originally discovered where some cave art was found. In a 2017 study concluded that the art was dated between 18,000 and 20,000 years ago, which would mean that they were painted by Homo sapiens.
It took us about 1 – 1.5 hours to drive from the port to the cave. I have to admit I was blown away by the number of tourists there (only 12 of us from a cruise ship). Halfway through the cave I asked one of the staff how many tourists they got each day and was taken aback when she told me they had 2,000 visitors in the shoulder season and 3,000 during the peak tourist season!
This is the infrastructure that has been installed to accommodate tourists. There were supposedly 400+ steps and a lot of cemented pathways.
The first section of the cave that tourists see and I wasn’t that impressed.
And then I was impressed.
Stunning formations.
The formations looked dried out and initially I thought it was a “non active” cave. I contemplated this for quite a while and decided that the air-conditioning that had been set up to ensure that the humidity from all the tourists breathing was also drying out the formations.
More nice formations.
When we made the start of the chambers, I was blown away by the size of the chambers … huge!
This gives you an idea of the size of the chambers and there are a few of these chambers.
The rainfall in the past must have been impressive for this amount of formation to be created. A far call from the rainfall in modern times.
More stunning formations.
More lovely formations.
I’m not sure about the lighting that they’ve used, not sure why this formation is blue.
Interesting the formations that have been broken – obviously not by humans, too high up, might have been earthquake.
This formation was about 30m high.
So big!
More good formations.
This gives you a good idea of the size, in the middle of the image, there are tourists and steps! Also note the formations that have fallen from the ceiling – probably from earthquake activity in the past.
More earthquake evidence and tourist steps in the distance.
More 30m high formation.
Some nice flow stone.
I was aware of the amount of lighting that had been installed but this was some Lampenflora I was able to get close enough to photograph. It doesn’t look like they are removing this from formations. However, I didn’t see any trash (given the amount of tourists they have, that’s surprising).
Another shot with a tourist to give you an idea about size.
We’re out of the cave now and about 20m from the entrance of the cave is the entrance that the teenagers found. The hole has been widened, so researchers could more easily enter, it’s a vertical entrance so I figure back in 1959 they had a ladder to enter.
From the cave we then went to the village of Nerja where we had a half hour to explore. These images are for anyone who might think of doing some caving in the area, it’s a very pretty town and once the sun goes down I’ve heard that the tourists disappear and you share the town with the locals!
Local church (I’m pretty much over churches!).
Nice inside though.
Nice promenade, but lots of tourists as I wrote above, a local told me that the tourists disappear late afternoon.
From the promenade you can look down into the sea, crystal clear water, there are a couple sunbathing on one of the big rocks mid-image.
I didn’t realise that the Mediterranean would have such clean water (don’t know why I thought that!).
View of the beach from the promenade.
Looking down the coast line, with the village in the foreground.
So was the US$145 worth it? Definitely, one of the best show caves that I’ve been to. I have seen wild caves bigger than this, the Borneo caves were bigger, but they are some of the largest in the world. I would recommend anyone in the area to check out Nerja. I did finally get an answer out of our guide (who was a local), there are more caves in the area, some of which are as big as Nerja. So, anyone who’s interested in caving, Nerja would be the place to go, all you have to do is get in contact with the local caving group! I’d go back in a heart beat!
WOW! This looks so beautiful! so pleased you went. I really hope you get to go back there to do some caving!