Grotte des Combarelles

A must see, but (if you only speak English), be sure to book the correct tour! We didn't realise that we could book an English speaking group and once we arrived it was too late to change our plans. Our guide was very helpful, given we were in a French speaking tour! This is a cave of engravings and it's pretty difficult to picture some of them without being able to understand the explanation of what you are seeing. They use laser pointers and lighting to make the images more clear. A must see, but important to be able to understand the explanations that are being given by the expert leading the tour. Generally very accessible, a few areas where it is necessary to watch the height of the cave

I don’t speak French, so the website is very difficult to understand and the reviews for this cave and Grotto de Dont-de-Gaume have a lot of negativity. I took the time to copy and paste and type the French website text into Google translate because I really wanted to see these caves. I booked the tour, I then translated the tour tickets. Grotto de Dont-de-Gaume does offer an English tour once a day but Grotte Les Combarelles does not offer an English tour. Children under 7 are not allowed. Very few tickets are sold each day to preserve the paintings and because you need a small group to see and appreciate the cave paintings. Both of our tours were limited to 8 or fewer guests and any more would have made viewing the paintings impossible. I knew to take screenshots of our tickets in case the WiFi didn’t work. We also had printed backups, because I wasn’t going to make a mistake that would prevent me from seeing these sites! I also understood that arriving “30-minutes before the tour” was a polite suggestion…. But it is required! If you are not early, you may be denied entrance especially at Dont-de-Gaume because there is a brief hike to access the cave entrance. We met 6 different cave employees and every one was very kind, patient, helpful… even though we speak basically no French. We arrived an hour early to each of the two tours to minimize risk of missing our ticket times. Parking was easy, restrooms were available. Dont-de-Gaume has an affordable Souvenir shop and Grotte Les Combarelles has some lovely binders you can flip through for information and sketches (although French only). You cannot take photos of the cave paintings, but I literally took photos of photos in the Grotte Les Combarelles binders and they look like I took photos in the cave!! Haha. At Grotte Les Combarelles the incredibly generous and talented and informative tour guide translated everything into English for my mother and I!!! We did not expect this and very much appreciated the effort. The tour was absolutely lovely at both locations, I appreciate that we saw Grotte Les Combarelles second (because this cave allows you to appreciate the carvings) and Grotto de Dont-de-Gaume focuses on the pigments. I don’t think it’s possible to see both in one day and it would actually be a bad idea because I think it’s good to have time for what you have seen and learned to settle in your mind and memory. These two caves and the lovely tours are a memory I will cherish for the rest of my life.

What an experience! Amazing tour guide that accommodated both French and English. Book in advance as limited entry. No pics from inside the caves as understandably not allowed. These drawings are etchings in the cave wall surface as most of the paint has not lasted. But still an amazing experience.

Gravures and nothing else.....But ..... But so so well explained by our passionate guide. And so authentic..... The feeling of authenticity was supreme. Why would our cromagnon ancestors go so so deep into the heart of the cliffs to make such etchings is a mystery still now. Note: the place is narrow and tight and goes on for several hundred meters from the entrance so not recommended if you are claustrophobic.

Our guide was awesome. She spoke both French and English, explaining every engraving in detail. The management is doing their best to avoid the sad story of Lascaux that was destroyed by the uncontrolled touristy. In other words: access is SEVERELY limited. There's a lot of uninformed reviews by those who might have expected an amusement park. This is an ACTUAL PALEOLITHIC ENVIRONMENT. No backpacks or objects allowed because they might contain food and other bacteria that previously killed Lascaux, the biggest and most amazing cave of them all.

We pre-booked for a tour of this site, a month in advance online. Only spaces on a French speaking tour were left, and despite not being able to speak the language we booked all the same. It was excellent. Our guide was very knowledgeable and really accommodating, conducting the tour in English once she realised it was the best language for the 6 of us booked in. It would be better to book the tour in your preferred language in the first instance if available. The cave is 230m long, and full of remarkable cave engravings. Our guide took the time to explain and show them to us, answering all our questions. She was brilliant, highly recommended.

This is a true visit to the prehistoric world. Small groups of up to 6 adults are guided to view the carved and painted ice age artworks in the public gallery. You are less than arms length away from the traces of their culture.

This was an amazing tour with a passionate guide who made our tour unforgettable. We saw many carvings of animals (horse, lions, cow, deer, bear I think) and a few of human representation. We did several guided tours of caves in the region and this was our absolute favourite. The guide was extremely passionate and answered all our questions with enthusiasm. Small groups of 6-8 are led by the tour guide for about 1-1.5h in the cave. Cave is a bit chilly so do bring a jacket. And book quite in advance to get a spot. We booked 3 weeks in advance. Our guide spoke in French, Spanish and English to accommodate all the visitors languages.