Lost River Cave

What a special place! It is so cool that something this unique from nature is located right in the middle of a neat little city. You really feel like you’re escaping into nature and experiencing something worth protecting. If you care about nature, this is a stop worth making! The non-profit that runs this uses all proceeds to continue to preserve these 72 acres, including the cave’s fragile ecosystem. Our tour guide, Trevor, made the boat ride really entertaining and educational. We learned that there is cool music history here too - Ella Fitzgerald once performed in the former night club! We also really enjoyed the beautiful trails. Worth a visit!!

Ehhhh..... The story of this place is much better than the actual experience. It breaks down to a well informed in-and-back boat ride and a few ziplines (that were actually closed today). Not a terrible experience for $25 a person but honestly not as exciting as I anticipated. The trails are a little boring and short and it was too dark to reach the butterfly garden by the time the tour was over. I would have rather attended the 1930s hop joint. Would make an excellent place for a New Years ever party and I'm glad to be part of the last ride of 2025.

This was a great tour. Hopefully you will get tour guide Sophie, as she is phenomenal and so entertaining. There was a lot of history provided. The tour is short, too short, but we'll worth doing at least once. Id suggest planning when the butterfly exhibit is open. There is also a beautiful trail to get in a little exercise.

This was a fun tour experience! You will learn a good amount of history. The tour lasts about 50 minutes and you only spend about 15 minutes in the cave.

The water was so beautiful and blue thanks to the high levels of Calcite. The pictures don't do it justice, it was unnatural but in a magical way. A very unique experience overall, I highly recommend. You do have to walk a little ways to the entrance of the cave but the walk isn't steep or difficult. Children are required to wear life jackets, adults have the option to if they want but are not required.

First of all, and I cannot emphasize this enough, this is a non-profit cave! I was very worried that this was going to end up being one of those overhyped and under delivered commercial kind of caves because I've been to a lot of them. But that fear was completely unfounded! This cave is the opposite, it is completely under hyped! The entire tour is conducted from the boat. And I'm sure there's probably some variability based on your tour guide, our tour guide was Sophie and she was awesome, but regardless anyone would have a good time here. Where else are you going to get to go underground and float down a river in a boat! On top of that it was just naturally very beautiful. And I've been to a lot of caves but this was totally unique. I would definitely highly recommend everyone to visit.

The Lost River Cave tour was a fun and interesting stop on our trip. It’s definitely geared toward tourists, and while we enjoyed it, it’s more of a one-time experience—I likely wouldn’t return if we visited the area again. Our guides were friendly, knowledgeable, and shared great insights about the cave’s history and unique features. The surrounding nature area was also enjoyable to explore, and we especially loved the children’s nature scape—it was a hit! Overall, it’s a fun stop if you're nearby, but not necessarily a must-see attraction in the area.

An outstanding experience. The cave was stunning, the water’s green-blue color was mesmerizing, and the history was captivating. Our guide, Sophie, was exceptional—knowledgeable, engaging, and truly enhanced the tour. Five stars.

Our tour guide Olivia was amazing and very educated on the history of the cave, not to mention quite knowledgeable on how caves are formed and the wildlife therein. She threw in just the right amount of snark and we loved it!! She has a terrific sense of humor. The cave itself was simply beautiful. My husband has a tv show called History Highway and did a Jesse James Lost River Cave episode (S1 Ep 6) two years ago, so he already knew some about the cave, but learned a lot more! Saw the Venmo tip board...it made me feel so guilty that I didn't have enough to tip her bc if I did, I would've. Spent most of my money eating out for our anniversary!! We absolutely ADORED the gift shop! Sorry Olivia, we'll be back hopefully next year because I'd def wanna revisit the gift shop since they have so many unique gifts. There's tons to do in BGKY, so go here if you wanna get away from the hustle & bustle!

Drew, our boat guide was wonderful. He was very engaging and combined humor with his delivery. Kristen at the front desk was another story; far from the interaction with Drew (tour guide). Kristen was rude, not interactive at all (as you would think someone who is in a position to be the first face of the organization; she was very disappointing. Again, just rude!

This was a cool adventure. The grounds themselves were gorgeous and inviting. We went on the tour which was fun and informative. We started at the meeting point and walked down to the cave area hearing all about the river and history of the cave. Then we got on a boat and traveled into the cave. At one point we all had to duck down low to prevent our heads from hitting the rocks. It was gorgeous in there. We even saw some crawfish in the water. They were prepping for a wedding when we were there, which looked like it was going to be a great time. There was also an area for Halloween festivities on site too. It also had a cute gift shop area. Definitely check it out.

As a BG native Lost River Cave has always been a fun escape from the city with beautiful trails, a greenhouse filled with butterflies, something for the history buffs, gem mining, and a chilly cave! It is free to walk around and they have a beautiful gift shop with lots of local goods. They have a huge outdoor play area for kids as well. Great place to go for a hike in the woods or even run/walk on their paved trail. Unlike how it was when I was growing up, you can't walk all the way to the cave without a tour guide, which is a shame but I am guessing it is for safety. The boat tour costs around $25. I wish they would let folks walk around the cave like they used to for free. Great place for events - they host a lot of weddings!

Fun place to come and see a unique Kentucky Cave! When I was looking up caves to go visit while in the state I thought this one sounded different since you get to go in a boat and see a river inside a cave. The tour was very fun and it was so cool to see and hear about the history of it. It had a lot less walking than I thought and there was no walking inside the cave it was all in the boat. It was a cool experience and now I'm ready to go see more caves next time I'm visiting in the area! Thanks to our tour guide Olivia for a great tour :)

Blue hole which is the water body in the start of the cave, is being dyed green today by some leprechauns. Believe it or not, there are parts of the city of Bowling Green under this 7 mile cave. The boat ride is slow but informative. Saw a lone tiny tiny bat inside the river cave. You get to see the tiny stalactites.

Very interesting experience. Not sure it's worth $23 but it was fun. Definitely fun for kids if you're looking to kill a couple of hours. Probably not for older kids or toddlers. Definitely not for people who are claustrophobic! The story behind the cave & the tour is worthy the stop. **Not at all recommended for those who have trouble walking or easily winded.

This place rocks! ;D If you're interested in learning about cave formations, take the Lost River Cave tour. Booking was easy, and the tour guide was enthusiastic and loved her job! The clean and beautiful Lost River area is curated and taken care of by funds from the Friends of the Lost River. According to the tour guide, at one point the place was used as a trash dump, and 50 tons of trash has to be removed over a decade, with 1000s of volunteer hours. It's truly beautiful what natural formation exists in Kentucky, and we should honor our beautiful Earth by keeping it clean. Shoutout to Kentuckians, my experience was all positive. Check out their store too for rocks and other cool novelties.

Fun trip in an underground large military issue John boat. Amazing rock formations. Tour guides informed and fine boat drivers in tight spaces. A "don't miss" in Bowling Green Ky.

This place was absolutely beautiful. The cave tour is really cool, you can tell the tour guides love their job. Their butterfly sanctuary was also very pretty. WKU helps maintain the area and they do a great job.

This tour was good, not great, but a nice stop if you have extra time near Mammoth Cave. This was the only truly wet cave we ventured to. It was a nice albeit short boat ride through the cave. Our tour guide Emma-Claire was so passionate and informative. You could tell she was interested in what she was talking about, and did a great job of inserting humor in with the history. The cave is very pretty and the gift shop has a good selection of trinkets and handmade goods from local artisans. This wouldn't be a tour I would repeat, and think the price doesn't necessarily match the length and overall experience. Based on length and overall tour, shouldn't be priced higher than $12pp. You can head to most other caves and spend almost double the time for the same price.

Nice tour that takes about an hour. Very informative guides. The property is nicely kept with plenty of green space to enjoy above the cave system. Good addition to a Mammoth Cave vacation!!

This was a return visit to Lost River Cave for us. The area is managed by Western Kentucky University, and we had a very friendly tour guide who is a student at the university. This cave has a long and storied history and is featured on the National Register of Historic Places. It also has recognition as being a famous nightclub in the 1930s and 1940s. The tour takes you past one of the big visible blue holes aboveground as you head down to the cave entrance itself, though it was looking a bit green on our visit due to a recent large rainfall. There's a nice trail through the woods that lets you see some of the others, as well, to do before or after your cave tour. We really enjoyed the boat tour, which is the feature that really drew us back. It does start with needing to bend all the way over "like you're tying your shoes," as our guide said, as you have to go under a very low hanging rock until it opens up into the beautiful cavern space. It's really nice to see how much they've preserved the space, which was trashed in the time between when it was a nightclub and when the university took over. There's also a very nice natural play area and a gift shop. Fun place to visit!

Awesome cave tour! Our guide Jayden was very nice and shared lots on historic information about the cave. Highly recommended!

Our travels brought us into town a little early, so I took my kids to see Lost River Cave after looking at a few reviews and pictures. The entrance to the place is friendly and welcoming. I love what they have done to the surrounding area to make it look rustic. There is an excellent gift shop with plenty of items to browse. Tickets for my two teenagers and I ran about $71. This is on par with many show caves, so it must be pretty big. After all, Mammoth Cave ran us $24. The young lady we purchased tickets with was "all business..." not much small talk, but rather scripted. We joined our tour guide at the bridge entrance a little ways away. She showed up with a mini speaker around her neck and a headset. She discussed some safety and general information about the cave before we started. The entrance to the cave is a little different than others, and it shows off its uniqueness. We had a large group, so our guide said she would split the group in two, and another guide would meet us shortly, as she was off to boating with the first half. It took about 15 minutes for that to happen, and it felt disorganized. Once our guide showed up, we got into the boat and were on our way. The boat is rather long, with a motor in front and rear. As we got underway, the guide warned us to all duck our heads as much as possible. This is because the entrance is LOW, so they call it "wish rock." If you don't duck your head, you will "wish" that you had. Anyone who ignores these instructions will likely be talking out of their rump for the rest of their life. The guide said that Jesse James hid out in this cave. Jesse James must have loved caves because they also say the same thing in many of the Missouri caves. The entire boat ride lasted about 30 minutes at maximum. Was it worth over $70? A more fitting price would be about $25 for the three of us. It was a beautiful area, and the cave had some neat history, but it was short and did not woo us seventy dollars worth. I am glad I took the kids so they could see it, but it will probably be a "one and done" type of thing."

We loved it. Best attraction in town for sure. Can't believe there used to be a club here. It says no flip flops on the reservations but the college students running the place didn't enforce that thankfully. I'm not sure why you'd need "sturdy" shoes anyway. Easy paved walk to the boat ramp. Some stairs down to the water. Most of the cave water is ankle to waist deep only but life vests are available. There is a place you have to duck because the ceiling is really low. Booking online was super easy and plenty of availability. The cave can flood inside but I think it must be rare as I saw a sign saying they do go in the rain too. Olivia was our boat operator and she was cool. The reservation says come half an hour to 1 hour early. But after checking in at the gift shop and signing waivers (waivers can be signed online in advance too) you just end up waiting for the tour to start. I'd say 15 minutes in advance is fine.

The Lost River Cave was such a fun excursion! Great guides, fun tour, and a cool property that was interesting to wander around on. We booked our tour the day before - they seem to get very booked - and quite enjoyed it. The tour was about 45 min, and started with a short walk down to the cave entrance. The guides give some history about the area and the cave. The boat ride was next, and you are going into a cave, so be aware if you have any kind of claustrophobia! There's a quick section where you have to duck down in the boat because of the clearance of the roof of the cave, then it opens up and you are in much bigger spaces the rest of the tour. I will return someday for another tour and to spend more time exploring some of the trails!

Stopped here as it was on a travel path. It was a nice cool cave boat tour. Some of our photos were full of wedding stuff as they were preparing for a wedding. Butterfly wings photo op on the side of the building.

It's an ok tour. Talk of history is longer than the boat tour. It starts with a very low ceiling that you have to really bend over in your seat to avoid hitting. Tour stops a couple times to show you things in the bigger room. Guide was knowledgeable and funny. Some nice history to learn dating back to 1800's. There are nice trails to walk without paying for the tour. It was a cool experience and most of money collected goes into preservation and there are geological studies being done. Was told cave floods about 130 days a year on average.

Very beautiful and informative. Our tour guide Fletcher was the best! Give that man a raise!

Our tour guide (Ava I believe, young blonde lady - student at WKU) was very pleasant and informative and we enjoyed the tour.

Nice for a little day out activity. Boat ride into the cave is nice as well!! Get to touch the ceiling

Beautiful scenery with a gorgeous cave! So glad we stopped here on our travels! It is a must see! Cole our tour guide was knowledgeable and very good at answering the kids questions. Highly recommend seeing this treasure!

Boat tour was so much fun! Alex was a great tour guide! He knew so much! Highly recommend

We did the Lost River Cave boat tour. It was an amazing tour. Our tour guide, Barrett, was very informative and knowledgeable with a great mixture of comedy. He was a joy. I highly recommend this tour.

Lost River Cave was one of the best and most affordable adventure places we have visited since we moved here. We purchased our tickets online to the underground boat cave tour. The tour is popular, and the tickets sell fast. Online purchases are recommended. It is about $25 for an adult. They will give you a discounted refund in person if you show your military ID. Our tickets were reduced to $15 a person. The hiking trails are fun and gave a good mini workout. The boat tour was about 45 minutes. The walking portion is 20 minutes, and the boat ride was 25 minutes. You sail inside a 350 million years old cave and learn a lot of amazing facts about the cave. Our tour guides were Austin and Caroline. They were easy to listen to and kept the group entertained well. We were pleasantly surprised by the butterfly house and garden. So many beautiful butterflies! Many of them flew around me and onto the ground...like something out of fairytale. This was one our favorite parts of Lost River Cave.

The short drive up is definitely worth this cool little adventure. We weren't sure what to expect going into it, but once we arrived we were pleasantly surprised. While waiting for our 4:30p boat tour, we visited the large, nicely stocked gift shop. The shop had tons of items to choose from including home decor, books, children's toys, and of course, beautiful geodes. Since we had some time, we bought these bags of sand they sell at the gift shop and took them down to the panning stream to "mine for treasures". Honestly, I don't think it was worth it; it was kinda pricy for literally seconds worth of entertainment for the little ones. Unfortunately our 4:30p boat launch turned into a 5:30p launch. We're not exactly sure why the hour delay; it was a bit bothersome since we had kids, a toddler and a baby in our crew, but we kept a positive attitude. They finally gathered our group and walked us down to the boat launching area. The guide had a portable microphone, but must have forgotten to turn it on cause we couldn't hear a thing. Nonetheless, once we received our seat/floatation devices, the adventure began. The cave was awesome! The best part was by far the wishing rock. I'll let you experience that surprise for yourself. The actual boat ride was fairly quick, maybe 20 minutes round trip. It was my first time in a cave and worth the wait. It was fun to experience with our kids! Pro tip, walk down towards the bridge and boat loading area. There's awesome natural landscaping and more shade for you to wait under.

This visit was absolutely pog . Our tour guide Alex was very lit . He spoke with very good tone and would wink at us . I feel that everyone should experience this tour at least once, and would make it 100x better if Alex is your tour guide. Thank you Alex for such a great day, I hope you are blessed and have a great rest of your time at Lost River Cave. P.s. Batman is not in this tour, was a big let down but didn't ruin the experience .

We decided to try this cave tour simply because it was a boat tour. It says it's 45min but it actually is ONLY 25min. Our ticket was for 12pm. The guy came started talking to us on the porch in front of the gift shop at exactly 12pm. He was asking where we were from and gather us up to walk us down to the entrance of the cave. Then he told us about the history of the cave while we waited for the last tour to return. The underground river tour is so very short it was really not worth the money or time. The tour guides on the other hand were very informative, friendly, professional and very funny. They did a FANTASTIC job. The gift shop too was very nice. I just wouldn't make a long out of state drive for it. Not worth it.

Wonderful visit. The grounds are well maintained. Paved path to the river tour. The butterfly house was a surprise bonus. The guides were eager to be engaged.

Such a fun tour!!! I was lucky enough to have a fellow Swiftie as my amazing tour guide - Maddy! 10/10 recommend!! She was funny and gave lots of great anecdotes/facts about the cave! Visited for a day trip and then hit up Mammoth Cave National Park after - a great combination!!

This was a very awesome little stop! So glad we stopped; the perfect complement to Mammoth Caves, and located in proximity that you do both Mammoth & List River cave tours in one day!

A beautiful and informative boat tour!!! Beautiful landscape and the cave was amazing. Big shout out to our tour guide Cole!! Great at his job. We would highly recommend this experience!

I went after a large wind storm so they were one of the few with power that wasn't flooded. The cave is very small and the tour doesn't cover much. They take a large group through so you can't hear the guide and the amount of children make it loud. Glad I had the opportunity to do a cave tour while I was there but I would not chose to do the tour again. Didn't do the zoo and after looking around a bit it didn't seem worth.

Well kept and beautiful place for families and friends to learn about nature and history. The guided cave tour was awesome and the guides are very knowledgeable.

Have you ever dreamed of boating through a 1930 night club, probably not. How about exploring a Jessie James hide away, sounds cool right? Well how about getting married underground. This may seem far fetched but it's not at the Lost River Cave & Valley. Our family enjoyed the boat ride tour and decades of stories of The Lost River Cave. The guide was excellent and safety is paramount with life vest. The water portion of the tour is around 30 minutes. A few highlights of the cave. The Underground Night Club opening was heralded in Billboard Magazine in 1933. Big bands and big names played in the cave until the 1960's. In 1868 Jessie James and his gang held up in the cave after robbing the Southern Bank of Russellville, Ky. The story was confirmed by a local physician who treated Jessie James for an unknown injury. There are many stories of the centuries old cave that are shared. Zip lining was later added after my tour. Events such as weddings are booked in warmer weather months.,Prior to departing visit their gift store at the entrance. Overall a fun family visit that all ages will enjoy.

What a fun tour! I've been in caves, but never a river cave under the city. They have several walking trails and a butterfly garden that you can explore before or after the tour. The tour itself was interesting and full of history. Glad we made the drive from Louisville to check this place out!

Okay experience. Pretty much a tourist thing. You take a boat into the cave. Whole thing only takes 45 minutes.

Pleasant day for a stroll down the river inside of a cave. Great scenery all around and pleasant air conditioning while shopping in the gift shop. Bring your water bottle, free refill at the water system inside near the restrooms. Great tour guides, worth a visit. We loved the butterfly garden. Watch your step though, they do land on the walkway.

We did the zip line for adults and the boat tour. We had a lot of fun, the guides were all great and had high spirits and made bad jokes the whole time (in a good way). The zip lines - there are three - are a good height and length. You can get some good speed on the second one and that was also my favorite. I wish there were maybe two more lines in this setup but you can always do it twice. The boat tour was nice. The best part is going in at the wishing rock (it's name being one of those bad but good jokes). It's a short tour but that's ok. The inside of the cave is very interesting. The grounds and trails were amazing. Overall a magical place.

This place was so much fun! Great tour guides and a really neat place to visit. Take pictures!

Great place to go on a hot afternoon. Guides were all very nice and answered all our question. Fred Georgetown Tx

A fun and expected attraction in the city. Great place for a simple stroll, hike, or the boat ride into the cave.

We went on a tour last week the tour was good. Not many caves where you can go on boat. Would recommend

It may be the shortest river but good to know about it and to experience the underground cave with friendly and knowledgeable guides.

Was in town for a wedding and looking for something fun to do. This definitely hit the spot! The cave is absolutely gorgeous and it is such a fun experience. We walked the trails at the end of the tour and I was a little disappointed the butterfly exhibit was closed. Maybe they will get it back up and running soon. Overall, great experience!

This spot may be small compared to Mammoth, but the charm is amazing and shouldn't be missed. Great staff, entertaining tour, great trails, incredible gift shop. We loved it!!!!

Our tour guide Becky was humorous and knowledgeable. The boat ride is short, but a little longer than advertised. Lots of well maintained trails to walk along. The butterfly center is the smallest one that I've been too and has a limited variety of butterflies. We were there about 2 hours. Lost of great photo and selfie locations

This is not a handicap friendly attraction! We arrived on time but weren't able to walk fast enough with my elderly Father-in-law to make it work. We decided to wait for the next tour so he could take his time walking down to where we had to meet the tour guide. The cave boat ride is very short as the tour is mostly walking to the cave itself (but they don't tell you that). The hiking/walking trails are nice enough but there is nothing much to see. This is fine for kids but not really an entertaining adult attraction, as they do have a playground, very small zip line, and some playful gem mining for a cost. The gift shop was probably the best thing about the trip. They have some nice items for souvenirs or gifts.