Dawn B.
Yelp
I went to Luray Caverns many years ago on a guided cave tour, and the whole experience was wonderful. Friendly staff, great tour guide, and I felt like my business was valued.
This place has turned into an awful tourist trap unfortunately. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to take family members visiting from Texas down to Luray so my 9-year-old nephew could have the opportunity to see his first cave. He's inquisitive and I thought there was no better place to take him than Luray with a knowledgeable tour guide.
What is the Luray experience these days? A self-guided tour using a pamphlet that you have to read when you get next to a light in the cave with hundreds of people just hanging out, being rude, and nobody giving any insight to the cave. There were two employees to be found, one giving instruction on don't touch anything at the start and another yelling to stand to the right if you want to linger or walk on the left to keep moving. The instructions being barked were not followed by people and there was no enforcement. Anybody familiar with caves knows that touching is frowned upon, but that's impossible to enforce when hundreds of people are being herded through like cattle with no oversight. I get a lot of people travel here, but the issues could be resolved with limiting the number of people going in at any given time.
The majority of employees were unfriendly. The guy who sold us our tickets seemed pretty disinterested. The two employees inside of the cave were, I'm sure, doing their jobs but there was no a hint of friendliness, just barking the commands. I will give credit to the women at the gift shop outside of the car museum, as I observed them being friendly and assisting a customer look for an item. Cannot blame the employees who were not interested in providing a good customer service experience, as the culture of Luray Caverns appears to be grab the money and who cares about anything else.
As stated previously, it's concerning that there is no oversight of people touching aspects of the cave that should not be touched. It was disappointing that the organ is no longer a focal point of the tour. Also was surprised by chairs and other items stacked against the wall in the cave in plain sight, I suppose waiting to be pulled out for an event. We were also curious to ask about what looked like stalactites having been cut, whether it was for research, profit, if they naturally broke off just that clean, maintenance, etc. There was nobody to ask about it. I know based on my experience at Luray this trip what I suspect, but it would have been nice to have had someone who knew the cave and cared about the cave present to ask.
The reason I chose Luray Caverns was a combination of the beauty and the fantastic experience I had previously. My recommendation is take your business to one of the many other caverns in the Shenandoah Valley where your business is valued, the employees care about the caverns, and you'll have a guide present to give you an A+ experience. I'm heartbroken that this adventure that was chosen for my nephew was such a commercial disaster.