22 photos

Things to DoPlaces to VisitLive

Nerja Caves

Explore the Nerja Caves, one of Spain's most spectacular natural attractions. Marvel at enormous stalactite chambers, prehistoric cave paintings and the world's largest known stalagmite.

Call Directions

The Nerja Caves (in Spanish, Cueva de Nerja) are in Maro, about 4 km from the centre of Nerja, 158 metres above sea level. With 4,823 metres of passages, they are one of the largest caves in Andalusia. Five local lads discovered them on 12 January 1959; they opened to the public in 1960 and have been a protected Site of Cultural Interest since 2006.

The visit covers the Show Galleries, roughly a quarter of the cave: about 50 minutes with an audio guide, at 19 °C all year round and with more than 400 steps. The Upper and New Galleries and the cave paintings are closed to protect them, but you can see them in the Virtual Reality Room on site.

Nerja Caves tickets: prices and opening hours 2026

Ticket	Age	Online price
Standard	14 and over	€16
Junior	12 and 13	€13
Child	6 to 11	€12
Mini	3 to 5	€5
Baby	0 to 2	Free
Reduced	Over-65s, people with disabilities, large families and European Youth Card holders	€14

The ticket includes the audio guide in 15 languages, the Virtual Reality Room (not suitable for under-6s) and free entry to the Nerja Museum within the next 10 days. Online tickets are cheaper than at the ticket office and come with a set time slot, so you skip the queue. The official website does not allow changes or refunds; if you want to be able to cancel, GetYourGuide sells them with free cancellation.

Opening hours: 9:15 to 16:30 (last entry 15:30). In summer (June to September), Easter, Christmas and long weekends, 9:15 to 17:30 (last entry 16:30). Closed on 1 and 6 January, 15 May and 25 December.

Free tickets: Monday to Friday there are 60 free tickets for EU citizens for the first slot, at 9:15; see below how to get one.

Parking: the cave has its own pay-by-the-minute car park: €0.030 a minute for the first 90 minutes (€2.70 for an hour and a half) and €0.021 after that.

What you see on the visit

The route goes through five great halls: the Torca Hall, where you enter; the Nativity Hall (Sala del Belén); the Ghosts Hall; the Waterfall Hall, home of the Nerja Caves Music Festival; and the Cataclysm Hall, with its giant column and the huge blocks that fell in an ancient earthquake. The lighting is deliberately dim to protect the cave, and photos are only allowed at marked points and without flash.

Photos of the Nerja Caves

Lit walkway between stalactites and stalagmites in the Nerja Caves — The walkway through the stalactites and stalagmites.

Large hall of the Nerja Caves with the visitor walkway — One of the huge halls on the visitor route.

Calcite columns and flowstone in the Nerja Caves — Columns and flowstone formed over thousands of years.

Stalactite formations in a hall of the Nerja Caves — The formations are lit softly to protect them.

Ceiling of a hall in the Nerja Caves with stalactites — Ceilings dozens of metres high.

Hall of the Nerja Caves with stalactite columns — Forests of stalactites along the route.

Calcite block beside the path in the Nerja Caves — Fallen blocks and formations beside the path.

Ticket office and entrance to the Nerja Caves site — The entrance to the site and the ticket office.

Map of the Nerja Caves site — Site map: cave, museum, restaurant and gardens.

The Nerja Caves Foundation

The caves are run by the Fundación Pública de Servicios Cueva de Nerja, a non-profit body set up by the Spanish Government's office in Málaga, Nerja Town Council and Málaga Provincial Council. It manages the visits, the conservation and research of the cave and its archaeological site, the Nerja Museum and the Music Festival.

Contact: Carretera de Maro, s/n, 29787 Maro (Nerja). Phone +34 952 529 520. Official website: cuevadenerja.es.

Eating at the Nerja Caves

On site there is the Nerja Caves restaurant and café, with views over the sea and Maro, and next to the playground a picnic area with tables in the shade of the pine trees. If you prefer to eat in the village, Maro is a few minutes' walk away.

Before you go

Practical tips and basic rules for visiting the Nerja Cave:

Tips for your visit

Closed shoes
Wear trainers with non-slip soles; the floor can be damp. Flip-flops are not allowed, and if you go in with unsuitable footwear you do so at your own risk.
A light jacket
Inside it is around 19ºC all year round. Lovely and cool in summer; if you feel the cold, bring a thin layer.
Lots of steps
The route has slopes and over 400 steps. It is not accessible by wheelchair or with a pushchair.
How long it takes
The visit lasts about 50 minutes, with an audio guide in 15 languages (download it free to your phone before you go). The ticket also includes the virtual reality room and the Nerja Museum.
Best time
First thing in the morning (10:00 to 11:30) is quieter and more enjoyable.
Book ahead
Online tickets are cheaper and come with a time slot, so you skip the queue. Summer, Easter and long weekends get very busy.
Free entry
On working weekdays there are 60 free tickets for the 9:15 slot (EU citizens). They are released online 48 hours before at 9:15, maximum 2 per person, and go fast. How to get one.
Getting there without a car
The Cueva-Tren leaves from Plaza de los Cangrejos, and there are buses from Nerja and Málaga.
Parking
The cave car park is paid by the minute: €0.030/min for the first 90 minutes and €0.021/min after that (an hour and a half costs about €2.70).
Children
Under-6s enter under the responsibility of their parents or guardians. Next to the entrance there is a playground and a restaurant area.
Combine it with Maro
Less than a kilometre away are the Eagle Aqueduct, the Maro Waterfall and Maro Beach.
Music in summer
The Nerja Cave Festival fills the cave with concerts every summer. Tickets usually sell out quickly.

Rules to respect during the visit

No pets, except guide dogs.
Do not touch or alter the rock formations.
No eating or drinking inside the cave.
No flash photography: it damages the formations and disturbs other visitors.
Do not leave litter: it is a protected archaeological site.
Respect the cave's wildlife: some species live only here.
Do not raise your voice and keep pace with your group, without overtaking the one ahead.
Any activity that damages the cave or its facilities is prohibited.

The rock art is not shown on the visit to protect it. Any inappropriate behaviour means being refused entry or asked to leave the visit.

How to visit the Nerja Cave for free

Free tickets are released online every day at 09:15 (Spanish time), 48 hours before each visit day.

Yes, you can visit the Nerja Cave for free. Every working weekday, Monday to Friday, the Nerja Cave Foundation gives away 60 free tickets for European Union citizens, valid only for the first slot of the day at 9:15. They go in minutes, so it pays to know exactly when and how to get them.

How to get a free ticket, step by step

Pick a working weekday. Free tickets are only available Monday to Friday. There are none on Saturdays, Sundays or public holidays.
Note when they are released: they go on sale online at 9:15, 48 hours before the day of your visit (see the table below).
Go to the official ticket website (entradas.cuevadenerja.es) a couple of minutes early and look for "Cueva gratuita". They are online only, not at the ticket office.
Book a maximum of 2 tickets per person.
Arrive in good time on the day: they are only valid for the 9:15 entry and latecomers are not let in. Bring your ID card or passport in case you are asked for it.

Which day do I book?

To visit on…	Book on… at 9:15
Monday	The Saturday before
Tuesday	The Sunday before
Wednesday	Monday
Thursday	Tuesday
Friday	Wednesday

What is included (and what is not)

Included: the full cave visit, the same route of about 50 minutes as with a paid ticket.
Audio guide: not included, but you can download it free to your phone before you go. Bring headphones.
Virtual reality room: not included; you can add it for €6 when booking.
Parking: paid separately, by the minute. If you can, take the Cueva-Tren or the bus.

Tips for getting one

Set an alarm for 9:10 and have the ticket website open before the time comes.
Low-season weekdays (November to March, avoiding long weekends) are your best chance.
The 9:15 slot is the quietest of the day: an almost empty cave, ideal for photos (no flash).
Afterwards, have breakfast in Maro and make a morning of it: the Eagle Aqueduct and Maro Beach are less than a kilometre away.

If you don't get a free ticket

The easiest option is to book your ticket on GetYourGuide: pick your day and time, with free cancellation, and it works whether or not you are an EU citizen. On the official site, online tickets are also cheaper than at the ticket office. 2026 prices: standard €16 (14 and over), junior €13 (12 and 13), child €12 (6 to 11), mini €5 (3 to 5) and babies 0 to 2 free. Large families, over-65s, people with disabilities and European Youth Card holders pay €14, showing their card at the entrance. A paid ticket also includes the virtual reality room and the Nerja Museum.

Other supposed free days circulate online (Sundays, Wednesdays for Málaga residents, Museum Day…), but the cave does not announce them on its official website: don't count on them without phoning first (+34 952 529 520).

Services & facilities

Wheelchair accessNo petsLitter binsParkingChildren's playgroundRestaurants

🎯 Book now

Book now, pay nothing today, free cancellation.

GetYourGuideCheck availability & price

Free cancellation · Secure payment · Instant confirmation

Video

1 video

Nerja Caves — video 1

History

The Nerja Cave holds two stories at once: that of the rock, which took millions of years to hollow out and fill with stalactites, and that of the people who lived in it for millennia and forgot it, until some local lads stumbled upon it again.

A cave carved by water over 5 million years
The marble the cave sits in began as limy mud laid down on the floor of an ancient sea in the Triassic. During the Alpine orogeny, the collision between Africa and Europe pushed up the Baetic ranges, including the Tejeda and Almijara sierras, and fractured that rock.
Over the last 5 million years, rainwater seeped through the cracks and slowly dissolved the marble, opening huge galleries. When the groundwater dropped to deeper levels, the chambers dried out and began to fill, drop by drop, with calcite stalactites, stalagmites, columns and flowstone.
Stalactites and flowstone in one of the chambers of the Nerja Cave
The Cataclysm Hall and its giant column
Around 800,000 years ago, an earthquake brought down part of the formations in the great chamber now called the Cataclysm Hall. It is home to the column once listed by Guinness World Records as the largest in the world: about 32 metres high and 13 × 7 metres at the base.
Giant columns and the lit walkway inside the Nerja Cave
Home to prehistoric hunters
The cave sheltered people for tens of thousands of years, from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Copper Age: its outer chambers have yielded hearths, tools, food remains (shellfish included), pottery and burials. Around 4,000 years ago the entrance was blocked and the cave was forgotten.
2012
The oldest paintings in the world?
In 2012, organic remains next to some paintings of seals were dated to around 42,000 years ago, raising the possibility that they were made by Neanderthals and were the oldest known. A 2017 study lowered their age to between 20,000 and 18,000 years, placing them in the Magdalenian and attributing them to Homo sapiens. To protect it, the rock art is not shown on the visit.
A hermit in the Middle Ages
Among the first finds was an Andalusi lead amulet bearing traces of writing. Amulets like this carried phrases from the Quran to protect their owner, and researchers believe it may have belonged to a hermit who lived in the entrance chambers.
1959
12 January 1959: five lads and some bats
Five young men from Maro and Nerja, Miguel and Manuel Muñoz Zorrilla, José Luis Barbero de Miguel, José Torres Cárdenas and Francisco Navas Montesinos, climbed down a shaft known as "La Mina" to catch bats. They felt a draught of damp air coming from a crack blocked by two stalactites.
The next day they came back with tools, broke the stalactites and crawled through a narrow passage into a chamber so large their torches could not reach the ceiling. There they found skeletons beside pottery bowls and hurried out, frightened, to tell everyone. Photos published in the Sur newspaper made the cave known around the world.
La Mina chamber, next to the shaft through which the Nerja Cave was discovered in 1959
1960
1960: the cave opens to the public
Because La Mina shaft was very hard to climb down, a search began for the original entrance. The clue was the root of a juniper poking into one gallery: following it led to the old entrance, sealed for thousands of years by a huge boulder. Once it was cleared and the first excavations were done, the cave opened to visitors in 1960, and that same year it hosted its first ballet performance, the origin of the Nerja Cave Festival.
Ticket offices and current entrance to the Nerja Cave
1969
1969: the galleries you cannot visit
In 1969 cavers found a narrow passage in the Cataclysm Hall leading to the Upper Galleries and the New Galleries, with spectacular formations and prehistoric remains. Today the tourist route covers only part of the cave: about 9,400 m² of the more than 35,000 m² known.
1961
A protected monument
In 1961, a year after opening, it was declared a Historic-Artistic Monument, and in 2006 a Site of Cultural Interest (Bien de Interés Cultural) as an Archaeological Zone. The Nerja Cave Foundation and its scientific committee of geologists, biologists and archaeologists continue to study it and look after its conservation.

Where to park

If you are planning to visit the cave by car, it is worth knowing that the Cueva de Nerja car park costs €2 per day. If you decide to park there, please note that you must pay with two 1 euro coins. If you do not have the necessary coins, you can go to the cave ticket office to have them changed.

How to get to Nerja Caves

🚗 Access by car

You can calculate the driving time, route length, and fuel amount and cost below by entering your departure city in the «From» field below.

🚂 Tourist Train "Cueva-Tren"

Includes a return journey on the tourist train called the "Cueva-Tren". It travels by road from La Plaza de los Cangrejos (Nerja) to the Nerja Caves (Maro). We recommend checking the train timetable before buying your ticket.

🚌 Getting to the Caves by bus

The Cueva de Nerja is located about 5 kilometres east of the centre of Nerja, in the province of Málaga, Spain. If you are in Nerja and want to get to the cave by bus, you can check timetables and prices at the Nerja bus station.

🚕 Getting there by taxi

You can also book a taxi to visit the Nerja Caves. Book here.

📍 Getting to the Caves from Málaga

If you are visiting the Nerja Caves by car or motorbike from Málaga, you should join the Mediterranean Motorway (A-7) towards Almería. When you reach exit 295, you will see signs for “Cueva de Nerja”, which lead directly to the route.

If you prefer to travel by bus from Málaga to the Nerja Caves, you should take the VJA-167 bus, labelled “Málaga – Cuevas de Nerja”, which takes you directly to the Cueva de Nerja. You can check the list of bus timetables in Nerja if you prefer.

Plan your route here: enter your starting point and choose how you want to travel.

Already on your way? Open GPS navigation:

Google Maps Apple Maps Waze

Review profile

Summary of the 1,019 most recent Google and Tripadvisor reviews (August 2023 – October 2026). These are visitors' opinions, analysed by EsNerja.

According to 1,019 recent reviews on Google (718) and Tripadvisor (301): most mentioned: huge, impressive formations · good value for money · virtual reality room and botanical garden · tickets can be booked online.

Google vs Tripadvisor

Google 4.6 · Tripadvisor 4.2

Google rates it 0.4 higher than Tripadvisor.

By review language

Spanish 4.5 (366) · English 4.2 (300)

Language hints at who is reviewing (locals and Spanish visitors, or foreign visitors).

Last 12 months

4.6 (791) vs 4.2 (91) the year before

The rating is rising.

Months with the best average rating

January, June, July

Based on review dates; not a forecast.

Frequently asked questions

A standard ticket costs €16 online (14 and over), cheaper than at the ticket office. Junior (12 and 13) €13, child (6 to 11) €12, mini (3 to 5) €5 and babies 0 to 2 free. Large families, over-65s, people with disabilities and European Youth Card holders pay €14, showing their card at the entrance. It includes the audio-guided visit, the virtual reality room and the Nerja Museum.

Yes. On working weekdays there are 60 free tickets a day for EU citizens, only for the 9:15 slot. They are released online on the official website at 9:15 two days before (for a Wednesday visit, on Monday at 9:15), maximum 2 per person. They do not include the virtual reality room and you cannot enter after that time. See our step-by-step guide.

It opens from 9:15 to 16:30 (last entry 15:30). In summer (June to September), Easter, Christmas and long weekends it opens from 9:15 to 17:30 (last entry 16:30). It is closed on 1 and 6 January, 15 May and 25 December.

About 50 minutes. You go at your own pace with an audio guide, available in 15 languages, which is best downloaded free to your phone before you go.

First thing in the morning, between 10:00 and 11:30, it is less crowded. In summer and at Easter it is best to buy your ticket online with a time slot to skip the queue.

No. The route has over 400 steps and slopes, so pushchairs and wheelchairs are not allowed. Pets are not admitted either, except guide dogs. The virtual reality room lets those who cannot go down see the cave.

It is in Maro, about 5 km from Nerja town centre. You can take the Cueva-Tren, which leaves from Plaza de los Cangrejos, or the buses that stop at the cave from Nerja and Málaga. By car, exit 295 of the A-7; parking is paid by the minute.

On 12 January 1959, five young men from Maro and Nerja who went to catch bats in a shaft called "La Mina" felt a draught, broke two stalactites blocking a crack and reached a huge chamber with skeletons and pottery. It opened to the public in 1960.

No. To preserve them they are not lit and visitors are kept away: light and the heat, humidity and CO₂ people bring would damage them. You can see them in the virtual reality room. They include seals; their age is debated: in 2012 an age of 42,000 years was proposed (Neanderthals), and a 2017 study lowered it to 18,000–20,000 years.

It is a column about 32 metres high with a 13 × 7 metre base, once recognised by Guinness World Records as the largest in the world. You see it at the end of the tourist route.