Coves del Drac (Caves of the Dragon)

I visited Majorca in May of this year (2005) with my boyfriend. We booked through our travel agent and ended up getting a week self catering (we always opt for this so we can eat out every night and not have to drag ourselves out of bed the next morning for a breakfast!) and we were staying in somewhere called the Lunamar Apartments in Palma Nova.

We booked only about 1 week before we were due to go and we ended up not really paying ...
...of the hotel itself but looking forward to the holiday on a whole.

We arrived and were pleasantly surprised, the hotel was nice and so were the surroundings. We were positioned in between Magaluf and Palma Nova and it was a short walk to either.

We always book tours through our rep just for the convenience of it really and this holiday was no exception. We had our welcome chat the morning after we arrived and we hastily ... more

I visited Majorca in May of this year (2005) with my boyfriend. We booked through our travel agent and ended up getting a week self catering (we always opt for this so we can eat out every night and not have to drag ourselves out of bed the next morning for a breakfast!) and we were staying in somewhere called the Lunamar Apartments in Palma Nova.

We booked only about 1 week before we were due to go and we ended up not really paying that much. So we weren't expecting too much out of the hotel itself but looking forward to the holiday on a whole.

We arrived and were pleasantly surprised, the hotel was nice and so were the surroundings. We were positioned in between Magaluf and Palma Nova and it was a short walk to either.

We always book tours through our rep just for the convenience of it really and this holiday was no exception. We had our welcome chat the morning after we arrived and we hastily booked up four trips and one of those was to go and see " The Caves of Drac" this is a coach trip including a stop off in Porto Christo.

We paid around 40 euros each for the whole day trip which I thought was fairly reasonable for a wholes days activity.

The coach picked us up from our hotel in the morning and we were joined by other guests from other hotels. It took us a little while to get to the Caves this of course was due to the random stop off at the Majorcia Pearl factory! Not really our cup of tea and we were there for ages!

On arriving at the Caves of Drac we were hurried into the entrance which was down a lot of steps and finishing up with you joining the end of what seemed like an endless queue.

In actual fact the queue was endless and for the whole time we were underneath ground we were being shoved along in a long fat queue of people!

Your are not allowed to take any sort of photo's in the caves and there are guards making sure this doesn't happen.

The first thing you notice on entering the caves is the heat. You expect somewhere underground and in a cave to be damp and cold. These caves however are not. They apparently have an all year round temperature of 22 degrees. This is really strange and defiantly not nice when are you in there with so many people!

The walls are still very damp but there are a lot of up lighters lighting up the feature of these caves which is the stalagmites and stalactites that have been formed over millions of years inside the cave.

I have to admit it is fairly impressive but something like that I am not impressed with for long. You seem to be walking through the caves for quite a long time but it gives you time to look at some really big stalagmites hanging up or down (I can never remember which was is which).

Oh for people for familiar with stalagmites and stalagmites these are rock formations made over millions of years that really look like icicles hanging off the ceiling and there are also ones made the other way up, coming out of the ground. This is really all I know about the science behind it and I really have had enough of these things to last a life time.

So when we finally reached the end of the railed pathway of nicely illuminated rocks we came to a large seating area and we were shouted at by the guards to take a seat. There were so many people crammed in and no one was letting anyone else sit down. It was total chaos! We eventually found a seat and waited....and waited and waited..

At last the small amount of light that was illuminating the caves was put out and the guards told everyone to shhhh!!

Slowly and quietly we saw and heard something coming! It was a boat. Under these caves are lakes, hundred of meters deep and wide (this is also what the caves are so well known for). Coming out from a bend was a little row boat caring on it a violin player and a organist!

Now this may be some peoples cup of tea but it really is not mine, or my other half's. We were sat there for at least half an hour but god, did it seem longer! Basically the little row boat came out from the bend and it had lights on so was the only thing lit up. It slowly made its way towards the seating area and then back to were is had come from. All the time playing the same sleepy tune!

It went on for another time like this (very painful) and they finally put the up lighters back on. Right time to make a quick exit!!!

But oh no we weren't getting away that easily! People started to queue to get the boat across the lake and over to the exit. Thank fully we could just opt for walking across a rather unsteady bridge! This though was still rammed with people and there were a lot of step to walk before getting out!

We could not wait to get out of the caves and into the cafe!!!

I am glad we went so we won't ever have to go again but I did not really enjoy it at all. There were far too many people and it was way too over the top (with the little boat and everything). I would of much preferred to walk around at my own pace and skip the boat show!

When I got back home and told my parent about it, they said it sounded exactly the same as when they visited in the 70's! I really don't think they have changed the routine at the Caves one bit.

So would I recommend going, well......I would say yes if you are the sort of person to enjoy the boat show or are really interested it the history and geology that the caves have then yes definitely go there once. But for others like me, who like to see the sites but hate queue's and shows like I wrote about then really I would say not to go.

3/10 for Majorca Caves of Drac

I hope this of some help

Thanks for reading x x x x
 

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