Enter a geological wonder made up of more than 20 kilometres of tunnels and galleries, discovered in Cantabria in 1908.

The cave owes its name to the Soplaos, a name used by the miners to refer to the karst cavities they cut during their work and which created strong currents of air. The walk takes about an hour and, in addition to the rock formations you will see inside the El Soplao cave, you will be able to enjoy one of the best views of the Picos de Europa.

All Tour Options:
Tour
From the Visitor Reception Centre and through a reproduction of a mining tunnel, the visitor arrives at the outer train station, where a mining train takes you into the cave. Once there, a walking tour through the interior of the cave begins, using footbridges that are perfectly suited to the public. The visit has light and sound effects as well as a voice-over in the La Gorda room. The walking tour ends when you reach the inner station of the cave again. At this point, the visitor takes the El Soplao mining train back to the outer station, where the visit ends.

The guided walkway tour, which lasts approximately 1 hour, is the most common way to visit the El Soplao cave due to its simplicity and convenience for the visitor. At the ticket office, there is a free sign guide for the hearing impaired. This type of visit has limited capacity.

Adventure tour
Once the tickets have been collected from the ticket office, visitors should go to the Adventure Tourism Building, located on the left hand side as soon as they enter the El Soplao site, next to a Corten steel mast. It is in the Adventure Tourism building where visitors receive the necessary equipment for this activity (helmet, headlamp, waterproof boots and polypropylene coveralls) and instructions on how to behave once in the cave.

Unlike the guided walkway tour, the adventure visitor enters the cave on foot and from the Adventure Tourism Building. This allows a better perception of the original mining gallery of La Isidra, as well as a brief explanation of the differences between the old mine shafts and the modern ones. We cannot forget that it was the miners who discovered what scientists and geologists of international prestige call The Sistine Chapel of Speleology.

The Adventure guided tour, which lasts approximately two and a half hours and is only accessible to visitors over 12 years of age, is the way to visit El Soplao cave in its natural state (total absence of light, uneven ground, narrowness, etc.). The visitor will walk through approximately 3 kilometres of galleries of great beauty and value. The route of the visit is linear, so the way out is the same as the way in. The groups are small and the visit is conducted, supervised and controlled by two guides. This type of visit has a limited capacity.

Mining tour
The mining tour of El Soplao consists of a via ferrata (fixed rope route), which unlike the rest of the existing via ferratas, its entire route is through a mining gallery (Mines of La Florida).

This visit has a total length of 2 kilometres and begins by walking the almost 500 horizontal metres of the Ana gallery (easy to walk through, although at some points it is necessary to bend your head down), which takes us to the nerve centre of this mining system. It is at this point where we leave the Ana gallery to walk 30 metres along the East gallery and begin the Ferrata Minera de El Soplao, which consists of 4 very different parts:

The first part will consist of a 100-metre route with a drop of 65 metres and access to the level of the El Soplao Cave. Afterwards, and after contemplating a part of the cave, we will take another mining ramp to descend the 65 metres gained previously and reach the Ana gallery again, but this time with an 80-metre route.

The objective of the second part is to descend to one of the main galleries of the La Florida mine, Cereceo. To do this, it will be necessary to descend a 300-metre-long loose stone mining ramp with an approximate gradient of 35% and thus descend 150 metres in height.

The third part is to cross the Tibetan or monkey bridge and cross a large pool of water more than 60 metres deep.

The fourth part is to get back to the Ana gallery, so once you have crossed the bridge and are on the other side of the large pool of water, you have to go up another new mining ramp with very similar characteristics to the descent; a ramp of loose stone about 300 metres long, with an approximate slope of 35%, and a gradient of 35%.


Inclusions: 
Entrance fee
Guide


Important Info: 
Please make sure you answer all the mandatory questions during the booking process and ensure that you have provided your correct email address. 


Redeem Info: 
PRINTED - Printed Voucher. Print and bring the voucher to enjoy the activity. 




Starting point: ADDRESS - location.Description, Cantabria, Spain - (Longitude: 0.000000, Latitude: 0.000000)
Ending point: Same - Same as Starting Point

Inclusions: 
 
Entrance fee
Guide
 


Exclusions: 
  


Important Info: 
Please make sure you answer all the mandatory questions during the booking process and ensure that you have provided your correct email address.