If you like rocks, your going to love going into the cave! Tour took about 45 minutes and is great for families.

Crystal Grottoes Caverns is a wonderful hidden gem in Boonsboro, MD. Each 45-minute tour costs $23 per adult (tips are accepted), and you are whisked away into the depths of the earth for a fascinating and educational look at history. Our tour guide, Paul, was very knowledgeable and added a lot of great humor to our tour. The caverns themselves are beautiful. We learned so much beyond the typical stalactite and stalagmite information kids hear in elementary school. Those who are taller than about 5'4" or 5'5" will need to duck a bit while moving through the caverns to avoid hitting your head on the formations. It's also very chilly, so be sure to bring a sweater or hoodie with you. The last time I visited Crystal Grottoes was in elementary school for a field trip, so it was great to revisit after so many years. read more

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This was a great day trip with the kids. We went over the summer so even though it was 90 degrees outside, it was nice and cool inside. The kids loved learning about the cavern and we did gem mining outside afterwards. I thought the cost was very reasonable! read more

Crystal Grottoes Caverns - Hiking Near Me - Boonsboro, Maryland

I had an amazing experience doing the tour. The cave was beautiful and fascinating, the tour guide was friendly and had a great flair for entertaining, I enjoyed the historical information, and the entire staff gave us a great experience all around. My only caveat is that if you are very tall or are a large person, you may find some areas to be uncomfortable or difficult to traverse. That is the reality of natural formations though. Caves aren't accessible to everyone. read more

Came here from Baltimore to visit the caves and I was very excited to make the drive over! It's $23 for an adult and they recommend tipping your tour guide after. Tours depart every 30 mins and last approximately 50-55 mins. This is definitely not physically accessible if someone is wheelchair bound, this does have stairs and slight incline. One member of my group was using a cane and he was fine to walk through the caverns. The caverns are a little chilly (around 55 degrees) constantly; so dress appropriately! The stairs and floors are rocky and slightly slippery so I would recommend boots or shoes with good grip. The tour guide was friendly and knowledgeable if a little cheesy but there's a lot of families who come here so it's very understandable. Some parts of the caves are narrow and dark so just be aware if this is something you're scared of, but you do not have to crawl or anything like that. Some parts of the ceiling are low so if you're over 5'5", you will have to duck for certain parts but this isn't an issue. I enjoyed coming all the way out here to see the rocks and I think this is a nice attraction to come see. read more

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The wait to enter for the guided tour was short and the tour was interesting and informative. The tour guide was friendly and personable. I'd recommend visiting. read more

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Tony and I usually head to Florida for his birthday trip but this year with his work schedule, we had to settle for long weekend! On Sunday, Day Three we stopped at the Crystal Grottoes in Boonsboro MD. Out of over 1900 caves, this is the only one opened for commercial use! Found out People get married down there!! We got there about 330 in time for 3:45 tour. It's like 50 degrees in their so needed to grab my sweatshirt out of trunk (just for this type of reason). I've learned to wear proper Tennis shoes inside the caverns too, it's always wet and slippery in their also! Again, prepared!!! It cost us $24 per adult! They do have a brochure with $1 off per person in your group. Might want to grab one of those!! It's a building built beside the mountain where you buy your tickets, souvenirs and even Gem stone mining bags!! The tour begins inside here too! The tour last about 45 minutes and is very easily accessible. Not a lot of stairs but a few. When you leave it's up a ramp! The entire walking was a little over a mile. Our tour guide Jasmine was very helpful and showed us all the formations. Be sure to tip your guides!! Definitely recommend and would do again!! read more

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Mr. Seal was an awesome, well-informed and interesting tour guide! He gave us lots of history plus a little comedic personality too! I was super excited plus scared to be in very old Caverns but the beauty of the crystals and natural nature walls were well worth it! Make sure to enjoy these Caverns on the most beautiful of days! read more

I came to the Harper's Ferry area for a 2-night getaway. I planned on doing all of the adventure stuff that my friend and I could fit in, but it rained for two days nonstop. We decided to make the most of our time here and ended up going to the Caverns since it was an indoor activity. While this activity at $23 was a bit pricey for a 45-minute tour, I am overall glad I did it. Moriah, our guide, was the highlight of our experience. She was really personable, friendly, and funny, and I was able to learn a lot about the caverns. I would recommend this and even do it again. read more

Me and my fiance love going to different caverns. We found this one on our way to our campground in Maryland. It did not disappoint. It was $23 per person, which was not bad. The tour lady was very good it was only her first week I believe and she did an excellent job. We were the only ones on the tour, so that was kinda nice. They do have restrooms that you can use. However, I wouldn't say they really have a gift shop.They have a few things you can buy, but it's not much. read more

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This is an awesome day trip from DC (1 1/2 hours away). The caverns are deep and dramatically lit. Our guide Paul was entertaining while giving lots of educational information. The history of its discovery is so interesting (no spoiler alert, go hear it for yourself). I will be taking friends and family back. Paired it will a trip into the town of Boonesboro. If you are a Nora Roberts and JD Robb this is a must do to see the Boonesboro Inn, Turning the Page bookstore and the art gallery. read more

Paul was super awesome! 100% recommend this gorgeous cave tour, the staff was friendly and accommodating! Thank you so much Paul for dealing with our group of 20 and being so informative and kind! read more

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So cool! It was really spectacular. The tour guides were really knowledgeable. I recommend bringing a coat, even in summer. It is really cold. read more

I have gone to the Luray Caverns several times and was expecting the same but nope. This place was extra special and had a lot of colorful displays of sharp edges from the ceiling and the ground. Friendly staff and all. Pricey though at 30 per person or something. read more

This was a great tour!! The front desk staff was very helpful and our tour guide, Dakota, was wonderful!!! They are under newish ownership and it shows. My 7 year old loved it as well. I was surprised by the price at first, but it was a pretty long tour and very interesting so in my mind it was worth it. read more

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The cave and crystals are good and worth seeing. It is a bit pricey for the short time you have underground but it was decent and some of the formations are impressive. The bad part is that I could not enjoy the tour because the tour guide spoke like she was Dora the Explorer and speaks to the group in a sing-song voice which just ruined the entire experience. I felt like I was being treated as if I was five-years-old. If you happened to speak to her individually, she has a very pleasant voice but for some reason she talks babyish when leading the tour and that ruined it for me. read more

Dakota, our tour guide, was amazing. Super engaging with our children and very knowledgeable about the cave. We would definitely come back!!

Staff were very friendly going above and beyond to wait for guests who just arrived in the parking lot before starting their tour (1 every 30 mins). Gift shop was very small and limited. Tour only lasts about 25-35 mins and you only see about 1/3 of the caverns excavated. Tour guide was very enthusiastic and informative, but I do wish the tour was a bit longer for the price. A few spots are very tight/low hanging, so be prepared to duck if you're on the tall side. Bathrooms were very clean and the parking lot had plenty of space. read more

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We loved our visit to Crystal Grottoes! The property manager ended up being our tour guide, and he was extremely friendly and knowledgeable, even telling us about the various lights he put up in the caves himself. They were very understanding and patient with our 7 month old (who was VERY excited about the caves). I definitely recommend paying crystal grottoes a visit, especially with children, as long as they're able to not touch the cave walls. It was an awesome learning experience for everyone. read more

Interesting place we just happened to drive by on our road trip so decided to stop! Went on a fun and informative tour! read more

Crystal Grottoes Caverns - Hiking Near Me - Boonsboro, Maryland

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Our tour guide Jillian was a lot of fun! We will definitely be coming back for the Halloween spooky tour!

I had a really nice time at these caverns. My family and I had Jillian as our tour guide and she was super enthusiastic about everything and explained things with good detail. The caverns are small compared to others in the region, but there are formations to see pretty much anywhere you look. I'd love to come back again and go through the tour a second time. read more

Tour guide Lily was absolutely amazing. Wonderful experience and absolutely would recommend for anyone adult or children. read more

Crystal Grottoes Caverns - Hiking Near Me - Boonsboro, Maryland

This place is a great short day trip if you want to do something out of the ordinary! It's about an hour away from Montgomery County and i'd say it's worth the drive! you don't have to get tickets or anything before hand, you show up and they have tours every 30mins. The daughter is the new 4th generation owner and is doing a great job running the place! They take cards and apple pay! Very knowledgeable and friendly staff! read more

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Excellent place to stop! It seems to be a hidden gem. We were in Gettysburg, and we went to the caverns, since we were hoping to do a little something different. It was close by, snd I have to say that out of the many caverns and caves we have visited throughout Pennsylvania/Virginia/West Virginia/Maryland, it was one of the prettiest I have seen. It is worth the trip, especially when trying to escape the heat! Our tour guide, Mariah was EXCELLENT! She had a great imagination, but was so incredibly knowledgeable and personable, as well. Brandon was great to talk to, and you can see that the place is a labor of love. I highly suggest stopping if you are looking for an adventure! read more

Crystal Grottoes Caverns - Hiking Near Me - Boonsboro, Maryland

We have lived here two decades and have driven by but never stopped until we had holiday company. Awesome job explaining the cave, Mariah was very knowledgeable and friendly. read more

I cannot provide a review of the cavern itself because my family and I were turned away very rudely. It seems that the staff is short-handed. If they are unable to hire more guides, they should consider selling tickets in advance to inform visitors when they are sold out. The man behind the counter was extremely unfriendly and insisted that my son and I leave because he was preparing to start a tour. There was no attempt to accommodate us on another tour. He just said we had to go. It was pretty jarring. After glancing through other reviews, it seems that I am not the only one who has encountered this unpleasant attitude from this man, which is unfortunate. read more

fantastic time with our tour guide Mariah! Would definitely stop here on a road trip!

This was a good, nice tour. It was slightly priced high but our tour guide really explained everything really well and the knowledge dampens the high cost. If you go into it with a open mind you can appreciate all the formations this place has. The tour lasted between 30-45 minutes long. Really a great spot to explore in this area and the view is great. read more

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A fantastic tour and the PERFECT way to spend a hot summer day. The cave was a refreshing 54 degrees! Our tour guide, Dakota, was friendly, funny and knowledgeable. Our family highly recommends visiting. read more

Yelp keeps removing my reviews. This is not a friendly or fun place. Staff was very rude and demanding. They were especially rude to my 3yo daughter. Made her cry so we had to leave. Is that ok Yelp? Are you going to censor that too? read more

An excellent place to stop by if in the area or definitely worth the drive if not! The Crystal Grottoes Caverns is a privately owned establishment and has been in the owners family for three generations! We were told all about how the miners at the time discovered the Caverns while searching for limestone and other great facts by our tour guide, Meighan. Tours take place every 40 minutes and BP and I arrived at the top of the hour. After paying (we had cash so that allowed us to take $1 off each of the normally $20 tickets) and chatting with the owner, Jerry, of where to eat in the area, another family came in and our group of five along with Meighan was off to see the cave! We were told of the two rules fairly quickly: No touching the formations (or they will stop growing because of the oils from our hands) and no video recording. It's a bit slippery on the steps going down (just one flight of about 10 or so steps) and the rest of the path is gravel so wear hiking-type shoes. It's also a cool 54F degrees year round, so a light jacket is also recommended. The older gentleman in our group had a walking cane, but seemed to have no issues walking along the trail. It took around 35 minutes to complete the tour and any time I wanted more time to see the "room" we were in, Meighan said I could ask her to wait, that was so nice! The Caverns were breathtaking, my photos do not do the formations or the crystals justice. Although it is not a large cave, Crystal Grottoes boasts having the most formations per square foot on the East Coast! They have even hosted a wedding or two in one of the "rooms"! Meighan has cute stories to tell when pointing out some of the formations so we could make some sense of them (ex: Cave monster, Old Father Time, the Rabbit, Sam the Cave Turtle, and the oh so many pieces of "cave bacon"). We even saw baby clay-eating salamanders in the cave pool and a frog which had lost its way in the cave (Meighan said they always find their way out since there is no food for them in the cave). There is nice stream, plenty of parking and seating outside (weather permitting) that I am sure is much appreciated when any large tour groups come in the summer time (I was told that at times, there can be up to 50 people in a tour!). There are also outlets and two provided hot plates/warmers for customers to use if eating on site. I hope they will continue to expand the Caverns! read more

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Fun day out with the family to see a local cave. Ticket prices were a bit expensive, and the gentleman that gave us the rules/introduction sitting at his desk prior to our tour, gave off a vibe like he was short tempered, didn't like people, and didn't really want to be there. But our actual tour guide Mack, (or was it Matt?) gave an enthused and spirited tour. read more

The cavern was ok, although as many have noted the price is high ($70 for two adults and two kids for maybe a 30 minute tour). The girl who did the tour was enthusiastic and well informed. The owner, who "greets" you at the start, was thoroughly unpleasant, including to my five year old grandson. If you read other reviews, both here and elsewhere, you will find similar comments about him, and for that reason alone, I will never return. read more

very good tour, very cool in the cave, but the tour was very cheesy. I would not have my wedding down their and when she said total darkness she forgot to turn the light off so we were not in total darkness we could still se everything read more

The cave lady was really sweet to my best friend and me, we were driving by and went in last minute. She took us on a spectacular tour even though it was the end of her day--we were lucky, she really knows her stuff. She was creative and very warm in how she guided us through. It was beautiful and healing. I did not have cash, and really wanted to give her a big tip. I will definitely go again. Support them and her! read more

Crystal Grottoes Caverns - Hiking Near Me - Boonsboro, Maryland

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This place is a hidden gem, you should not take it for granite!!! Who knew there were caverns hidden under a building that looks like a backwoods strip club? It's a trip to see them open a door that looks like your everyday average basement door and then step into deep dark cavern. Like Silence of the Lambs Lotion in the Basket hole in the ground weird. The caverns aren't Luray Caverns big, and you'll need to take a tour, so it is not self guided. The tour is short (30-45 minutes), you're basically walking from what they call room to room. The tour covers one third of the known cave. There are lots of blocked off areas with covering the floor and lower walls of the passages, that are saved for further exploration. Despite being a short tour, that is slightly expensive (use the coupon on their promo flyer for $1 off), I think the tour guide made it fun. We had a young lady that was clearly into geology and she was excited to tell us about stalactites and stalagmites and her future plans for exploration. There were some parts of the tour that were clearly scripted by a high person. I guess since you run out of stuff to talk about, you point out figures in the rock formations. Yes, that clearly looks like a giraffe riding a horse, I can see that now. What is really cool literally, is that the caverns are always 52 degrees. So great in summer and winter (no jackets needed). It is a privately owned cave, and the owner is also a colorful character. If you are out near Hagerstown or visiting the battlefields of Antietam, this is a cool detour to visit especially with kids. read more

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Love the grotto, but compared to other caverns I have been to this one was not worth five stars. The gentleman on the tour was very knowledgeable about the subject, but the majority of the tour was about how there's a lot more tavern to be discovered, and they just haven't taken the time to dig it out yet in over 100 years. read more

I was skeptical about going to this place as previous reviews were quite mixed. All in all, I had a good experience. We were told via the phone that there were specified time slots available (11, 12, 1, 2 & 3). However, my friend and I arrived at 12:04PM and instead of having to wait until 1, we were able to go in with the next group of people who were gathered around the picnic tables/next to the creek (12:12PM). Plenty of parking is available. They let people in once enough to form a group is available. We were a group of 10. Plastic gloves were provided. Masks were required. Our tour was 29 minutes. It was 54 degrees inside, I recommend wearing a light sweater. The cost was $20. We paid cash. Our guide's name was Lindsay. She was very knowledgeable and twice allowed time for us to take pictures and look around. I did not feel particularly rushed during the tour. The cave itself is amazing to see. I think it's pretty large and there are many passages to walk through as well as tunnels to look into. It's well lit. I asked how long we walked and the guide said it was 1400 feet. We did meet Jerry the owner who has received negative critique from previous reviews. He was no nonsense and to the point with directing us to wear gloves/masks. He did ask, "How's everybody doing"? I can understand why he may come across as rude, but I didn't think he was particularly rude. I did note that he was not wearing a mask or gloves. However, our guide was. There were no bathrooms available on site, but two minutes away there is Shafer Park where there are two public bathrooms. They were pretty clean and standard facilities. They weren't portable toilets. read more

It was a very windy day, so a friend suggested we check this place out. We had both been there many years ago (myself as a 4th grader for being on the honor roll all year) but didn't recall much. When we got there, I let my dog out to play in the creek a bit. The dog had come along to hike a nearby park. A few minutes later an old man came out barking at us to put the dog away, that the property was not a dog run, and had a lot of other choice comments of which I couldn't really make out. That encounter alone made me want to haul out of there, but my friend, having read the reviews here, was not surprised. It was $20 per person. The lady inside was friendly. We waited about 15 minutes with another group of 6 while another tour finished. Oddly, on the wall to the right of the stairs was a printed and posted script on how to end the tour. Weird. Tour itself was just OK. The lady was friendly enough and invited us to take pictures, so they must've changed their No Pictures rule. At times it was hard to see what the tour guide was referring too since the space inside was rather cramped. The formations inside were satisfying to see for someone who hadn't been in a cavern in maybe 20 or more years. No impressive pools, but a nice variety. I'd give it a 3.6 stars for being a cavern in Maryland, but definitely not the best I've seen. 1-2 stars for rude owner, and somewhat awkward customer service. read more