Blue Hills Ranch is a can't miss experience. The staff were so incredibly welcoming, warm, and…read moreknowledgable. They went above and beyond to make us feel like family and at home. The animals are so well taken care of and loved. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience, and we are so glad to have stayed there. Special shout out to Allen the Chef who made some of the most delicious meals I have had and Anne and Jackie who were so knowledgeable about otters and kangaroos. We also loved Dundee (their baby kangaroo.)

Spent the weekend here and had great animal adventures. We stayed in the kangaroo cabins. The cabin…read moreitself had everything and was great accommodations. The place was clean and just the right size for my wife and I. Being city folks you forget how dark it is out in the country at nights. It was nice. We signed up for these adventures to make the weekend even more fun: 1. Feed baby kangaroo(Bodhi). This was about a 30 minute session where we got to feed him a bottle and kibble. It really was an amazing experience. 2. Bucket of food and self guided feeding of animals. We walked the property and hid to feed so many animals. All of the animals were friendly toward people. They were all very good motivated. We encountered a giraffe, donkeys, zebras, horses, cows, pigs, dwarf steers, camels, emu, deer, buffalo and more. The animals were often trying to bully their way to the front of the line. The cow Oreo who has not skipped a meal was always front of the line. 3. Afternoon safari ride in ATV. This was a fun ride around the property. Did not see any new animals but had a great time. The cows out at pasture were thrilled to be fed. 4. Giraffe encounter and meal. This was a little expensive but I would spend it again. The giraffes were super friendly and personable. We wanted to take them home because they were so much fun. The guide, experience and never felt rushed made this worth it. Our guide was top notch. I think her name was Jackie but could be wrong.

We took the adventure tour today to do something special on Valentine's Day…read more It was so very busy! Our tour guide was Tom and he was so informative and fun and kind. He had sweet little stories for all the children. He was very knowledgeable. I learned that he has been going to that cave his entire life, he even took his dates there and he's probably a grandpa now. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Our group was probably 25 people. They had a group descending every 20 minutes. It was quite interesting. The cave actually goes underneath the 35 freeway! We paused and listened and it sounded like lightning as the cars passed over the top. There's an old ladder inside where explorers used to climb down into the cave. That same ladder is on the side of the freeway just like a half mile down inside of a black shed. Nobody knows what's there without taking this tour. They have a beautiful gift shop with lots of wonderful things to buy. They take a photo of each party along the tour and to buy that photo is only $13! They have three different tours to choose from. The adventure tour was one hour. Then they have a 90 minute tour and a 3 1/2 hour tour. The one hour tour that we took was 1 mile long. The terrain is up and down and sometimes slippery so wear your good walking shoes with tread. When you get down to the very bottom, it's pretty warm so don't overdress. Layer with a hoodie that you can tie around your waist. This is not a place for anyone who can't walk a mile on varied terrain--No wheelchairs no strollers, nothing like that. I look forward to going back and taking the longer tour. Every employee that I spoke to was so very kind and helpful. I really like this place. I highly recommend you visit!

This was more interesting and fascinating than I thought. I enjoyed my tour with Myles…read more The parking lot is very large. Plenty of parking. The tour to the cave is about a mile round trip. I don't think you can take kids strollers on the tour. And you should be in capable condition to walk the distance. The walk back is more upward, some areas are steep. It is humid as you get down, which I thought it would be cool underground. I had curly hair going in, came out with straight frizzy hair. The tour guide stops along the way and talks about the rocks, the forms, and some extra surprises along the way. The guide will also take a photo of you and your group, and you can purchase the picture at the end when you go back to the gift shop. Myles was a great tour guide. He explained everything so well. Answered questions we had. Friendly and knowledgeable. Was a very nice hour or so tour. Well worth the time and drive there. Happy I did something new and a little adventurous.

Captain Sean was the BEST!! My experience was nothing shy of AMAZING! He was educated, experienced,…read morefunny as EVER!!! I had the best time!!

Three years later we are back and brought family visiting from out of town. The captain was great…read moreand very informative without it being boring. We were a group of 11 ranging from age 11 through 94 and everyone liked it. You can either park on the street for free or at the Hyatt. If you park at the Hyatt, Capital Cruises will give you a coupon so the What a fun experience!

This is your tour company! Dianna and Lou helped make a special surprise birthday celebration even…read moremore special. They had EVERYTHING covered for us- comfortable and safe transportation, a wonderful agenda and experience, no worry handling of our many purchases, tips for future options, etc. Thanks for new great memories!

I highly recommend Amber & Amethyst Tours for your next event. I contacted them as I was looking…read morefor a wine tour option for my mom's surprise party. They were so accommodating from the very beginning. They made great recommendations on where to go and what would work for our group, and were so flexible with the timing of our event. Other places I had called were strict on a time limit: four hours, three wineries...Amber & Amethyst Tours said they would work with us and our schedule...we never felt rushed to move on to the next spot and had time to sit together and enjoy our wine at each spot! Every place we went, they were ready to open the door for us, help my 92 year old grandma get her walker and get to the entrance, and they even labeled and packed all our snacks and wine bottles purchased along the way. Dianna and Lou were so kind and so much fun! I'll be contacting them again!

The tour was very nice and our tour guide Tanner was very epic and cool and made the experience so…read moremuch cooler-er. I enjoyed the puns especially the rock puns and will miss them and rocky and the chicken nugget we saw on the path. Highly recommend !!!!! :-) p.s. sneak peak of rocky

This isn't the best caverns I've visited within a Texas State Park, but it is pretty darn cool. The…read morebest caverns tour is at Kickapoo Caverns. I did a wild cave tour without the extra charges that Longhorn collects. At Longhorn, our guide, Johnson did an amazing job with our small group of six people for the 10:45 AM tour. My brother and I initially registered for the 11:00 AM tour and am glad that we were suggested another time. We passed by the 11:00 AM tour and they had 40+ people in their group. Johnson showed us cool geological formations. We saw dolomite, calcium bicarbonate, chert, limestone, geodes, stalagmites, stalactites, and quartz crystals. Johnson is somewhat funny; he had a bit of quirky and dry humor. I enjoyed the history of the caverns, but some of it I thought was interesting. It was really delightful to learn that in the 1800's, before the CCC got involved, the locals would dance and play music turning the cave into an auditorium of entertainment. Johnson said that if certain geological formations glows, it is growing. Very catchy phase for memory. I got to see a few bats hanging out. They were tricolor bats which are smallest bats. The cave is cool, but thankfully not slippery. I was wearing no grip support shoes, but I didn't fall or have the urge to fall. There are mats on the floor of the cave to prevent falls. Johnson gave us more time to look around and admire the geology. My brother and I weren't required to bring our own flashlights. Johnson had a flashlight, but forgot to grab the blacklights. What I find is strange is that this is a state park that you cannot renew your state park pass at. This park headquarters is very different than the rest considering that there's a third party company handing the cave tours, they sell ice-cees, popcorn, and the gift shop is very big and vast. The others don't have this. It is questionable to me. I was told that I needed to go to Inks Lake to renew my pass. The cave tours are very pricey. Kickapoo Caverns tour was very affordable at $10. You can use the park pass. You can't get your state park passport stamped at Longhorn Caverns either. It seems like Longhorn Caverns is more for profit and the history about the cavern could be overly exaggerated to attract customers. My opinion. It was hard to believe half of the things what Johnson was telling us. There's one portion of geological formation in the cave that is "dead" because in year 1919, the locals went exploring by touching the formation it "killed" it. I preferred Kickapoo Caverns and the Caverns of Sonora a lot more. Even Inner Space Caverns and Natural Bridge were very exciting to see. Longhorn is cool, but didn't give me that WOW-factor, but I still had a ton of fun on a Sunday morning.

After seeing the movie "The Embrace of the Serpent", we wanted to see the place where it was…read morefilmed: the Mavecure Hills in Colombia. Amazon Adventures was able to arrange a 5-day tour for us, it went really well - even when we missed our flight out of the jungle (no cell coverage and they moved the flight earlier!!) we had a hotel arranged and a flight the next day. Spectacular trip. Would definitely use this company again!

I contacted Jim at Amazon Adventures to arrange a trip to the Pantanal in Brazil. I had tried to…read moremake a few arrangements on my own and was completely frustrated. I shouldn't have wasted my time and just emailed Jim right from the start. He was immediately responsive. Through a series of emails over the course of a week, he offered a couple of options at different price points. I should mention that I was trying to arrange our trip for peak season and was a bit late for booking travel at that time. Unfortunately, our trip was cancelled due to the pandemic. But Jim came through again, helping us to obtain a refund. Through all our interactions, Jim was helpful, informative and pleasant. Perhaps most impressively, he always responded promptly -- I think always within 24 hours. I highly recommend Amazon Adventures and will contact Jim again when we are able to travel once more.

It's cool that the town has a ghost tour. It's a short walk and wheelchair accessible. It is the…read moremost boring ghost tour I've ever been on. A history tour might be better since the stories of haunts are so bland. It's kid and pet friendly. The meeting place is in a cool gift shop with restrooms. There's also history to read about while you wait.

Being a train enthusiast I was a bit excited to go on the "Noth Pole Flyer" out of Bertrum TX on…read moreDecember 13, 2025 with my two grandkids and thier parents, six people in total. So this is a grandparents perspective. Upon arrival to the depot area, there is no indication of event parking as the lighting was very poor at 6:15 at night. The web site mentioned free parking but had no maps of the area. What I saw coming from the east, was a long row of cars parked in a Hodge podge fashion along the tracks. We ended up parking by the library across the highway. (Short walk with a light to cross with). I'll mention this again later. I came across a small sign in the middle of a crowd that says "no alcohol, no weapons licensed or otherwise." Would be nice to know before this Texan shows up armed. So had to run back to the car to secure my weapon. Ehh, minor inconvenience. BTW, the rules are on the web site. We pick up our tickets at will call and wait. The train comes up and parks. The engine was a short haul/swicher unit, no steam, with very beautiful vintage passenger cars. My family's car just happened to stop right in front of us, #41. We boarded and it was like going back in time. We found our seats easy enough. However, keeping in mind, either people were a lot taller and thinnier back then, or they have tall tables and do like airlines and add extra tables. It was tight. Little wiggle room for an adult. If you are in the window seat, you get to look forward and to the side. You cannot turn around to see what is behind you. If you adjust your seat, you are bumping the person behind you. And trust me, every car is packed. Being a night trip, there is nothing to see outside. So bring stuff for the kiddos to do and snacks and drinks. The two hour trip is loud. Kids are loud, and you have adults talking over the kids. My train enthusiast self went on an exploring expedition through a lot of the other cars. Some like mine had 4 person tables, others 4 person commuter recling seats with no tables. Some had one bathroom available others had two. I stood between two cars and just watched the scenery go by. It was a refreshing change to the snot-monsters noise in my car. The endless coco was good. Very hot. Eventually a minstrel came out and started some interactive Christmas carols. Pretty good. Simultaneously, a balloon guy came out making hats and the sorts for the kids. Then out came the forgetable part, a story teller. Hard to hear, not well versed in the story and choppy in her reading. Alas, Mrs Clause with some very different tasting, highly addictive cookie for everyone, saved the day. The highlight of the adventure was Santa. The staff had his appearance very organized and orderly. Each table had a chance to take photos with the big guy. The most unimaginable gift was given. A wooden train whistle to about 15-20 kids, my own grandkids included. Imagine if you will, about 30 minutes left in the trip with the incessant "tweet-tweet-tweet" penetrating that one nerve that goes from your ears to your feet and makes your spine want jump out of the window. Now, after a engine switch from one end to the other delay, we headed into the depot. We didn't exit the way we got on. We got on the depot side (city side), and exited on the parking lot side. Well that's fine and great. But if you park on the city side, you are blocked by the train with only two ways to get to your vehicle. Oh yes, I said a bunch of nasty, nasty cuss words. You either wait for a full train to disembark and hope they let you walk through, or, you walk around the shortest part of the train and back to the crossing light I mentioned earlier. So that's the trip review. But now to the staff. Man those cats get 5-stars. Friendly, informative and in character. I can't imagin doing that trip 5-6 times a day. They made an otherwise blah trip much, much nicer. This is a one time experience with kids. Maybe, someday, my wife and I will try a romantic trip through hill country or something like that.

The staff is incredibly friendly, and the check-in process couldn't be easier. The train cars are…read moreimpressively clean and well-kept, and we really enjoyed learning about the history behind the ride. It's a unique and nostalgic experience that takes you back in time. While I do wish the views along the route were a bit more scenic, the overall experience was still absolutely worth it and I would gladly do it again. If you're looking for something different to do around Austin, please support this train. It's a special kind of adventure you don't find every day.

I was so looking forward to finally taking a tour of the city. I've been coming here visiting my…read moreson for the last dozen or so years and I've never done it. At first, I sat on the upper level. It was wonderful to be out in the fresh air. However, the sun was a little too much for me so I had to move down to the inside area. I was the only one down there which was fine, but it was really quite filthy. There was thick gray dust on the top rail of all the seats and the fabric on the seats themselves was all thick with black grease. The tour guide was really wonderful. Entertaining and knowledgeable with one exception that was actually kind of disturbing to me personally. When we got to South Congress he talked about the "I love you so much" wall. His story of a husband painting it for his wife could not have been more wrong. It was in fact done by an artist named Amy for her then girlfriend Liz an infamous Austin hotelier and restauranteur. It is an incredibly iconic part of Austin history and if it's told it should be not fiction. I hope for sure this can be corrected for future tours.

Really good tour led by Jason, who was very upbeat and knowledgeable…read more Did the tour at the start of our trip which gave us a preview of the city; additional places to check out, and how neighborhoods intertwined. A few tips: - Don't forget your sunglasses and sunscreen if you plan to sit on the upper deck. -If you're tall, consider sitting on the left side of the upper deck to reduce the chance of getting hit in the head by low branches. -Bring cash in case you'd like to tip at the end (optional). -If you're hearing impaired, arrive early to increase your chances of getting a seat up front (on upper deck) closer to the guide. Despite being mic'd, there were times it was a bit challenging to hear. -If you get a single loop trip, you're better off staying on the bus the whole tour. If you get off at any of the stops, you won't be able to hop back on. Have an open mind and have fun!

We visited over the weekend for the grand reopening of Joanne Land Playground and it is truly…read moreamazing. It has so many wonderful obstacles and slides for the children to enjoy. I don't want to upload pics due to children are present but please go check it out because you won't be disappointed. The main stage is nice and there is a pavilion for you to just sit and enjoy the atmosphere while reading a book or just taking a moment to chill. I always enjoy coming here to cycle or walk but really appreciate the playground upgrade for the children.

My preschooler loves the kids playground at old settlers. Its well kept and keeps kids entertained…read more The location by the pond makes it so scenic. Also, this park has so many events going on.