Lorileni, Sep 2026
Pair/compare with Guggenheim
A constellation of stars for this fantastic tour that should be a foundational experience for anyone who loves art, history, civilization and/or is interested in climate change: compare and contrast Jeff Koons’ flower Puppy with 12,000 year-old drawings of extinct bison, the abstract expressionists with 40,000 year-old red dots, black lines and reverse hand prints, and Gehry’s Guggenheim with a cave from before time, then walk out into the warm air and look out over the verdant landscape and wonder – there were reindeer here?
I took this tour on a hope and a hunch because I couldn’t find any good reviews or write-ups, and I found the tour so profound, I wanted to describe what it is like for others, because it’s a great tour and someone should (my second review ever). This tour should be part of The Bilbao 1-2: the Guggenheim for the newest art in the most modern setting one day, the oldest art in an ancient cave the next. That said, while many will find this tour spectacular, there is also a modest quality to the actual cave art, the site visits are short relative to the time travelled, and there’s no rebuttal to a philistine’s dismissal that Alta Mira is a reproduction and the actual caves just show a bunch of stick figures – to each their own. But if it’s for you, then note everything is strictly limited to a designated number of small groups and precisely timed – BOOK EARLY.
Museum of Alta Mira / Neocave: The Alta Mira neocave is a precise, exact reproduction of the Alta Mira cave (now effectively closed to the public for preservation) and it is amazing: a paleolithic Sistine Chapel of ocher and charcoal-drawn and etched bison and other animals. As Picasso is reported to have said when he saw it, “we have learned nothing in 12,000 years.” The precision, the perspective, the sheer artistic ability is just stunning. (I thought we had enough time there.)
Interpretation Centre of Cave Art of Puente Viesgo: The museum has a tremendous exhibit of prehistoric artifacts very well presented and I could have spent an afternoon there, and will if I go back. I would have liked to have had more time but the cave tours are not run in the afternoon in order to keep the heat out, so we had to keep moving.
Castillo Cave and Monedas Cave: calibrate your expectations. You will not see polychromatic bison similar to Alta Mira – and the ceiling couldn’t be illuminated in a similar fashion nowadays anyway. What you will see are basic ocher and charcoal drawings and etchings of fauna from 12,000 years ago that show the same degree of precision and perspective and artistic brilliance as Alta Mira (there are some similar polychrome drawings at Castillo but they are currently closed off) as well as 40,000 year-old markings and reverse hand prints. The drawings are illuminated by the guide’s flashlight (torch) only and frequently you will need to look closely.
Guide: the cave guide is mandated to give the tours in Spanish, and Gabriela provided a quiet, simultaneous translation. Our cave guide was extremely informative, and Gabriela provided excellent commentary as well.
Tour: Gabriela is an excellent, very knowledgeable guide and her tour is well organised and precise: it has to be because of the rigid time sequencing for cave preservation. Gabriela’s husband, Rafa, who picked us up at our hotel in Bilbao (additional fee), is as charming as he is knowledgeable about Cantabria, its people, history and culture – I learned a lot from him (a big mucho gracias).
Difficulty: the stairs and steps are hewn into the rock and can be uneven and wet with the footing at times difficult; in addition, you’re not supposed to touch the walls and there was some ducking (not crouching), but I’m 68 and my wife is 66, we’re in good shape, and we thought it was fine and well worth it. You are given a half-torch stick to light the floor, but they can’t be used to see the art on the walls.
Claustrophobia: my wife and another woman from the Spanish tour both had worried about claustrophobia (my wife was expecting possibly to bail) but they both said they had no problem whatsoever - just awe.
The caves: I’m no spelunker so I’m not sure what to compare these caves to, but the caves themselves are gorgeous with white calcium carbonate stalactites and stalagmites. The geology itself made for a marvelous experience.
Context: Gabriela and the museum can help put the drawings and etchings into various perspectives – I found Patrick Wyman’s recent book Lost Worlds to be a great primer on the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene and Paleolithic life and evolution (a good read and he’s also a podcaster).
We did not go for lunch – it was just the two of us, so we went to Santander to dine and explore, then took the bus back to Bilbao (get your tickets ahead of time).
I hope this helps: I’ve been a lot of places, seen a lot of things and took a lot of tours, and this one is truly exceptional.
