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Here’s an idea for a family Christmas getaway to a destination where it’s 50 degrees year-round.
Take the kids to a cave.
Not just any cave, but Mammoth Cave, the longest cave in the world, located in Kentucky, about 90 miles from Louisville.
We headed there at dawn one Christmas morning a few years ago, driving 11 hours virtually nonstop from our home in New York (OK, we let the kids out of the car for a half-hour in West Virginia at a cousin’s house for lunch).
By nightfall we’d arrived in the town of Cave City. The hardest part of the trip, quite honestly, was finding gas stations that were open on Dec. 25, and locating a place to have supper once we arrived in Cave City that night.
We finally saw a gas station with an open convenience store that served hot food. But I guess we looked pretty rumpled after all those hours in the car, and now here we were, buying dinner in a gas mart on a holiday when most families gather for a festive meal. When I wasn’t looking, a stranger took pity on us, bought my boys a couple of presents from a rack of toy cars and guns, said “Merry Christmas” and walked away.
The kids were thrilled, of course – especially by the toy gun, which their own mother would never have bought them. So far, Christmas in Kentucky, from their point of view, was a smash.
Cave City is a busy place in the summer, with water parks, amusement parks and other roadside attractions drawing lots of visitors. But it’s quiet in the winter, and the numerous local motels drop their prices to compete for the few tourists who are around. You can get a decent room there for around $45 a night, including breakfast.
We spent much of the next two days in Mammoth, taking the “Frozen Niagara” cave tour and the “Violet City Lantern” tour, where you carry kerosene lamps into parts of the cave that have no electric lights, both led by park rangers. One of the surprises on the cave tours is learning not just about the cave’s geology but also about its human connections. Deep inside the stone tunnels, there is all sorts of evidence of how people have used the cave over the centuries. Mammoth is the country’s second-oldest tourist attraction after Niagara Falls, with tours offered since 1816; many of the early tour guides were slaves owned by whites who had claims to the land where the cave is located. Throughout the cave you’ll see names and dates from the 19th and 20th centuries on the walls; leaving graffiti was something of a cave tradition among tour guides and their guests.
We also saw huts used by an 1840s tuberculosis colony located in the cave, and mining pits from 1812. Indigenous people used the caves centuries ago; mummies have been found in the cave, and you can still see crude drawings on cave walls and rocks that are thousands of years old. The cave has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, putting it on the same list with the Egyptian Pyramids and the Grand Canyon.
Here’s another reason why you should think about visiting Mammoth Cave at Christmas. Officials from Mammoth Cave National Park recently reported that the number of visitors has fallen by 39 percent since 1992, and by 50 percent since 1973.
Why? Some people think it’s because families are so scheduled these days they don’t make time for simple pleasures like exploring parks any more.
Some people say it’s because kids would rather play a video game than take a hike.
I suppose all of that’s true for my family. But spending that Christmas Day one year driving to Kentucky is one of my fondest holiday memories, and the exploring we did inside the cave is one of the coolest family adventures we’ve had.
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This week’s advice: Consider a trip to Mammoth Cave this Christmas or any other time of year. Guided cave tours are offered daily, including on Christmas and New Year’s Day. The park is located in Kentucky about 90 minutes from either Louisville or Nashville. Variety of cave tours available, including “Violet City Lantern” tour, a three-hour, 3-mile hike through the cave, $15 for adults, $11 for children 6-12, no children under 6. “Frozen Niagara” is a two-hour, 3/4 mile hike, $12 adults, $8 for children 6-12 (all ages permitted but no strollers or baby backpacks). Mammoth Cave is 50 degrees year-round. For details on other tours, click on “Cave tour descriptions” at . For lodging, check . Nearby attractions include the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green.
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