This is our second visit to Dan yr Ogof Caves since having Coops and although I enjoyed taking him when he was 3 years old, I felt that he enjoyed a lot more at 4.5 years old.
What can you do at Dan yr Ogof Caves?
VISIT THE CAVES
As the name suggests, there are THREE caves to visit once you're inside the attraction. At the moment, due to COVID, you have to visit them in a specific order - starting with Dan yr Ogof, then Cathedral Cave before finishing with Bone Cave.
The first cave that you visit is the biggest and takes a good 20 minutes to walk through (and that's at a fairly brisk pace!) Coops doesn't stop to look at anything for too long before he's running to see what's next, but you definitely could spend a lot longer in there! It's all pretty safe in there for mini explorers and not and incredibly steep bits (although there are some steps.) It's quite well lit but there's a chill in there, naturally, so make sure to pack a jumper, even on a warm day!
The second cave, Cathedral Cave, is the one with the waterfall inside. At the end of the walk through you can walk right under the waterfall along a little bridge and see where you could get married underground, if you were that type of couple - we definitely are not! Lol. But it does look like a cool place to get married.
The third cave, Bone Cave, is up an incredibly steep hill with lots of steps. We dragged Coops up here our first visit. You had to wear a hard hat because the roof is low. In all honesty, the walk wasn't worth the visit for us. It's a very small cave with nothing 'more' to see really than you would have in the other two. By all means, check it out if you have a good walker, but wasn't worth the moaning on the way up for me the second time, especially as I didn't have Carwyn with me to carry him if need be!!
THE DINOSAURS
There are SO many dinosaurs at Dan yr Ogof! If you've been to The Dinosaur Park in Tenby then a good comparison would be to imagine at least 3 if not 4 times more that what's at the Dinosaur Park. They're really good statues and all placed close together, so, although the walk to see them is really steep, it's not very long. The one criticism I have of them is that lots of them didn't have plaques or information by them so you have no idea which ones they are (annoying when your kid wants to know the names of them and you only know about 20 breeds at a push!!)
THE INDOOR MUSEUM
This is only a tiny part of the attraction but it had this really cool paint your own dinosaur interactive game and Coops would have spent and hour there had I let him I'm sure!
THE ANIMALS
A short walk through the car park and you reach an open piece of land where there are lots of farm animals loving life, strolling around the place - they even join you in the soft play area!!
PLAYGROUNDS
There are two good indoor play areas here, one for under 6 year olds where there are little trikes and a wooden playhouse. The other is for 6-10 year olds and is more of a climbing frame (Coops played here as well though so I think it's more for 4-10 year olds in my opinion!) There's also a small outdoor park and a zip wire if the weather's dry. You can play mini golf here too!
What else do I need to know?
Adult prices are £16.50 and children 3 years and over pay £13.50. There's not much to spend more money on inside then unless you want to buy food in the cafe or visit the gift shop, which Cooper MUST do everywhere we go - I fully understand I've made that bed to lie in!!! There is no way I would take a pram or a wheelchair here, you'd have to be superman to get around and the caves would be impossible on wheels, which is one of the main reasons I think Dan yr Ogof will be better enjoyed by children 4+ years of age. Having said that, if you have a younger child with a genuine interest in dinosaurs, then I'm sure they'd enjoy it there before 4 years of age. It's NOT like the Dinosaur Park in Tenby though, these dinosaurs are more to be LOOKED at rather than PLAYED with like you can do in Tenby.
I've heard a lot of people say that Dan yr Ogof is over priced, I'm not sure I agree - maybe because Cooper does really like dinosaurs. It's not a full day event but you could definitely spend 5 hours here on a nice day, a little less on a wet one!
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