You are not allowed to take pictures beyond a certain point. For me, the most amazing caves I ever saw. The experience is totally worth it. The entire area around is also very nice. It's not too slippery, not too cold. The guides are nice, tours are available in many languages. Booking in advance is recommended

It was like Cheddar Gorge in England, on steroids. Definitely worth a visit. You can only take photos in the first cave which was the least amazing, because of a risk of flash damaging natural fungi etc. This was the least amazing cave. I went on an arranged tour.

Nice cave but for us the experience was totally ruined by the 'can't be bothered' miserable attitude of the staff. One in the front and one in the back making sure that nobody took a surreptitious photograph, apparently, we were told because of the copyright of the company. I don't think you can copyright caves. More to do with the guards wanting to get through as quickly as possible. We were put in a massive group of around 100. All different nationalities, with an 'English Speaking' guide, although I'm English and I was picking up maybe 3 words of each sentence it was that bad. I could hardly see above people's heads we were so tightly packed and moving so quickly. No time to stop and admire the cave .. just rushed through like cattle. Twice we passed small Italian groups, all ambling along taking flash photos and video, yet we were rushed through so fast on the uneven floors, most of it badly lit. I'm surprised nobody fell and had an accident. We've been in lots of caves. Usually you go through alone, with headsets explaining the system. Some have music and light shows, making it very dramatic. This one is just boring. Not worth €18 per person. Total rip off.

Great experience! The 50 min tour suitable for small kids (4 & 6 y.o. enjoyed it). A bit to brief for adults/teenagers. During a 1km walk you're going to see a few amazing stone formations, hear a bit of history about the caves, and have a chance to imagine how this place looked like before it was turned into a tourist attraction. No need for any special shoes or outfits - a jacket and a pair of sneakers would do.

Fantastic caves, but the experience is totally spoiled by the way it's run. It started badly when we were charged to park out car in a large car park in the village centre not far from the caves. But since the caves are the only attraction in town, the cost of parking ought to be included in the ticket price for visiting the cave. After buying our tickets, we were shown to the "planetarium" which is a miniature imax-style surround cinema where they played an animated film about possible alien life on other planets. But nobody could see it. The projector was so feeble that it took a couple of minutes of dark adaptation to seven see the image. And then people kept opening the door, causing bright sunshine to flood in and ruin the dark adaptation. They also give you pretty terrible 3D glasses that make the picture even dimmer. I guess this planetarium show is there to stop kids getting bored between tours of the caves, and it's a nice idea in principle. But the fact that they didn't invest in a decent projector system and didn't fit a light-proof entry system means it actually irritating for a lot of people. I heard lots of murmurings of "well that's 30 minutes of my life I'll never get back" upon leaving. But my biggest gripe of all is the actual cave tour itself. Not only do they try to stop you from taking photos beyond the first cave, but there's no mention of this at all before you buy your tickets. I LOVE visiting caves and have visited hundreds of them over the years. This is the first time I've been prevented from taking photos. I asked one of the two ladies what the reasoning was, and she said "Because it's our copyright". Which is total nonsense. Nobody has copyright over things that they did not create. And caves are created by the action of water over millions of years, they aren't man-made! I ignored their protestations and continued to take plenty of photos. In the end they stopped trying to stop me. I later looked up what possible genuine reasons they might have, and it's to protect the rocks from the effects of flash. Well why isn't that a problem in any other cave anywhere else? In any case I was taking photos and videos using a phone and a GoPro. There was no flash involved. If they really have a problem with people bringing proper cameras with powerful flash, then they should just tell people that photos are okay as long as there is no flash. Another problem is with the way the tour is guided. The tour guide at the front made an effort for people to gather around her before speaking, but her very soft voice was impossible to hear, especially since some of the visitors had brought babies who were crying the whole way. Inside the caves all you could hear is the crying of babies. Many cave site tour operators get round this by using radio mics with speakers hidden behind rocks in the caves. That way the guide doesn't have to shout, and everyone can hear easily. But no, there was nothing like that here. In summary, my biggest gripe is about their ridiculous ban on photography. For some of us, taking photos of the spectacular rock formations is a big reason for visiting in the first place. Admittedly they do say "no photography" in the guide they give you, but you don't see that until after you've bought your ticket. Pretty nasty way to operate. There's no good reason for them to ban photography, especially if you're doing it without a flash. But if you're to afraid to stand up for yourself, enjoy some of mine.

Cool tourist attraction, but be sure to wear comfortable shoes with good grip — the caves are very slippery inside. The long tour was interesting, though I’d recommend the shorter 50-minute option.

Excellent visit to these extraordinary caves. Well worth a visit if you're in the area. A lot more F walking, but very safe to do so - and there's a lift to take you back to the surface!

(Translated by Google) Small mineralogical museum with interesting samples and diagrams for a theoretical understanding of the karst and geology of Puglia (Original) Piccolo museo mineralogico con interessanti campioni e diagrammi per una comprensione teorica del carsismo e geologia della Puglia

(Translated by Google) All very interesting and informative (Original) Tutto molto interessante e istruttivo

(Translated by Google) Nice place (Original) Bel posto

. The food was very bad ! . The mineral water was open and too full to be real. I am sure it was tap water but we had to pay 2€ for it ! . No coffee (la macchina non funziona) . Expensive .. 💰💰 . They took the bread left on the tables and served it to other clients as new 😱😱 - Now we hope we won't be sick - 😳🤢🤮

The food is great, the location is near the touristic entrance. However, it is pretty crowded, it has high prices (7€ and above per meal), does not have enough chicken supply for the demand and coperti (staff service aka tip) is 2€ / person. No English menu!

Good place if you need a lunch near the Castellana Grotte. Surprisingly, a lot of locals ate here when we visited the caves, so it is not a sole tourist restaurant. The food quality was good and they serve local Apulian dishes.

Even if the terrace was empty, we weren’t served with coffe and drinks because it’s a place only for eating, and if we want to drink we should go to the place nearby. The place nearby was crowded. Guess why? :) That’s a classic case of bad management combined with poor service.

very rude owner. I was with a group where not everyone wanted to eat, so they ordered something to drink. he told us that place is a restaurant, not a bar. he didn't even bring them the order

Location

Super

Dumb, nauseating, ridiculous video-scam about alien life. Tickets are sold by a nearby info-point as "included in the tickets for the caves". Complete BS. This is not necessary at all. Buy tickets for the caves directly at the ticket office which is actually close to the caves.

They have colluded with 'Tourist Information' to carry out a scam, stealing 6 euros per tourist. Be cautious!

Only Italian language. Image is bad. Go to the cave directly. this is not worth doing.

Tourist trap, beware no air conditioning

Tourist trap

Absolute scam

(Translated by Google) These people work on the edge of scamming. While we were going to the entrance to the Castellana caves, a guy stopped me and pointed out the ticket office. I asked for the 4 tickets for us and the girl said, "I'll explain how it works." She made me understand that the entrance fee, a good €6 more than I expected, included the planetarium being part of the caves and was a sort of preliminary. They took the money and gave me a handwritten piece of paper with my name and the time, and told me that they would then give me the other entrance ticket. So, after having endured half an hour of a documentary about life in the universe that had nothing to do with the caves, it was in 3D, and they gave us glasses that didn't work. The guy who runs it didn't even bother to connect them to the charging cable. I discovered that they were the ones who went to the real ticket office in our place, and I'm sure of that because, after calling them by name, they handed an envelope with the tickets to the others in the group. Inside, ours weren't there, they had forgotten and so the girl went inside to make them and we followed her and saw the "movement" and then she delivered them to us by hand. You can draw your own conclusions. (Original) Queste persone lavorano al limite della truffa, mentre andavamo all’ingresso delle grotte di castellana mi fermato un tizio indicandomi la biglietteria, ho chiesto i 4 biglietti per noi e la ragazza mi dice” le spiego come funziona “ e mi fa capire che nel prezzo dell’ingresso , ben 6€ in più di quello che mi aspettavo il planetario faceva parte di quello alle grotte ed era una specie di preliminare, si sono presi i soldi e mi hanno consegnato un foglietto scritto a mano con il mio none e l’orario, e mi hanno detto che poi mi davano l’altro biglietto di ingresso, quindi dopo esserci sorbiti mezz’ora su un documentario sulla vita nell’universo che non centrava niente con le grotte, tra l’altro era in 3d e ci hanno dato degli occhiali che non funzionavano il ragazzo che gestisce la cosa non si dava nemmeno la pena di collegarli al cavetto di ricarica ,ho scoperto che invece sono loro che andarono alla biglietteria vera al nostro posto, e sono sicuro perché agli altri del gruppo dopo averli chiamati per nome hanno consegnato una busta con i biglietti dentro, i nostri invece non c’erano, si erano dimenticati e così la ragazza è entrata dentro a farli e noi l’abbiamo seguita e visto il “movimento”e ce li ha poi consegnati a mano . A voi le conclusioni

It's our main church in town. Be aware, it's always cold! (Very good for summer days)

(Translated by Google) It is a comfortable but small place of worship and on summer days it is also very hot even when the sun has already set. (Original) È un luogo di culto confortevole ma piccolo e nelle giornate estive fa anche molto caldo anche quando è già calato il sole.

(Translated by Google) It is not a monument church, it is now used for the vigil of the bodies awaiting the funeral. (Original) Non è una chiesa monumento, ora viene usata per la veglia delle salme in attesa del funerale.

(Translated by Google) Everything OK (Original) Tutto bene

(Translated by Google) In this church the deceased loved ones are placed awaiting funerals... (Original) In questa chiesa vengono messi i cari estinti in attesa dei funerali...

(Translated by Google) Beautiful church remained as it once was (Original) Bella chiesa rimasta com'era un tempo

(Translated by Google) Ancient monument recently restored. (Original) Antico monumento recentemente restaurato.

Rarely seen not a good person(thus service) in Puglia but maybe exception for the tourist place...I have booked in advance and when we went there, una cameriera didn't even say "buonasera", and she asked almost every words that I have told her AGAIN and again. I speak Italian enough understand for native Italians so I could not figure why she acted like that. I felt somewhat discrimination or maybe she's not an Italian so didn't wanna speak Italian language since I rarely seen discrimination because of asian face in Italy. I should not order dishes since above incident was happened while I was asking about the vegan arrangements that I have already mentio ned at the booking, but seemed she didn't even see it or not trying to understand🥲 Extremely unpleasant experience and still exhausted by it since it's just happened...

Really delicious food and warm and friendly service. I wasn’t too hungry when we stopped for lunch but I’m already planning on returning here to eat more food on the menu. Thank you!

Eating some pizzas before visiting the caves. Friendly staff and fairly fast service. We wanted to taste the meat but we didn't keep up with the times. The waitress was good at warning us, otherwise we would risk skipping dinner. A good foothold near a nice attraction.

Restaurants near major tourist attractions are generally best avoided. We also had reservations about sitting down for a light lunch, but we had a very positive impression. The pesto walnut pasta (can't remember the exact name) was excellent, as were the desserts. The waitress was a bit bored though.

We all had pizza which was delicious. Everyone was very friendly. The restaurant was extremely busy so we waited a very long time for food, but it's to be expected. We didn't reserve a table, but they allowed us to wait for a table. A great evening, thank you.

Worst food we had and the service is zero. Might be better to please retire.

One of the most delicious pizzas that we've already tried in Italy

Tourist trap! Stop going to this place. One simple tris-lunch costs 17 Euro plus 2.5 euro bottle of aqua. The plate itself tastes like something cost 7 Euro from school cantia. beware beware. The waiters have good attitude but their food is just one of the worst

Surprisingly good food for reasonable prices. Friendly and fast service. The kitchen remains open throughout the day, we had our meals at 2pm. The outside terrace is nice, the inside of the restaurant has rather a "canteen flair". Toilets are clean and spacious.

Nice staff, attentive to allergies. Food was alright, suitable for the price.

Ate here randomly and glad we did because it was a delicious lunch and very kind, friendly, helpful staff

In the restaurant service was so quick . Wiener snitzels are fresh so tasty. Carbonara was so Amazing! Prices are moderate for a frequent place. Thank you so much .

- Bar review - Positive things: toilet cleaning and position. Negative things: the table where we drank cocktails was dirty and no one cleaned it. Service too approximate.

Handy place to have a cool drink or coffee while waiting for a tour of the caves. the coffee was very good and the beer very cool

This place is awesome. Very friendly staff. Amazing breakfast (I think everyone in Italy can by default use an espresso machine). Clean rooms. The front desk helped get us a rental car. They came to the hotel where we filled out paperwork, then just left the car. Left the keys at the front desk when done with it. About a 1 minute walk to town, but quiet.

All day Party Musik all night No slep

Amazing food. Great service with friendly staff.

Matera Taxi Numbers One

Top

Bella location

Beat pizza we have ever had. Delicious wine and grappa too. Service was great (English wasn’t so well understood but he tried his best!) would recommend over and over. Price totally ok for what you get.

Great pizza, a truly hidden gem! Pizza Praga and Contadina, awesome!

Superb Pizza. think crispy base, great selection of toppings. good service, young lady spoke good English.

Molto buono! Went to see the football final and had an incredible time - food was delicious and personnel delightful. Will return. :)

One of the good pizza places in the area. Cheap and good. Personnel very welcoming!

Not the best pizzeria in town but definately a very good alternative if bernardo is closed

Amazing cheap pizza, slow service