Mark Twain Cave and Cameron Cave - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)
Mark Twain Cave and Cameron Cave

Mark Twain Cave and Cameron Cave

Mark Twain Cave and Cameron Cave
4.5
8:30 AM - 7:00 PM
Monday
8:30 AM - 7:00 PM
Tuesday
8:30 AM - 7:00 PM
Wednesday
8:30 AM - 7:00 PM
Thursday
8:30 AM - 7:00 PM
Friday
8:30 AM - 7:00 PM
Saturday
8:30 AM - 7:00 PM
Sunday
8:30 AM - 7:00 PM
About
Mark Twain Cave: Traverse the labyrinth which inspired Mark Twain's famous work, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, on an hour long guided tour of Missouri's oldest show cave. The tour route is lit and walkways are level and smooth, with no stairs. A light jacket is suggested as the cave is a constant 52 degrees year round. Cameron Cave: Open Memorial Day - Labor Day. Experience some of this unique cave's 490 passageways via a flashlight tour. Cameron Cave has been left in it's natural state ever since it's discovery in 1925. The 80-90 minute tour consists of a total of a mile long walk which includes a quarter mile hike up to the entrance of the cave. Sensible walking shoes are recommended.
Duration: 1-2 hours
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  • Carol S
    2 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Wow! You have to see this.
    We took a tour here on a Thursday in May 2023 and it was amazing! Truly a must see destination even if you aren’t very fond of caves (like me). The only advice is be sure to dress for the constant 53 degree temp inside. The tour guide was excellent, easy to hear and understand. We did not need advanced tickets and there is ample parking. The tour itself was unbelievable with lots of Mark Twain history. We definitely recommend going to see this outstanding, unique tourist attraction.
    Visited May 2023
    Written May 26, 2023
  • RandyMaluchnik
    Chaska, Minnesota52 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    A Visit to Mark Twain Cave
    Genn was a great tour guide showing us the spots Samuel Clements (Mark Twain) talked about in the adventures that Tom and Becky experienced from the Adventures of Tom Sawyer. You will see where Jessie James hid out. Look down Devil’s slide, sit in the Parlor and see where the treasure was hidden in the classic book. Our five year old granddaughter loved it and we enjoyed it for the second time. Family travelers should consider Hannibal, MO for a fun trip for a great value.
    Visited May 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written May 31, 2023
  • jeff n sally c
    Wadena, Minnesota665 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Mark Twain Cave Tour
    While passing thru Hannibal Missouri on vacation we decided to stop in and do the Mark Twain Cave tour, It is a pretty cool cave to see, relatively easy to walk thru my college aged daughter had crutches and did just fine walking thru it, Is lit with lighting so is easy to navigate thru, Is in the 50s temperature wise so recommend wearing comfy walking shoes and possibly bring a sweatshirt or hoodie along, They take your photo at the start of the tour to know who all is on the tour and they give you the opportunity to purchase the photo they took at the end of your tour thru. The guide was very knowledgable and joked around alot and made the tour and made history fun for both adults and kids of all ages. They have a decent sized giftshop with clothing and souveniers and also some travel necessities or food items available. It is also near a winery if you decide to check that out we didn't go thru that but we did enjoy the cave tour and that is right nearby. Would recommend it as a must see if traveling thru the Hannibal area and is a pretty area where the cave is located.
    Visited June 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written June 17, 2023
  • Mary
    Joplin, Missouri6 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Mark Twain Cave
    The cave was beautiful and felt great after being out in the hot summer temps. Our tour guide, Jenna, was so good. I’ve been there twice before…years ago. Jenna’s talk was so much more fun than either of the other tour guides. We took our 5 granddaughters, ages 5 - 9, and they stayed engaged in Jenna’s talk the whole hour +. She gave us a lot of history and Tom Sawyer fun. We had such a great time and highly recommend.
    Visited June 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written June 26, 2023
  • Davigeta
    Saint Louis, Missouri1,086 contributions
    4.0 of 5 bubbles
    Mark Twain cave
    We visited Mark Twain cave today. Jackson was our guide. He was good, told the usual corny jokes you get on a cave tour. The tour was indeed an hour long and pretty good. There are some interesting rock formations, but very few stalagmites or stalactites. The walkways are uneven, and for someone like me there was a risk of falls. Overall, pretty good. They have a nice gift shop, with some interesting rocks.
    Visited July 2023
    Written July 28, 2023
  • MommaTia85
    Lansing, Iowa57 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Family Trip, sightseeing.
    We absolutely loved our Mark Twain Cave tour. It was very informative and was a fun place to visit. Our tour guide, who was only 15, did an amazing job. It was truly hard to believe the kid was only 15 as he gave such a great tour.
    Visited July 2023
    Written July 31, 2023
  • LexiV
    Cleveland, Ohio1,561 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Great Cave Tour
    We did only the Mark Twain Cave Tour. It's outside the center of town but not too far. Our very young guide did a good job and was very patient with the many questions my daughter asked. You get to see a lot of interesting geological and historical sights. I would like to come back again and try the other tour as well.
    Visited June 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written August 4, 2023
  • Thomas C
    Binghamton, New York270 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    What a Staff
    We did a tour of the Mark Twain Cave with a cousin, wife, mother and I. It was a very interesting tour. Our tour guide Laikyn was very good and handled a very talkative young tourist. She took our picture before we set out and it was a very nice picture. She answered all of our questions during the tour. She also told us several very interesting stories. My suggestion would be to reread or at least look at a summary of Tom Sawyer so the stories make more sense. The tour takes about 40 minutes to do the tour. The thing that jumped out to me happened when we finished the tour. My wife had dropped her very unique sunglasses and was very upset. I asked at the counter and they said nothing had been brought in, not a surprise since no tour had left yet. The young person at the counter suggested waiting for the next tour to leave and ask if they found anything. She said if they didn't find anything, she offered to walk the entire tour to see if she could find them. In the end the next tour found them. Overall it was a very great experience.
    Visited August 2023
    Written August 12, 2023
  • Dave W
    2 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Mark Twain labyrinth
    Took the grandkids, 3 1/2 and 5 1/2 to Hannibal for a weekend trip. One of our most interesting site was the Mark Twain Cave. Our guide, David, was excellent. He was wonderful with the girls and made the tour interesting for us.
    Visited August 2023
    Written August 19, 2023
  • NJORGAN
    13 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Cool cave
    The cave tour with Ace was great! It is a one hour tour. The cave is a dry cave with 260 passages! Temperature is a stable 52 year round. Wear a light jacket. Very enjoyable.
    Visited October 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written October 4, 2023
These reviews are the subjective opinion of Tripadvisor members and not of TripAdvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Popular mentions

4.5
4.5 of 5 bubbles802 reviews
Excellent
469
Very good
228
Average
72
Poor
18
Terrible
15

Graced79
Cape Girardeau, MO323 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2020 • Couples
I love cave exploring especially learning about the history of the cave. The downside of our experience was that our tour guide, Kasen, was EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to understand. He spoke very fast and low and with the mask on, I was only able to understand half of what he said. It was very disappointing. With so little background on the cave the tour was not worth the $20 price of admission.

The unexpected positive was the free 5 x 7 photo we were given at the end of the tour.
Written August 18, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We are so sorry to hear that! We are addressing the issue with the person who we believe was your tour guide. Thank you for your feedback.
Written August 26, 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Peggy B
Bettendorf, IA52 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2020
The Mark Twain cave tour was good. The website stated that Cameron Cave was closed after Labor day, however it was open Sept 19th.
We only went to the Mark Twain Cave and this review is for that one.

1. IF you want to hear the tour guide, do not be in the back. You could not hear hardly at all and I did bring it up when we got to the big room. However, the tour guide kept doing what he had before.
2. There are tours every hour (top of the hour) so you cannot slow down to look at a lot.
3. You will see the "Clemens" signature but you will not see Jesse James signature. They took a photo for you to see at the end of the tour.
4. It does have slippery portions in the cave, the tour guide was good to point those out.
5. It does have areas that are close, very close to walk through. I am 5'7" about 260lbs (no wide hips or chest) and made it through. No wheelchairs would be accessible through this.
6. The cost for two people with tax for one cave is $43.00
7. This was a neat thing to do, however I would not call it a must do (I love caves)
8. They take a picture of you at the beginning of the cave and allow you to purchase at the end for $10.84
Written September 22, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you for you review, Peggy! We would like to hear more from you on how we can improve our experience. Please feel free to give us a call at the office at 573-231-1000. We will look into working with the guide you were with on how to help make sure all our guests are able to hear. Thank you for visiting!
Written October 13, 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Jennifer B
11 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2022 • Solo
The girl in the gift shop juggled many things at once and still gave us all positive attention. The only thing I suggest is if you buy anything, make sure you check it out yourself. I purchased a flashlight and the cashier pushed the button and said it works. I didn't check because she was nice and I believed her. I got it home (300+ miles away) and it doesn't work! I wish I had written information about my tour guide because I don't remember names well. I believe it was Laneya (phonetically spelled.) She did a wonderful job with the tour. You can tell she enjoyed her job because she was informative, spoke clearly, funny, and made sure we were okay. When I mentioned how fast she was walking she apologized and slowed down for us. The best part of that is she didn't act as if our slow speeds annoyed her (thank you so much for that.) Thank you honorary Becky Thatcher.
Written June 24, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you for your review! We are so glad you enjoyed your time with us and we appreciate the compliments to our staff! We are so sorry to hear about that flashlight! Feel free to give the office a call, we would love to dig a little bit further into that for you. You can reach us at 573-231-1000
Written August 1, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

jillikin
Morocco, IN118 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2020 • Family
A work trip yielded a little extra time so my husband, 19 year old daughter and I made the Mark Twain Cave our first stop in Hannibal. I get a little weirded out in small spaces or situations I can’t easily get out of but had a great time in the cave. It’s not claustrophobic at all and I didn’t get anxious to leave. Our guide was informative and funny and handled an unhappy toddler better than the rest of the group. It’s unimaginable to me that children used to play here by candlelight! It was a very enjoyable, informative hour.
Written March 12, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We are so glad to hear that you enjoyed your time with us! Thank you for visiting!
Written March 18, 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

katyrwalls
Middleburg, FL238 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2022
Young Sam Clemens played in the cave, and he mentioned it in Tom Sawyer and other books. You can take an hour-long guided cave tour and see his signature on the rock wall. It has been there since he was a boy but was only discovered in 2019. The walk is easy, and the cave is well lit.
Jesse James also left his signature on the wall of the cave. He used it as a hideout after a botched robbery. It’s dated September 22, 1879. His hideout is marked, but you can’t descend to the place where his signature is due to danger.
Written August 17, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We appreciate you taking the time to leave a review! We are so glad you enjoyed your time in the cave and getting to hear all the history that has taken place there!
Written August 30, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Pam B
Cape Girardeau, MO923 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2021 • Family
The cave tour was a fun hour long activity and the tour guide was entertaining. It cost our family $155 for 4 adults and 4 small children. Based upon the cost we would probably not do it again.
Written September 7, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you for your feedback! We are glad you enjoyed your time with us even if it was a little more than you were anticipating. We appreciate you coming out to see us!
Written November 6, 2021
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Anne S.
40 contributions
2.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2020
The guide needs to not talk so fast and probably even smaller groups. We had a lot of difficulty hearing the guide...there were a lot of young children in our group that talked the entire time and we got very little history...that's understandable, but possibly groups could be divided better?
Written August 16, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you for your review, we appreciate the chance to make our tours better. We will be looking into how we could have improved your circumstance.
Written August 26, 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

lilly43
Bettendorf, Iowa52 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2020 • Friends
Us girls are really glad that we went on the Mark Twain cave tour today. Our tour guide, Michael, had a great sense of humor and was very informative. We watched a short video as we started the tour and then you walk out the back door of the cute gift shop, and you are at the cave entrance. It was very interesting to see all of the very old signatures inside the cave tunnels and it was very easy to walk through. You are allowed to bring a flashlight if you wanted, but the cave has lighting. A flashlight would have been nice to see the signatures better and to shine into passages that are along the tour. I really wish that they would have had a longer tour of this cave and let you explore some of the side passages, but the tour was well worth it!!
Written September 20, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you for leaving such a sweet review! We are so glad you enjoyed your time with us. We hope to see you again in the future!
Written October 13, 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Royanna
2 contributions
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2021 • Couples
Just did this tour, the tour guide a awesome job, I can’t remember if it was Nate or Nathaniel, any how this was the worst experience I have ever had and I have been on many tours though caverns.
1. I guess it was our fault we didn’t look around at the people we were going to go in the cave with because their were several families with children under the age of one, and through the crying and the yelling I could not hear anything the tour guide said.
2. How many caves have you gone into that turns off all the lights so you can experience total darkness? Yeah none that I have been on, well that didn’t happen because some woman wouldn’t turn off her phone flash light because her kid would freak, the guide asked her nicely but nope she said this is America and told him to skip this and keep going. WTF?
3. Why lady would you not check with the front before you bought your tickets?

4. So my experience was cut short because of one woman who didn’t do her due diligence for her kid.
Written August 15, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We are so sorry to hear that your experience wasn't the best because of other guests. Hopefully if you pass this way again we can get you on to a quieter tour. Thank you for visiting!
Written October 28, 2021
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Andrew P
1 contribution
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Nov 2022
At first, I was a bit hesitant to spend $25 to go in a cave but this was a great experience. The cave itself is incredibly cool (and much bigger than I thought), with many interesting passageways and other geological features. It also features a lot of history, including a strong connection to many of Mark Twain's stories and even an authentic signature from Twain (Clemens) on one of the cave's walls. Our guide, Peter, did a great job balancing the geology, history, and folklore involved in the cave (cave puns included) throughout the roughly one hour tour. I would strongly recommend this tour!
Written November 10, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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Mark Twain Cave and Cameron Cave - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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