Lantern Tour vs. Standard Tour

We%26#39;re spending a couple of days in Mammoth Cave, and I thought the kids would really enjoy taking one of the lantern tours, in addition to one of the regular tours.

We%26#39;re planning to do the Grand Avenue tour for our ';standard'; tour, and either the Star Chamber Tour or the Violet City Lantern Tour.

My main question is: what order should we do them in? Lantern tour first, or regular tour first?

I think the lantern tour gives you more atmosphere, but you don%26#39;t see as much (due to the limited lighting) - so if you go past the same area, once with lanterns and once without, you%26#39;re likely to see things on the regular lighted tour that you didn%26#39;t see on the lantern tour.

So do you think it%26#39;s better to do the lantern tour first, and then go back and see ';wow I didn%26#39;t notice that yesterday';, or is it better to do the lantern tour second, where you already have some familiarity with the area?

Lantern Tour vs. Standard Tour

We did the Historic %26amp; New Entrance Tours last year. I just looked at the tour descriptions on nps.gov, particularly the ones you are interested in taking, and to me, it looks like they take 2 different routes, so there will not be any ';repeat.';

It looks like the lantern tours include some of the Historic route (From what I read, the Grand Ave tour does not include the Historic route; however it does include the New Entrance/Frozen Niagara areas.) The lantern tours both seem to show you some items the regular Historic Tour doesn%26#39;t show you, such as the huts where the TB patients stayed.

All this being said, I don%26#39;t think it really makes much difference for the order you are doing the tours in, as they are covering two different routes. The cave is so huge and there are many types of tours. Some cover the same areas, but many do not.

You are probably already aware, but be sure to have advance reservations for any cave tours. They sell out quickly. I noticed the lantern tours sell out at around 40 tourists. That is very small, and I believe there are less tours each day for these. The tours we did had well over 100 people, and they were sold out.

Lantern Tour vs. Standard Tour

Thanks for the advice - I am looking at booking our tours now.

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