May212021
Jenolan

Jenolan Caves open again – press release

Jenolan Caves will be open to the public from the May 10, 2021. We are very excited to be back open again to share our beautiful world heritage precinct with  visitors. We appreciate everyone’s patience whilst we have worked together with Transport NSW to ensure we can open up the road and precinct to guests safely. Our operations will be a little different when we do re-open to ensure the safety and comfort of our guests, so please bear with us whilst we operate under the new restrictions and work to ensure we are delivering the best possible guest experience.

Getting Here  

  1. Given the road damage to Jenolan Caves Rd in the March extreme rain event, we will be opening with one access road into Jenolan. The access road is the Oberon side of Jenolan, commonly known as the Two Mile. The access via Two Mile only, will remain for the foreseeable future whilst extensive work is undertaken on the Five Mile (Sydney side of Jenolan).
  2. For guests coming from a Sydney direction, their route has changed. There are several options for getting here:
    1. For those coming from a Sydney direction, who are confident on country roads they can take the Lithgow > Tarana > Oberon > Jenolan route. This is approximately a 3hr trip from Western Sydney.
    2. For those coming from a Sydney direction but would prefer highway-style roads, there is the Lithgow > Bathurst > Oberon > Jenolan route. This is approximately a 3.5hr trip from Western Sydney.
  3. The above routes are the most direct whilst roadworks continue at Hampton. This is expected to take approximately 4 weeks and then will have single lane access. The good news is, our region has a lot to offer whilst they make their way to Jenolan, and we will have some suggested itineraries for visitors soon!
  4. For all other guests not coming from a Sydney direction, the good news is their driving route has not changed, click here if you are coming from a Goulburn direction.
  5. Before setting out, make sure to plan and leave with plenty of time. Check the live traffic website before departure.

Booking Cave Tours and Accommodation

Pre-booking and Allocated Time Slots

  1. Given we only have one access road, we are limited to the number of guests we can have visit per day.
  2. Given the limited number of guests per day, booking for caves, dining and accommodation is mandatory. Please be aware visitors will not be able to access the precinct without a valid ticket.
  3. To ensure the safety and enjoyment of our guests, we have split our experience offerings into 3 time slots per day, so we can manage the number of people arriving and departing on the Two Mile. The sessions are as follows:
    1. ​9:00am – 11:30am (During this time visitors can enjoy a selection of cave tours and light meals in our café, or if an overnight guest, breakfast and cave tours. Everyone can also enjoy lovely morning walks around our world heritage site).
    2. 11:00am – 2:30pm (During this time we are offering cave tours, high teas as well as lunch on weekends. Caves Café will also be open as well).
    3. 2pm – 6pm/or overnight for accommodation guests (During this time we are offering cave tours, high teas as well as dinner for our accommodation guests).​

​​Caves

  1. Three of our amazing show caves are open for tours and we hope to add more to our offering soon. Click here to see what’s on offer. We accepting Dine & Discover vouchers as well, and have some amazing combo and local offers, click here to see how our visitors can save.

​Dining

  1. Our decadent high tea in our grand dining room is available everyday. They will also be able to book a high tea and cave tour experience very soon!
  2. Lunch is available on weekends. Head Chef, Mark, has been busy developing a delicious 2-course and 3-courseset menu lunch offering. They can also add a cave tour to their experience very soon.
  3. Dinner is available for our hotel guests and we have a 2-course and 3-course set menu on offer. This is available as a bundle price with an accommodation booking.
  4. Our Café and Chisolm’s are also accepting Dine & Discover vouchers, click here to see what offers we have available.

​Accommodation

  1. We are excited to offer our overnight guests our Eat, Dream, Explore ​package. The package includes accommodation (in either he historic Caves House or motel-style Mountain lodge), cave tour combo where visitors receive 50% off their 2nd cave tour, as well as their choice of a 2 course or 3 course dinner.

​​When Arriving

  1. ​​Parking: As there are some further road works required on the Two Mile road at the very entrance down the bottom of precinct, all guests will be required to park in our top carpark – they will see the signs outlining where to park when they arrive.
  2. Concierge Service: We will have a concierge service set up to direct visitors once they arrive. They will confirm guests valid tickets, provide them with information on their timeslot, what’s open and how to get down to the precinct.
  3. Walking to the Precinct: There is a lovely walk (approx 500m) down to Caves House for their dining experience, overnight stay and/or your cave tour meet up. It is past one of our most photographed formations (Carlotta’s Arch) and there’s a great view of the landscape and Caves House as they walk down.
  4. Complimentary Shuttle Bus Service: Should they not wish to walk, or are unable to, they should not be concerned, we have a regular complimentary shuttle buses that will take them down. As we are still under Covid-19 restrictions, they will be required to wear a mask. See our Covid-Safe plans. Please note, we cannot take children under 7 in the shuttle bus as they are not currently fitted with the correct anchors. It means if they have children under 7 they will need to take the walk down via Carlotta’s Arch. We are happy to take any baggage in the bus so they can speak to our friendly concierge team, if they wish us to transport anything to make the walk down (and up) easier. If they require wheelchair access down to the precinct, they will need to let us know in advance so we can escort them down to the precinct.
  5. Coffee & Gift Pop-up: Whilst they are waiting for the bus, they can grab a local and delicious Fish River Roasters coffee at our coffee pop-up. As well as check out our pop-up gift store and some interesting Jenolan history whilst they’re there too.
 

​What’s Open

  1. Caves: The extreme weather event (as well as the Covid-19 restrictions that still remain) mean that we have three of our show caves open: Temple of Baal, Orient and Chifley. All other show and adventure caves remain closed at this time. We hope to add more caves into our offering as soon as possible. Visit our website, join our FB community or sign-up for our e-News to keep up to date with what caves we have open.
  2. Accommodation: Our historic Caves House with its grand classic, classic and family rooms is open for booking. We also have superior rooms, king rooms and family rooms available in our motel-style Mountain Lodge. All other accommodation remains closed at this time.
  3. Dining: High tea is available everyday, and lunch is available on weekends. Dinner is available for accommodation guests only. Our Caves Café is also open daily for delicious light meals and local coffee.
  4. Walks: Carlotta’s Arch and Devils Coach House lookdown are open and can be accessed via Carpark 2 (the carpark they will arrive at). All other walks (such as Grand Arch, River Walk, Blue Lake, Nettle Cave, Devil’s Coach House, and parts of the Six Foot Track remain closed due to rockfall risk and further damage from the recent extreme weather event).

For more information go to https://www.visitoberon.com/tours-activities/adventure-tours/caves/