Australian owned, since 2001
Over 5 million stories created
Never pay more with us
Rated 4.6 stars, by you
To exchange your experience, select a product, add it to cart and proceed to checkout.
Once there, enter your voucher number to exchange for a different experience.
There's a version of you that hasn't abseiled past a waterfall or crawled through a limestone tunnel by torchlight yet. Canyoning and caving change that fast. Give someone a canyoning or caving voucher and you're not handing them a thing to unwrap. You're handing them a story about the day they went on an amazing adventure. Find your canyon or your cave below.
Canyoning and caving take you to parts of Australia most people only ever see in photos. One sends you down through gorges and rock pools, sliding, jumping and swimming your way through canyons carved out over thousands of years. The other takes you underground, into caverns and cave systems most people will never set foot in.
Canyoning, sometimes called canyoneering, means working your way down a canyon using a mix of abseiling, scrambling, swimming and the odd waterfall jump. Caving, or spelunking if you want the technical term, is the same spirit of exploration turned downward, into caves, tunnels and hidden chambers below the surface.
Australia has plenty of both. Blue Mountains sandstone gorges. Cairns rainforest canyons. Cave systems tucked into the Victorian countryside and beneath the karri forests of Margaret River. Below, you'll find guided tours through each of these regions, from Blue Mountains waterfall abseils to Margaret River's crystal-lined show caves.
West of Sydney, the Blue Mountains fold into deep sandstone canyons carved by water over millions of years. It's some of the best canyoning in the country, and you don't need prior experience to get started.
The Blue Mountains Canyoning Tour of Empress Canyon - 3 Hours is the easy way in. Three hours, one qualified guide, and a run through Empress Canyon that ends with a 30 metre waterfall abseil.
Want the full day? The Full Day Canyoning Adventure With Lunch covers more ground, more abseils and a proper feed at the end of it. Running October through April, it suits anyone after a longer day out in the canyons.
Tropical North Queensland does canyoning differently. Instead of sandstone, you're moving through rainforest gorges fed by waterfalls, with the option of ziplines and rock jumps thrown into the mix.
The Canyoning Adventure - Half Day takes you to either Behana Gorge or Crystal Cascades, depending on the day and the group. Expect cliff jumps, rock slides, an abseil down the gorge and a rainforest setting that looks nothing like the Blue Mountains.
No sandstone gorges here. Victoria's caving scene runs through granite boulder systems tucked into the hills outside Melbourne, where the challenge is entirely underground.
The Caving Intro Adventure - 4 Hours is built for first timers. You'll climb, crawl and squeeze through a granite boulder cave near Yarra Junction, cross an underground stream a few times, and come out the other side with a new hobby.
Western Australia has some of the country's best show caves, and Margaret River is where most of them live. Crystal formations, ancient fossils and cave systems open enough for a gentle wander rather than a squeeze.
Step into the Jewel Cave Semi Guided Cave Tour - 60 Minutes to see WA's largest show cave, its stalagmites and its hidden thylacine skeleton. Or head to the Lake Cave Fully Guided Tour - Margaret River - 1 Hour, where a crystal formation the size of a car appears to hover above a still lake.
Canyoning means travelling down a canyon using abseiling, scrambling, swimming and jumping rather than walking around it. It's sometimes called canyoneering, and both terms describe the same activity: working your way through a canyon via its waterfalls, pools and rock formations, usually with a guide.
Caving and spelunking describe the same activity. Spelunking is the more casual, American term, while caving is used more often in Australia and the UK. The formal study of caves is called speleology.
Guided caving tours are built with beginners in mind. You'll get a full safety briefing, proper equipment and a guide who knows the cave system before you go anywhere near a tight squeeze. The Britannia Caves Adventure - Daytime tour, for example, suits most fitness levels and takes you through a granite boulder system with multiple entry and exit points.
Expect to get wet, muddy or both. Canyoning tours usually provide a wetsuit, helmet and harness, so swimwear and shoes you don't mind ruining are enough underneath. Caving tours are drier but dustier, so old clothes, closed shoes and a jumper for the cooler underground temperature will do the job.
Some are, though most caving and canyoning tours set a minimum age because of the physical demands involved. Self-guided or semi-guided cave tours tend to be the most family-friendly option. The Mammoth Cave Self Guided Tour - Margaret River lets visitors move through the cave at their own pace with an audio guide, and even has wheelchair access to its first chamber.
Yes. Some cave experiences lean into culture and history rather than squeezing through gaps. The Twilight Didgeridoo Cave Tour - 1.5 Hours combines a guided bushwalk and a private after hours visit to Ngilgi Cave with a didgeridoo performance and Wadandi cultural storytelling.
Western Australia's Margaret River region holds some of the country's best show caves, including Jewel Cave and Lake Cave. Mount Gambier in South Australia and the cave systems of Tasmania are also well known among cavers, though our current range is concentrated in WA, Victoria and the Blue Mountains.
A moderate level of fitness helps, especially on full day tours that include several abseils and long stretches of swimming or scrambling. Half day introductory tours, like those in the Blue Mountains, are built for first timers and don't require prior abseiling experience.
Canyoning and caving sit inside the wider outdoor range. If the person you're shopping for wants more thrills, rock climbing and abseiling are natural next steps. For something faster, mountain biking and bungee jumping both deliver a solid hit of adrenaline. Or keep it grounded with a bushwalking and hiking tour, or a round of paintball and laser skirmish for the group.