We just got home after an amazing weekend at the ranch. I surprised my wife for our first…read moreanniversary and her birthday and it did not disappoint!!! All of the staff were so helpful and kind! A special shoutout to Cheslea who took care of us when we arrived, as well as was our driver for the safari tour! Ohhhh the animals, my wife and I were in heaven. She misses her little Cashew and I won't forget my big boy Blue (see photo)! Our first time but will not be our last! Thank you again to you all!

Spent the weekend here and had great animal adventures. We stayed in the kangaroo cabins. The cabin…read moreitself had everything and was great accommodations. The place was clean and just the right size for my wife and I. Being city folks you forget how dark it is out in the country at nights. It was nice. We signed up for these adventures to make the weekend even more fun: 1. Feed baby kangaroo(Bodhi). This was about a 30 minute session where we got to feed him a bottle and kibble. It really was an amazing experience. 2. Bucket of food and self guided feeding of animals. We walked the property and hid to feed so many animals. All of the animals were friendly toward people. They were all very good motivated. We encountered a giraffe, donkeys, zebras, horses, cows, pigs, dwarf steers, camels, emu, deer, buffalo and more. The animals were often trying to bully their way to the front of the line. The cow Oreo who has not skipped a meal was always front of the line. 3. Afternoon safari ride in ATV. This was a fun ride around the property. Did not see any new animals but had a great time. The cows out at pasture were thrilled to be fed. 4. Giraffe encounter and meal. This was a little expensive but I would spend it again. The giraffes were super friendly and personable. We wanted to take them home because they were so much fun. The guide, experience and never felt rushed made this worth it. Our guide was top notch. I think her name was Jackie but could be wrong.

After seeing the movie "The Embrace of the Serpent", we wanted to see the place where it was…read morefilmed: the Mavecure Hills in Colombia. Amazon Adventures was able to arrange a 5-day tour for us, it went really well - even when we missed our flight out of the jungle (no cell coverage and they moved the flight earlier!!) we had a hotel arranged and a flight the next day. Spectacular trip. Would definitely use this company again!

I contacted Jim at Amazon Adventures to arrange a trip to the Pantanal in Brazil. I had tried to…read moremake a few arrangements on my own and was completely frustrated. I shouldn't have wasted my time and just emailed Jim right from the start. He was immediately responsive. Through a series of emails over the course of a week, he offered a couple of options at different price points. I should mention that I was trying to arrange our trip for peak season and was a bit late for booking travel at that time. Unfortunately, our trip was cancelled due to the pandemic. But Jim came through again, helping us to obtain a refund. Through all our interactions, Jim was helpful, informative and pleasant. Perhaps most impressively, he always responded promptly -- I think always within 24 hours. I highly recommend Amazon Adventures and will contact Jim again when we are able to travel once more.

Pictures don't do this place justice!…read more On this beautiful Saturday, I was seeking adventure! This tour is such an amazing deal. My tour guide Eryn was amazing and so funny. Caves are so interesting and there is so much to learn about them . Longhorn Cavern offer 3 different tour options. The cavern walking tour is just like a casual walking tour. The black light tour is where you wear hard hats and walk with a light. The Wild Cave tour is for the extreme explorers who are okay with tight spaces . I chose the cavern walking tour. I highly recommend shoes that have a tight grip. The gift shop has really good options for keepsakes. Also, if you get thirst drinks are available to purchase. I saw a section for pizza, but it was sold out. I had amazing time during my visit. The cave is beautiful and there is so much to see.

This isn't the best caverns I've visited within a Texas State Park, but it is pretty darn cool. The…read morebest caverns tour is at Kickapoo Caverns. I did a wild cave tour without the extra charges that Longhorn collects. At Longhorn, our guide, Johnson did an amazing job with our small group of six people for the 10:45 AM tour. My brother and I initially registered for the 11:00 AM tour and am glad that we were suggested another time. We passed by the 11:00 AM tour and they had 40+ people in their group. Johnson showed us cool geological formations. We saw dolomite, calcium bicarbonate, chert, limestone, geodes, stalagmites, stalactites, and quartz crystals. Johnson is somewhat funny; he had a bit of quirky and dry humor. I enjoyed the history of the caverns, but some of it I thought was interesting. It was really delightful to learn that in the 1800's, before the CCC got involved, the locals would dance and play music turning the cave into an auditorium of entertainment. Johnson said that if certain geological formations glows, it is growing. Very catchy phase for memory. I got to see a few bats hanging out. They were tricolor bats which are smallest bats. The cave is cool, but thankfully not slippery. I was wearing no grip support shoes, but I didn't fall or have the urge to fall. There are mats on the floor of the cave to prevent falls. Johnson gave us more time to look around and admire the geology. My brother and I weren't required to bring our own flashlights. Johnson had a flashlight, but forgot to grab the blacklights. What I find is strange is that this is a state park that you cannot renew your state park pass at. This park headquarters is very different than the rest considering that there's a third party company handing the cave tours, they sell ice-cees, popcorn, and the gift shop is very big and vast. The others don't have this. It is questionable to me. I was told that I needed to go to Inks Lake to renew my pass. The cave tours are very pricey. Kickapoo Caverns tour was very affordable at $10. You can use the park pass. You can't get your state park passport stamped at Longhorn Caverns either. It seems like Longhorn Caverns is more for profit and the history about the cavern could be overly exaggerated to attract customers. My opinion. It was hard to believe half of the things what Johnson was telling us. There's one portion of geological formation in the cave that is "dead" because in year 1919, the locals went exploring by touching the formation it "killed" it. I preferred Kickapoo Caverns and the Caverns of Sonora a lot more. Even Inner Space Caverns and Natural Bridge were very exciting to see. Longhorn is cool, but didn't give me that WOW-factor, but I still had a ton of fun on a Sunday morning.

Captain Sean was the BEST!! My experience was nothing shy of AMAZING! He was educated, experienced,…read morefunny as EVER!!! I had the best time!!

Three years later we are back and brought family visiting from out of town. The captain was great…read moreand very informative without it being boring. We were a group of 11 ranging from age 11 through 94 and everyone liked it. You can either park on the street for free or at the Hyatt. If you park at the Hyatt, Capital Cruises will give you a coupon so the What a fun experience!

I loved the tour! I had a very unique supernatural experience. The private tour was amazing!read more

YES YES YES!!! SO MUCH FUN!!! I can't recommend this tour enough. We went on the van tour and…read morewent to three different locations. Our tour guide took time at every location to thoroughly go through all of the "Haunted Tales" and give all of the background information. It was definitely an interesting and unique tour that would be a big miss if you come to Austin and didn't take this tour. My favorite location was the second stop, which is now an Indian restaurant. I don't want to give too much away, but this felt the most haunted of the locations. It took about 2 1/2 hours-ish so plan accordingly.

Had a great time on our very first helicopter ride. Beautiful way to see downtown and the Trail of…read moreLights. Everyone was fantastic. Thanks for the ride.

This was such a special thing to do for our first official date! (We've been friends for over a…read moreyear, so just another casual dinner wasn't going to cut it.) Service was impeccable. We were driven from the welcome center to the helipad. The helicopter was already started, waiting for takeoff. All we had to do was climb in, buckle up, and put on the headsets. Before I knew it, we were hovering above the ground like an amusement park ride that broke free of its frame, then soon we were headed towards the city. It was fun to start to recognize landmarks, building up to a flyover of the heart of downtown. I'd recommend this to anyone who appreciates adventure and knowing Austin better!

When Steve and I were planning our trip to Austin, Texas we realized fairly quickly that we didn't…read moreknow the city very well at all. In previous vacations we took bus tours to get a little bit more familiar with the city and that is what we did with Austin. Only this time we rode a Double Decker bus! I have seen this kind of bus tour here and there and have seen it when I am in Seattle. Officially I think after this particular bus tour it was my first time riding a Double Decker bus. The weather was typical spring weather on our entire visit but the day we chose to take this tour it was nice and warm and a perfect time to go ride this bus followed by rain for a few days (This took place in April). The ride was so much fun and the tour guide was great! Austin is definitely a different cut than the rest of Texas and that was reflected in many of the people we met. Open mindedness being one and we really felt that with the tour guide. He was so knowledgeable of the city and the neighborhoods and all that made this bus tour all the more amazing. But of course they would probably have staff with personalities that would be compatible in this way. Riding on the top of the bus was so much fun. A few times we had to duck from tree branches and I lowered my head a few times from the traffic lights but that was just me getting nervous with being that high to a light. You see all the sights, famous buildings, museums, local culture, restaurant recommendations and so much more while on this tour. So this was a great experience! I was in Austin proper once a very long time ago and saw just how much it's grown. So it was cool getting acquainted with the city one more time thanks to this bus tour!

I was so looking forward to finally taking a tour of the city. I've been coming here visiting my…read moreson for the last dozen or so years and I've never done it. At first, I sat on the upper level. It was wonderful to be out in the fresh air. However, the sun was a little too much for me so I had to move down to the inside area. I was the only one down there which was fine, but it was really quite filthy. There was thick gray dust on the top rail of all the seats and the fabric on the seats themselves was all thick with black grease. The tour guide was really wonderful. Entertaining and knowledgeable with one exception that was actually kind of disturbing to me personally. When we got to South Congress he talked about the "I love you so much" wall. His story of a husband painting it for his wife could not have been more wrong. It was in fact done by an artist named Amy for her then girlfriend Liz an infamous Austin hotelier and restauranteur. It is an incredibly iconic part of Austin history and if it's told it should be not fiction. I hope for sure this can be corrected for future tours.

One of our friends surprised us with a bee tour because he knows how much my wife loves bees. The…read morestaff was very accommodating to our schedules. It's not recommended to go on the tour when it's raining, and when it's too hot or cold outside. We had to reschedule twice due to weather but we finally made it out there and it was a lot of fun learning about bees, their importance to the world and seeing them up close. We all enjoyed the hands on experience being in the bee hits offered us! Standing in the middle of bees flying around, not angrily, and see how they work together was breathtaking. Becky, one of the staff members, scheduled our tour and led our honey taste testing. She was the sweetest lady and took the time to learn all of our names. Becky's husband, Jesus, led our bee tour and answered all of our many questions. He was very kind, knowledgeable and patient when addressing our questions. If you are looking for a fun experience you need to come out here and do the tour!!!

My stop at Texas Honey Bee Farm today was done mostly out of curiosity when I spied some small…read moresigns along the roadside. Expectations were low. After all, this place is out in the country and, although not too far off of Hwy 71, it is secluded and kind of remote (probably seems more remote than it actually is). It was, however, a delightful surprise! The shop had a wide variety of bee-related items from tools and clothing for serious bee keepers to honeys and honey-sweetened candies to bee-themed household goods. So cute!! We were treated to a honey tasting, which (like wines) started with the lighter colored and flavored honey (a local honey) up to the darker honeys, then we veered off and were sampling cinnamon honey (think Red Hots + honey), coffee and chocolate flavored, and (my favorite) chili-infused honey. Cannot wait to try this drizzled over some soft cheese. I don't know how I got out with only the few items I purchased (photos below), so I'll have to go back. Many of the items would make great gifts (I'm thinking of those coffee mugs: Let it Bee; Bee Happy; and my favorite: Give Bees a Chance. Tours are also offered but must be scheduled in advance, a down side of spur-of-the-moment exploring. I'll be sure to do that next time, when I'm back to purchase gifts.

We visited over the weekend for the grand reopening of Joanne Land Playground and it is truly…read moreamazing. It has so many wonderful obstacles and slides for the children to enjoy. I don't want to upload pics due to children are present but please go check it out because you won't be disappointed. The main stage is nice and there is a pavilion for you to just sit and enjoy the atmosphere while reading a book or just taking a moment to chill. I always enjoy coming here to cycle or walk but really appreciate the playground upgrade for the children.

My preschooler loves the kids playground at old settlers. Its well kept and keeps kids entertained…read more The location by the pond makes it so scenic. Also, this park has so many events going on.

Our friends rented a double deck boat for the children's birthday. We had Austin as our Captain and…read morehe was phenomenal. It was a great time and he was pretty cool. It was so relaxing on a beautiful day.

Great time with Captain Lee on Lake Travis for our buddy's bachelor party. Would recommend to any…read moreone looking to rent a boat for the day with friends