World’s largest cave opened to visitors in Vietnam

From Stuff

The largest cave in the world is soon to be opened to tourists in Vietnam, tourism officials have disclosed.

Son Doong Cave

The tourism authority of Quang Binh Province said the cave would be open between February and August of next year, with small expeditionary groups of up to eight persons permitted entry.

“After that we will decide whether to keep the cave open on a regular basis,” said the tourism authority’s deputy director Nguyen Van Ky. “We’ll be studying whether the visits will have any adverse environmental effects.”

Tours must be booked via the Vietnamese tour operator Oxalis. Already, the company says it has more requests than it has capacity for in the coming year. Oxalis says a total of just 220 visitors to the cave are planned for 2014.

An expedition in Son Doong, located in the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park 500 kilometres south of the capital Hanoi, is not for beginners.

Read the full article from Stuff.