Luray Valley Museum & Gardens

It’s kinda pricey at $ 26.00 per adult which includes 4 museums. If you have a Giant card you can buy one get one half off (save $ 13.). I chose a cooler day in the 80s so it wasn’t too hot. The caverns are absolutely breath taking.
The only downfall were the crowds. AND the fact that most of the visitors don’t listen when told NOT to touch the stalagmites because the oils in the human skin will harm them. Well as we all know, that doesn’t stop most of the idiots that visit the place from touching them!!! My other pet peeve is children running around out of control and screaming.
On another note, it is much cooler in the cave. It’s almost as if it had air conditioning, making the walk through very comfy.
Definitely worth going to see if you are in the area. One of the worlds many natural beauties.

I suppose the one misconception that we need to clear up is that this place is NOT «free».
You are very much paying for it via the very high price of a cavern tour which Luray is clearly using to cross subsidize this museum and the car museum. Personally I really didn’t give a toss about either place (this one far less than the car museum) but of course I felt obligated to at least take a look since all three attractions are covered with the same ticket.
It should have been a sign when we visited over Easter weekend that even though the cavern was packed and the garden maze was packed, this place had the feeling of an invitation only crowd.
We first walked through the actual museum. It’s not very big, but looked like it was recently renovated. It’s nice – just very similar to pioneer museums we’ve visited several times before. Maybe we’ve just been to one too many places like this to be impressed.
Outside, there are a few buildings you can look at. A house (couldn’t go in), barn, blacksmith shop, school (the inside behind Plexiglas; you just peek in). Not much to get excited about.
Overall the best thing was the brief stop that we made inside of Heartpine Café. The food menu looked/​smelled much better than the slop served across the street at the cavern and sitting on the porch (completely to ourselves) with our drinks before hitting the road was at the very least a nice ending to the day.
If you go, make a stop to see what they have but just know that nothing here is a show stopper and at the most you’re talking maybe a half-​hour quick breeze through. Also, as others have said make sure you keep your cavern ticket handy as they will scan it to let you into the museum. Although, the guy working the counter the day we were there I don’t think would have stopped anyone if they just said they forgot/​threw out/​misplaced their ticket.
(FYI– The lack of pictures is because a good portion of the museum has signs telling you that picture taking is verboten.)

It’s literally across the street from the Lauray Caverns Museum and included in the cost of the caverns admission. The exhibits were «homey,» but the best part was the gift shop. You can actually buy a bag of dirt… that’s right, buy some dirt and walk outside to «sift» for gems. A totally worthwhile experience! Honestly, it’s rigged — everyone’s a winner with the bag of dirt!

You get free tickets to the museum across the street when you do the cave tour. For a free museum, it’s nice. Lot’s of regional history. The highlight for my kids was panning for «gems» — you buy a bag of rocks and sand from the gift store and then use the panning stream outside. There was also a blacksmith demonstration, an old school, and an old church.

Okay. I’ll admit it. This museum is a snore. Maybe it’s because I’m all «museum’d out» from visiting ALL (and I do mean ALL) of the museums in the DC area, that I need a break from visiting museums for now.
The museum is small. The bouncer manning the door WILL ask to see your ticket (this museum is included with the price of admission to the caves). My boyfriend tossed our tickets in the trash in the men’s restroom, not knowing we’d need them (we didn’t need them at the car museum) to get in here. But the guy was nice and let us in anyway.
We didn’t spend much time here. I liked the covered wagon display as well as some of the old furniture. The museum is professionally curated and looks lovely. It’s just kind of boring, to me.
I can see why it’d be interesting though, if you’re into the history of the area. But I’ll be frank and admit that I am not. It’s worth a quick stroll if you’re looking to escape the heat. But if you miss it, I doubt you’ll be kicking yourself later.

It’s places like this that make me wish I had paid attention in my U.S. History class.
If you toured the caverns you have a ticket to this museum. Keep your ticket stub because they will check for it. It’s a small museum, but its packed with a whole ton of little exhibits and stories of how things were back in the day in southern VA.
Being the fire arms enthusiast that I am, I was particularly interested in the Kentucky Long Rifle display. Very interesting, those things weren’t even made in Kentucky… Goes to show that if you really want to know the truth, you have to dig deep in history to find out.
When you look at the «showers» and «bath tubs» you can’t help but appreciate having running water. Back in those days, only the well to do had these things.
And don’t forget that you can’t go to the mall to buy clothes, you had to spin the wool and thread then sew it all by hand so that you weren’t running around naked! Makes you appreciate that I can shop at the mall and cute little boutiques. The best I can do sewing is making a wrap around skirt. Totally not impressive at all… but sewing uniforms and dresses by hand, now that’s impressive. They have several exihbits for you to see in great detail what kind of stitching they had to do to make it work.
I learned a lot at this museum. I don’t know if kids would enjoy it, but it is definitely worth a stop by. If anything they have some yummy snacks for sale in their gift shop along with large bags of dirt for you to «mine» semi-​precious gemstones.

Interesting. as the previous Unilocaler said, the admission to these buildings is included with you caverns ticket, you get two stub ends to tear off. One for this museum and one for the autos.
The museums are small but self guided so you can stay as long as you like.
There isn’t a ton of stuff in this building but some of the showcase items are so old its almost unbelievable. A few interesting items throughout.
Worth taking a few minutes to look around.

Fearing I’d be bored to tears, I reluctantly followed my husband in. Turns out, I was the one lagging behind taking everything in! Professionally archived. Highly recommended!

This is a nice side attraction to the cavern (included with cavern admission) but it was advertised as totally open, but the replica buildings won’t be open for a few more weeks. Looks like it will be good when finished though.

This is a nice little stop by… normaly I would say sight seeing tour however, it is so small so it is a stop by and a good place to check out while you are up here. It is right across the little street by the caverns parking lot. I imagine people mistake it for someones farm house and miss it. This place with only one person on duty, is design for self guiding tours and it offers a very nice glimpse into what life was like way back in the olden days of the Shenandoah Valley which means «Daughter of the Stars». I never knew that there were so many German settlers in that region. So much of the artifacts that are display at the museum have German text and it’s old German too which makes it hard for a very rusty German speaker like me to read. Lots of great Civil War artifacts on display just a whole plethora of history in a miniature museum. Much knowledge to be had here of life from the early 1800’s.
There are other buildings that surround the main structure which includes barns, a home that belonged to the county’s first judge a mining station and other very old important time capsule of the Valley’s vibrant and hidden history. These are buildings which have been moved from other locations and fully restored to former glory.
Wife and I didn’t get the chance to see much of those other structures cause it was getting dark out now we were kind of tired from our sightseeing and time to hit the road back home. For me I always love learning about the past and for wife it was a good experience for her to get up close and personal to learn a little more of American history other than from the History channel. Stop by this little place give them the support that they need. It is free with the cavern tour just use the coupon they give you when you buy your tickets for the caverns and don’t forget to ring that big bell outside of the building it’s nice and loud.