Wonder World Park

A one stop shop for outdoor activities!!! The tour starts at the Wonder Cave. Explore the Balcones Fault Line Cave, «the only real earthquake cave open for viewing». Long ago this cave was formed with a powerful earthquake that split part of this region by internally cracking apart. Now guided tours are chock full of geological stories of Earth’s history. Fossilized prehistoric life can be found encased in the many strata formations, huge boulders suspended mid-​air, and even prehistoric paintings that mankind made when they very likely too up residence inside the cave at some point in history. These are just part of the spectacular and rare sites the cave offers.
At the end of the Wonder Cave you will exit via elevator and end up at the top of Tejas Observation Tower. This Tower, in addition to housing a museum of its own, is a great look out to observe the dramatic shifting during the Earthquake.
Once your down from the observation tower catch a ride on the Express Train and Splash through the cascading waterfall of Mystery Mountain on your way into the Texas Wildlife Petting Park. All sort of animals will come up to the train to feed right out of your hand!
At last but certainly not least, visit the Anti-​Gravity House «where things that go up do not always come down and water runs uphill», and even you will seem to be defying the laws of gravity!!!

My sister, niece and I went to Wonder World Park earlier this week for the first time. We drove 3 hours from out of town to get there, and arrived around 11:15. It was not too crowded at this time, but the next tour time was at 12:15. I asked how long the entire tour was going to take, and they cashier said about 2 hours (website said 1.5). The tour started out fine, the guide (Tristen) seemed to enjoy his job, was patient, and informative. About half-​way through the tour, someone called him on one of the speakers in the cave and told him that the elevator was under going maintenance and asked him to take his time. I guess due to the stalling, the tour took a long time to get through, and once we reached the end, the elevator was still not working. I hear them talking over the speaker again, saying that they are still working on the elevator. The only way to exit the cave is via this elevator (besides going back through it). The guide told us it would only be a few more minutes. We waited another 10 or so minutes and another tour caught up to us, and then a few minutes later, a third tour came pouring in. There was way too many people in a confined underground space in a CAVE. Why would they continue to send tours down when they are undergoing «maintenance» on the elevator? We ended up waiting about 30 – 45 minutes AFTER the tour was over down there until he finally began leading us back through the cave to get out. In my opinion, sending this many people down in a cave at one time with no other exit was a safety hazard. People had to use the restroom, and what if there was an emergency? So we finally get out of the cave and he tells us to meet at the train. We do, but immediately that gets changed and the guide decides to take us to the anti-​gravity house next. After that, (which was short but neat), we head over to the observation tower, and they are still working on the elevator. They said that this was their inspection. Who schedules an elevator inspection during operating hours on spring break? So we then have to wait about another 20 minutes until they finish. By this time I didn’t even feel comfortable getting onto the elevator. Someone came over and offered us free deer feed for the inconvenience.
By now I was ready to go ask for a refund and just wanted to leave, but my niece really wanted to finish the tour. After the observation tower, we meet over at the train for the last stop. Once we get there, the train is full. There are still us three, and about 3 – 4 other people who can’t fit on the train because it is full. The guide runs inside, comes out and says they booked his group larger than normal and they will have to get another train. So we have to wait again. By this time I really just want to ask for a refund and leave. There are people next to me who were part of our tour who told me that they went and asked for and received a full refund. I was about to go inside and request one, but then the extra train pulls up and my niece really wanted to go on the train. So I decided to wait until after. We get seated on the train and another guide comes over and introduces himself, then tells us that we have to wait 5 – 10 more minutes because the other train had just went inside. More waiting.
We finally go on the train ride, but none of the animals would come up to the train. We finally get back and it has been over 3 hours, so we go inside and I ask for a refund. The cashier quickly tells us that we can’t get a refund because we completed the whole tour. I explained to him that we drove 3 hours to get there, so didn’t want to just leave right away. He then says that he would go ask the manager. He walks off for a minute, comes back and then says that the manager says that they can’t give us a refund. I told him that another family said that they got one, and finished the whole tour. He still says that he can’t give me one and almost acts as if he does not believe me. I ask him what the manager’s name is, and he says «I am the manager». Then he says he can only possibly refund one of the tickets. So my sister asks for a refund of one of the tickets. I then say «so you lied to me? You said that you were going to talk to the manager, but now you say you are the manger?» He doesn’t say anything to this, completes the transaction, and then as I am leaving, very sarcastically shouts «have a nice day!»
I was going to let the fact that we got stuck in the cave go, and try to enjoy the rest of the tour but the fact that we continuously had set backs, and no manager came and talked to us, offered refunds, vouchers, coupons, maybe even a free drink, nothing, prompted me to ask for a refund. I am not the type to ask for a refund, but this was ridiculous. Then the way this «manager» treated us? Unacceptable.

Took my daughters who are 9 and 4 years old here. There are a few small activities, we went on the train ride fed some deer, they have a variety of birds and fainting goats as well. The ride is very short but it was entertaining. We went to the anti gravity house it was interesting another quick activity. Next was the cave. I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone who has to carry a child, only due to the tight areas and having to watch your head due to rocks, as well as wet areas where you will want to have your hands free. My daughter who is 4 struggled in some areas due to short legs and big steps, however she enjoyed the cave wasn’t scared. The staff were fun and very knowledgeable about the cave, made the experience interesting and fun for all. The gift shop had a variety of items reasonably priced. There is a café there with a variety of quick food items. It was a nice experience and we had a good time.

This was our first stop for my bachelorette weekend getaway. This was a unique stop because I’ve been to Wonder World before when I was very young and we were reliving my first vacation as a child.
According to my mom, almost nothing has changed in 22 years. But that didn’t make it any less fun! The gift shop is great! A lot of neat and beautiful things! First, we rode a «train» into a mini zoo. You can purchase deer feed for the deer during your ride. My 2 year old niece had the time of her life! Next, was the underground trek through the caves. Our tour guide was great! Extremely knowledgeable and upbeat! The caves were the best part especially with the total darkness experience. The gravity house and observation tower were last on the tour. Gravity house was… Confusing (hehe) and it was cool to be so high up in a tower.
This is definitely more fun for children buttsalso great to experience at least once! I had a wonderful time and it was cool to compare the pictures from last weekend and 22 years ago.

Had a great time exploring wonder world. The Gravity house one of the coolest house. Will definitely make another stop.

Fun place! Very different from what I thought. The underground cave was awesome and our tour guide, Natalie, knew her stuff and was good with our kids.
I’ve been driving by the highway signs for years and never really knew what this place was. Perhaps a name change might be necessary. The ticket booth also needs to let people know to buy deer food for the petting park. No one told us until the train had already left. Other than that, we had a nice time and would recommend this place to others.

We visited from out of town and this was one of our stops, we had a great time. Our guide, was very good he was very attentive and great at answering questions. My only complaint was, the «train ride» was not only short but very minimal animals. Other then that well worth it!

My sister recently visited with her two children, who loved the park. My sister was NOT a fan. The toys she bought from the gift shop for her daughters broke within days. The manager, Haley was extremely rude and condescending, and the park was in horrible condition. Considering how expensive tickets are, they should try to fix it up. Their tour guide even told them that the owner used some of the parks money on plastic surgery for his face!!! Well we decided to check it out for ourselves, my husband, son and I. Everything she said was true. I actually heard the manager trash talking a few customers who were on the tour before ours! Pathetic!!! If I were the owner I would fire here immediately! The only good thing about this entire park was the popcorn and our tour guide! The wildlife park was honestly sad, if PETA saw that park they would shut down the business! The whole park was boring and outdated! Do not go there!!!

Needed something to do after several days at jellystone park at canyon lake. Decided on Wonder World. Cave tour was interesting for all 3 of us. Elevator to tower was liked by hubby and 8yr old grandson. Gravity house was cool. Waited over 30 minutes for little train to animal area. Not «petting» zoo. Peacocks, turkey, guinea, an emu, axis and fallow deer, goats, funny odd chickens, 2 llama. None ate from hands. Most didn’t eat at all (late in day). Sad, grass-​less, rock and dirt environment. Okay for the chickens.. But the rest should have a better place to live. Didn’t like stopping several times on train while kids tossed food at sleeping animals. Gift shop is 99% cheap typical tourist stuff. It was too long (waiting for that train and sitting in the animals area was not fun). And price should be about $ 10-​$ 15 per person, not $ 23 per person.

The cave not so much it’s more a fault line or earthquake crack but the guides are good. petting zoo train ride not so much. good for the very young

Great place for kids, my 7 and 10 year old had a blast, it was also no problem carrying an infant in a baby bjorn through the cave as the guides are very accomodating and friendly, a must visit spot with kids!

We showed up at 10 just as they were opening and it seemed like a scene out of a bad movie. The place looks like it’s from the 60’s with all the old style toys and general displays.
The staff are great. They explained and went thru each detail very well. The caves are OK. The only great thing about the place that I liked was the anti gravity house and the tower. The petting zoo and feeding the animals are not all that.

Took our toddler son here today and he LOVED the train ride through the animal habitat. make sure to buy some deer food from the snack bar before you board!
The gift shop has lots of cool items and all are currently 40% off for the summer!

Every summer we come to wonderworld and every summer we just love it. The cave is always so much fun the teller Texas is great and the gravity house is always makes us laugh

Super cool place. My family and I loved it. Very random combinations of entertainment/​attractions, but we enjoyed them all.
They started us out with a cute little train ride through their mini animal park where we got to feed deer and emus and see a few other animals. Lots of fun. The animals roamed freely within this park. They seemed happy and healthy.
Then we had a hilarious, super interesting and awesome guided tour down into a giant underground cave. The guide was really good with great stories and history throughout the entire tour, which was about an hour long. This tour was by far our favorite part.
Then we went up to a very tall look out tower. Cool view, but a random part.
Lastly we ended up at one of those carnival like, crooked, trick houses. I particularly did not enjoy that part much. Made me a little queasy, but the kids thought it was cool.
It wasn’t exactly cheap, but it was worth the price. The souvenir & snack shop were nice as well.
All in all… Lots of randomness to see and do here. We will definitely be going back.

I don’t know how other reviewers can call this a «tourist trap.» A tourist trap is something cheesy and manmade — this is a NATURAL CAVE and it’s AMAZING! My daughter is on vacation from school, and my husband & I decided to «road trip.» I asked my daughter if she wanted to do a safari or a cave, she picked cave. I did some research online and we hopped in the car for a 5.5 hour trip to San Marcos to visit the cave created by an earthquake (which, by the way, is only HALF the story!).
My family and I loved Wonder World!
There was a coupon for $ 3 off per person in 2013 San Antonio Coupon Book I found in the lobby at La Quinta, which brought admission down to $ 19.95 each. We arrived around 10:15am and were done around noon. I don’t know if we would have spent more time there if the weather was better, since it’s a guided tour.
We lucked out coming today — seems an elementary school field trip was scheduled for a tour, but cancelled because of the rain (which, aside from it being chilly, did not at all affect our tour). Our group consisted of my husband & I and our youngest daughter, and another couple. Our outstanding guide was Thomas.
We started out with a peaceful train ride thru a small animal park. There were fainting goats, llamas, lots of different birds and dozens of deer. I loved seeing all the guineas (we used to raise them) and we enjoyed feeding the deer and fowl. Because of the rain many of the animals were in shelters, but the deer happily came up to the train and munched on the feed we purchased prior to boarding. One deer stuck it’s head thru the train car bars and stole a whole bag of deer corn from the couple, so hold on tight to your feed! Also, if you don’t buy feed before boarding, the deer will beat a hasty path to the car with feed and you’ll be stuck watching. Since everyone on the train had feed, we had deer everywhere, with birds underfoot pecking up anything that fell or was thrown. As we were departing saw a mama deer nursing a fawn — so beautiful.
Upon returning to the gift shop for the next leg of the tour, our guide kindly waited while we went to the bathroom to wash out hands. There’s hand sanitizer at the train station, however I took advantage of the small group and made a dash for the for soap & water to get the feed & spit off my hand.
Next came the CAVE TOUR! It is indeed warm in the cave, there are several areas with low headroom and a couple «tight squeezes.» I read on their website that a front pack carrier is recommended for anyone with an infant — it should be mandatory. This cave is exciting & beautiful, and the stories and details of the history of the cave Thomas shared with us were the best! The first official «Man Cave» — LOL!!! That Thomas had only been working at Wonder World for a year was a complete surprise — his knowledge and the intriguing way he detailed the history of the cave was superb. Every minute of the tour was outstanding — the only thing I would have changed would be to include the «high water» tour route, which we were told about and looked up at, but did not go thru. I’m sure it wasn’t anything different than what we saw otherwise, but the different perspective would have been nice.
An earlier reviewer complained about graffiti, we found the (very minimal) graffiti in the cave to be entertaining. It adds to the history! There was nothing offensive, and it illustrated how many decades of people have been enjoying the very same natural wonder we enjoyed today.
At the end of the cave tour we boarded The Stratavator for a ride to the top of the observation tower. Face forward and to the right, because you’ll pass the only stalactites & stalagmite as the elevator first starts to ascend. It was windy & I couldn’t get the binocular things to work, but the view was still fascinating. My daughter and I climbed the stairs to the top deck. At that height it doesn’t really make a difference in the view below. I do believe the top deck would be marvelous in better weather. The history of the tower and how it got there was interesting.
We decended via the same Stratavator and arrived at The AntiGravity house. Albeit small, it was fun and I got some great photos of my family, tilted. The altered perception did a number on my balance, I felt like I was going to fall over! My daughter got a kick out of the ball rolling and the water running uphill.
There were some birds and beautiful agave plants on the way out, and our tour ended where it began — in the groovy «lost in time» gift shop. I bought a beautiful rock angel pendant, our daughter got a giant pickle. Thank you Wonder World, and thank you THOMAS! We had a GREAT time today! Don’t forget to TIP your guide — Thomas really earned his today!
P. S. There was a simulated hurricane machine for $ 2 on the train platform, which we fully intended to try, but forgot. Someone do it and let us know how it was!

Go on the cave tour, skip the zoo and the anti-​gravity house.
Tickets are $ 22 and change — use your AAA card for a $ 3 discount. There was no one else on our tour (September is the start of the off season I guess). We didn’t want to feed the deer so the sloooow trolley ride through the petting zoo was pretty uneventful. They have a bunch of chickens, peacocks, deer, a few emus and some ostriches. The anti-​gravity house was pretty run down.
The cave was the highlight. We got a nice history lesson from the tour guide. You walk 100 feet down into several cave rooms and take an elevator back up.

First stop on touristy attractions for San Marcos! Here you can take a tram ride through an animal area for feeding the deer and ostrich that approach! They know how this works and if you ain’t got food, they be mosying on! Then they have a tour underground along the Balcones Fault line and it’s a fun and informative tour! After the caverns you go up the Observation deck to look out around San Marcos. very nice views! Last but not least is the Anti-​gravity house, the kids in our group loved this. Made me nauseous and super sweaty! lol Not bad prices for some good clean fun with the family for sure!

I really WONDER why in the WORLD I paid so much for this adventure. There was also an anti-​gravity house, observation tower and petting zoo that all looked rather run down so we didn’t bother.
The cavern was formed by an earthquake not water so it’s dry with none of the usual cave formations. It’s literally a very short, narrow walk through a crack in the ground.
It does give you an appreciation for what goes on under the ground during an earthquake though. You get a good view of the fault line, various rock layers, and a few fossils that used to be the ocean floor.
You enter via stairs. To exit you are left unattended while they bring small groups back up by elevator. Sadly there is a lot of graffiti scratched into the rock surfaces.
I think it’s way overpriced for what you actually get to see and do. Maybe if we had very young children they would have been briefly entertained. The most entertaining part for us was the story of how the cave came to be.

I’ve passed signs for this place on 35 for years and never really knew what it was, so hubby and I decided to check it out today.
We used our AAA to get $ 3 off pp, but still ended up paying almost $ 40 for both of us to do all of the attractions. Totally not worth it.
We started with the cave. Not a bad tour; our guide was informative and upbeat. We were down there for probably a half hour or so. If you’ve toured any of the other caverns in the area, you might need to lower your expectations for this place — the caverns are really small and tight, no stalactites or stalagmites, and it seems like you’re through the whole cavern really quickly.
At the end of the tour, you get in a scary old elevator (think old mine shaft) that takes you up to the «Tejas Tower». Basically it’s a view of the surrounding area. Nothing amazing, but at least you don’t have to climb the stairs (I’m 9 months pregnant right now).
Next is the Anti-​Gravity House. This was actually pretty cool. Totally throws you off and it’s a really fun experience.
If you bought the whole package, you go across the street on the tram to the «petting zoo». The petting part is from your seat on the tram and it only consists of deer. It was bizarre. We didn’t buy the feed, and the deer won’t come if you don’t put out your hand, so we just kinda sat there waiting for the tour to continue. There were some peacocks and goats, but mostly it was just deer. That you look at from a tram. Pretty lame.
So yeah, we came, we saw, we won’t be back. :/