Santo Domingo: is a city of great historical value. and our guides certified by the Ministry of Tourism, will give you a tour explaining in detail how this city was founded.
Posted By : Jacobpeces
Looking for an activity that didn't involve spending day after day at the resort, we chose this one to do as a family. They pick up at the door of the hotel, but we had to make 2 previous minibus transfers before taking the final bus after a while of waiting at a meeting point gas station. The trip there early in the morning was pleasant between naps and snoozes and the desire, but it is about a two-hour trip, not counting the previous pick-up. They picked us up at 7:20, we were arriving around 11. The visit to the city, saving the 3 eyes, is a tour from souvenir shop to souvenir shop, the guide's explanations were very limited, positioning yourself in each place and reading Wikipedia is the same . We didn't go down to the Columbus monument, we saw it from the bus (according to the guide and driver it was a dangerous neighborhood to go down to take a photo, when there were tourists), from there we had lunch at a buffet with normal and not very varied options. My impression is that we did not stop at the Columbus monument so as not to crowd the restaurant, where we coincided with other groups. The Cathedral closed for the Corpus Christi festival. As we walked we saw some other interesting area that surely deserved some explanation, but they passed us by and the guide became urgent if you stopped to take a photo. Taking into account that we did not go to the Columbus monument or enter the cathedral, we could have taken more advantage of other areas or monuments and that did not happen. Rush, souvenir shops and to top it off another 3 hours or so of travel to Punta Cana (with the music blaring on the bus...although this and other things at least gave us a few laughs). In short, you spend the day on a bus, hoping for a more enriching experience visiting the city, which you do not find, it is not worth the effort or price, it is preferable to stay at the resort or look for another option.
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Posted On : 2024-05-31 17:23:49 
Posted By : olivierh757
We were picked up at 7:30 a.m. by a shuttle at the hotel and then dropped off at a gas station where we waited until 9:00 a.m. for another shuttle to fill up. After a 2.5 hour drive we arrived in Santo Domingo. Stop in front of the presidential palace which can be seen from the outside through the gates (zero). Then the guide took us to visit 3 souvenir shops and ended up in a restaurant with a buffet (food and lousy service). Then again a souvenir store 😞. In short, at 2:00 p.m. we begin the visits at a leisurely pace only with commentary by audio guides and at a leisurely pace without going all the way to the end. The Casa de Colomb, the pantheon can be seen from the outside and from afar (no interest). Anyway, at 4:30 p.m. the tour was over and we left for Punta Cana. Basically we left at 7:30 a.m. and returned at 7:30 p.m., in 12:00 we did 2 hours of sightseeing, 5 hours of driving and 5 hours of gift shop and restaurant.. Don't do this excursion, it's M----E!! !!
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Posted On : 2024-04-27 18:06:07
Posted By : Marina_V
Tour bus pick us up exactly on time and the tour guide man was very professional bilingual and very polite everything was perfect!!
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Posted On : 2024-01-29 14:03:20 
Posted By : christinebQ1193EE
The caves and Santa Domingo was good, but everything was rushed apart from lunch which was very good with lots of choice for all tastes.
From hotel pick up, which was prompt, transport was changed 3 times so it was 2 hours before we set off.
The guide for caves and the town was really informative and one of the better ones from the 3 tours I took.
Long drive back, 3 + hours, but no transport changes. Tour was good and tok you to the main highlights. Was back at the hotel 12 hours later and very tired, but glad I went.
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Posted On : 2024-01-02 07:28:28
Posted By : Matthew_H
Overall an average tour compared with other city tours I have been on.
Firstly despite my accommodation being listed as a location that I could be picked up from, the evening prior to the tour I was informed that they would not pick up from my location (Macao beach) as it was too far out. So I was forced to order an Uber to the closest pickup point that they would pick me up from (Hard Rock hotel) - so additional cost and inconvenience. Do not list pick up locations if you don’t service them! Have to credit the driver on the way back though as he took me back to my hotel as he was a bit worried about my safety dropping me outside the Hard Rock at night. Legend.
As other reviewers said, once in the minivan you are taken to a service station where (after a while) you are transferred to a larger vehicle to travel to Santo Domingo. I had no issues with this but two poor guys got on the wrong bus and so ended up in Santo Domingo with us (they were supposed to be going to Soana Island for the day)!!! The communication from the guys at the service station could have been clearer in terms of which bus you needed to get onto for onward travel - I can see how this error happened!
Tour itself wasn’t too bad overall. Saw the main sights in SD and the lunch was pretty decent. Far too much time however was spent with the group being taken into souvenir shops. Would much rather we had extra time to take pictures/spend more time at key sites. All the tour groups seem to be taken to the same stores so I can only assume that the operators have struck some kind of deal with these stores.
Guide tried his best to communicate in English for myself and a couple of Germans on the tour but he was a little hard to understand.
Average overall - but I suspect a lot of the tours in general in the DR are a little disorganized/try and get you to spend as much $ as possible.
So wouldn’t advise not to book - but go into it with your eyes open!
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Posted On : 2023-03-13 12:44:45
Posted By : Rajpatel1011
Made us wait for about an hour at meeting point at gas station without seating facility. Wasted about hour and half, twice for shipping. This time could have been used for site seen viz. monument. Charged $79 for the same trip my fellow tourists paid $55. They picked up at 7.30am and dropped us back at 7pm. 11.30 hours as against advertised 8.30 hours on TripAdvisor website.
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Posted On : 2023-02-16 12:47:48
Posted By : josetf798
The excursion was good. Easy pick up from resort. They take you to a centralized drop off which it's a convenience store/gas station. After many of us are gather, we got on a bigger shuttle and make the 2hr journey with a restroom stop after an hour. In SD, you go site seeing, then walk for about 2.5 hrs while site seeing plus lunch at a restaurant. It ends in a national park called 3 Ojos with a mesmerizing underwater cave. Then drive back to resort for 2.5hrs drive. Lots of history. Good trip.
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Posted On : 2023-02-15 12:12:21
