Saona Island Tour

Posted By : Gravette932
There isn’t enough space to leave an accurate description of the day. They absolutely over promise and under deliver. They try to up-sale folks when the experience is the same. Don’t fall for it!! You are there with about 500 other people. It was an 8 hour trip that turned into 11. Food was mediocre at best. The bathrooms were deplorable, no toilet seats, didn’t flush, no running water or hand sanitizer and the chairs was broken. The boat to boat transfers were dangerous and not the least bit stable. In addition the service team was beyond rude. They want your money but do not provide the basics of customer service. You could tell the difference in how English speaking customers were treated verses Spanish speaking customers. Bottom line, don’t book it. Waste of time and money!
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Posted On : 2024-06-04 16:45:59

Posted By : 163annelier
The worst experience we have every had in a tour.

I've never been a more disorganized, more disappointing tour. We got picked up late. Ok, life happens then taken to a gas station to go on another bus. We waited 30 minutes on a full bus, with no information about why we were waiting. Finally, we left, and our tour guide hardly spoke in English at all. It was mostly Spanish, Portuguese, German, and very minal English. Out your stated English speaking guide.

For most of the trip, we didn't know what was happening. They only serviced rum and coke on the boat, but nothing else. Not even water. Got to the island, and we were drag to different places we could buy cocktails in a coconut and in a pineapple. We were a bit surprised because we thought drinks were included. Next were the bar only served rum and coke. We had to pay if we wanted beer. Lunch was barely anything by the time we got through the line. Not to mention they ran out of utensils, so we had to eat with our hands. Not ok!

Catamaran home was a smaller boat that didn't have room for everyone to sit and was a huge party boat. We couldn't even talk it was so loud. The culture dancer were two girls in the twenties bumping and grinding. Oh yes and the bathroom on the boat that didn't flush that was overflowing. Disgusting!

Also, our guide was drink rum all day. He was very unprofessional and unpleasant to deal with.

At the marina, there are no bathrooms.. on the bus ride back, I needed to go to the bathroom. They stopped on the side of the very busy road and let me out to go with husband holding a towel I was shocked. Not even 10 minutes later we were at a gas station. I could have go into instead of being embarrassed on the side of the road.
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Posted On : 2023-03-20 17:46:54

Posted By : Y1908OXsvetlanab
We were collected from our apartments on time by a lovely driver. Then dropped at the fuel station where we met our guide. He just asked us to wait there. ( didn't say what are we waiting for and how long to wait). Then he appeared from nowhere and rushed us to the bus which
was supposed to take us to the village where we traveled to island to from. The second bus
was less comfortable. We stopped in the small
shop to supposedly visit bathroom, but it was
clearly spot to milk the tourist and very
overpriced! 4 Oreo cookie pack was $2 . Of
course there was no price tags there. If I knew
how much they cost u would talk my children out of them. After we reached village we had to
wait for our water catamaran. Again, I had to
catch our guide to squeeze this info.
Then we have arrived to that village. We were left to wait. Guide, of course didn't say how long to wait or what are we waiting for. As we were waiting, we were attacked by local sellers. Overpriced cheap items. Some sellers were very aggressive. Good job there was police around as I felt threatened. Half way to the island we were stopped in the natural pool waters. Which was beautiful. But we were attacked by photographers, we weren't able to relax tbh, they didn't even asked if we wanted to be photographed. Some guy was offering coca cola with cheap local rom. But all cups he was holding under his arm pits and I saw someone went straight from the bottle so I politely declined( it was supposedly our free refreshments). When we reached actual island it was a piece of beauty. However, lots of local sellers again, pushy, they just don't let you relax and enjoy. "Free lunch" was owful. We were queuing for it for a long time. Then it was left open for us so we can serve ourselves, but flies took this opportunity too and we were sharing it with them. Awful food. Island itself is a piece of natural beauty, abused by locals and tourist companies. There was so much plastic on the surface I couldn't relax. We were collecting it. And yet, all these companies were not briefing all visitors about safe practices. Crazy!
I wouldn't recommend to buy coconuts as well. We saw one of the locals was fishing coconuts from the rubbish bin and filling them us with God knows what kind of water. Just to sell. Journey back was OK. We had fun on the boat and it was very pleasant experience.
If you want to visit island I would recommend to have all your own food with you. Bag for plastic collection and massive bags of patients. Island itself it a natural beauty.

out of him as he wouldn't tell us that. Whilst we were waiting, we were attacked by local sellers. Some of them were very pushy with what they were selling and it was cheap overpriced items. Thanks God there was police around because I didn't feel safe. Then we finally were transferred to catamaran to travel to island. It was a long journey. We stopped 15 min before our final destination to supposedly swim in natural pool. The place was really beautiful, but we were attacked by photographers who just wouldn't let you relax they just photographed you and they didn't even asked if you want them to photograph you. Some random guys offered me a coca cola, which I declined. The plastic cups were right under his arm pit and I saw he was drinking this cola from the bottle first. ( thats the part where refreshments are provided for you). When we reached island we were given 2.5 h there. The island is a natural beauty . No doubt. But its ruined by uncaring people. There was lots of rubbish, plastic and lots of sellers again! If you think you can relax there think twice. Just after I finally was able to relax I was asked to go a queue for my lunch which was provided for free. It was awful. They served it and opened it and guess what, tonns of fly rushed in to it and she left. I was sooo hungry by that time that I was ready to eat my leg so I ate. It was awful. Then we had time to relax. I had to leave my husband with our belongings as it is not safe to leave them there with all these sellers around. I also wanted to get a real coconut water, which was sold by locals. $5 per unit, cash only. Which we didn't have so bad luck. In the end my husband saw how one of the locals, who had a great day in selling coconuts sent someone to fish empty coconuts from rubbish bins and was filling them out with God knows what kind of water. So it was my lucky day I didn't have cash. Island is a beauty. I only saw islands like that on TV. But we ended up collecting plastic from the beach as I wanted to cry how careless all these people are and they are only using this island to cash in and don't look after it, they don't brief tourist about how to keep it clean.
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Posted On : 2022-12-30 08:28:58

Posted By : RICHARD_Y
Pleasant trip, refreshing and adventurous. The people who drove us there nice and courteous, and was ready to answer any questions that we might have.
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Posted On : 2022-05-16 20:32:01

Posted By : dcbhome
There are many tours to choose from, and you might be afraid to book this trip because it's an all day event.. But if you miss this excursion, you will regret it.... Saona Island has the most beautiful water I have ever seen and I have been traveling the entire Caribbean for the past 35 years. This place was amazing, and totally worth the time & expense.
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Posted On : 2019-05-19 19:39:46

Posted By : Dianne_B
The transportation to the boat took 3 hours. We were picked up at 7:15am and there were too many stops getting everyone on the bus. They need to have a central location to meet. We then stopped and got gas? What tour company stops to fill up the bus? We sat there and waited for 15 minutes for a couple who got off and never got back on. We finally got on our way and then stopped again at a mall and was told it would be 15 minutes. That turned into an hour. There seemed to be confusion because different people kept getting on and off our bus. When we finally got to the boat launch area again we waited for another 30-40 minutes to leave. Once we finally boarded our boat we sat again for another 15 minutes. All and all it was a waste of over 3 hours of waiting. The speed boat was a fun ride. We stopped after about 25 minutes close to shore and got in the water where we were offered drinks. I wish we would have skipped this all together because when we got the Saona we only had 2 1/2 hours there. This was a full day excursion leaving at 7:15am and we didn't get dropped off until 6;00pm and we only got a short time at the island out of that whole time. The island was gorgeous, food was very good. The catamaran trip back was fun as well with dancing but the whole point for me was spending time at a beautiful island. They should have been way better organized! This wasn't their first rodeo!
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Posted On : 2019-04-10 16:35:15

Posted By : Paradise280863
This was a birthday get away for my sister and our first visit to DR. Best made our experience just that...the best. All of the staff was excelente, but I must admit Henry was the absolute epitome of what customer service should be. Very courteous and patient, he even followed up to assure that we made it safely to our resort. We can't wait to go back.
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Posted On : 2019-01-20 10:39:46