Whale Watching Tour in Samana

Posted By : shellabella1228
Worst excursion experience ever. 30 minutes late to pick us up in the morning and then they dropped us off at a gas station to wait for another van to pick us up with my 2 children. Then we get in the next van and we were told we couldn't sit in 4 seats because we had 2 kids we had to sit in 3 seats, so for a 2 hrs drive my 7 year old had to sit on our laps or floor with not enough seat belts. The entire trip was clearly a ploy to give their friends and family as vendors money. We stopped at a store along the way for no reason when we were already late for our 9am boat (according to what I booked). When I contact the tour operator on what's whatsapp, he made it seem like this was all normal and I was in the wrong. We finally made it to our destination at almost 11am. We were supposed to be picked up at 7am. The whale watching was good that's about all I can say but that was a fraction of the trip. I booked a half day (4-6 hr) whale watching tour with round trip transportation and lunch that is what it said on listing. When we were done with whales we stopped at an island where they tried to sell us drinks, photos with animals and we had to walk through a market. No lunch though when we asked when lunch would be they said at the next stop which confused us because we thought we would be going home after the island? We took another boat ride to a port, took a long open air bus ride where I asked the tour guide about us booking a half day excursion and he said no you can't go home the tour wasn't over. When we reached our next stop at a ranch, it was legitimately someone's house where they made rice, beans chicken etc and that was our lunch. I started speaking to multiple people and they had booked only whale watching too, children, elderly people all dressed for whale watching boat tour, just wait next were forced to ride horribly mistreated horses up and down a mountain, my children have never ridden a horse and it was very steep terrain. Then we get to the end of the trail where we had to hike down a mountain in flip flops and crocs and bathing suits (again we only booked whale watching). We reached a waterfall which was pretty but had very slippery sharp rocks under the water and muddy rocks around the water as well, one of us slipped and hit our knee and it bled and swelled. We were not wearning footwear for hiking or goin in the water. We then had to hike back up the mountain wet with slippery sandals, and it's a very steep climb, an older couple with a cane had to take numerous breaks, my mom would never have been able to partake in this never ending ridiculous excursion, and it would have been nice if we got only what we booked and not forced to partake in activities to get their friends extra tips. I called the operator again and he didn't speak much English and said this is a full day tour there's nothing they can do, its not a private tour its shared, like they could make us do whatever because it was a shared tour?! Our guide said complain to the tour company it's not his problem. We had to tip the very nice horse people (they did good but we weren't prepared for this activity) and then didn't have enough for the boat people. This entire excursion was a joke, multiple people were bamboozled into a tour 3 times as long and had to do activities they didn't sign up for. We didn't get home until 8:30pm! We had a dinner reservation we missed and we had started waiting for this tour at 7am! I am surprised more people didn't get hurt, as no one seemed to be prepare for a hike. My children ate only bread from 7am to 8:30pm because we didn't get a choice in lunch. We were all exhausted and sore and were basically held hostage doing an excursion we never wanted. DON'T BOOK THIS TOUR OR USE THIS TOUR COMPANY THEY ARE CROOKS AND PUT US IN DANGER MULTIPLE TIMES!!!
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Posted On : 2024-02-20 22:03:35