Samaná Experience Whale – The Lemon Waterfall & Bacardi Island

This is an extremely long...

This is an extremely long day. The description indicates a 10 hour day but that doesn’t include travel time from pick-up location to destination. Our resort was Lopesan Costa Bávaro and our day from pick-up to drop-off was 14 hours.

via Viator

Not as advertised

This all-day tour of El Limon and Bacardi Island sounded too good to be true... it was awful. The initial pick up from our hotel was fine in a normal minivan. But there 1.5 hour ride to the boat, which they call comfortable was an old purple bus with curtains and absolutely no legroom. The tour guide spoke in whatever language needed at that point, but the rest of the tour was in Spanish. If you are excited about riding a horse be prepared to wear dirty helmets worn by others. Chance of getting lice a definite possibility. It's a horse ride though a lot of slippery mud, then a walk down 80 muddy stairs with limited railings to hold on to. The waterfall is beautiful however not easily accessible. Bacardi Island you get 1 hr and a voucher for 1 free drink. If you want a drink from a coconut or pineapple it will cost you $12 plus tip. Let's talk about the free breakfast and lunch. 🤮 whale watching was cool, but I see those back home. This was a disaster of an excursion. I do not recommend it as the trip did not clearly define what was expected. The food was nasty, safety was a big concern as well. I hope they will consider making a few changes to make this a more enjoyable experience.

via Tripadvisor

Crap tour full of bad food and transfers... To see a great waterfall for 30-60 mins...

Pick up time: 6AM. Breakfast - Stale Bread + 1 slice water melon. Transit on bus/coach - 3 hours (morning). Boat ride - 1 hour Bus Ride - 1 hour Horse Ride - 45mins Time at falls - 1 hour max... Horse ride - 45 mins Bus ride - 1 hour Boat ride - 1 hour Coach transfer - 3 hours... Don't go unless you like being on a transfer..

via Viator

A great day out.

From Punta Cana it takes about 2hrs (expected). Then we got on a speed boat to get to the region of Samana. We then got on a old style bus to get up to El Limon - about 30mins. They have a huge ranch of like 300 horses and you get a horse to take you down to the waterfall. Every horse has a guide who controls the horse (they walk beside you). The ride down is muddy and broken cement/rocks. The horses apparently only walk 3 x week and only one ride a day. My horse was good and strong. Once the horse, you have to walk down 250 steps to the waterfall. It’s busy and amazing! Once you walk back up to the horse, they will walk back up. The guide asks for a tip $20 or $RD1000. Apparently “they volunteer”. They did speak good English. After the waterfall, you get taken to a restaurant by the coast for some lunch - it was okay. Then onto a 45min speedboat to Bacardi Island, 1 free drink included. It was really pretty. Then back on the boat to the coach to go home. It was really chilled, the guides were pleasant and had very good English.

Response from the operator: Dear Customer Thank You for Your comment we appreciate, our mission is create an memorable experience to our valuable customer like You, we looking forward to see you again

via Tripadvisor

Don’t go

Skip this, bad food, all day traveling, whipping the horses, having to pay the volunteers. Only thing that was cool was the waterfall. Just go see it on your own

Response from the operator: Good afternoon dear customer we are very sorry for the bad experience you were with this part of the excursion, the truth is that in the people who work on the horses are volunteers and customers are always told that according to the treatment they can help with some gift not as a payment, but we regret that you have not felt good and we ask you to give us the opportunity to serve you on another occasion and that the goal of our company is the satisfaction of our customers.

via Viator