Tayrona Park - Pueblito Tayku + Cabo San Juan

Crossing the Tayrona

Tayku-Cape San Juan Tour: a physically demanding but rewarding experience, you walk approximately 7 hours, passing through different areas such as Tayku, the tropical dry forest, Cabo San Juan beach and finally the return tour. Knowing the customs in Tayku was wonderful, in the forest the shadow of the trees helps with the sun and the tour is comfortable since the Guide is making stops to observe the landscape, hear the sounds of nature and explain part of the history, and finally enjoy the sea. Excellent plan, excellent Guide, excellent agency, would be and pending in every moment how our plan developed. Fully recommended.

via Tripadvisor (translated)

Paradise

Special thanks to Eduardo who helped us with english translation and help with booking the boat back to Santa Marta for an extra cost!

via Tripadvisor

Terrible tour group

Fascinating that the review I tried to post way back in January was blocked in some way as no ability to complete the review was available. I wonder if a company on TripAdvisor can block users or disable reviews? I wrote about my entire experience and even complained to the hotel that recommended this tour group. Essentially I booked this via whatsapps and they made it seem like I had to urgently book. Keep in mind not once during this entire interaction on WhatsApp did I speak in Spanish. I arrive the next morning and they made zero attempts to communicate with us. Not even very important details like where to wait for the bus, nothing. Or other important information like which boat to board. My adult Daughter who does speak Spanish made several attempts to communicate with the tour guides and was completely ignored. We had to constantly hunt them down so they wouldn’t outright leave us. Once we did get on the boat to spend the day on the beach they treated up the same way. Almost like they were purposely trying to get to ditch us? It was scary to have a tour group do this to us. We had no way to get back if they were successfully able to do this. Even a Spanish/english speaking American couple noticed their abhorrent behavior towards and intervened on our behalf. The icing on the cake is when they decided unceremoniously to drop us off many blocks from the hotel they picked us up from despite us knowing and they knowing it was a dangerous neighborhood that even the hotel told us not to go into and this tour made to attempts to even ensure we would be able to find our way back to the hotel.

via Tripadvisor

Unprofessional

I contacted this agency through my hotel for information on excursions. Through whatsapp they gave me information about the tours offered, I chose the one I was interested in and they told me that there were the last two places available and so I had to book right away, but the first unpleasant surprise was when I asked to pay by credit card: I had to add a 5% commission to the total. (needless to say, the story of the last two places was totally made up... the group consisted only of the two of us). Only after receiving the payment, they listed me (always via whatsapp) and asked me to accept the conditions and all cases where I would not be refunded (not at all correct and unprofessional... First you tell me the conditions and then you ask for payment, not vice versa) In the morning they picked us up by car (relatively punctual) and we started the visit, which included a visit to the indigenous village. The guide was very knowledgeable about the natives and explained with passion... but we saw very little actually, we didn't even enter a hut and the only indigenous people we knew were two children. The most beautiful things we saw were the photos on the guide's tablet. After the "visit" to the village we started the long walk to Cabo San Juan... Here the guide was almost completely estranged, admired himself, walked a lot in front of us (often we no longer saw him) and almost nothing explained to us about the flora and fauna of the forest we crossed (he pointed out only one tree and two plants, told us that we were hearing the sounds of a type of monkey and only at our request tried to show us another monkey, without succeeding). Arriving at the first beach we could not stop, because we had to "book" lunch (a professional agency should have booked before even leaving), so we continued walking on the sand towards Cabo San Juan (crowded, we regretted the first beach). The lunch included in the price (poor and low quality) did not even include a bottle of water (we are talking about a tour paid almost 100€ and a "lunch" that cost less than 10€). On the way back we preferred to "hire" a horse, to avoid another 2 hours of trekking (I leave out the fact that the "guide" fell off the horse). Leaving the park, after more than an hour's drive and 12 hours of touring, we return to the hotel and collapse into bed unconscious. Here the unthinkable happens: the guide had forgotten to make us pay the extra tax due by foreigners at the entrance of the park... We are talking about less than 10€ per person... A manhunt has begun!!! WhatsApp messages from the agency that wanted to send us the link to pay by card (again with 5% commission), phone calls and sms messages from the guide (to which the agency had given our number)... but we were sleeping, phone without ringtone and we did not answer. After 20 minutes from the last message sent the guide showed up in person at the hotel and had us call to the room (waking up) to ask for the money he had forgotten. I specify that the agency had all our documents and that we certainly would not have escaped for 10€ (which were agreed). I do not understand why not include this expense in the final price and I find it ABSURD that they came to disturb even inside the hotel to get paid. Zero professionalism. The park can be visited very well by yourself (and removed the round trip transport, it's as if we saw it ourselves at the end of the day). Professionalism close to zero

Response from the operator: Hola gusto saludarte nuevamente. Me parece irresponsable de tu parte hacer este comentario para nada cierto, lo que dices es total mentirás debido que al finalizar el tour hicimos nuestras encuesta de satisfacción a través de Whatsapp el cual nos respondiste que fue bien. Cambiaste de opinión a tu comentario luego que nuestro guía de manera amable pidió que por favor hicieras el pago del impuesto de extranjería el cual es cobrado por Parque Tayrona en el que con anterioridad te pusimos en conocimiento. Por otra parte recuerda que el recargo del 5% es cobrado por la entidad bancaria y esto te lo hicimos saber antes de realizar el pago y aceptaste asumir el recargo. Cómo agencia nos preocupamos por mantener nuestro estándar profesional en alto así como lo resaltan los cometarios de nuestros viajeros en esta plataforma. Feliz noche y espero no andes por el mundo haciendo malos comentarios sin argumentos y sustentos.

via Tripadvisor (translated)

The best experience of my life

I leave very pleased with the experience lived on this tours, the place was magical, the quality of Service was ideal and the landscapes are a beauty. The guide knows a lot about the area so the walk is short, meeting souls thoroughly about the community and Tayrona Park. I loved all the scenery we traveled. Everything was very nice and accommodating. I am grateful for such a nice experience, the Service was very good from the reservation until the end of the tour. I recommend it.

via Tripadvisor (translated)