piggiepuff

How many were in your party? Did you arrange the tour with Cutty in advance or find him at the port? I've been communicating with him and thinking of booking him for our group of 5. Did he customize the tour for you? How many hours was the tour? Any information would be great. TIA

There were four of us and we booked in advance with him. The day of, he did ask what we wanted to see, but we really just wanted the highlights, so we didn't request anything special (although I highly recommend the Jouvay Chocolate Factory). The other party that ended up with us was three - parents and a teenage boy. There was more than enough room for all of us in the van. The teenage boy did get motion sick 3/4 of the way through, though (not b/c of Cutty, just b/c of the roads), so if you are prone to motion sickness, bring meds for it. Cutty will also let you sit up front, which will help with that. I can't remember exactly how many hours the tour was, but it was a good chunk of the day. We got back with a little time left over to walk the area near the port. You pay at the end of the tour, cash.

We did a tour with Cutty Tours. We had to wait a little bit for him to get other passengers before we left the port terminal, but he did a great job! He took us to the rainforest and lured a monkey down to sit on our shoulders. We went to the Jouvay chocolate factory (a favorite for me!), the nutmeg factory, and other sites.

Has anyone on here booked zip lining directly through their website? I'm wondering about transportation to the zipline place. How much is a taxi? How long does it take to get there?

I don't think they have cabanas there.... But you get a chair when you get in. We get there early to get our pick :)

We love the Boatyard! We've been there twice - once with another couple and once with the kids. We are planning on going back in January! The sand is just so soft and white! We generally get there right away in the morning to get our pick of chairs and get on the list for the snorkel. I've been known to go off the rope swing once I have had a few Shark Bites (yummy!)

The big bus is actually a great tour (comfortable and air conditioning)....Just outside the port terminal you will see a vendor offering these round the island tours for $20.00pp....We don't usually do the big bus tours but this worked out so great and easy...Towards the end of the tour those that wanted could opt to be dropped at the beach area and told the time and where to be picked back up or you could opt to be dropped back in town...we opted for this.

Only $20?! That's great, booking in advance is more like $35-40. Maybe we will just "wing it" at this port and find a tour when we get there :)

We did Cosol Tours in Jan 2017. It was fantastic and I highly recommend them. The cost was $75 and it was FULL day of touring. We did the mud baths (my favorite), the waterfall, Jalousie/Sugar Beach, beverages included all day, lunch, and hot bread on the way back. We stopped other places, too, of course.

We did a tour with Cutty's tours in February when we were there. He was very nice and knowledgeable. We went to the rainforest and the nutmeg factory, along with the chocolate factory (which was my favorite). We had to wait a little bit while we found other people to join our tour, but it was worth it, as they paid more than us since we booked in advance. We had time after to walk around the area near the port.

Everyone seems to be focusing on the OP's statement of a "private" tour. But after reading, it seems as though she was not expecting a PRIVATE tour with just to the two of them, but more of a CUSTOM tour. I say this b/c she appears to be most upset about the return time. She didn't want one of the normal tours, she wanted specific places to go. The price seems reasonable and consistent with a CUSTOM tour, especially since it's shorter than many of the others out there. The OP knew what she wanted to see and do that day, so it appears to me that she had done research on excursions. I can easily imagine myself in that position. If you have a specific itinerary (CUSTOM), you may not be expecting anyone else on the tour b/c not everyone will have the same places they want to see. I agree with other posters that there are always three sides to a story; however, I think the business is wrong to not get their customers back to the ship at the agreed-upon time, regardless of his reasoning. It was brought up prior to the tour during planning, brought up several times during the day, and all customers on the tour were there for a SHORT tour that clearly turned into an all-day thing. That's not acceptable. It doesn't matter what time the ship leaves (as he said "don't worry"), it matters what time the customers wanted to be back, which they seem to have made clear. For James to tell her to take down the review in exchange for a refund is unacceptable and says volumes about him. I can see how each party may be upset, but that just looks terrible for him. I rely a lot on reviews of tour operators, as I always book my own tours. I appreciate that OP was willing to leave the review up for others to make up their own minds. Every business always has customers that love them and some that don't. That's understandable to me and one bad review doesn't always make up my mind. But the way that James appears to have handled this incident says a lot more to me than the review itself.

I believe the fare for that is about $19, plus a couple dollars for the airport fee ($3?) plus $1 per bag. The taxi stand is right outside the building next to the baggage claim at the airport. The trip doesn't take too long, but I can't tell you exactly how long it is b/c we detoured and went to breakfast first.

We took a six hour tour with Scenic Tours Antigua in Jan 2017. I believe it was $38/pp. We got a tour and beach time!

Our last two cruises were on Royal leaving San Juan. I always do our own flights (cheaper!). We ended up doing red-eyes and getting into San Juan at 6 a.m. Right outside the baggage carousel area at the airport, there is a taxi stand. It won't take you long to get to the port from there. Someone else posted an updated taxi fare sheet, so based on that, it will cost you $21 plus the $3 airport fee and $1 per bag to get to the port. Since we arrived so early, we took a taxi to a Denny's (very fancy, in a hotel), where we had breakfast and mimosas (only Denny's I've ever been to with a bar LOL). We got to the port early and waited, but we were at the front of the line and we started boarding around 11 a.m. each time. If you want wine, there is a small liquor store inside the port building, but they don't have a ton of choices if you are picky. We've left our luggage at a restaurant in Old San Juan (Aloha, although it might be closed up now). Last time, we ended up staying in a hotel overnight before our early morning flight home, and we were able to leave our luggage there while we did our sight-seeing.

I believe the restaurant we left our luggage at was Aloha right across from the pier.

We took our boys there in 2016 (ages at the time: 3 and 8) and we took our younger son and niece this last February (2018) when they were both 6. They all liked the forts, just climbing on things there and running on the big lawn at El Morro. There are also random cats that live down by El Morro that my older son just adored. Obviously, I didn't let him pet them or anything, but he is a big animal lover and just seeing them made him happy. One tip: if it's really hot out and your kids are not good walkers, do NOT walk all the way around El Morro. They have a boardwalk thing that's really cool, but there's not a lot of shade. When we took it, we didn't realize how long it was and the kids got tired and cranky.

The tentative date is beginning on January 17. We went to it once on a Sunday that our cruise ended before we had to go to the airport. It was pretty cool. Our next cruise leaves San Juan on the 17th, so I'm hoping we are able to go for a bit before we leave the port :)

We used Cosol Tours in St. Lucia in Jan 2017. It was an amazing tour! Super good price ($75) for an all day experience! The guides were great, we got to see lots of things, and we got traditional food. Plus, they provided drinks! We went to the sulphur springs mud bath (loved it!) at the volcano, went into a waterfall, went to the beach.... it was great.

For Barbados, we've been there twice. We didn't do a tour there - we opted to go to The Boatyard, which is a great beach "club". It's $20 to get in and you get one free drink (they have specials all day). Their food is a bit expensive, but I've found that to be typical. They have beach chairs and umbrellas, a bar, a snorkeling tour (free!), and some water toys - like a rope swing, a water trampoline, and a climbing pyramid. It costs about $5 pp to taxi there, but they provide a free shuttle back to the port.

In Grenada this last February, we did a tour with Cutty Taxi Tours. It took a little while for him to round up some more people to come with us, but it was fine. We booked in advance and paid probably half of what they did (we paid $30 each). I think there might be a couple places that you pay a couple dollars to get into, too. We saw the Nutmeg Factory. My favorite was the chocolate factory - it was very cool! We went into the rainforest and I got to have a wild monkey sit on my shoulders. He was a very nice guy.

Out of curiosity, how are you getting to the gardens? I have been looking into it, but it seems expensive. :(

I believe it was $15 for a bucket of 5 or 6 beers at the Boatyard last January (2017)

We went to the Boatyard last January and we are planning on going again on our cruise next month with our kids! We loved it! The beach was so soft and smooth and it didn't get deep really fast. You can definitely take the boat to the turtles and not snorkel if you don't want to. It's a quick ride. We got there first thing in the morning, picked out some great chairs and got signed up for the turtles. By afternoon, we were brave enough to jump off the rope swing :)

I think it was at least 10 or 11 o'clock before we were able to leave our luggage with the porters on our last San Juan cruise. We had an early morning flight in, killed some time at breakfast, and then sat around outside the port for a few hours.

Yes, there is one inside the building. I didn't really find anything I liked there, it was fairly small compared to most liquor stores.

I'm not positive what a D1 cabin is, but a couple years ago, we took our kids (3 and 8 at the time) and did a balcony room and it was plenty of room.

How were you able to get it free in November? Like how were you notified or how did you figure it out?

I believe there are two restaurants in Old San Juan that do this. We used Aloha, they charged $2-3 a bag and it seemed like a popular place to leave bags. They give you a slip with your number on it and put the matching number on your bags. It was pretty convenient and close.

I don't have an answer on which ones are less steep, but have you thought about taking the free trolley? Then you wouldn't have to worry about walking up steep streets. I will say, though, we walked it a couple years ago when our kids were 8 and 3 and it was okay.