Bacardi Distillery Tour

[radiationman]

1. is it worth it as I see it is not really a distillary tour

2. arriving in San Juan at 03:00 can I do this on my own as the cruise excursion price is an absolute ripoff

[nautica34]

We did the Barcardi tour on our own a couple of years ago while in San Juan. It is definitely worth the visit. We took a ferry from the pier in Old San Juan (the ferry at the time was only around $1) and then a taxi to Barcardi. You may want to negotiate with the taxi drivers regarding the fares. It seemed to vary. Once you exit the ferry it's a short walk to a gararge where you'll find the taxis. Once you arrive at Barcardi sign up for the free tour (you'll be assigned a time) and they will give you 2 tickets for free drinks. The tour was great and very informative. Best of all it's all free.

[MDSue]

1. is it worth it as I see it is not really a distillary tour

2. arriving in San Juan at 03:00 can I do this on my own as the cruise excursion price is an absolute ripoff

 

I think you better check the operating hours and find out when the last tour is. If the last tour is in the afternoon, you probably won't have time.

 

It is very easy to go on your own as the last person said. Once you get off the ferry and walk to the garage, if you are with a group of others, then you can get a group taxi fare over- About $4 each. I made the mistake of stopping to take pictures and walking after the rest of the group- we ended up having to pay a higher fare (I think they asked for $8 each for two of us). We were able to negoitiate for less, but I can't remember what. Either way, it is way cheaper than the ship tours.

[SBthud326]

Personally I didn't think it was worth it all. But of course I am comparing it to the likes of Jameson, Guinness and Bushmill which really were big tours with lots of info and of course free drinks at the end. Bacardi was a total let down. I just don't think it would be worth the rush and time spent to get there, unless you are a huge Bacardi fan and want to buy the distillery reserve rum they sell only there (or in Puerto Rico only, can't quite remember).

[mamapan]

Personally I didn't think it was worth it all. But of course I am comparing it to the likes of Jameson, Guinness and Bushmill which really were big tours with lots of info and of course free drinks at the end. Bacardi was a total let down. I just don't think it would be worth the rush and time spent to get there, unless you are a huge Bacardi fan and want to buy the distillery reserve rum they sell only there (or in Puerto Rico only, can't quite remember).

 

I couldn't agree more. The tour was pretty boring and 'free drinks at the end' was actually 1 free drink per person (unless you were with others who didn't care for rum) when we went. I would definitely SKIP IT and find anything else to do. Anything at all.

[lovemylab]

1. is it worth it as I see it is not really a distillary tour

2. arriving in San Juan at 03:00 can I do this on my own as the cruise excursion price is an absolute ripoff

 

1. The tour itself is free, so all this will cost you is the transportation to and from Bacardi. When we did this in 2009 the return transportation cost was $7pp.

 

It's not a distillery tour but we still got to learn about the history of rum, the history of Bacardi, see a demontration on how to make some drinks and got to see the grounds. We were each given two drink tickets and the bartenders were very generous with their pours.

 

2. This is very easy to do on your own and only takes a few hours.

[cavewoman]

hubby and I did it the tour, think it was back in '03 and we enjoyed it.

 

Almost missed the little trolley to go back... that was before we knew about WONDERFUL Cruise Critic.

 

Nina and Earl from Baltimore

[Habanaro64]

While it wasn't overly expensive, it was not worth the money to buy it from the cruise line. If it wasn't for the tour guide on the bus ride it would have really been bad.

[newmexicoNita]

wow, we haven't done it for probably 20 years, but when we did we enjoyed it. I thought on our Feb cruise on NCL we would do the Barcardi tour, maybe we will just find something else to do.

 

Nita