Charlie's Custom Day Tours? Anyone? Or other day tour rec's for us?

[fl-girl]

We have a family of 6 going to SJ, PR, on Harmony in June. We have two kids (young teens), 2 parents and 2 grandparents (70s but active). We need to keep the cost down on this excursion, but would love to have a tour of SJ where we get to see a little of everything. I read about Charlie's Custom Day Tours on Trip Advisor and the reviews are great. Anyone used Charlie's recently and has a review for me? If not Charlie's, has anyone used another tour company in SJ that they'd highly recommend?

 

This is my mom's 70th birthday cruise (and her 5-year cancer remission celebration) so I want to make sure she really enjoys our trip!

 

Thanks all <3

[pdc2013]

I have not used Charlie but have used Island Marketing.

 

I did their Rainforest tour and their San Juan Tour privately and was very happy.and very reasonable and one of the least expensive out their.

 

Maybe this will work for your group https://puertoricocruiseexcursions.com/excursion/san-juan-highlights-country-island-tour/

 

I would suggest San Juan tours first if this is your first time in Puerto Rico.

[fl-girl]

Thanks. I've been looking into Island Marketing, but their tour descriptions are really vague. I think we'd prefer a SJ tour to a rainforest tour since we've never been to SJ before. I just don't see exactly what you get for the tour...

 

Anyone know?

[georgiacat]

Yes, we took that tour with Island Marketing last year. It was great. We walked toward the old Sheraton and met our guide. He was very knowledgeable and drove us right up to the larger fort. We were not able to tour the smaller fort due to a military presentation on the grounds that day, but he drove all around as much as he could and talked about it. We got our money's worth, toured the old church and a government building. Saw lots of Old San Juan. I do not remember our guide's name because I did not write it down. He is the reason we are cruising out of San Juan this year and we are taking their Rain Forest tour. We put down about $20 advance fee and paid the rest in cash after the tour was complete. We tipped him generously too because we enjoyed it so much. He took us back to the ship (our wish) after offering to drop us in town for food or browsing the shops.

 

There was no guided tour of the fort; even though I thought the advertisement stated that there would be. Maybe that was for the other fort. We did not miss it, just wandered and looked at what we wanted too.

 

I have an aol.com address and they had trouble communicating with me through that until we went with att.net

 

Definitely recommend this tour. Enjoy.

[Lilith]

Hi Fl-girl,

We've got a group of 11 on Harmony on 6/24. Is that your date? We're celebrating our 50th anniversary and are also looking for a tour that will interest everyone down to the age of 3 1/2. The other 2 ports will be beach days and the beaches aren't that great in PR. We've done the forts on previous visits, but haven't ventured much beyond that. The rain forest keeps coming up as a suggestion. Any tour provider recommendations?

[pdc2013]

Hi Fl-girl,

We've got a group of 11 on Harmony on 6/24. Is that your date? We're celebrating our 50th anniversary and are also looking for a tour that will interest everyone down to the age of 3 1/2. The other 2 ports will be beach days and the beaches aren't that great in PR. We've done the forts on previous visits, but haven't ventured much beyond that. The rain forest keeps coming up as a suggestion. Any tour provider recommendations?

 

As was said above i used island marketing for their Rainforest tour. I just came from their website and seems that they have new tours up that i had not seen before. The private beach for the day looks interesting, they now also have a walking food tour which is super cheap in comparison to others.

 

Wonder if anyone has done it yet?

[trulytracy]

This is late, but we spent a day on one of Charlie's custom tours. It was great. We had communicated in advance about what we wanted to do and everything went really smoothly. He picked us up at the port and all our luggage fit into the van--it was the day we disembarked--and dropped us at the airport at the end of the day. He took a ton of photos for us and then shared them all with us via dropbox or something like that. Highly recommend.

[Silverhues]

I just read this post. Our party of 8 have used Chalies Custom Tours and they are simply the best tour we have ever taken! If he is still available at this late date ( he books up fast!) book it! You will not be disappointed! Carlos and his son run this business. He will customize a tour that works for your needs. The customized van Charlie and Charlie 2 ( they have two) are so comfortable, and he takes photos and send them to you!

We were disappointed that our next cruise does not arrive at San Juan until 3pm and it is too late for a tour. We would book them again in a heartbeat!