Any Recent Touring with Bernard’s Tours?

[keishashadow]

Last time in St M, years ago, selected Bernard’s for Adventure Island Tour 2.   Thot it a great overview of the island and lot of fun.

 

Just booked it for May.  Any recent reviews?  Noticed the confirmation came from “Junglebee” but, does reference Bernard’s in it.

[SpaceCowboy9]

we did Bernard's twice last year: March & November
We always go with them - great tour at a great value
I looked through my text confirmations for our November trip and we also paid through Junglebee.

[keishashadow]

Treat to hear they are still offering a top notch tour, thanks!

[lynncarol]

Five of us booked a van with Bernard's tours last March.  We presented our driver (Action Jackson) with our own 'must sees" and he delivered them in spades!  Highly recommend.

[ccheng6401]

I am looking at the Bernard's Adventure Tour 2 too. I saw that the Maho beach stop is only 45min,. Is that going to be enough time to see at least one plane? 

 

Also, that's the customary tip % or amount for the tour guide?  Thanks. 

[ericosmith]

It will likely be time enough to see a couple of planes, but not necessarily large ones.  If you're familiar with aircraft types, this will give you an idea.

https://flightaware.com/live/airport/TNCM

 

[keishashadow]

On 3/1/2023 at 1:42 PM, ccheng6401 said:

I am looking at the Bernard's Adventure Tour 2 too. I saw that the Maho beach stop is only 45min,. Is that going to be enough time to see at least one plane? 

 

Also, that's the customary tip % or amount for the tour guide?  Thanks. 

Last time we went with them, they had it scheduled so we saw one big one come in and another take off. 

[Wikidmomster]

YES...DON'T book with Bernard's!!! I just went on a tour with them a few weeks ago (November 2023) and it ruined my family's day at St. Maarten. I'll paste the review I just wrote for Tripadvisor here:

 

We were going to do the 4 hour Maho Beach trip, but we switched to this one to join people from a Carnival cruise Facebook group. The tour was highly recommended by the owner of the Facebook group. We signed up to be with "Karen's group", which consisted of over 100 people. We left the ship at 10 am, walked to Bernard's tours, and had to wait in the hot tent because they didn't have the machine ready to run credit cards. We then boarded bus #2, which was VERY hot and overcrowded. The driver, whose name I can't remember, except that he said people call him "Sugar Ray Leonard" seemed friendly.


At 11:13 we stopped at an overlook at Oyster Bay, and we were supposed to be able to get out and take pictures, but nobody in front of us wanted to get out, and because the bus was overcrowded, we couldn't get out. So, the bus moved on.


At 11:25 we reached another lookout where people didn't want to get out, but we insisted this time, and we squeezed out of the bus.


At 12:30, after about 20 minutes of waiting for the driver to find out if he was at the right place, we got out at Captain Frenchy's and spent about an hour at a nice beach at Grand Case. They provided us with some mediocre rum punch in tiny, plastic cups. We had to go all the way back into the restaurant if we wanted refills.


By 1:30-2 we were loading back into the hot bus.

We stopped at a roadside fleamarket and told we had to be back at the bus in 20 minutes. This was supposed to be the shopping, pastries, and cocktails part of the tour. It was actually about 10 tents that were selling identical souvenirs. No French pastries. No cocktails.


At 3:20 we arrived at Maho Beach, the exciting part where we were supposed to see jumbo jets fly over us. We saw 3-4 small airplanes, and had to be back at the bus by 3:50.
 No jumbo jets.

It took 1 1/2 hours to get back to the port.

 

Our driver, who said he was born and raised on the island, got LOST, so we NEVER got to go to the Iguana farm, which was one reason we bought the tour in the first place. Out of more than 6 hours with Bernard's Tours, we spent 4 HOURS of it on a bus, and didn't get what we paid for.

[TTEllis]

Ouch!!😕

[PATRLR]

On 11/27/2023 at 1:27 PM, Wikidmomster said:

we got out at Captain Frenchy's and spent about an hour at a nice beach at Grand Case.

Can you tell us more about Captain Frenchy's and the beach?  There have been problems with that beach being washed away, how was it when you were there?  

We're looking to just grab a taxi and head to a beach to hang out, so, looking for recent reviews.

By the way, your review is exactly why we no longer book ship excursions or any other large group excursions.   Too often, way too much time is wasted getting into, riding on, and getting off of buses.