Glory Tours - new tour Bajan Highlights

[marcia014]

I am looking at the new (shorter) tour offered by Glory Tours called Bajan Highlights. It is the same as the Best of Barbados land and sea tour that many people have taken, except it does not go to the Wild Life Reserve, stop for lunch, or snorkle at the shipwreck. The description includes the following Stops on Tour: Harrison's Cave; The Bamboo House; Bathsheba; Scenic East Coast; & Swimming with turtles (west Coast); Glass Bottom Boat Cruise; You will also get a glimpse the Morgan Lewis windmill on this tour.

 

I will be traveling with my mother who likes to get a sense of the island, but does not do well with longer tours and I thought this would be a good compromise. I really want to swim with the sea turtles (if they are cooperative that day).

 

Any thoughts from those who have been on the longer tour with Glory Tours? Has anyone already been on the shorter tour? If so, would you recommend it? Thanks!

Marcia

[love_travel]

I will not recommand taking a glory tour because it is prepaid. It is very easy to share taxi with other people. Most of taxi charge by person, once you get on a taxi, more people will join in you. I am very regret that I booked glory tour, a wast of money.

[marcia014]

Thanks for the response, love travel :). I really appreciate your taking the time to respond! My only concern with taking a taxi is that I really would like to snorkel once on Barbados, and I think my mother would like to do the glass bottom boat. This tour is less money than the longer one (I forget how much right now), and seems to do a land taxi type tour plus the boat as well.

 

This is the response I got from Sarah at Glory tours when I emailed asking for details about this new tour.

 

"Hi Marcia

 

Thank you for your interest in Glory Tours

 

Our first stop is at the caves and this takes aprox 1 hour

the glass bottom cruise portion is aprox 1 hours also

the two other hours are spent sightseeing from port to caves, caves to west coast, and then time to get back to the ship

 

Best Regards

Sarah"

 

BTW - this response came in less than 24 hours. Anyone else have an opinion or comment?

Marcia

[pholter]

Marcia-

 

I'd do the tour with Glory and enjoy the friendly service and great prices with a recommended operator. I loved my day with Glory Tours personally and had absolutely no problems with Sarah or Ricky. In fact, Sarah went out of her way to be overly accommodating to my diet needs at the lunch stop on our tour. We did the longer version of the same tour, Best of Barbados.

[love_travel]

I did the best of barbado tour too. Our tour starts from 10am and finished at 4pm, which is 2 hours shorter than it is suppose to be. There is another couple on our tour, they thought it was waste of money too. The only good part of the tour is swimming with turtle. The snorkel they took us was bad, there was hardly any fish and anything to see at all. Glory tour is a taxi, so there is no difference than getting a taxi off the ship. It will be cheaper to take the taxi because there is no 2 layers in the middle to share your money.

[marcia014]

In 4 months, has nobody else had experience with the Bajan Highlights tour through Glory Tours? I really want to swim with the sea turtles (assuming they cooperate), but don't want to subject my mother to a long tour. Thanks in advance for any additional input.

Marcia

[ezcruizer]

Marcia014, I love your countdown clock. How can I get it?

[marcia014]

free flash toys dot com (remove spaces)

[Pudgesmom]

marcia,

 

Have you searched this forum for comments on Glory Tours? There are at least 2 pages of threads regarding their tours. I have not read them all, so I don't know whether anyone has taken the specific one you're asking about, but it might be worth a try.

 

Also, at this time of year, I think there are fewer ships visiting Barbados, so you may see fewer answers.

 

Beth

 

ps Hello to a fellow Texan!

[marcia014]

Hi Pudgesmom,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I have read many reviews of Glory tours, but was specifically looking for information about the newest, shorter tour. I first noticed it in March and have communicated with Sarah from Glory tours, but wanted some first-hand information. Thanks again for your reply!

Marcia

[hawkette64]

We are doing this tour the second week of September. I will report when we get back.

[marcia014]

Thank you so much, Hawkette! Wishing you clear skies and smooth sailing!

Marcia

[hawkette64]

We're back!! We did the Bajan Highlights tour. There was a large group of us, 60, so there were two busses. One did the island tour and then the turtle swim. We did the turtle swim and then the island tour. It was a short drive out to the beach, no facilities. They beached the two small glass bottom boats and we walked in the water to board. A nice ride down the beach and then about a 20 min swim with 5 turtles. It was raining and very windy, so I don't know if we could of snorkeled over the shipwreck, but we just cruised over it and you can see thru the glass bottom. We were dropped off at a different spot on the beach, about a 500 foot walk down the beach to a restaurant with rest rooms, but no real place to change. I believe all got on the bus in their wet suits :(. Everything we took on the boat got wet. There was the option to leave things on the bus. Then it was a bus ride down narrow, bumpy residential streets to the animal flower cave, Harrison's cave is closed. About half an hour there, the coast is beautiful, the caves are dark and wet :). No animal flowers the day we were there. Then another long ride on narrow, bumpy residential streets. Personally I was disappointed....we did the turtle swim first and then had a very long bus ride, almost 3 hours, including only one stop. Any questions, ask away.

[hawkette64]

I received an email from Sarah at Glory Tours today. She was sorry to hear some were disappointed. Because of our large group, she had to alter some things from the regular daily tours. Maybe someone from a smaller group can give you their opinion of the tour.

[North Carolina Cruiser]

How far from shore were the turtles? We're renting a car and want to swim out to where they are. Is this doable?

[hawkette64]

As you can see, we weren't far off shore. However, we passed many private resorts and I don't know where you could publicly access the beach.

[marcia014]

Hawkette,

Thanks so much for your review! I know it was raining for you, but how did you like the glass bottom boat? I have been exploring other options, and am thinking now that we will taxi to Folkestone Marine Park. It has a manmade reef for snorkeling and a small beach area. Michael with Westwater adventures has glass bottom boat tours to swim with the turtles and snorkel a wreck that leave every 2 hours for $40. What are your thoughts?

Marcia

[hawkette64]

Marcia...The boats were small, max about 15 people. Our boat looked exactly like the one on Westwater's web page. It's nothing like you see when snorkeling, but you get the idea of what's down below. Personally, except for the boat wreck, occasionally some fish and the turtles, it all looks the same to me :). I would certainly say the turtles are something to do once, just don't think I would do it a second time.

[marcia014]

Thanks Hawkette,

I really want to do the turtle swim, but my mother who is my travelling companion doesn't do water where she can't touch bottom. I thought a glass-bottom boat would be a good compromise. Thanks again for your thoughts and I'm glad you enjoyed the turtles!

Marcia

[hawkette64]

Your mother should enjoy the boat...saw a turtle swim under the boat and they do swim all around the boat. She may enjoy taking pics of you in the water! :)

[North Carolina Cruiser]

Looks like we should be able to enter from shore easily:) Thanks for the info and the picture:D Anybody know where to access this area from?:confused:

[Sunniebgi]

Most of the turtle sightings these days seem to be off Paynes Bay. No facilities for changing but one of my favorite beaches. You can access the beach from the main road through the "Coach House" entrance (The Coach House restaurant is across the street from the entrance to this part of the beach). any taxi can drop you off. once on the beach go towards the left (south) area and I think most of the glass bottom boats end up in that area for turtle watching. You should be able to do a gentle swim out to see them (except if the water is rougher than normal).

 

see you in Barbados

[North Carolina Cruiser]

Thanks a million! :D Now if I can put all this together, monkeys, turtles, cane beach, wildlife preserve, Folkstone local bajan food:confused: . Now to find a map and get it asll maped out for a 9-6 one day adventure:eek:

 

Hope to see ya in BARBADOS!!!!!!!!!:)