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Fees for Mr. Lee

bellagirl

By bellagirl,
in Colombia

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  • 1 month later...
Flipflopsnfrozendrinks

Flipflopsnfrozendrinks

Posted
Posted

Hi. We are recently back from our Celebrity trip to western carib. Our favorite stop was Cartagena, Columbia mainly because of the tour we took through Lee Miles.

I originally started by planning a tour for our group of 6. I offered it to my roll call, and by the time we arrived in Cartagena, we had over 40 people!

Planning could not have been easier. Lee responded to my e-mails, usually the same day, with great suggestions/information. I answered a quick questionnaire, and got an itin. that met everyones needs. We had Doris and Claudia as our guides, and they were both wonderful. Cartagena is a wonderful city, and it was a treat to see it through the eyes of women who are so proud of their area. We also learned alot about the history of Cartagena, which was important to me as I had my 9 and 11 year old kiddos with me.

The vendors in Cartagena are among the most aggressive I've seen, but Doris warned us in advance, if you don't want it, just say no. She also let us know that if we were interested in something, to let her know, and she would make sure we got a fair price.

Columbia has a reputation as being a dangerous place, but I never felt that we were in any type of danger during the tour.

 

I would certainly go back to Cartagena, and ask Lee to arrange another tour for us. I highly recommend him, without reservations, to anyone visiting Cartagena.

 

Kim

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Mikea

Mikea

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We also booked with Lee Miles. He was very professional. prompt in his replies and was able to set up our tour with only a few days noticed.

 

I have read a number of posting warning of problems in Cartegena, but in my opinion they are very overstated. I grew up in Chicago, so I have experience with panhandlers, street vendors, etc. While I have to admit they were excessive, I never felt threatened and felt they were more of a nuisance than anything. I was more concerned about the my wife and the other women in our group, but other than being persistent they were not physically aggressive.

 

My suggestion is go and have a good excursion in Cartegena. Just use some common sense and avoid eye contact or chat with the vendors unless you are interested in buying their wares.

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Gonzo70

Gonzo70

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I also had a tour through him with Claudia as a guide and have nothing but good things to say about her. We had a really fun time in Colombia. I just wish I had brought back more coffee and chocolate - the chocolate is long gone and the coffee nearly history.

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  • 2 weeks later...
pklein9747

pklein9747

Posted
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Just back from our Panama Canal cruise on the Island Princess and we also booked with Lee Miles. I have nothing but good things to say about Lee and Doris, our guide. Lee couldn't have been nicer and more helpful in planning our trip. Our group grew from 4 of us to a total of 20 and the price dropped accordingly. Doris's love and pride in her country comes through in her knowledge and comprehensive tour. She was patient and allowed us more than enough time at each stop; we never felt rushed. Our mini-bus was clean and air-conditioned. Don't hesitate to book with Lee...it is well worth it.

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dfb

dfb

Posted
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We did this in January of 2008. We paid our driver/guide at the end of the tour when he returned us to the dock. I started an email correspondence with Lee nearly a year in advance. If I had not done so, we would not have gotten our private tour. He would up provide our cruiseline's ship tours and would not have been able to contract for private tours directly after he signed that agreement. Just something to consider... Below is a link to our blog entry for that day... Debbie

http://circle-south-america-2008-aboard.blogspot.com/2008/01/day-5-tuesday-jan-8-cartagena-columbia.html

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unklez

unklez

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Do you pay up front when you book his tour, or when you get there?:confused:

Need to wait till it gets closer to april to book him, just want to know what to expect.;)

 

You pay at the end of the tour.

We took a tour arranged thru' him on our Jewel stop in Cartagena in April '09. Loved it.

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Cozzette2

Cozzette2

Posted
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We just finalized our excursion with Lee Miles for a 4 hour visit to the Fort, the Gold Museum, Palace of the Inquisition,, the Monastary and shopping for $55 per person. That includes the admission to the Fort and Palace of the Inquisition.

I hope that helps. Lee has been very good about emailing me.

Kris

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tropicalsunset

tropicalsunset

Posted
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I just did a Lee Miles tour in Cartegena... as we were in port late in the day... Lee suggested a horse and buggy ride through The Old City just after sunset...

we had headphones and were able to hear our guide... there were 19 on our tour. Lee was awesome... I feel we got the best overall tour of Cartegena in the time we had available.

Have a great time!!

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  • 3 weeks later...
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cruzin pink princess

cruzin pink princess

Posted
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greetings CC's.

I just wanted to post about our experience with Mr Miles....BEST EVER TOUR !

we would recommend him 100%. We toured Dec 3rd 2009. NCL Star PC trip

great guide & driver. Clean bus, good historical content.

It is well worth to take the inside tours of the sites.

We had a group of 17 in a bus. We included CC'ers with our group. Everyone showed & had a great day.

All he promised & more.

We corresponded by email prior to the trip to work out the details.

He doesn't need payment till the tour has concluded.

If anyone would like a copy of our tour please email me @" kuckytmom at gmail.com".:):)

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cruzin pink princess

cruzin pink princess

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We had a wonderful experience with Lee Miles, and with the guide we had -- Encarnacion -- in early October.

 

I was the tour leader for 27 people, 20 of whom decided to take a custom-designed tour I had arranged with Lee Miles. We visited La Popa, the Fortress of San Felipe, the Palace of the Inquisition, the walled City, and Lee's jewelry store.

 

I contacted Lee many months ago, and he suggested we wait until closer to our visit to Cartagena to finalize the plans. He re-contacted me about 4-5 weeks before our visit, and we corresponded for a couple of days to set this up, just like I wanted it. He responded immediately to my emails, and we were able to agree on what we wanted very quickly. We had a 1 p.m. pickup at the dock, and the tour took about 4 1/2 hours.

 

 

 

 

To answer your question, we did not pay until the tour was completed. At Lee's suggestion, I collected the money in advance and let people tip individually.

 

Our guide was just wonderful. We did visit Lee's jewelry store in an upscale shopping area, and some in our group did purchase emeralds, but this was a very minor part of the tour (about 35 minutes). And this stop was optional for us.

 

I would not hesitate to recommend Lee and his tours. He is a very nice man, and conducts business in a friendly and professional way.

 

One thing that struck me as very pro-active on his part was that our ship arrived about 3-4 hours before we were scheduled to arrive, because we had a critically ill passenger on our ship who required medical attention. Lee saw that we were in port much earlier that expected and contacted me to see if we wanted to begin our tour earlier than we had planned. As it turned out, we left the tour as it had been scheduled, mostly because it was very difficult to contact everyone in the group if we wanted to make a change.

 

Lee was great, and Encarnacion was terrific! By the way, our tour was $44 per person, and the cost included the admission prices for all of the sites we visited. Heck of a deal!!!!

 

We had the same guide ! He was wonderful.he really knows his history & really had our best interest in mind, the entire tour ! Our guide even loaned a group member his cell to call a friend in Cartegena @ no cost !

 

Our group also did all the sites with admission it came to $45 each for a group of 17 in a bus.

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