Dominican Republic trip - I had a great time and the food was going I met some nice people while I was there and The water was beautiful

very good - thank you your tours have a good staff your service is very good the natural pool the island is incredible it was the best vacation of my life I recommend you to the maximum

very good - This operator is very good the service was the best my family had a great time this island is spectacular is a very serious company highly recommended for your vacation in punta cana.

Wayyyy too long, terribly organized - I’ll start with the good parts. Saona beach was beautiful, and the catamaran trip from the island back to Bahayibe was fun (there was music and dancing, not much to drink, but the water was nice and everyone had a blast). Now the less good. The trip organizers wanted us to meet at the main entrance of our resort. Our resort is intertwined with several others and getting from our lobby to the main gate was a hassle, as we booked the excursion outside of the hotel. I warned our organizer that we would be a few minutes late, which we were stressed out about initially, but ended up joining several other people who faced the same issues. The driver, Rodolfo, was very kind and seemed fine with us being late when I spoke to him over the phone. When we got to the gate, nobody was there to pick us up. Other groups heading to Saona were getting into their vehicles. We waited with another group of girls for few minutes and a different tour guide led us to a bus full of passengers seemingly going to the same place. Thinking this would be our ride to Bahayibe, we got in and drove about 1 hour before stopping at a gas station where other buses had stopped and our driver came onto the bus to switch us out for his caravan. We got into the much smaller car and drove around for another few hours, in the meantime stopping at the SAME HOTEL they picked us up from earlier to pick up a different group, who had also booked with a different tour operator?? Bahayibe is supposed to be a 1 hour drive but we didn’t end up getting there until past 10am. After getting products and animals shoved into our faces for over an hour we finally got on the actual speed boat to the island at past 11am. Speed boat driver Javier was great though (very funny, the trip was nice). That’s where the fun ended. We ended up staying at Saona for about 2 hours, the buffet was small and after eating we mingled on the packed white sand beach for a little bit before being called back to go on the catamaran. As fun as it was, we didn’t expect to stay on that boat for over two hours and after reaching shore at past 5pm, we waited for our driver and got into his caravan, waiting for him AGAIN to get things settled, (one guy spending at least 20 minutes getting us to buy his rum), before heading off. After over an hour we stopped AGAIN so other buses could switch out their passengers and we had 3 different drivers pestering us to switch into their vehicle despite us making it clear that we were NOT from the hotels they were going to?? Why the hell are they giving us different drivers? Why are they picking up all these people if at the end of the day they won’t be able to drop them off at the right hotel??? In the caravan with my friend there were maybe 8-10 other people, some families and they were just as annoyed as we were. We all had plans to go to, and this trip was much longer than it needed to be because of poor organization. The trip to and from the island should NOT have taken that long, a supposed 8-hour long day ended up being 13 HOURS. Unnecessary stops, poor communication and overall terrible organization. The driver was very kind, and the island was gorgeous but that wasn’t enough to make up for the tiring journey and the ridiculous amount of hours it took to get people where they needed to go. Overall a nice first experience, but definitely not something I’d pay to do again. Always read the reviews, guys.

DO NOT BOOK - Don’t waste your time or money on this excursion. The staff were great and the island was breathtakingly beautiful however everything else could use much improvement. We were picked up in a minivan at the resort that they packed us on top of each other to transfer us to a KFC parking lot and put in a bus that was overcrowded for a grueling hour long bus ride. We were taken to a horribly filthy fishing village to board a speed boat that sprays water in your face for the next 30 minutes to the swimming spot. We were offered rum and coke for 30 minutes in the water and then ushered back into the boat to continue to the island. We finally reached the island after hours of traveling and were offered lunch, rum/coke and free time to enjoy the beach. We returned to the fishing village on an old, overcrowded catamaran and loaded back onto a bus for the return trip to the minivan. The excursion took 12 hours total and was exhausting. The 2 hours at the island were beautiful but not worth the uncomfortable, miserable conditions your forced to endure to reach it.