Too much transportation, not enough communication, little time to relax and enjoy - My friends and I were traveling for a 40th birthday party and booked this excursion to visit Saona Island while we were staying in Santo Domingo to get some beach time. Unfortunately, this experience was more exhausting than fun/relaxing. Overall, the thing that made this excursion a 1 star was the amount of transportation and disorganization. The overall experience ended up being from 6 am - after 10:30 pm when we were told it would be from 7 am to 7 pm. We had to leave our hotel at 5:45 am to arrive at a pick up spot by 6:10 am only to not get on the bus (which we had to walk to from the pick up location) until closer to 7 am (which was the original pick up time provided though we were asked to arrive an entire hour earlier only the day before via Whatsapp). After a 2.5+ hr bus ride we had to walk to a dock where we took a smaller boat to the catamaran. This took multiple trips and shuttle boats given the boat held a ton of people. The catamaran took us to a shallow pool which was fun. We eventually boarded the catamaran after about 30-45 mins and drove another 45 mins to Saona Island. We had to get back on smaller shuttle boats to get from the catamaran to the island. We didn't eat lunch until after 1 pm. After some time at the island it was back to the small boats to the catamaran. This catamaran was different than the one we took to get to the island which we found a bit odd. Then the direct and long ride to the dock (everyone was tired but the staff did try to entertain us even though we did not want to be entertained). Small boats again from catamaran to the dock. There was an issue that took over 1 hour for a small boat to take the people from our catamaran to the dock. That was miserable. We then walked back to the bus, and THEN 2.5 hr bus ride back to the pick up spot, walk to the original square meet up spot to find an Uber. Phew, this last part isn't technically the excursion's fault but because we got dropped off 3.5 hrs later than we were told, the square was at peak time and it took us another 1 hr or so to secure an Uber back to the hotel. We ended up missing a dinner reservation and having to order room service on our last night all together because the excursion ran so late. The cons: - WAY too much transport time if you're coming from Santo Domingo. Total time of the excursion was 16.5 HOURS! - Lack of transparency to the itinerary - had we known we'd be gone from 6 am - 10:30 pm we may have just done something closer to the hotel. - Limited drinks selection (only cheaper rum and mixers or beer along with non-alch) - Saona Island beach has a sand bar which is nice but the sand in the water wasn't smooth so I'd bring water shoes. Lots of stepping on rocks and various algae, etc. which made the experience less enjoyable. - No secondary meal/snack or stop on the way home when people ate only at 1 pm at the island but didn't get dropped until after 10:30 pm. The pros: - Food served at Saona Island was plentiful and delicious - Stop off at shallow pool is super fun (this with food + drinks could have been the entire excursion for us!) - Photographers take awesome photos (HOWEVER, if you want them after you have to pay for them, though, and our guy lost a sale trying to sell no less than 5 pictures for $50 when we tried to buy 3 for $10 per image) Unfortunately, my group of 7 who attended this excursion do not recommend this tour.