I booked this tour with high expectations, but it turned out to be a disaster. Despite confirming that the transport would pick us up at our hotel, the driver was sent to a main gate 20 minutes away. I repeatedly asked for the driver’s details to tell the reception, so they could let him pass the gate, but the representative failed to provide them. To make matters worse, when they finally arranged an Uber, it was sent to the wrong hotel. This lack of organization and communication completely ruined our day. The provider showed no responsibility and left us stranded. I highly recommend avoiding this tour at all costs!

A trip to Saona island is a great experience. It is a beautiful location. That being said, I do not recommend this tour operator. Yes they were nice..... but I will definitely not recommend this for my clients as a travel agent. Thank goodness I am well traveled and go with the flow. We were picked up just outside the gates of our hotel, which is odd, so at 7:15 we met Pedro our driver. We then went to another hotel to pick up other guests, and the shuttle bus became packed, waiting for one lady to get water. We then went to a gift shop for some of the people to pay with cash. Everyone had to get off the bus, go through the tiny shop, and then get back on the bus. Then a different driver got on our bus and took a lady to a location about halfway to where we were supposed to board a catamaran. The lady was obviously hitching a ride, which is ok, but just not super professional. We actually packed probably 40 people onto a larger speed boat instead of catamaran. But this was after we stood on the side of the road just waiting with no explanation or direction for at least another half an hour. From the time we were picked up until we boarded the boat is was over 3 hours. The staff were nice, but just not what I expected nor do I recommend. We went to the ocean pool area where starfish used to be, but there weren't any there anymore. We had rum and coke while the head staff lady swam in the ocean enjoying herself. We then boarded the boat again after half an hour or so there and went to Saona island. We had food and drinks on the island. Again rum and coke, and I asked for ice and was told there wasn't any. Even asked in Spanish.... hielo por favor. Another guest later directed me to ice. On the island I did buy a necklace and got half a massage. It was $50, and she did my shoulders and back, and one leg..... one leg. Then she tried to upsell me while on the table. Again not what I had experienced the last time I was on Saona island. The photographers did take a lot of time taking our pictures. They were nice, but original price was $270 for them, which I was able to negotiate a lower price. Overall, I will not be recommending this to my clients. On the way back, again not a catamaran, which I did

Beautiful trip. Tour guide Victor & crew were on time and very organized and puntual. I highly recommend this tour! Familia Victor all day!!

The country and falls were beautiful. Our lunch afterwards was really nice. For future patrons, it was a bit challenging to figure out how to properly tip. Each one of our party of five, had an assigned guide. We had no way of knowing that beforehand. When I was trying to get direction on how we should tip, no clear or consistent response was to be had, and the guides were telling my son that $50-60 per guide was the norm. That would have been in excess of $300 in tips alone. We ended up giving half that, as it was all the money we had brought with us Other than that, the excursion was great

One of the most relaxing and fun water day. I enjoyed it. We spotted 2 time, had a chance to get off the boat and turn up. Switched over to a speed boat which was fun as well

Papa George was amazing. Funny, interacted with everyone and was very knowledgeable about the whales. He spoke Spanish, English, Italian, French and German. The only issue we had was the amount of boats on the water and every single one followed the whales and didn’t cut their engines to avoid propeller strikes. As wonderful as it was to see them, it was less wonderful to watch them being chased each time they surfaced. The island was great, lunch was nice. The vendors were unrelenting which made it hard to want to walk through the area.

Worst excursion experience ever. 30 minutes late to pick us up in the morning and then they dropped us off at a gas station to wait for another van to pick us up with my 2 children. Then we get in the next van and we were told we couldn't sit in 4 seats because we had 2 kids we had to sit in 3 seats, so for a 2 hrs drive my 7 year old had to sit on our laps or floor with not enough seat belts. The entire trip was clearly a ploy to give their friends and family as vendors money. We stopped at a store along the way for no reason when we were already late for our 9am boat (according to what I booked). When I contact the tour operator on what's whatsapp, he made it seem like this was all normal and I was in the wrong. We finally made it to our destination at almost 11am. We were supposed to be picked up at 7am. The whale watching was good that's about all I can say but that was a fraction of the trip. I booked a half day (4-6 hr) whale watching tour with round trip transportation and lunch that is what it said on listing. When we were done with whales we stopped at an island where they tried to sell us drinks, photos with animals and we had to walk through a market. No lunch though when we asked when lunch would be they said at the next stop which confused us because we thought we would be going home after the island? We took another boat ride to a port, took a long open air bus ride where I asked the tour guide about us booking a half day excursion and he said no you can't go home the tour wasn't over. When we reached our next stop at a ranch, it was legitimately someone's house where they made rice, beans chicken etc and that was our lunch. I started speaking to multiple people and they had booked only whale watching too, children, elderly people all dressed for whale watching boat tour, just wait next were forced to ride horribly mistreated horses up and down a mountain, my children have never ridden a horse and it was very steep terrain. Then we get to the end of the trail where we had to hike down a mountain in flip flops and crocs and bathing suits (again we only booked whale watching). We reached a waterfall which was pretty but had very slippery sharp rocks under the water and muddy rocks around the water as well, one of us slipped and hit our knee and it bled and swelled. We were not wearning footwear for hiking or goin in the water. We then had to hike back up the mountain wet with slippery sandals, and it's a very steep climb, an older couple with a cane had to take numerous breaks, my mom would never have been able to partake in this never ending ridiculous excursion, and it would have been nice if we got only what we booked and not forced to partake in activities to get their friends extra tips. I called the operator again and he didn't speak much English and said this is a full day tour there's nothing they can do, its not a private tour its shared, like they could make us do whatever because it was a shared tour?! Our guide said complain to the tour company it's not his problem. We had to tip the very nice horse people (they did good but we weren't prepared for this activity) and then didn't have enough for the boat people. This entire excursion was a joke, multiple people were bamboozled into a tour 3 times as long and had to do activities they didn't sign up for. We didn't get home until 8:30pm! We had a dinner reservation we missed and we had started waiting for this tour at 7am! I am surprised more people didn't get hurt, as no one seemed to be prepare for a hike. My children ate only bread from 7am to 8:30pm because we didn't get a choice in lunch. We were all exhausted and sore and were basically held hostage doing an excursion we never wanted. DON'T BOOK THIS TOUR OR USE THIS TOUR COMPANY THEY ARE CROOKS AND PUT US IN DANGER MULTIPLE TIMES!!!

This our review for we experienced on a private excursion. Keep in mind I can normally put up with some disappointments but what happened yesterday was terrible and if you are like me you come to the page to gain information on what companies to use etc. We used Shilling Tours and they had great reviews We went on a 6 in one excursion yesterday for 7 people and it was not anything like what we were told. And all of us were extremely disappointed We had Roberto as our interpreter and photographer and he was AMAZING however everything else was a huge disappointment I was told it would be a big boat with adequate facilities, with an open bar all day, and snacks What we got was a small very crappy boat with no bathroom no where to lay out and relax. The boat was terribly rough. Several of our group has had surgeries and the roughness of the boat hurt them horribly. I finally talked to Roberto and he asked the driver to slow down. The pictures on their website are very misleading. I emailed back and forth multiple times and asked tons of questions so it’s not like I didn’t make sure we were getting what I asked for. Basically I was lied to. We only 1 bottle of water per person and no snacks and no open bar! What makes them think 1 bottle of water will be enough to make it 8 hours???? We had to buy our own water after that. The only other drink options was beer or coke. To make it worse I got a phone call the day before and was told there would be rum too. No snacks and no open bar at all. We had to buy rum drinks on Sonoa island. We were told there would be a lobster lunch and got chicken and fish. If we wanted lobster we had to pay $$ Other than the beautiful seas and seeing some of the coolest beaches the trip was very disappointing.

The experience on the Catalina Excursion in the Dominican was absolutely awful. We have done many excursions in so many other countries but this was by far the worst experience ever. We started the day at 7:30 from the hotel going to a meeting point where we were transferred twice in different vehicles. When we got to the boat same experience we were all loaded on one boat of about 30 but they decided we needed to cram more people on another boat so was removed off of that one to the other that already had at least 30 on it. We finally left 3 hours later on the boat packed like sardines. Get to the snorkeling spot and was told we only have 30 minutes now to snorkel because of all the delay so by the time all 60 people unloaded to snorkel and I was ready to get in they told everyone to get out of the water heading to the island. Upon arriving out a ways from the island we anchored where they had to send 3 different boats out to get all the people off the boat which again packed like sardines and took for ever to finally get on the island. We had 2 hrs 30 min to spend on the island where the bar was setup like what you would consider in the states like a kids lemonade stand. The alcoholic drinks were for the most part premade. Also the cups given for water or awful sangria was in small Dixie cups! They did have two bottles of alcohol and the beer did not show up until 1 hour after being on the island. The sand was extremely hot and the ocean was so full of large rocks that you couldn’t get out farther than knee deep water which we didn’t experience either at our resort in Punta Cana. There was no alcohol on the boat at all to or from the island. The restrooms on the boat had no way to flush so they were pretty bad by the time we reached the island. All we wanted was a fun filled day of snorkeling and beach time but quite honestly the time for the trip could not come fast enough as we were so upset and disappointed to spend the money on a very miserable excursion. Waste of money and to be quite honest feel like we should be refunded our money. I am certainly not the guy that is looking for anything free in life but this was ridiculous.

The pros of this tour was we did get to see whales. However this tour was incredibly chaotic from the very poor communication of finding the bus picking us up from the hotel to getting to the drop off location where no one knew what was going on. The weather was HORRIBLE (while I get they cannot control that they did said they would cancel/reschedule if it was) everyone was throwing up on board, not only were the waves flooding the boat it was pouring rain too making it hard to see the whales. The boat was also way overcrowded. Trying to figure out which island people are going to and where we were going for lunch was a disaster. It was also hours longer than what we expected. Another review posted on here sounded just like the same experience we had. As much as we loved seeing the whales I would have rather stayed at the resort and went else where to see whales.

More than what was expected. Most amazing 360 degrees view of the sea and the mountains. Our guide Alex, is very professional ar what he does. Excellent no rush tour, tasteful lunch, and provides tip on souvenier shopping. I recommed this trip for away from the beach, cities tour, and if possible, get Alex as your tour guide, there will be no regrets.

The guide didn’t show up. We waited for the whole hour nobody picked me and my family. We tried to contact the phone that was provided nobody picked up the phone. We tried to text nobody reply. We tried to communicate from TripAdvisor nobody answered.

I am an honest person, so I am going to tell you the truth; the good, the bad and the ugly. My husband booked this snorkeling excursion for for a fun getaway from the hotel through Trip Advisor. It was midway through our vacation and we were looking forward to it. The good.... the crew was friendly, hardworking and polite. The captain had driven boats for 27 years, so we felt safe on the large boat under his guidance. Once we arrived at the beach for lunch, the water was very pretty. The bad.... When snorkeling, they make you wear a life jacket the entire time. This has never been our experience on any excursion, anywhere. While I appreciate safety, maybe they should base it on swimming ability. (and yes, the water was calm) The belt of the life jacket was cutting into my neck the entire time to the point that it hindered my breathing through the snorkel (and we had brought our own good snorkels and masks) My husband was so frustrated, he just went back to the boat, and most others quit snorkeling and just sat on the life jacket. Maybe instead of just sitting in the boat, the staff could have been active watching the snorkelers to make sure they were okay, and not on their phones, or asleep; then the participants would not have to wear life jackets. When snorkeling, you have to stay within 10-12 feet of the boat the entire time. They do not want you anywhere else. If there are fish there, that is great; if not, too bad. We looked at the same 10 black fish the entire 45 minutes in the water. While we were snorkeling, the other half of the boat went scuba diving. Part beginners, part advanced. The advanced group did not see 1 single fish. The beginners were with us. Pretty boring experience. The ugly....After snorkeling, we headed to the island for lunch. The snorkeling group would eat, while the diving group went on a second dive. Meaning we would be there an awfully long time. To get to the island, the large boat stops, and puts the passengers in a small boat to shuttle in. They combined us with another large boat. This put 28 people in a small pontoon boat to get to the shore. I cannot tell you how many times we almost tipped over. No life jackets required for that part. Even though we were moving toward shallower water, this was not safe. Once on shore, of course other people were already there. There were plenty of lounge chairs, but only shade enough for about 5. Lunch was served buffet style. We started eating. A nice family from Germany that spoke English sat down across from us. As we chatted, the lady pulled a live white maggot out of her spaghetti and put it on the table. I almost lost it. My husband and I promptly quit eating; although we did not have the spaghetti. We had to wait another 2 hours after that for the scuba group to get back and for them to eat before we could leave the island. We were shuttled back out, and given rum drinks on the boat back to the dock before going to the hotel. Ruined trip....My husband got sick that night. I became ill the next day. The rest of our trip was ruined. All remaining 4 days. We could not eat; could hardly even drink water. I lost 7 pounds between Thursday and Sunday morning, and I am not a big person at all. We arrived home Saturday night and were at Rapid Med Sunday getting bloodwork tested and IV fluids. Our first solid meal was Thursday (a week from the Thursday I got sick) We are still waiting on tests to see if we have a parasite. Although we did not see anything in our food, clearly it may have been maggot eggs, or poor handling of the food that made us sick. We always go on excursions, and have been to at least 20 different countries plus the Caribbean the past 25 years in row, and this has never happened to us. Do not book this excursion and ruin your vacation! Not only will you regret it during your trip, but when you get home as well. And there is the honest review.

It’s was an amazing experience, he was nice, friendly… took us to experience the country side and meal. Took us to best party plugs , restaurants and affordable shop locations

The beach was awesome and the ride back was one big party. The crew was amazing. Made new friends from all parts of the globe. Highly recommend for good food good vibes and great fun.