Do Not EVER EVER book a tour with them no matter how cheap the tour costs
My husband and I were booked on a trip with Luvis Tours and our experience was so horrible that it was one of our worst experiences of our trip in Cabo…
Being first time visitors to Mexico, Cabo…we were awe struck and amazed at the number of activities we could do- fishing/ diving/ snorkeling/ parasailing etc….As we didn’t sign up for any activities prior to coming to Cabo as we wanted the flexibility to plan our activities as we were going to be there for about 2 weeks, we walked around the Marina area on our first day.
We came across a shop front with the sign ‘ Tourist Information’ and decided to check it out- a guy came over to introduce himself and to tell us about the suite of activities he could provide for us…..
As the dive centre that my husband was diving with were fully booked for the Whale Shark Snorkel experience in La Paz, we decided to sign up with the guy ( Fernando and his friend Adrian ( bald guy with a sweet tongue) for this activity.
Thank God we only placed a deposit and didn’t pay in full – but more on that later…At the start, they seemed like pretty nice guys….friendly and very helpful….
When asked, how many people will be on the tour with us, he told us 5-7 people.
However, on Tuesday night, a representative, Lupita from Luvis Tours called me to confirm on the tour the next morning, and that was when she told me that it will be a big group on the Whale Shark snorkel excursion- 39 people to be precise- I was quite taken aback but as we’ve already planned the activity for the day and since we’ve paid the deposit, we decided to go ahead .. ( BAD IDEA>…..)
The next morning, we were transferred to a bus with 40 people ( these 40 people knew each other and were part of a group attending a conference from the United States)- turned out that this trip was mainly for them and we were just additions to this group – probably for the tour company to earn more $$...
The morning started off really badly as Lupita, the tour guide didn’t have any sense of timing or control of this big , rowdy group. We stopped over at a breakfast place that clearly wasn’t equipped to cope with 40 people descending upon it at one go –there was only 1 waitstaff, probably 3-4 kitchen hands ( and none of the waitstaff or people there could speak English), there was also only 1 restroom for the group of 40.
Breakfast took about 2 hours – and we arrived in La Paz at about 11am. ( Considering the fact that we departed at 7.10am) – this was 4 hours too late…
Whale Shark Snorkel Experience was one of the most unsafe and worse water based activity I’ve done with any tour company- ( and note that we’ve been to a few places to snorkel with whalesharks- Philippines/ Maldives etc- and I’ve never encountered such an outfit/ operator that doesn’t care about safety and the guides looked like they were Lupita’s cousins/ Uncles etc)
First off, we were given a 5 minute briefing by some dodgy looking guides outside a public changing room and were quickly ushered to boats that were at the beach….It was a really windy day and I expected the waves to be really huge – the journey to search for the whale sharks was so horrid, we were in a badly maintained boat- that was waterlogged with sand and water and were moving through 5 foot waves…in winds of 25 knots ( I found out abt the wind 2 days later when I booked this same tour with a reputable operator who told us that he postponed/ cancelled the whaleshark snorkel tour on the day we went and even the harbor/ port was closed for small boats)
When some whalesharks were spotted, our guide was saying that guests should enter the water 4 at a time, of which he couldn’t enforce as people got excited the moment they saw the whalesharks- this was when the ‘frenzy’ and free for all happened…
The winds started picking up and people were jumping into the waters ( note that some of them didn’t wear life jackets)- and they were tossed around by the 5 foot waves.
At this point, the guide lost every SINGLE one of his guests and returned to the boat first
( note- I didn’t feel comfortable going into the water with such high waves and strong winds )- My husband was also lost and thank God he managed to make his way onto another boat- and I spotted him from our boat and told the guide.
At this point, I was surprised no one drowned as one of the other guests was struggling in the water as he was repeatedly knocked over by the waves, all the guide did was to throw him a life jacket- thankfully one of his friends, a young better swimmer helped guide him to the boat.
The fact that Lupis/ Luvis Tours can engage such guides/ boat operators and yet still set out for the whale shark snorkel tour on a day where the port was closed to small boats, shows that they do not care about the lives and safety of any of their guests…and the fact that the guide wasn’t physically fit himself to battle with the waves/ wind much less help his paying guests out, says A LOT about this ‘fly by night ‘operation.
Anyway, long story short , the same ‘breakfast’ scenario happened at lunch and we only got to eat lunch at 5pm ….After the whale shark snorkel, we were so tired and no snacks were provided at all….
We got back to our hotel only at 10pm even though the tour was supposed to be 8-10 hours…
All in all , it was one of the worst experiences in our otherwise Cabo trip….and I was glad we were able to repeat this whaleshark tour with a reputable operator, Cabo Trek ..( I will review them in a new posting)….