Awesome Excursion, But Read This First!
Alina_N, May 2022
Discovery Package: Snorkeling Cruise and Dune buggy Adventure At Punta Cana
If you’re not a strong swimmer, they won’t really let you participate in a lot of activities (even with a life jacket).
My husband and I booked the Discovery Package (all day excursion). Here’s my honest breakdown of everything.
The communication with the company Tour Package Punta Cana was not good at all. I had been trying to get in touch with them days before my excursion to confirm a pickup time and location with no response. I was told I would receive an email with my pickup time and location. For context, I was staying at the Majestic Mirage resort. I never received this email. Finally after contacting Viator and letting them know, the tour operator messaged me with the pickup time and details (which I’m guessing they only did because Viator contacted them). They did this at 8:00pm the night before our excursion. The pickup time was listed at 7:40am outside of our main resort gate (not the lobby). My husband and I waited for an hour. No one came and picked us up, no one contacted us, and no one would respond to us. The vehicle listed for pickup said “truck or bus with Rex buggy” but didn’t have a picture of what it looked like or color (later, we found out it is a large yellow, open safari bus with a T-Rex logo and “Rex Buggy” written on it). Our hotel butler had to contact them several times to get a hold of them. Finally, when he did get in touch with the company, the tour operator told our butler he didn’t have our reservation and it must have been a mix up. Despite us having paid and confirmed tickets with a pickup email and instructions. So they sent a taxi to pick us up because their bus had already come and didn’t get us. The taxi experience was so unpleasant. First of all, we didn’t know if the taxi was legitimately sent from the company or not. The taxi driver didn’t know who sent him or where he was going. We had an uneasy feeling the entire time and didn’t feel safe at all. He did end up taking us to the right place, but it was a terrible experience getting there. Once we got to the excursion though, it was great!
Part 1 included dune buggy/ATVS through Dominican farmland, coffee & chocolate tasting, natural cenote and cave, and trip to Macao Beach. I believe we started at 8:30am and ended at 12:30pm. Our tour guide Charlie was FANTASTIC! He was hilarious, informative, and engaging. He made the experience even better! The dune buggies were super fun! You will get really muddy so make sure to wear clothes you don’t care about. Also wear a bathing suit or swimming trunks. Just a note, no training was given on how to drive the dune buggy or ATV. My husband had to ask one of the staff members for a tutorial. It was pretty straightforward, but keep that in mind if you’ve never driven either before. The coffee and chocolate tasting was delicious! There are a lot of vendors trying to sell you things, so just be firm if you are not interested. The natural cenote was so beautiful and cool. It’s a natural pool of water inside a cave. It’s turquoise blue and so pretty! However, it was 20 feet deep and the company does not provide life jackets. There are life jackets for rent outside of the cave. Even with a life jacket though, the company strongly recommended not to get in unless you are a good swimmer. I am not, so I didn’t get in but my husband did. Everyone has to dive in! After that, there was an opportunity for people to check out the local shops. They had hilarious names like “Dominican Walmart”, “Dominican Macy’s”, and “Dominican Target”. Then we continued our dune buggy ride to Macao Beach. Unlike the picture it shows here, you don’t actually ride your buggie or ATV on the beach. You park offsite and walk. Macao Beach was probably my favorite part. It was STUNNINGLY beautiful. It looked like a desktop screensaver beach. There was a mountainside and beach merging together with crystal clear blue waters. There was no seaweed and it was not populated at all. There were very few vendors selling anything. Actually, this was the beach no one bothered us at all. My only gripe was that I wish we got to stay at beach longer. Then we got back on our dune buggies to ride back to the tour site. For the all day package, after Part 1 of the excursion, the tour company would take you back to the hotel for a break.
This time the bus did take us back to the hotel, but we barely had an hour break. We asked the driver to confirm our pickup time and pickup location and explained what happened in the morning. Luckily he was able to confirm it with us. He also told us what the vehicle would look like that was picking us up. The break was more like 45 minutes. We barely got time to change and shower. The break should have been a little longer in my opinion. They did pick us up at 2pm as they noted and picked a few others up from different resorts.
For Part 2, they took us to a marina for the cruise. The marina itself was not very pretty to look at. The beach had tons of dried seaweed and brown sand. There was litter and the water looked kind of murky by the shore. Once we got on the catamaran though, the water got beautiful. Our tour guide Michael was awesome too! He was so fun and was really focused on keeping everyone safe. Our first stop was snorkeling. They took us out further into the sea and said only those who are strong swimmers could snorkel. It was 20 feet deep. Even with a life jacket, they said the current was too strong if you were not a strong swimmer. I was a little bummed because I was assuming we would snorkel in shallow waters. It was never listed in the details. My husband got to do the snorkeling and said it was amazing. He saw tons of colorful species of fish and a ray! After snorkeling, they commenced the open bar with 3 options: rum & coke, rum & punch, and a mojito. The drinks were great and unlimited! For food, they had a fruit tray and chips and salsa. This wasn’t the best, but at least they had some food since we weren’t able to eat lunch during our short break. The dolphin viewing was anticlimactic. We saw the head of a dolphin but that was it. There was an enclosed area for dolphins, which was kind of interesting, but the dolphin watching was an afterthought for the tour. We danced a lot on the boat and had a good time. It’s a party vibe, so if you’re looking for a natural ocean exploration, this isn’t the right excursion. The tour guide and staff showed us a dance. We got to the natural pool and that was really fun! It was shallow so I was able to get in. There were a lot of other boats and people though. It was near a remote island but we weren’t allowed to actually go onto the island, we had to stay in the water. Despite being completely in the water, that didn’t keep the vendors away. There were vendors selling things in the water (including pictures with a live monkey and parrot - YES in the water lol). We spent about an hour in the natural pool and then got back onto the boat to head back to the marina. I believe we got done around 6pm. The company took us back to our hotels by 6:30pm.
Here are my main points:
- Communication is terrible. Continuously contact the company at all numbers provided on WhatsApp and directly through Viator. Do this well before your trip and do not wait for the day before to confirm. If you cannot get a hold of them, have someone at your resort or hotel contact the company too. Their name isn’t listed anywhere, but they are “Tour Package Punta Cana.”
- It is key that they pick you up in their vehicle. The taxi experience was awful.
- There are an immense amount of vendors throughout the entire excursion. Our tour guides were honest about this and said to let us know if anyone was bothering us too much. Just say “no” really firmly if you don’t want to buy anything. With this in mind, nothing is free in Punta Cana.
- There are photographers taking pictures throughout the entire excursion. You can purchase these pictures after Part 1 and Part 2. We decided not to get the ATV pictures but got the cruise ones. If you are not interested, just be firm with the photographer as well or else they’ll keep taking pictures.
- Bring cash to tip your tour guides and drivers! They were all excellent.
- Wear clothes you don’t care about because you will get muddy.
- Get a waterproof phone bag case to take your phone into the water or through the mud.
- Be very fast during your one hour break. Go back to your room and change then come back. They’ll arrive there before or by your pickup time.
- If you’re not a strong swimmer, they won’t really let you participate in a lot of activities (even with a life jacket).
- The cruise portion of the package is a party vibe, not ocean exploration focused. We enjoyed it, but we know that’s not for everyone.
Would I go back? Now that I know how they work, yes. There could have been more details about each activity and the limitations for each of them. The logistics were not the best. However the excursion itself was awesome and I’m glad we did it!
EN
