AMBER COVE-TAINO BAY Super-Buggy-Tour

Very professional. I would recommand

Great guides. Simple directions to the location. Had an amazing time. You do get wet and muddy! Highly recommend a dry bag. 10/10!

Loads of fun. Little beach area was perfect way to rinse off. Great blend of scenery and adventure.

My wife and I had a phenomenal time on this experience, and it was everything that we hoped it would be and then some! Since there were no cruise ships arriving in to Puerto Plata the day of our excursion, it felt like we had our own private experience. Willy was our guide, and he was incredible. It felt like he gave us a VIP experience and made sure that we had a great time. The ATV was very fun to drive, and we got to experience many great scenic sites along the ride. We rode through dirt roads, villages, and by the beach. The puddles and streams were super fun to drive through too, and we got dirty, which helped make the experience. We stopped at the Jungle for souvenirs and a tasting experience. The food and drink that we tried all tasted great, and we walked away with several reasonably priced souvenirs. We had a stop at the beach which gave us the option to get in and clean off some, as well as enjoy some beautiful scenery. Once we got back to the place, they had shower facilities and changing rooms that were excellent for getting cleaned up. There was some slight confusion about our ride back to the city that was included in what we paid for, but Orlando (supervisor) made it right, and he ensured we got back safely. Overall I would give this a 10 out of 10 and highly recommend this for others to do!

We were taken care of at the port , all the explanations were simple and the tour was totally spectacular and incredible! Service on top!

Great time and the workers were safety driven one person wanted to drink alcohol at a restaurant stop and the guide took him no drinking even if he wasn't driving family loved the adventure.

Let me say that if the buggies didn't break down twice, I'd give it a 5. They rescheduled us from 9 to 10:30 2 days prior because we were the only ones on our ship going. I appreciate the communication and was fortunate that I had service in a prior port to see this. Unfortunately, we ended up waiting on some people to show up about 30 minutes late. Also, many of the people from the other ship were told different times to show up like 10 and 10:30 so they waited even longer. After those people showed up, we rode for about 10 minutes slowly through the congested traffic around the port and ended up picking up 4 other people at what seemed to be another gate exit area who seemingly were running behind. Also, there ended up being another couple who apparently ended up ubering to the company site in time to catch up with us. It was about a 30 minute ride in the large open air bus, which they had a hard time getting the music/intercom working in and once while working on it , it came on wide open, blowing our ears out for maybe 30 seconds before they shut it off. I'm not kidding. It was wide open screaming loud, and I like very loud music typically. Once there it seemed unorganized but was mostly slow. They could do a better job of keeping things moving and making the overall experience more enjoyable and also explaining things better or giving better instructions. The seats in some of the buggies look better than others. I was directed to one where the padding was torn up and I passed on it. Well, I probably should have taken it because it turns out our first buggy kept cutting out when going through the mudholes and died in one. As well, the steering had so much play/slop in it (I'm not exaggerating, I've driven sports cars on race tracks) that people with average driving skills probably couldn't have driven it. I wasn't exactly operating it safely. After changing our buggy, the next one had a problem with the throttle sticking wide open at times. Fortunately, I kept my distance after seeing this, figured out how to lift the throttle pedal and also made sure I knew where the kill switch was, almost using it a couple of times. It did make it more adventurous. Sadly, I also noticed where someone who had buggy trouble also, got rotated into the one we first had that was cutting out and quitting and they got trapped in the water when it died. The brakes aren't great in any of them and of course not when wet and muddy but just in general as well. About 4 minutes before the stop at the village (didn't know we were about to stop though), the right front suspension broke, causing the buggy to be almost unturnable. The right front wheel just laid over and it was fortunate that I was in a slow speed turn. I didn't see what had actually happened at first. It finally flopped back up while driving, then in another turn did it again and they came and kicked it back over, then it did it again as I was trying to park at the stop. I told them I had to have another buggy and about the throttle too and they put me in a different one that finally behaved about like you would expect one to. Don't get me wrong. These buggies take a beating, as you will find out if you go, but still. After exiting the offroad portion of the trip, we rode down to a public beach which I would have loved to have spent more than 10 minutes at because it was pretty, not rocky and the entry into the water was as level/steady as you could ever expect. Maybe it was because of the time spent with ours and other buggies breaking down and also getting stuck combined with the lateness of people that I mentioned, but we only had time to try to rinse off the mud in the ocean before driving the buggies back to the starting point about 10 minutes away. This was disappointing. I was unsure before the trip if it consisted of driving on the beach/through the edge of the water but it apparently doesn't, as I can't see how we would have done so at this particular beach. I did learn of fellow travelers whose buggy tour did drive along the beach but I also heard that our tour was the only one allowed in the particular muddy areas that we went to because it was private land. We all had to rinse off more back at the office area just because of getting muddy again from getting back in the buggies. My wife went ahead and threw her clothes away. We knew to wear sacrificial clothes ahead of time. Mine survived and I'm still wearing them but we were both covered head to toe in mud although she managed to get muddier. We talked them down from $45 to 40 on the pictures. They are sent to you via internet a few days later. They took over 100 pictures with about 20 of them being burst shots/near repeats of the prior shot and it had a nice 7 minute video of the trip with music. Because we had bandanas covering our face and goggles and helmets on, the shots just didn't seem to catch who we were and the generally great time we were having. They are worth it though since it's so unique, especially the video part. I can't imagine filming this or taking pictures yourself unless it's with a gopro and then you aren't going to know when the lens gets muddy and you don't want to subject your cellphone to the mud. The driver surely can't video too and it's such a bumpy ride that I don't see how the passenger can film it. Tip-carry a bottle of water and a rag with you to wipe off the lens or muddy waterproof case if you do and certainly to wipe off your goggles. There were times I could barely see how to drive and probably should have pulled them off until the next mudhole in retrospect. Finally, try not to get a buggy with side mirrors. Two of our buggies had them. On one, they just flopped around. You don't need them and the biggest reason not to have them is for the pictures. In a lot of them, the mirror is blocking our face. Read more about - AMBER COVE-TAINO BAY Super Buggy Tour - https://www.viator.com/tours/Dominican-Republic/Puerto-Plata-Super-Buggy-Tour/d32-327203P4?mcid=56757

This was an amazing excursion and we booked privately (here). If you did through the cruise lines it was about 2x what we paid. We all received the same services. The only hiccup is to make sure you know what port you are arriving in and where they begin. There was some confusion but they took care of us and made it all come together. It was a rush and bit of a panic but it was 100% worth the activity. We were sloppy and covered in mud. Every bit what I hoped it would be.

A really fantastic experience driving the ATV buggies! The operators were friendly, organised, and communicated clearly, so everything ran smoothly — including pick-up from the cruise port. The whole trip felt well planned and we were really well looked after. Just be prepared: you will get absolutely soaked in mud, so bring water shoes and wear clothes you don’t mind getting very dirty. We had so much fun!

We left the ship and walked about 15 minutes to the meeting location outside the port area. It was a little disorganized, but they eventually drove us to the dune buggy location which was only about 5 minutes from the cruise ship. When we arrived, we were fitted with a helmet and goggles and given a DR bandana for our face and a waterproof phone case. The people with us had to pay more in cash and didn’t get the bandana, so I recommend going through Travelocity rather than whatever site they went through. That’s when the real fun began! We buckled up and hit the super muddy trails. The dune buggies were easy to drive. We only had about 6 cars in our party which was the perfect size. We were able to speed through the mud puddles. At one point we gave up on the bandana and goggles because they got so dirty we couldn’t see or breathe. If you don’t go super fast, you can avoid a lot of the mud in the face. We went through some little DR villages and stopped at a spot where they did a major sales pitch on the local chocolate…which is fantastic!. We bought a couple bags of chocolate and some cocoa cream, but I definitely suggest bartering because they really mark it up…I got $45 worth of stuff for $26 because that’s all the US money I brought. We finished the ride off with a dip in the warm ocean waters of a nice beach before heading back to the dune buggy lot. You are able to wash off and change there if you don’t want to go back wet and dirty. We recorded our trip on our phone but if you want to buy their video and pictures, it seems like a pretty good deal for $45. You will have a blast if you take this excursion and be back at the ship in plenty of time to eat lunch, clean up and return to the port for a little shopping!