Kayak Cueva de Benagil con la primera empresa de excursiones en kayak

We booked onto the 8.30am tour hoping the tour and see would be quieter at this time and to hopefully avoid any parking issues. We travelled from Praia de Odeciexe so was up and out early to travel 1-1.20hr south. The journey was around an hour and there was no trouble parking at this time however it was starting to get busy. The walk from the car park to the meeting point was 2 minutes. The staff were friendly and welcoming. The briefing was comprehensive and humorous with a lighthearted vibe. They provided waterproof pouches for your personal belongings. Then a 2 minute walk to the beach with your paddle to then get allocated a kayak before entering the sea to wait for the others in the group. The sea was quiet and still upon entry but there were already many groups going out, and up until the first cave, Banagil, however soon got busy with boats and the sea more choppy - this wasn't an issue but did require additional control. The guides were great at ensuring the group were accounted for, courteous to other sea users, patient, chatty, knowledgeable. The atmosphere was relaxed and everyone had a great time. Our boys (age 7 and 11 years) really enjoyed being out at sea. The caves and coastline were fab, it was a great little adventure. Thank you.

Allow extra time if you need to park the car. Nice excursion. Plus, you can take a shower, use the restrooms, and there are paid lockers if needed for your belongings. Magnificent caves

Poorly organised handing out of equipment. Little experience between new staff . Eduardo introduced himself as our guide , but as we got in the water , he disappeared, and another Dutch guy took over , then again further into the tour he disappeared and yet another guy took over ! No commentary whatsoever from the ‘guides ‘ . All they are there to do is guide you to the 3 different cave formations and along the coast . They don’t talk about the formations , or add any details at all to the ‘tour’. Just students getting a summer job essentially physically guiding you along the sights . The sights themselves are wonderful Though ! I’m glad I saw the caves and this was a good way to see them . Said it would be two hours . Was 1 hr 40 mins . Defo go early before all the big tour boats arrive . We booked 0900 hrs .

Excellent excursion! Highly recommended, it is very impressive from beginning to end. The guide Alexi was very cool and they also tell you about the different caves you are visiting.

I am providing feedback to formally express my disappointment with the service my family and I received during our scheduled excursion with Secret Adventure. Our group consisted of three adults and three teenagers, and the experience was disorganized, poorly communicated, and handled in a manner that I found both unprofessional and unacceptable. From the outset, the instructions for locating the company were inaccurate. We were told to look for employees wearing identifying shirts on the beach, but no such employees were present. As a result, we walked up and down a hill in 90-plus-degree weather attempting to find the company. When we called for assistance, the response we received was dismissive and suggested that we were at fault, rather than acknowledging that the location was difficult to find and lacked clear signage. The company was located down a path off the main road, with no visible indicator directing customers where to go. Once we arrived, the pre-excursion briefing was extremely brief and insufficient. It lasted only a few minutes and consisted largely of asking who had prior kayaking experience. None of us had meaningful kayaking experience, yet no guidance was provided about how the boats should be assigned, whether a two-person kayak would be more appropriate, or how inexperienced participants should safely navigate the excursion. The excursion description did not state that advanced kayaking skills were required, and had that been made clear, we would have made a different decision. At the beach, the situation became even more chaotic. Little to no instruction or practical recommendation was provided before our group was placed in kayaks. The three teenagers, ages 17, 17, and 13, struggled to navigate their kayak. Rather than offering assistance or working toward a reasonable solution, the tour guide immediately told them to turn around and wait on the beach for the adults. We were in a foreign country and were not comfortable leaving teenagers alone on a crowded beach and out of sight. When we expressed this concern, we were told that the 17-year-olds were not minors and could be left there. That response was dismissive and did not address our legitimate safety concerns, especially regarding the 13-year-old in the group. One of the adults proposed a reasonable solution: allow an adult to join the teenagers’ kayak so that an adult could take responsibility for steering and safety. That request was rejected. We were then told the tour had to move on and that there was no time to make the exchange. Instead of receiving assistance, accommodation, or an alternative arrangement, we were instructed to return to the office and request a refund. At the office, the manager’s conduct was equally concerning. Rather than addressing the lack of instruction and support, he questioned why we thought it was appropriate to place the teenagers in a kayak together and stated that we had requested three-person kayaks. His tone was condescending, dismissive, and unprofessional. When we explained that no guidance had been provided about safer or more appropriate kayak assignments, he offered no solution and no alternative experience. He simply directed us to contact Viator for a refund and stated that he would document the incident when contacted. We later learned that Secret Adventure represented the situation to Viator as though we had voluntarily refused to continue with the excursion. That characterization is inaccurate. We did not refuse to participate without cause; we were placed in an unsafe and poorly managed situation, our concerns were dismissed, and we were told to return to the office and seek a refund. As a result of the company’s misrepresentation, Viator denied our refund request. I am requesting that Secret Adventure correct the record with Viator and support a full refund for this excursion. More importantly, I urge the company to review its customer communication, pre-excursion safety briefing, signage, staff training, and procedures for accommodating inexperienced participants. Customers should not be made to feel blamed, dismissed, or unsafe because a company failed to provide clear instructions and reasonable support. There are many companies that offer similar excursions, and based on this experience, I would not recommend Secret Adventure to anyone who values professionalism, transparency, safety, and respectful customer service. While the boat tour of the caves that we later arranged was exceptional, our experience with Secret Adventure was deeply disappointing and warrants immediate attention.

Done the 430pm with my 11 year old son. It’s hard getting back as the tide was rougher, so your arms get tired. Definitely more fun than being on a boat. It’s a fun experience.

Very cool experience, great way to see the coast line and Benagil cave. Feel like the tour guides could have been more friendly. There are multiple tours going out at once, and tour guides were yelling and rolling their eyes at the groups, just not the most pleasant experience, but what you see is amazing. Highly recommend a kayak over boating.

This was the highlight of our entire visit to Portugal! The guides were friendly and knowledgable, the spots we stopped were breathtakingly beautiful, and the entire experience was so well organized. Even my teenagers had a great time! 10/10 highly recommend.

This is NOT a worthwhile tour company and it is more focused on keeping the funds you pay than providing an enjoyable excursion experience. For us it seemed anything that could go wrong did. Details follow: 1. Difficulty with finding the meeting location - Instructions provided an address and notes indicating to look for workers with the company uniform shirt. There were NO workers with the uniform shirt on the road; when we called we ended up walking past the off road path that lead to the location because another company had their truck parked beside the path and the employee that was standing there to meet customers was wearing a white NON-uniform shirt. Only after asking multiple passing individuals did he identify himself with the tour company and show us where to go. 2. During the brief orientation, we asked who had kayaking experience and no one in our group of six had experience. (Please note - nowhere in the tour description does it indicate that kayaking experience is required). We were given a 10 minute tutorial from an employee whose only recommendation after the tutorial was when selecting how to arrange ourselves in the kayak, to put the strongest individual at the back. So we arranged our group to have the three minor teens with us in one kayak and the parents in another kayak. This proved problematic when the teens were struggling to row the kayak and the leader of the group said because they could not get the hang of kayaking he told them they could not go and had them return to shore. He told the teens that the company would refund their money. 3. When we asked to have patience so we could work with the teens on getting the hang of rowing this was not permitted, we were told the teens could wait on the beach for us. We the parents immediately protested and said we were not leaving our teens (one of whom was 13) on a crowed beached where they knew NO ONE for over an hour by themselves. We were then told "ok - then you can go back and leave the group" He then turned his kayak around and left us alone and went to the other members of the group (mind you our group was a total of 8 people, six of which was our group). 3. When we got back to shore all very upset and disappointed, we tried to talk to the "manager" who insinuated that the issue was our fault for putting the teens in a kayak by themselves. NO ONE gave us any recommendations on how to arrange who went in what kayak, just that the strongest person should be at the back of the kayak which we did. They strongest teen was a 17 year old 5'11" athlete. 4. We were very upset about the experience as this excursion we thought was going to be the highlight of our vacation. The manager was initially NOT willing to refund our payment even though the decision to return to shore was not ours. He finally relented and said that he could not give us a refund because we booked the tour through Viator and that we would have to put the request for the refund through them. He said he would put a note on our profiles indicating that the refund should be approved. 5. As I write the review, the refund has not been received and Viator has not responded to my request. I've only received an acknowledgement that my refund request has been received and to expect a follow-up within 24 hours (that was 5 days ago). We found another boat excursion (with Taruga Benagil Tours) and were able to see the caves. THAT excursion was WONDERFUL. It helpful to offset the bitter experience and horrible treatment from Secret Algarve.

Everything correct, there was quite a bit of wind and in these cases it is advisable to have some experience with kayaking, which is not specified too much. The guide was serious but correct, nothing bad to say.