Avontuur van een hele dag Isla Barú + mangroven + snorkel + bioluminescent plankton

Everything worked out very well. The guides were very friendly. The beach where you spend the day is very crowded and a bit stressful.

Totally recommended; the guides, the beach, the service at Mambo Club, and the grand finale with the boat trip to see bioluminescent plankton. Likewise, the agency's treatment, resolving questions via WhatsApp on the fly, gives confidence; everything together makes this excursion an unforgettable experience.

It was canceled because we couldn't enter Barú Island due to a blockade, and they offered us the Marine Beach Club as compensation, supposedly premium but... dirty beach, water full of plastic, not clear at all, pool full of bugs and sand... a total disaster. The price paid for the excursion to Barú and its activities, versus this 1-day beach experience, there is no comparison. A scam. I do not recommend it, and I am not giving any stars here or on Google. Terrible and a scam.

Fun day. A lot of down time (which we loved). Were transferred to different operators during the day, but were well taken care of. Not a lot of English. Simple ham sandwich before bioluminescence experience; when we said we were vegetarians, we got two slices of bread (only). All of the guides were kid and helpful. Overall, an outstanding experience.

Very disorganized. 1- We hired the bus service; they told us they would pick us up between 8:00 and 8:30 at the hotel, but at 8:15 they informed us that the bus trip was canceled due to protests on the road and that we would go by sea, but we had to pay an extra 80,000 COP plus the access to the dock plus the transportation to the dock (they later offered to reimburse us for the Uber, but it was actually insignificant). Later, the girl who gave us instructions via WhatsApp told us that the change was actually because very few people booked the tour, so it was not feasible. Therefore, they made us pay extra for something that is entirely their responsibility. They did not provide any sensible response. In the end, we paid because we did not want to have problems. They offered to reschedule, but when one travels for only a few days, they generally have everything organized; it would disrupt everything else we wanted to do if we changed the day. That is why we reserved well in advance. 2- They changed guides all the time; the one who took us to Barú left us with the snorkeling activity people and left (we did not see him again). Then they moved us from one spot on the beach to another location to do the plankton activity (we did not see the previous ones again) and we returned with them to Cartagena. 3- The return to Cartagena was a disaster. From the place in charge of the snorkeling activity, we had to carry all our things on the boat (we were carrying a large backpack because we were out all day and wanted to change clothes on the way back), we jumped into the water and then returned all wet. Upon arriving back at the beach, they made us get off the boat and walk to the beach exit and immediately get on a bus that took us closer to the hotels (those in the center were left at the clock tower and had to walk back all wet, in swimsuits, to their hotel). They didn't even give us 5 minutes to put on clothes or go to the bathroom. All of this at night. 4- The tour included photos taken during the snorkeling and mangrove activity, and they were going to send them to us via WhatsApp. More than a week later, I am still waiting for the photos; the person from the tour is not responding to my messages. Clearly, I would not hire any tour with this agency again. It was a huge mess.

From start to finish this was a disaster. Get a message from the tour "meet us here at this time" with a whatsapp number. I go there at that time, message the number that I'm here. Signed up for an English tour, but aside from the first shpiel on the bus, no one actually ran any of the tours in English. No bother, I am like a B1, so I could manage in Spanish. First location was a restaurant at the beach, where they blasted music crazy loud (seemed like the guides whole job was to get us on the bus there and then hang out). Then went to the mangroves (reminder all is in Spanish though I signed up for English) which consisted of, quite literally, going about 10 meters into the groves, seeing the raccoons, then backing out of the groves. All of 15 minutes. Then "snorkeling" but...without snorkels. This was just something where they took us into medium deep water and gave us goggles. They did not have enough goggles for everyone so we had to take turns. 40 minutes (but that was mainly so everyone could get a chance, so I'd say 15/20 minutes of "snorkeling"). At this point we got back to the restaurant, waited for 3-4 hours for the plankton thing. I should have just gone home, but sunk cost fallacy kept me in. The guides left, and no one had bothered to tell the rest of us who to talk to, where to go, or anything. Eventually was herded by the restaurant staff (not the tour guides) to where the plankton boat would launch. Plankton thing was beyond a disappointment. I don't know why but they gave us all a struggle sandwich (bologna on white bread, literally that's all) as a"treat?". Plankton, very cool. I didn't care to have photos taken (extra 30mil cop) so I went with the "no photo-group". We stayed in the plankton area for ~15 minutes then went back. As we headed back we saw the "photo-group" and they were taking their time (presumably so everyone could get their photos taken, so why we were rushed back to the bus is beyond me). Ended up waiting on the bus for ~30 minutes until we'd all boarded. Finally, we're heading back and as a coup-de-grace, the tire on the bus explodes 45 minutes away from Cartagena. This wasn't a random puncture, but the entire tire exploded (I'm going to go out on a limb and say this was the first maintenance they did on that bus). I asked the guide what the plan was, but he spoke way too fast for me to understand. I asked him to speak slower, he asks what language I would prefer and I said English. The guide sighs, doesn't speak English (so literally why ask?). Eventually I get that they called for another bus that was 30 minutes away. 30 minutes later we're herded onto another bus and finally make our way back. Just a complete, unmitigated, disaster from start to finish.

Poorly organized. The English guide was not terribly fluent. The place is overcrowded and filled with people constantly selling stuff.

Mike amazing guide and all the staff on the lookout. Thank you.

Satisfied with what you delivered, you lived up to our expectations.

They didn't take me to a quiet beach and the snorkeling is just the picture no 3 glasses for 25 people you couldn't swim or see fish. Also then we were changed places on the beach and could not get into the sea because it was full of stones and regular food almost gave me a damaged fish but the administrator noticed and changed it generally very regular