Los Haitises National Park en Cayo Levantado Island Dagtrip vanuit Samana

My 10 yo son and I did the Whale Samana with Cayo Levantado day trip on March 3. We were very happy to find this service because we were picked up from our hotel in Macao Beach and transported 2 hours to the ferry at Sabana de la Mar to get over to Samana Bay. Benjamin met us at the ferry, paid for our marine sanctuary passes and got us on the short boat ride over to meet our vessel for the whale watch (reviewed separately). Upon our return from that 3-hour trip, Benjamin met us on the island of Cayo Levantado where a buffet lunch was set up for our group of 9 and a kiosk served us drinks. We had some time to explore the beach and take a dip before the ferry picked us up to return to our shuttle back to our hotel. We were out for over 10 hours and everything ran on time and smoothly. My one regret is that I did not bring more small bills for tipping since there were so many people involved with making the day a success.

We had arrived at Las Terrenas the night before. We had the private tour booked for the Los Haitises Park. Benjamin Franklin picked us up at our Las Terrenas hotel at 8am sharp the next day. Benjamin is a friendly, very informative and great guide! The boat trip across Semana bay is spectacular. The caves are very well worth it. Because we were on the private tour, instead of Levantado Island, we went to the Eco Lodge. It's a bit of a walk, but it was a wonderful surprise. Lunch was great! The trip back was bit rough, but that was fine. Before booking, I had a lot of questions, and Terry was great in email. I would advise taking the private tour. It was great being on our own in the many caves with Benjamin there to inform us and answer questions, and keep us moving along. All in all, Tour Semana with Terry was a great and very professional and friendly experience. Highly recommended!!

an unparalleled experience with truly incredible landscapes AN UNPARALLELED ADVENTURE LOADED WITH UNIQUE LANDSCAPES

We took 2 tours through this company. The first one was the Cultural Tour from Samana. It was supposed to be a shared tour but no one else had signed up for it (June is off season there). Most tour companies would have cancelled but not Terry. We ended up with a private tour with an amazing guide, Elijah. Elijah was friendly, helpful and knowledgeable having grown up there in Samana. The beach we went to for lunch was gorgeous and the lunch was delicious. I do recommend taking hand sanitizer as there was no running water to wash your hands with. It was amazing seeing the Samana cultural. We also took the Los Haitises and Cayo Levantado tour. It was a shared tour so we were people who were not with Tours with Terry. That said, we were well taken care of. Picked up at our resort and delivered to the Samana Bay. The tour guide was great and made sure we all heard about the caves in the language we needed. He spoke at least 3 languages. Lunch on Cayo Levantado was delicious and the island is beautiful. If I could do it again though, I think I would do the private tour and spend more time in the National Park. If we ever get back to Samana, I would book all of my tours through this company. Thank you Terry for not cancelling our tour and for an amazing time in Samana, an absolutely beautiful spot in the world.

We went on this excursion me and the wife . They pick you up at around 8:00-8:15 am from the resort and then you drive to Samana bay,you hop on a catamaran and sail to los haitises And of course they have rum on the boat so once at los haitises they explain about the islands and the different types of birds habitats stuff like that. After that they bring into a cave and show ancient writings on the cave walls! Very interesting. After the visit to los haitises you go to Cayo Levantado for a buffet lunch and afterwards you have free time at the public beach for a few hours. We found the beach to be dirty and the sun loungers in poor shape. All in all it was still ok aside from the beach area!

Tours with Terry is awesome! He is very organised and has the best help!! It was great to see all the caves.

A place that everyone should know!! It looks like a paradise!! Very excited to have the opportunity to appreciate this beauty of nature!! Recommendadisiiimo!!

Went for the tour. The first part when we saw the mangrove and cave was really nice and interesting. However, we were told that Cayo levantado which was part of our afternoon tour was a great place to snorkel and that we would be treated to a nice Dominican buffet......not only did neither happen, the beach was dirty, toilets not functioning properly, everything including chairs on the dirty beach had extra prices. Then it was almost impossible to avoid aggressive vendors. For the price we paid, I expected more, the worst experience I’ve had south so far.

I feel a little bad leaving this review because we did have a great time but wish i would have read one like it before booking with this company so that's why i am leaving it. First off the tour drivers & tour guides were great along with the destinations, the issue was with the design of the tour. We were picked up at our resort by Tours with Terry then dropped off at the Samana dock, driver pointed to a man on the dock & said "wait with him, he take you". We had no idea the driver we just got to know was leaving us. We waited for an hour & half for more people to arrive. It seems like several different groups dropped off at the dock to join us getting on the boat. Several different tour group companies became one at that point but without individual guides, we all spoke different languages so it was hard to communicate. The boat ride was fine, they gave life jackets but did not instruct us to wear them. The tour was given in 3 different languages which i would avoid on future tours, it was too confusing & the guide did not narrate all spots in all languages so we feel we missed quite a lot of information. The national park was awesome but again not much of a guide or information on what things were or history. We were not offered flashlights in the caves, it was dark, slippery & hard to see the petroglyphs without light. They had some lights but not enough for all. We went through the islands & bird sanctuary so quick it was hard to even see the birds! We did not drive the boat through the opening of a cave like it says in the description but did explore 2 caves by foot. As for Cayo Laventado, i liked it. It is kind of a tourist trap but if you know that going in you can avoid the traps and still enjoy it. There was only one spot in the middle where people were haggling you to buy their stuff. I bought a nice shell without regret & went on with my day. The lunch there was just ok, the beach was amazing! I read many reviews on snorkeling on the island, most said it was not good but i found very different & glad i did not listen to the reviews. I found a huge starfish, trumpet fish & cool non-stinging jellyfish! It did not disappoint. One thing i did not like was the guide trying to upsell us better meals ad drinks before we arrived to the island, he said he needed to know ahead of time so they could prepare for us but really they were just trying to make more money off the tour guest, i saw that you could order the same food or drinks on your own once you arrived and it was $2 cheaper per drink and $5 cheaper for the food, i didnt think that was fair or a good way to run a tour. When we got off the boat at the dock at the end of the day our Tours with Terry driver was no where to be found & the boat driver said he didnt know what to tell us and to wait, thankfully he did show up to pick us up after about 10mins but it was very alarming not having your driver there when ready to leave & no way to call. I feel this tour would be better if you were with the same company from start to finish and not tried to get sold on extras you could simply purchase yourself if desired.

We booked the Tour '9 Los Haitises "with Terry" and arrived at the agreed meeting point in Santa Barbara de Samana. The background to our booking was the consistently good reviews of the organization "Tour Samana With Terry", which is why we relied on spending the day with this provider. However, this was not the case, we were assigned to the provider Marivanna Tours (place 16/17 Boat Tours & Water Sports in Santa Barbara de Samana). Terry's reasoning was that he would only sell tickets, but would not do the day trip himself. Therefore, the objection is probably posted under this review that this review is misclassified here. The guide himself was very helpful, informative and net, but unfortunately a bit too proud to speak many languages, so we received all explanations partly in 4 languages (English, Spanish, Italian, German). This made all explanations lengthy. Unfortunately, the national park was overflowing with a variety of providers, so boats and visitors jammed up at each station. The Cayo Levantado, known as "Bacardi Island", is the cathedral due to its small stretch of beach and much more beautiful beaches. Rep. (e.g. Playa Grande, Playa Coson) exaggerated. Lunch consisted of a buffet as well as free drinks (coke, water) or paid drinks (beer 5$, Coco Loco 5$). On the way back, the engine of the heavily used and partially rusted catamaran stalled, so we were back at the port around 4:30 p.m. 3 out of 5 stars because all promised program items were kept, but at an average to weak level.