Ron Barcelo Anejo Experience Factory Tour

My family & I visited while in DR for the first time. Everyone was SO friendly. We loved seeing the steps of the process as well as learning some of the process and history.

The tour was really nice and had all the explanation of the preparation process and all the ingredients and the years necessary to make their Dominican rum. At the end you can pass to the store and buy their rum. You can pay a premium experience to taste their best rum o a normal experience. We end up buying all that they had to offer, writing this I’m enjoying one of their best rum. All I have to say is SALUD!

Total GARBAGE. I'll go fast: it's worthless. They accept minors on the tour, without paying but yelling non-stop. 4 daughters of ugly, incapable, absent parents and bad parents. Leaving behind her own daughter with a limp, the little girl in a polyester tracksuit in that heat DID NOT STOP DISTURBING, SCREAMING, TOUCHING, GOING TO THE OTHER SHIP while the mechanical bull over there working. Sisters playing mother while the fat lady played the offended. She could have washed her hair, by the way. Total Third World. Why do you have them to make the pathetic like that? Subhumans. The tour is worth NOTHING. 20USD, wait in full sun in a noisy room, nothing we didn't know before, nothing special. ALL ships and exterior full of black olin everywhere. Bottling process stopped, calmly. We have to book, we arrive on time, they make us wait, wait again... Up to 17min. Shop at the end. The only thing q can be worth something if you have checked bags xq is cheap (but misused). The guide incapable, overmatched and with no leadership ability and make himself heard. We couldn't even hear what he was saying. In the end we complain and the absurd excuse "that they are children" when the problem is that he is incapable. What are kids doing running through a liquor store? Shameful, regrettable. The Majorcan lifts his head and returns to the box. Pure mess.

The visit to the Historic Center of Ron Barceló is, sincerely, an absolute disappointment and difficult to justify. It does not provide any cultural, historical or training value: explanations are practically non-existent, superficial to the extreme and totally unable to convey any knowledge about the product, its elaboration or its context. One leaves exactly as one enters, with the clear feeling of having wasted time. The tasting, which could have minimally saved the experience, is ridiculous both for its scarcity and for the absolute lack of care. Three microscopic samples, without any explanation or contextualization, for a price of $20, turn what should be a highlight of the visit into a mere no-interest process. This is compounded by a worrying lack of respect for customers. During the visit, we had to endure the presence of four girls who kept constantly disturbing, talking and making noise, preventing us from hearing any explanation. The most serious thing was not their behavior, but the absolute passivity of both the parents and the guide, who did not make the slightest effort to maintain a minimum of order or consideration towards the rest of the group. The situation went to unacceptable lengths, with girls accessing no-go areas, throwing objects on the ground and even breaking part of the museum’s decoration. The result is a poorly organized experience, poor in content and clearly unworthy of the prestige the brand aims to project. A waste of time and money that I would not recommend in any case.

I read so much good and favorable opinion and see so many photos of the bar inside and happy people, I wonder why I was so unlucky when I went with high expectations for a good experience. Last July 9, about 200 km from the Historic Center, I supposedly booked the best tour to take my family to the distillery on Friday, July 11, our last day in DR. I rented a car at $200 a day just to get there, we arrived and started the tour with the tasting (???). A government official right behind us, like watching us or waiting for something. We finished the tasting and left the aging cellar (not before seeing how the government agent took the finest bottle of rum from the tasting, poured a drink and "p'adentro"), walked to the process plant, all closed! The entire production plant closed. I ask Leo (the guide) what the hell was going on? and he says "what happens is the staff is in a meeting..." What a meeting even eight quarters! They had a happy party in the very "historic center". I have been to several distilleries and the tours have a pattern where the tasting is the final part in terms of the specificity of the product. Places that have a social center (as in this case) end the tour there to hang out in a bar and then to the store to buy products. Well, the collaborators party had taken over the social center and we could not even get close. In the end, it was a swarm of workers everywhere, us trying to choose what to buy, everyone walking among us, I lost the key to the car, we searched for more than half an hour, the aging cellar where we had done the tasting had locks already closed with a government security seal; in the end it appeared there no more because of magic in the reception... Anyway, a total disaster! We still bought a lot of rum so we wouldn’t get away with anything there, even if we had to overpay. Soon Leo arrives and tells us that the administrator, owner or what I know who she was, was going to give us a royalty (a 350 ml bottle of the basic Imperial rum to each of the paymasters, since four people in my family did not do it and waited at reception amid this bunch of people -- obviously they didn't even thank them) and that since she was "such a beautiful and conscious person, she will reimburse you what was paid for the tour". In the shock of having lost the car key, I forgot to collect the contact details of them and only gave him mine, which he half wrote on a paper, and we got out of there. To this day I have had ZERO communication with anyone from Barceló, even though I have written several emails and given them enough time to respond. It may be an isolated fact, but I find it too disrespectful on the part of Barceló and you, potential tourists, deserve to know.

Looking for a visit to a rum shop during our stay. We already knew the Barcelo brand but thanks to Leonardo we discovered all the secrets in a super French. Thanks to you Leonardo for your first session with french you were amazing. My only regret and not having a piece of luggage in the hold for my return flight otherwise I would have robbed the shop.

We had an amazing tour. We learned so much on the extensive tour. Loved our cocktail too. We bought the ginger and cinnamon syrup with our rum. I just can't remember the recipe to remake the cocktail we had.

It was amazing to see how the liquor was made. Our tour guide was AMAZING and FRIENDLY and very knowledgeable throughout the whole tour. I would recommend this too everyone. I would definitely go back.

Sergio our tour guide was phenomenal! This was a great experience. There was a lot of information to take in. My husband and I will be back for another tour.

Jean Carlos Davis gave us the best tour we've had in a long time he knew his his stuff seem very knowledgeable and had a great personality. We highly recommend this tour and we give Jean Carlos a 10 and Jorge the bartender 10. Excellent experience.