Having second thoughts about Bumpiing tour

Ron L we are taking that tour with Levi in april your pic look great does levi get you back to the ship in time for a little shopping

thanks for all the details and pictures Ron - planning on doing this next January....very helpful.

John in NC

Ron L we are taking that tour with Levi in april your pic look great does levi get you back to the ship in time for a little shopping

Yeah, we had about an hour after the tour.

I'm a very physically fit person and very well traveled (although not much on cruises yet).

The tour is, if not the best, one of the best things I've ever done. It was almost spiritual.

The Reef part of it can be a challenge, at least for me, I'd never snorkeled and it took me some getting used to, but the water wasn't very wavy and it was GORGEOUS.

Titou Gorge... yes, very cold water, but you get used to it quickly enough, and it's very refreshing and just gorgeous.

The falls are also spectacular, but I think the riskiest part of the tour, maybe.... get water shoes (NO FLIP FLOPS), don't stand on anything green on rocks, do things *slowly*, take time and ask for help if needed, and you'll be fine. I didn't find it challenging much, and it was all so breathtaking I would do it again in a second. Dominica is one of my favorite places.

The entire island is beautiful, and the sites that we went to with Levi were definitely the highlights of the island! Levi also makes it a great experience and he clearly loves his home!

Hi Ron,

Do you know what people who didn't have underwater cameras did with theirs while in the water? They wouldn't just leave them on the ground would they?

Hi Ron,

 

Do you know what people who didn't have underwater cameras did with theirs while in the water? They wouldn't just leave them on the ground would they?

Sorry... I'm just catching up on here. Anything that you didn't want with you at any stop can be left in Levi's (or your guide's) van. The van is locked an no one bothered it.

I did this tour on my first caribbean cruise and it was the best tour on the whole cruise. Next year I´m going back to Dominica and this tour is a must do!

We just did the tour with Levi last week and it was one of the best we've been on. I was very nervous beforehand, but Levi is a terrific guide and made all of us feel great about each stop.

Do not miss going into the gorge, no matter how cold it is! It's a fantastic experience!!

And I cannot agree more that you must have some type of sturdy water shoes. The climbs in and out of the gorge as well as down to the hot springs really necessitate something more substantial than flip flops!

Could someone send Levi´s e-mail address to me in a P.M?

I can´t find it. Thanks.

Here's the website , there's a contact us page.

http://bumpiingtours.com/Home_Page.html

Here's his e-mail

levibaron@bumpiingtours.com

Here's the website , there's a contact us page.

http://bumpiingtours.com/Home_Page.html

 

Here's his e-mail

levibaron@bumpiingtours.com

I sent them an message on the contact page, but they didn´t replay. That´s why I asked for the e-mail address. Thanks!

... ... but no desire to do it again.

 

LuLu

Well, that certainly wasn't how I felt after my first visit to Dominica! I couldn't wait to return and then Carnival dropped them from the San Juan itinerary.

It was the main reason I booked last November's Conquest repo - because I saw Dominica was on the itinerary. And I did the same excursion (and again had Levi as my driver).

And it's once of the reasons I booked the Splendor repo for this coming November. I'm doing a different tour (Kalinago Village), so I know I won't have Levi, but I most definitely will find him, say hello, and give him a hug. He's great. All the guys are.

Can't wait to return there. Besides being just a beautiful island, I personally LIKE that it isn't over-developed. I don't sail to these places to be surrounded by a cruise-built port filled with junk souvenir stands and chain bars! It seems many people think that if you don't have this when you step off the ship, that there's "nothing to do."

But that's OK. Those folks can stay on the ship and leave the exploration of these tropical paradises to the rest of us, right? ;)

Can't wait to return there. Besides being just a beautiful island, I personally LIKE that it isn't over-developed. I don't sail to these places to be surrounded by a cruise-built port filled with junk souvenir stands and chain bars! It seems many people think that if you don't have this when you step off the ship, that there's "nothing to do."

 

But that's OK. Those folks can stay on the ship and leave the exploration of these tropical paradises to the rest of us, right? ;)

Couldn't agree with you more! It's our favorite island. We'll be back in January 2015 and will be doing the Predu Temps trail hike with Levi for the 2nd time.

Just back from my 3rd visit to Dominica. It was good to see Levi again.

This time, we did the Kalinago Village and Emerald Pool tour. We had a tour guide besides our driver, which was great (Rosalind). Lots of driving, but she had the driver stop several times for photos.

Bit of a hike down to the falls/pool and back up and around, but nothing this soon-to-be 62-year-old couldn't handle.

The Kalinago Village was very interesting. The coastline up there is gorgeous. It reminded me a bit of Maui. Seemed like every time we came around a curve the vista was even more beautiful than the last.

Next time, I'll do the wet tour yet again. :D

I just booked the Roseau Valley Treasures tour with Levi for April. But, I am wondering what all of you that have already done tours with him done about lunch. The confirmation email he sent me says that we should take snacks because they do not provide lunch. So, I asked him how this works and this is what he replied:

There are areas you can purchase snacks but sometimes depend on the time you get to the areas there's nothing much. That's why we ask our guest to bring along some snacks/fuits etc.

Any other questions, please feel free to ask.

Best Regards,

Levi Baron.

What was your experience? Was there lunch along the way? The reason I am concerned is because I will be taking my 3 year old, so not having lunch and just eating snacks might not make him to happy.

I just booked the Roseau Valley Treasures tour with Levi for April. But, I am wondering what all of you that have already done tours with him done about lunch. The confirmation email he sent me says that we should take snacks because they do not provide lunch. So, I asked him how this works and this is what he replied:

 

There are areas you can purchase snacks but sometimes depend on the time you get to the areas there's nothing much. That's why we ask our guest to bring along some snacks/fuits etc.

Any other questions, please feel free to ask.

 

Best Regards,

Levi Baron.

 

What was your experience? Was there lunch along the way? The reason I am concerned is because I will be taking my 3 year old, so not having lunch and just eating snacks might not make him to happy.

Levi is a very good guide but the rest of the tour passengers will base the length of time you are out on your tour. At each "water" based site, some will go into the very cold water, some will not. You won't have time for a lunch break nor is it in his itinerary. Did you mention to him you were traveling with a 3 year old? I am sure you want him to have a good time but he will be on a bus, at a very rocky snorkeling site (not a real sandy beach), and have to do a lot of walking up and down hills for a little one. I would discuss this with Levi. End result, you can grab boxes of Cheerio's from the buffet, make a sandwich and bring it in your own zip lock bag plus fruit and juice boxes. Take an insulated tote bag with you for his daily snacks. Good Luck. Dominica is a beautiful country.

The reason I am concerned is because I will be taking my 3 year old, so not having lunch and just eating snacks might not make him to happy.

I have booked this tour for March, with no disrespect, I will not be overly happy if someone has a 3 year old along with us on this date.

Ocean snorkeling in rough water with a rocky shoreline is not ideal for a toddler nor is a cold water wade up a rushing gorge.

Are you sure this is a trip a 3 year old will enjoy?

In regards to the lack of lunch, we plan to bring along some snacks and then drink lots of local beer. That should tide us over till dinner.

I have booked this tour for March, with no disrespect, I will not be overly happy if someone has a 3 year old along with us on this date.

 

Ocean snorkeling in rough water with a rocky shoreline is not ideal for a toddler nor is a cold water wade up a rushing gorge.

 

Are you sure this is a trip a 3 year old will enjoy?

 

In regards to the lack of lunch, we plan to bring along some snacks and then drink lots of local beer. That should tide us over till dinner.

It is disrespectful! I would never say I don't want to go on a tour with a person that is old and can't walk fast or someone that is disabled because we all have the right to enjoy tours and travel no matter what our circumstances are. Having our son has never stopped us from doing anything. He started cruising when he was 6 months and hasn't stopped traveling since.

But, don't worry we have booked our tour for April, so you won't be seeing us and thank god we will not be touring with you!

Anyway, I spoke to Levi about taking our son along and he said this will not be a problem because there are areas where someone can stay with him when we are at the activites. So, this answers the question, no I will not make my 3 year old snorkel on rocky and heavy waves nor will I make him swim in cold water. We are a group of 7, so we have a lot of helping hands if needed.

OK... We're back. We didn't want to some back, but we're back :)

 

Roothy, I don't know your exact situation, but we had folks of all ages and physical abilities on our tour and everyone loved it! One of our friends refers to it as the day we tried to kill her, but she had a great time!

 

I'm a big guy, and at times my balance can be off, but I was able to do everything except the climb down to the hot springs at Trafalgar Falls, and that was my decision to wait at the top. I'm not in the best of shape and I was concerned that the climb back up would be too strenuous for me.

 

To give you more details, we started at Champagne Reef. Parking is on the road and you walk down a concrete ramp for about 40 feet to the boardwalk. The boardwalk is 400-500 ft. long (estimate) and then you walk another 50 feet or so on packed dirt with some rocks. Shoes are needed for this part. At this point everyone took off their shoes, shorts, etc. and left them on the side of the path. I wouldn't leave any valuables there but the shoes, etc. are fine.

 

The rest of the way is over small to medium sized rocks (I think of pebbles as pea sized, there were baseball sized and bigger) for a few feet to the rubber mat and then along the mat into the water. I sat on a large rock and put on my fins and then backed the last few feet down the mat and into the water with Levi's help.

 

Once in the water we swam to an area where the bubbles were coming up and then Levi led a group to the outer reef. It's not a long swim and I recommend it since there were many more fish and a larger variety. Levi would swim down from time to time to show us things like tube works, a flounder and a moray eel. The reef was beautiful.

 

Getting out of the water was a bit more of a challenge for me (I'm a big guy). I took my fins off and walked up to the mat but my feet kept sinking into the rocks and the waves kept moving the mat. Levi was right there to help and I made it out with his help.

 

I have a lot of pictures of the reef and I'll post some of them once I have time to go through them.

 

At Titou Gorge you walk for about 10 minutes from the parking lot to the gorge. It is level ground but can be uneven with rocks. there is also one point where you walk for 75-100 feet across a bridge that is about 3 feet wide and has rails on both sides.

 

At the gorge itself you go down some rough rock steps to the water. the last step can be a long one but there is a small rock ledge to use an an intermediate step, and Levi is right there to help. Once in the water Levi recommended dunking right away. the water is cold, but once in everyone was fine. the first dunk takes your breath away for a bit so do it where you can stand. From there we followed Levi about 100 ft. to an opening in the gorge. There is a ledge there where you can stand and rest. From there it is another 75 feet to the falls. At the falls there is a hole where that we all climbed in to to get our of the current. It held 12 of us, but it was cozy :). We had a coupe of folks who were not strong swimmers. Levi carry's a life preserver ring with a rope attached to it and he had the non-swimmers hold on to it and he pulled them through the gorge. At the hole he tossed it to each of us and pulled us across the strong current. Two of our group climbed up the first waterfall and went back to the second fall and then jumped back into the pool.

 

The swim out is easy since the current pushes you all of the way.

 

We all had swim belts on as a precaution.

 

At Trafalgar Falls you walk from the parking lot for 10 - 15 minutes through the rain forest to the observation platform. The walk is downhill to start and then up hill to the platform. The path is earth with "steps" made of logs and the footing was good. At the platform most of our group went down to the hot springs and enjoyed it. As i mentioned I decided to wait at the platform because I felt the climb back up would be too much for me.

 

This was our favorite island on our cruise and Levi made the day a great one for everyone. He was there to help when needed and he made sure that he was the first one to any difficult parts and the last one back to make sure everyone was there and safe.

 

Roothy, if you have any questions, please let me know. I will be posting pictures in my review thread in a day or so.

We did this tour in February 2014 and absolutely LOVED it!! Will be back to Dominica on the Sunshine next February and am definitely booking this tour with Levi again!! It was one of our favorite tours ever . . . :)

We also did Levi's wet tour during February while there on the Royal Princess. We LOVED it. We would highly recommend Levi and this tour. I was concerned there would be too much "van time" but it really was not. Levi was right where he said he would be when we exited the ship. We had a great time at all of the stops. Levi was personable, helpful, professional and felt like a friend by the end of the day. There were just 5 of us on the tour and we all got along great and shared wonderful memories together. Next time we are in Dominica we will definitely look to do a tour with Levi.

I just realized I never came back here to report how I did. I enjoyed the tour and thought Levi was great. I was a total failure at snorkeling and had to go back to the shore and wait for the group. However the sea was a bit rougher than usual according to Levi AND it was literally my first try at snorkeling. The gorge was a little tiring but no big deal. I was fine there. Keep in mind that next week I turn 64, so younger people probably wouldn't have any challenges at all. I just took a few little snacks and ate them in the van while driving around. And I didn't think there was too much driving.