Anyone used Chad4nature for a tour in Freeport?

Sure thing! Hope you can work it out.

Our excursion with Chad in January was the highlight of our trip!!

Anyone who's done the chad4nature tour - I've read the awesome reviews and I'd love to book it for my visit in June, but...I'll have my 7 1/2 and 10 year old boys with me. Are they old enough to kayak on their own with just mom? Never done it before, any advice would be great. If not old enough yet, we can wait a few years until they can handle it! Looks like such a fun day trip.

Thanks!

We just went on the Eastern end tour in mid March and it was FABULOUS!! It was my husband, myself and our 3 kids (10, 7 and 5), along with Lamont, the tour guide. Each child went with 1 adult and it worked out GREAT! Lamont was really awesome with my kids and we all had a great time. :)

The kayaks are roomy and the route for paddling is smooth, clear water -- and not miles and miles out. If you decide to let 1 child go on their own, you might have to take a rest break in the water, but should still be manageable.

We absolutely loved our Chad4Nature tour. Wellington was our guide and he is perfect-funny, knowledgeable, informative, flexible, punctual...can't recommend them enough!

I am glad to see this thread brought back to light because it would be a shame if someone visiting Freeport didn't know about Chad4nature ahead of time and missed an opportunity to book a tour.

Last September, dh and I took a West End tour with Jay. Here is an excerpt concerning our experience from my cruise report.

I wasn't concerned about the quality of the excursion because the reviews on Travel Adviser were unanimously glowing, but I was concerned about missing it. Here's why. Every excursion we have arranged prior to a cruise has been with a company that has a website, requires a deposit, and indicates a time and location to meet. Not so with Chad4nature. No website, just an email address. No deposit, just an email from us with our names, our shoe size for the flippers, and our lunch choice. No time and location for meeting, just a phone number to call when we get off the ship. My biggest concern was we are going to walk off the ship in Freeport and find ourselves unable to immediately find a phone to call Chad and so much time would pass between finding a phone and making contact that our guide would decide we were “no-shows” and leave without us.

As it turned out, there was no time for worry. Within seconds of walking off the ship, we spotted a neatly groomed Bahamian man holding a sign that read “Chad4Nature”. With giddy relief, we shook his hand. Our guide, Jay, knew who we were before we could introduce ourselves. A good sign.

The next pleasant surprise was that we were the only people on the tour. It's not that we don't enjoy the company of others -we love meeting new people – but who wouldn't want a tour guide all to oneself? Jay offered us some time to peruse the port shops but we weren't interested. Instead we we headed to Jay's van, which I was relieved to see was clean and relatively new. (One time, we booked a snorkeling excursion that boasted clean and comfortable transportation, but our actual conveyance from the port to the snorkeling boat dock turned out to be an old Chevy truck with no muffler, passenger side window glass or seat belts.)

As we left the port center to start our Western End tour, dh expressed an interest in the industrial aspects of the Port of Freeport, asking questions about the refinery and container centers we could see from the ship as we entered the Port of Freeport. Honestly, I didn't expect Jay to have much to say, but I was wrong. Instead of heading straight for the “nature” part of our nature tour, Jay started us off with a guided tour of the industrial operations near the port. He was a walking encyclopedia and Dh couldn't have been happier.

The full description -with pictures - of our West End tour is on page 4 of my cruise report.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=35542717&highlight=jay#post35542717

Hi Silent Penguin,

Loved your review of Chad4Nature. We are thinking of doing the western tour in September. Can you tell me how long you were at Deadmans Reef?

thanks!

We went with Chad through Carnival Cruiselines as a ship booked shore excursion a few years ago. Now he has his own company I believe because we didn't find him specifically on the Carnival website for our upcomign cruise Dec 8th out of Baltimore; I think he was working for a company back then that Carnival used before getting his own company. He's a great guy. He was so understanding of my mother in law who had a walker and was undergoing chemotherapy so couldn't get around well. The tour he gave us then was to the boiling hole, the caves and then snorleling and lunch. It was really nice and Chad really cares for the Island very much. He's a genuine person and his stories and tour guide skills are top notch. He was also very understanding of the couple who didn't end up wanting to snorkel; they just hung around at the beach and did their own thing. My son was seven at the time and he really liked Chad. The kids will like the walk to the caves, the boiling hole and snorkeling and the food was good; kids might not pay as much attention to the history side of it but that's kids for you; my son really likes history so he paid strict attention and loved that part of it too. You'll get a few laughs with Chad as well, he's worth going with.

Hi Silent Penguin,

 

Loved your review of Chad4Nature. We are thinking of doing the western tour in September. Can you tell me how long you were at Deadmans Reef?

 

thanks!

Thank you. It was about 2 hours.

I know this thread is a few years old, but for anyone looking for info on chad4nature, I am happy to give the feedback... We just returned on the Carnival Fascination and spent the day with Chad's company... I can not give a higher recomendation to anyone visiting Freeport than to give Chad a call and go with him! We were traveling with our 16 year old son who loves to kayak and so when we saw the kayak/snorkling excursions, we coulnd't wait.. However, becuase our cruise ship was in port in the afternoon from only 12-7, no one had that excursion available... we could only get snorkling, no one was willing to do both... I contacted Chad directly (his email is on Facebook as his website does not work) and he responded almost immediately and put together a special package that he normally doesn't offer just to accomodate us... The day of our excursion, the ship was over 1 and 1/2 hours late and we were really worried we would still get to go... But as soon as we got off the ship, Chad's guide Rudy was right there waiting for us and promised he would still make it a great day for us, and did he ever deliver!!! He rushed us away from all the crowds of passengers getting off the boat and trying to get on the ships excursions which we LOVED.. and quickly we were off... On the drive to the location, he stopped at a couple of spots to show us some of the local flavor and told us the history of the island on the drive over.. It was very cool to get to know the area better and see the things that the normal tourists wouldn't get to... When we arrived at the location (about a 30 min drive from the terminal) Rudy was all over getting us everything we needed and getting us set up... It was a beautiful beach and reef and we started with a great kayak trip around the area.. then we went snorkling and it was amazing! So many fish, coral, natural and man made reefs to explore and check out... We had so much fun! Even my wife who is not a great swimmer had a blast... When we were done snorkling, Chad took our orders for lunch and we sat in the patio area of the location and had a great lunch... Oh, and I HIGHLY recommend the Conch Fritters.. This was one of the things I wanted to try while in the Bahamas and they were absolutely amazing! My son and I both had them and even with all the food on the cruise ship, we both agreed this was the best thing we ate on the whole trip... On the way back to the ship, Rudy stopped and showed us the local cave system that was used as a hurricane safety zone for many years.. this is a normal excursion for several companies that we had found and Rudy made it an "extra" part of ours just to take the time and show us and tell us about the island.. We got back to the ship in plenty of time and were just amazed at the great day we had.. this was without a doubt the highlight of our trip... I cannot give a higher recommendation to anyone more than I can to Chad and Rudy for making it truly a day we will never forget! Do not hesitate to book with them as they will go out of their way to make your day just as memorable!!!

I am so happy to read of your update to this older thread!!!! We aren't thrilled for what is offered for our excursion options for our cruise in early December and after reading this, I think we may have a winner!!! Thank you for posting of your experience it is appreciated.

We used Chad4nature Tours for the East End Blue Hole Kayak & Snorkel tour in Freeport and we highly recommend this tour company. Our guide was Rudy who operates BlueGreen Outdoors--he works w/ Chad on this tour. We were a group of 5 total & Rudy picked us up right @ the pier on time. During the drive out to the east end of the island (about 1 hour), Rudy talked about the history & culture of the Freeport people and environment. He's like a favorite professor. We visited the site where the Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed and then to McClean city where we kayaked a wide and calm creek. Keep in mind we were not kayaking in the narrow mangroves where you have to go slowly in single file like some other tour descriptions. We snorkeled a reef cave along the creek and saw plenty of fish. Rudy then took us to Crabbing Bay beach where we had our Bahamian lunch (cooked by a local lady). More snorkeling in the clear blue hole @ this beach & even more fish. Rudy will choose the beach that he thinks will offer the clearest waters for snorkeling on that day. We even stopped off @ Pelican Bay beach and Gold Rock beach for a short visit. Our last stop was a brief hike @ the Lucayan National Park to see Ben's cave and the Burial Mound cave. Rudy is a birder & pointed out local birds and plants used by locals for medicines. Rudy took pics of us & emailed them the next day.

A word about activity level: this was a full 6-7 hour day and people who are active will enjoy this. The kayaking is not strenuous (2ppl per kayak), but your arms will get tired & you can rest/float along the way before moving on. If you don't feel like snorkeling you can just enjoy laying out on the beach & water. The hike in Lucayan NP is short & easy on well paved paths. There are stairs that lead down into the caves. All included: transportation to/from cruise pier, all equipment (kayak, snorkel gear), hot lunch, & friendly-knowledgeable local guide. An excellent tour!

Thanks for sharing your review. We're considering this excursion , we'll be on Sunshine in Freeport Oct 1.

thank you all for this thread. we weren't really looking forward to freeport until we found this. have any of you taken both the east and west tours? which do you prefer? thanks.

I was inquring about Pat & Diane snorkeling in Freeport and they said snorkeling tours weren't available on Oct 1. Are the Chad4nature & Calabas eco tours good ones for snorkeling?