Private Tours for & against

Any one reccomend a private tour company. Travelling in March 2011 and ship tours seem verty expensive. Jenny

Check out Adventure Antigua if you're looking for water based excursions.

http://www.adventureantigua.com

We've been on all three that they offer to cruise passengers and highly recommend them.

Ernie

Lawrence of Antigua gets my vote. See related thread.

Lawrence of Antigua gets my vote. See related thread.

We just returned yesterday from our cruise and I will vouch for Lawrence of Antigua. A very fine gentleman who gave us all we asked for. He has is own website if just google Lawrence of Antigua.

Be careful about going with the vendors on the dock. We agreed to go with one only to find out the cost he quoted was for the bus. There were an additional charges for the stops made along the way, which he didn't tell us about until we reached the first stop. We didn't bring enough cash to pay for the stops and found ourselves standing along side an empty road with goats as company. The bus driver picked us up on his way back. Not fun, although we did get some great pictures of the goats!

Any one reccomend a private tour company. Travelling in March 2011 and ship tours seem verty expensive. Jenny

When you walk off the dock and onto the main street, there is a booth that arranges private tours for passengers. My sister and I paid $25 dollars a piece for a 3 hour tour of the island. We went with one other couple in a comfortable van to Shirley Heights, Nelson's Dockyard, and a few other scenic stops along the way. The driver was nice and knowledgable. We found this option a perfectly nice option for touring this beautiful island on a laid back, low key tour. The driver drove a registered taxi-van so I felt comfortable going with him.

This is one pic I took long the way of Darkwood Beach

Another vote for Lawrence of Antigua. He was great. Even registered taxi drivers can be variable. Go with one of the tour guides that are highly recommended on CC.

Another vote for Lawrence of Antigua. He was great. Even registered taxi drivers can be variable. Go with one of the tour guides that are highly recommended on CC.

I echo that. We will be doing a land tour on our cruise next year, but we did do Eli's Eco Tour in 2006 and it was wonderful! This time around we want to see more of the actual island, though.

We are going to do the Eli Eco Tour in a couple weeks and we are very excited about it. I hope we enjoy it:D. We always prefer to book private excursions over ship organized excursions! Good luck and have fun.

We rarely do the ship's tours, like to do our own thing.

Just got back from Caribbean Princess cruise.

We had set up with Gordon and he passed us on to "Richard" who was absolutely GREAT. I would use him again in a heartbeat.

His phone is (268) 786-4376

Email is nancyranking@hotmail.com that's nancyranking At hotmail DOT com

We recently docked in Antigua during our Dec. 12 cruise on the Adventure of the Seas. We followed the advice given on this board from previous cruisers and organized a tour on the dock.

We had a list of the places we wanted to see (the ones that Gordon includes , i.e. Nelson's Dockyard, Shirley's Heights, etc. and we also wanted a drop off and pick up at a nice beach following the tour). He asked for $30 pp ( we were a family of four) and we countered saying the most we would pay was $20. We knew that there was an additional $5.00 pp admission to the national park access to Nelson's and Shirley's Heights. That fee turned out to be $7.00 at the entrance to the park. After some discussion the driver agreed provided we were willing for him to wrangle some more riders. We ended up with a total of 12 in a van designed for 12, including another family of four from Italy, a couple from Turkey and and another British couple. The driver agreed to our $20. pp and said we would pay at the end of the tour after we were picked up from the beach.

The driver provided good commentary along the way and also took us through the banana plantations, etc on the way back. As it turned out it began to rain on our way back and we declined the beach stop.

We were happy with the tour and would recommend the process to others.

We loved Eli's Eco Tour on our December 11-18 Serenade cruise! Some photos:

Another vote here for Eli! His tours keep us coming back to Antigua.

Another vote for Eli's..I was gonna post pics but its been done! :D

Another available option is http://www.scenictoursantigua.com/...

My wife and I were in Antigua the spring of '09 and the owner Sean was very accommodating for us...We actually missed our scheduled meet time for his group tour and (via a phone call from another taxi/tour service guy that just happened to know him on the dock) Sean was able to arrange a private taxi for us that took us to the same locations provided by his group tour at a very reasonable price...The driver was very friendly and he provided an informative tour and we actually were able to connect up with Sean's group tour at various spots during the morning...

After stops that included Shirley Heights/Nelson Dockyard/Fig Drive at our own leisure we asked our driver to drop us off at Darkwood Beach with an afternoon pick-up time...We had lunch at the beach restaurant and after a few nice hours on the beach/in the water our driver was on time to pick is up as scheduled and we were back to the ship on time...

I can definitely recommend Sean as a tour provider -- Especially considering that even though we were at fault for missing the scheduled meeting time for his group tour he took the extra effort to still find accommodations for my wife and I and it made for an enjoyable day on the island...

We just returned from our first ever cruise. Based on recommendations here we booked a private tour with Lawrence of Antigua. We were very pleased. He made us feel comfortable and we knew that we would get around the island safely and back to port. He was very informative and went out of his way to make the tour fit for everyone. The cost was $40 per person, including the stop at Jolly Beach. You may be able to bargain with someone, but we wanted to make sure we were with a reputable vendor. The ship's tours were much more expensive and less inclusive. Don't waste your money.

We just returned from our first ever cruise. Based on recommendations here we booked a private tour with Lawrence of Antigua. We were very pleased. He made us feel comfortable and we knew that we would get around the island safely and back to port. He was very informative and went out of his way to make the tour fit for everyone. The cost was $40 per person, including the stop at Jolly Beach. You may be able to bargain with someone, but we wanted to make sure we were with a reputable vendor. The ship's tours were much more expensive and less inclusive. Don't waste your money.

Glad you had a good experience with Lawrence. We found him to be professional and knowledgeable about his home. Class act to be sure.