pinthea

I would like to clarify a few things in my previous post.

Please do not take away from what I wrote that what I described about Oscar as not being such a great tour guide is indicative of all of Rudy's staff. Obviously Rudy is a fantastic tour guide, as so many others have posted here -- I just got a not-so-good substitute. Rudy's blame in this, at most, is over-estimating Oscar's abilities.

Rudy had contacted me after I posted the original review and was very apologetic about my experience and wished he could have done something sooner to have made things right. (At the time I didn't feel right about immediately complaining, as if I was trying to get a discount or free tour by being a complainer. It was what it was and that's all it was...)

In his reply Rudy even offered me a refund of our tour cost, or a free tour for friends should they visit Acapulco in the future.

Obviously he cares for the customer experience and in maintaining his good reputation; further proof that Rudy tries to do right by the customer.

I do not feel that it is appropriate to take Rudy up on his refund offer; after all, we did see many sights in Acapulco and although we did not get as great an experience as others who had better guides, we did have a full tour.

So, in the end, there are great tours and a not-so-good one once in a while. Rudy, I'm sure, will work hard to ensure that all of his associate tour guides are up to the task.

If you have any doubts about using Rudy in an upcoming tour, please contact him via e-mail and work out up front what you expect of your guide. But again, try to get Rudy himself, he's a dynamic and interesting guide.

Thanks, Rudy, for taking the time to contact me and follow-up on my candid comments. Best wishes for you and your company in the future!

Hello, I feel I would be doing the Cruise Critic members a disservice by recommending Tour by Van without some reservation.

After reading so many positive and wonderful reviews, I recently booked a van tour with Rudy. He was unavailable for the day we asked for but assured us that one of his trusted assistants would give us an excellent experience.

If you read no further, please take this away: Get Rudy. Or take your chances. He may have good substitute guides, unfortunately we did not get one of them.

We saw a lot of sites, like the Chapel of Peace, the shopping and hotel strip, some great views of the city from a couple of hill-top places, were offered some shopping, saw the cliff divers, had lunch at a beach-side restaurant. The vehicle was a new-ish Chevy Suburban. Nice interior. Roomy. But we didn't have that vehicle for the whole tour (read on).

We had a driver and the promised Rudy-substitute guide. The guide's name was Oscar. He proved to be a nice enough guy, but not a good guide.

Yes, Oscar did act as guide. By saying things like "There's a church." "There's a market." "See the chickens." Very little back-story, history, etc... Very little of what I would expect from a tour guide.

First, there were language barriers - at the very least I would have figured there would be enough English comprehension so that when I explained that the car was filling up with car exhaust from vehicles ahead of us (when we were stopped at a light) we could get them to understand that we wanted to have the clime control recirculation button pressed.

After about a minute of trying to explain "Press that button!" we gave up.

At one point later on the tour, the driver (not Oscar) rolled down his window and yelled a string of expletives at the car next to us. I don't understand much Spanish language, but I understand THOSE words...

We were taken to a bit of a run-down little shopping place which felt very predatory. We felt like nothing more than walking wallets. Herded from one little shop to the next. We tried to get out of there as quickly as possible. We told them shopping wasn't our thing but given that we were running way ahead of schedule we agreed to the shopping stop. To browse. But were brow-beaten by the shop owners to the point of frustration.

We had INCREDIBLE seats at the Hotel Miramar patio to watch the cliff divers, kudos for Rudy for scoring us an excellent table.

Afterward the nice vehicle we were initially in, along with the foul-mouthed driver, was replaced by a scary run-down van which Rudy himself drove, taking us to a beach-side restaurant which apparently he has a stake in.

The little bit of info about the cliff divers that Rudy told us along the way was 1000x more informative and better than all of the "guide" services we got from Oscar to that point.

Take-away: Get Rudy as your guide. Or go somewhere else.

While at the restaurant, both Oscar and Rudy made sure that the service was attentive and that we were serviced well. I appreciated that.

The restaurant itself was nice enough. When it was time to leave we were told that Oscar, the guide, wasn't done eating yet and we had to wait. I appreciate that the guide needs time for food, but honestly, they should plan to handle that along the way and not make the paying guest, who is paying a premium price, to wait until they're done. I'm paying, folks, it should be all about the guest -- their comfort, and their schedule. Maybe that's selfish of me.

But we were polite and said that waiting would be fine. We didn't want to cause any trouble so we sat back and relaxed in the restaurant, which allowed more time for random people to come by our table and nag us to buy their trinkets. Yeah, that never gets old...

In the end, we wanted to use up some Pesos so we asked Rudy if we could use them up. Of course we could, for an exchange rate way different than the banks were giving - in Rudy's favor. In that way, again, we felt taken advantage of.

In the end, we did see some great sights but honestly, it was a frustrating day and left saying we'd never go back to Acapulco.

At the end of the day, Oscar apologized for the foul mouth of the driver.

Rudy, if you read this -- get more personable and knowledgeable guides with a better command of the language your guests are speaking. Take them to better shopping places. Don't drive them around in beat-up 1982 vans.