Has anyone ever used Okeydokey tours with Charlie Soto

Hi Guys: Can anyone recommend Charlie Soto or comment on his services? I have been in contact with this and he seems quite nice. I would like an opinion from someone who has used him. Thank you. Larry :)

check on the princess site...there have been quite a few negative comments....and aa few positive...if you book...I would suggest that you bring all of your emails....and insist on what you booked.:D

check on the princess site...there have been quite a few negative comments....and aa few positive...if you book...I would suggest that you bring all of your emails....and insist on what you booked.:D

Thanks for the reply to this question. I did a search of the Princess threads and don't think I will book with Charlie!

Karen

We have booked with Oscar Brown and Carol and they have been prompt in answering all emails and setting up 2 separate tours for our group! Nancie:cool:

I contacted Oscar Brown and our ship docks at Puerto Caldera so they want a minimum of 8 people to drive all the way there for a tour. Anyone else have any tour guide suggestions? I did find a name of a contact--JJ's tour on another thread, but haven't read anyone else who have used them.

Thanks!

Karen

check on the princess site...there have been quite a few negative comments....and aa few positive...if you book...I would suggest that you bring all of your emails....and insist on what you booked.:D

Where on the Princess site please???? Thanks!:cool:

If you go to the Princess threads http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=197under the individual cruise lines and do a search (if it is working) for Charlie Soto you will find many threads that review trips with Charlie. Some are good, some are not...I would prefer to book with someone who has many more positive reviews than neutral or negative ones! Not readily finding any for Costa Rica, but I will keep trying! ;)

I did book with Matias, for more information: coridigenous@yahoo.com :D

Cruise Critic prefers that you answer members' questions on the boards so that everyone can gain from your experience. Perhaps you can provide the OP with more information here.

Karen

HostKaren@CruiseCritic.com

I was curious also about Charlie Soto, only I spelled his name wrong when posting. Has anyone posting had a good or bad experience with him? I would like to know as I have also talked with him and he seems very geniune! Thanks for your time!

Ahoy!

My DW & self booked the A1 (no high line) in March and had a wonderful tour. As things turned out no one else on our ship (the Volendam) had booked with him (it wasn't actually Charlie but one of his associates) and we basically had a private guide for the two of us in a mid-sized car.

As noted in the tour description we visited the plantation / slouths and were basically the only ones there besides are wonderful guide. Likewise we visited the banana plantation / processing plant, had a private boat on the canal, had a wonderful lunch on the beach, went to a lookout point for pix, and stopped in the city for coffee and misc. munchies at the grocery store prior to being dropped back by the ship's pier.

All in all it was a wonderful day. And at $50 pp (at that time) it was much better / enjoyable than the big bus tour the ship was offering.

I might add, Charlie is very good with emails and while having lunch at the beach he called our driver and I spoke with him. He called to make such we were having a good time.

This is just our experience with Charlie Soto. Hope this helps.

Have a great cruise!

Bon Voyage & Good Health!

Bob:)

Last Jan/08 we took a combination B-2 & B-4 tour with "Charlie" personnally and we had a real "delightful" day.

Sixteen (16) of our SUMMIT Roll Call members took this tour... 7 hours ... and this tour was "The Highlight tour" of our Panama Canal cruise!

Eight of us "Ziplined" at the Villa Lapas while the other eight took the "Crocodile Mangrove" tour. We had done some sightseeing together before splitting off into our separate groups and then got back together for the LUNCH (included and really good food) and more sighseeing later. In all we had a SUPER time with Charlie.

He was EASY to find at the end of the pier and you paid him at the end of the tour.

Here's a link to his New website...

http://www.okeydokeytours.com/

Our CONSTELLATION Roll Call group is Booked with Charlie again for Jan/09 in LIMON this time and we are looking forward to another great tour with him.

He is really prompt with his email replies and will answer all of your questions. He's a real gentleman and has a great sense of humor too!! :D

He is a very popular tour guide and books up fast so hope you are able to arrange a tour with him for your cruise.

Pat :)

We have a tour booked with Charlie in a few weeks (out of Puntarenas)...I will post here upon our return. He definitely has been extremely prompt and patient in answering all my emails.

We have also booked with Charlie for mid-November. I will lwt you know how it went. I have all the e-mails the we have sent each other. I had a problem getting into my e-mail account and sent him a new one, with very little information. He sent me back my confirmation in just a few hours. We have booked tour A-1. I cant wait to see the baby sloth and get pictures with it.

Tim

We loved our tour last April. Son forgot our camera on the bus and Charlie sent it back to us. Wow! I thought we'd lost all our cruise pictures. I can't speak highlly enough of Charlie and the people that work for him.

We just got back from a Panama Canal cruise with Princess last week. We booked an all day tour with Charlie (Okeydokey tours) and it was fantastic. We were only with one other couple from the ship and he took us to feed monkeys, took us to sample local fruits, we went on the Crocodile boat tour while the other couple went on the zipline. We thought the boat tour was great...our guide has been featured on the discovery channel, etc. The other couple who did the zipline also loved it. Then he took us to a local restaurant for lunch and you can order off the menu, but we let Charlie choose a local dish and it was great...and yes, lunch is included. He said the only time lunch is not included is if you are on a cruise ship that is only in port for a few hours so the tour is a short one. I had told Charlie ahead of time that it was my husband's birthday and at the restaurant he brought out a huge cake for him. We were shocked and of course, very happy. After the lunch, he took us to a local grocery store so we could buy some Costa Rican coffee at a great price. The coffee we bought is really great....we are real coffee lovers, so it was a treat. Again, Charlie was great, the tour was great, and we had a wonderful time....we can't say enough.

We went with Charlie a few years ago and had lost his name and email, we reconnected . We had a fantastic time with him, even got to hold a baby sloth! We also did the boat trip etc. loved every minute and Charlie is so very kind. Now we are going in Dec. and we are going to take the aerial tour through the forest with a naturalist. He suggested that and we can hardly wait! Charlie said he has other surprises for us too!

Nancie:cool:

We booked with Charlie last year and had a great time. He wasn't the driver of our van but was at a bar where we stopped and made sure that things were going ok.

We made arrangements with Charlie Soto at our stop in Costa Rica on the Emerald Princess and after several emails back and forth confirming our tour, got off the ship and Charlie had overbooked and had no vehicle for our group. He called Juan Espinoza as a favor to take our full day tour. Juan runs his own independent tour business, his English is excellent and he told us many fascinating things about the local area and Costa Rica in general. He is friendly and fun and gave us the red carpet treatment! We had one of the BEST days of our two week trip with Juan. He took us to places the other tours don't go and to shopping stop that aren't on the regular tourist routes. He will plan a custom tour especially for the needs and desires of your group anywhere in Costa Rica. From the Hotel Villa Caletas (see photo) high above Puntarenas, we looked out over the majestic beauty of a Costa Rican sunset on the ocean while several flights of scarlet macaws flew by and a pair of Tucans played in the trees next to the pool. On the drive up to Villa Caletas we saw the views used in the film Jurassic Park. It was one fabulous day all because of Juan. We wouldn't go on a tour in Costa Rica now with anyone except Juan! Juan's email address is juanadriel@yahoo.com

We have traveled on 17 cruises and always book a private tour for our family group. We pay a premium price to get a top english speaking guide and a completely private van tour. We are exceptionally careful to insure our deal is perfectly clear with the tour operator.

In Costa Rica we booked OKEYDOKEYTOURS through the owner Charlie Soto. We paid $475 for a top tour guided by him personally. When we arrived at the dock the sign bearing our name had other names as well and it turned out he had planned to pack others into the van. When we did not want that situation he went and found a cheap local tour company and paid them to take us with the promise he would meet us and get it straight. The guide was very poor at english. We did find out that the tour company he sent us on usually charges $200 for that tour - They revealed Charlie Soto paid them $150 for the van and driver and the guide was paid $15. The guides normal job is collecting empty pop cans and can collect 20 kilo for about $8 per day. We paid Charlie Soto $475 for a top tour and he shuffled us off to a tour he paid $ 165 for. Charlie Soto is the very first scam artist we have ever encountered. We recommend you never contact OKEYDOKEYTOURS.

We have traveled on 17 cruises and always book a private tour for our family group. We pay a premium price to get a top english speaking guide and a completely private van tour. We are exceptionally careful to insure our deal is perfectly clear with the tour operator.

In Costa Rica we booked OKEYDOKEYTOURS through the owner Charlie Soto. We paid $475 for a top tour guided by him personally. When we arrived at the dock the sign bearing our name had other names as well and it turned out he had planned to pack others into the van. When we did not want that situation he went and found a cheap local tour company and paid them to take us with the promise he would meet us and get it straight. The guide was very poor at english. We did find out that the tour company he sent us on usually charges $200 for that tour - They revealed Charlie Soto paid them $150 for the van and driver and the guide was paid $15. The guides normal job is collecting empty pop cans and can collect 20 kilo for about $8 per day. We paid Charlie Soto $475 for a top tour and he shuffled us off to a tour he paid $ 165 for. Charlie Soto is the very first scam artist we have ever encountered. We recommend you never contact OKEYDOKEYTOURS.

We toured with Charlie in 2006 and he was AWESOME!!!! You just must have had a bad day!:confused:

Our tour with Okeydokey Tours (Charlie Soto) on Oct 20 from Puntarenas was really good.

Charlie was great at responding to my many emails. He met us as planned and (although there were a few other names on his sign), we had a private tour for the 15 of us on our roll call. (We were supposed to be all in one big van but it was in the shop so we were in 2 vans).

For $75.00 pp (excluding lunch) we went to the Maccaw Sanctuary and then for a boat ride where we saw numerous crocodiles and other wildlife.

We then went to visit the "Monkey Lady" and fed the white- faced monkeys. We also made a stop at a market for coffee. (I had originally thought we were to visit a farm/village, but we just drove by them....this was no big deal.)

We also had lunch at a local restaurant. The place Charlie usually goes was booked with a special event, so we went to another, more expensive place. Some of us really enjoyed the meal, others thought it would have been better to just go back and eat at the boat.

Charlie is very eager to please, we all enjoyed the tour and I would highly recommend him.

The few negatives: -

-there are no microphones in his vans so everyone could not hear (my dh was up front with the driver and could not hear Charlie at all).

-the guide in one van was Christian, he was excellent and was our guide at the Maccaw Sanctuary and throughout the river tour. In the other van we had Charlie Soto and he does not really give much of a guided tour, but is happy to answer any questions about his country.

Any more questions I will be happy to answer.

I went with Charlie last week and had a fantastic tour. Did his longest tour with zip lines. NO complaints!!!

I have not seen one negative comment about Charlie Soto, we just got back from cruise, used him for Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. We book all our tours privately, and he is among the best..emails were answered promptly, everything was perfect.. can;t say enough good things about him or OKEY DOKIE TOURS..we booked A1 tour with zip line at Jungle Breeze..incredible..total cost that included lunch at Playa Bonita Beach was $95 pp..

We have traveled on 17 cruises and always book a private tour for our family group. We pay a premium price to get a top english speaking guide and a completely private van tour. We are exceptionally careful to insure our deal is perfectly clear with the tour operator.

In Costa Rica we booked OKEYDOKEYTOURS through the owner Charlie Soto. We paid $475 for a top tour guided by him personally. When we arrived at the dock the sign bearing our name had other names as well and it turned out he had planned to pack others into the van. When we did not want that situation he went and found a cheap local tour company and paid them to take us with the promise he would meet us and get it straight. The guide was very poor at english. We did find out that the tour company he sent us on usually charges $200 for that tour - They revealed Charlie Soto paid them $150 for the van and driver and the guide was paid $15. The guides normal job is collecting empty pop cans and can collect 20 kilo for about $8 per day. We paid Charlie Soto $475 for a top tour and he shuffled us off to a tour he paid $ 165 for. Charlie Soto is the very first scam artist we have ever encountered. We recommend you never contact OKEYDOKEYTOURS.

IN all my correspondence with Carlie he specifically states that you pay at the end of the tour. With all of my private tours I have never paid the total upfront. :confused:

We had a great time last year on b2b Island Princess Canal cruise over Christmas and New Years (07/08) with Charlie. Went zip lining at Villa Lapas on first visit and on the second visit we zipped at Tu Ru Bari. Charlie was very accommodating when I changed my plans last minute on the second visit no problems (I wanted to try Tu Ru Bari) and I would recommend him anytime. He was like family.

I am sad that in order to see other areas, such as Monteverde, I cannot go with Charlie.

Amelia