superb tour guide

[thomasbentley]

Martinique--

Cliff- brilliant guide-- a/c Mercedes tour where you want to go 40 euro per hour - expensive but worth it - he speaks good English as well as 6 other languages and gives you great insight into this lovely island (little France)

email address kleber-gontran.magdeleine@wanadoo.fr

Web site http://monsite.wanadoo.fr/etclub/

 

[Jill and Jo]

My husband and I were in Martinique on The Sun Princess on March 16th. Prior to the cruise, we contacted Elite Taxi Service aka Kleber Gontran Magdelein. He is known for his tours in a Mercedes Benz. His website is: http://monsite.wanadoo.fr/etclub/page2.html and his email is: kleber-gontran.magdeleine@wanadoo.fr. Kleber was very friendly in his email and everything was confirmed for the 16th. The tour was booked for 2- just my husband and I. He confirmed in his email "1 or 10 people, I promise a good time". Our tour was scheduled for 9 am. We arrived on the dock at 8:45 am and about 5 minutes later, a well dressed man (Kleber) walked up with a sign with my first and last name on it. He had another sign in his hand that just said "Theresa"...no last name, which struck me as odd but I didn't worry about it. He told me that we were waiting for one other couple to get off the ship. As my husband and I were sitting there waiting, we watched two crew members carrying golf clubs discussing taxi fare with a cab driver. The cab driver wanted $100 per person each way for a golf course that was 20 minutes away. The crew members declined and went back to the ship. At 9:20 am...still no "Theresa". Kleber stood at the gate as passengers disembarked from the ship. A group of about 10-15 people approached Kebler and they talked for a few minutes. Kleber then handed his "Theresa" sign to the cab driver that was talking to the crew members earlier and approached us. He stated that he needed to take the large group because they needed to get back to the ship early and that this other gentleman would take us and the other group. He assured us that it would be a fun tour and that we would catch up with his group. At 9:40 am, I approached the cab driver,that obviously didn't work with Kleber ,and asked how much longer we would wait for the other party since the tour was supposed to leave at 9:00 am. He told me "10 more minutes". Not once did I see this cab driver hold up the sign with the name "Theresa" on it...nor did I see him approach anyone to see if they wanted to do the tour. At 9:50, another man approached us that was now holding the "Theresa" sign and said that we would be going with him. At this point, we were waiting over an hour and I was quite annoyed and he knew it. He assured us that he would take care of us and said that he "needed to find another couple to take us on the tour". I told him he had 10 minutes and we were done. He also stood at the gate as passengers disembarked, but never held up the sign with the name "Theresa" on it. We talked to a couple as we waited and he ran up and asked, "Are they willing to go on the tour with you"? At that point, we KNEW there was never another party going on the tour with us and Kleber dumped us for the larger party that obviously did not book with him prior to arriving in port. He saw the dollar signs from the large group and just passed us on to the next cab driver. At this point it is 10:15 am and there was no chance for us to get a tour of the island. We were left to just take a water taxi to the beach. Although the beach was nice, nothing special, we were really looking forward to the highlight tour of Martinique since we had never been there. I did email Kleber when we returned from our trip. He stated that he told us that there would have to be 4 in order to take the tour. This was a bunch of bull. I asked why he didn't just put us with the large group and he never responded to the question. I still have the email correspondence with him. If anyone is interested, email me, and I will forward it to you. Thanks to Kleber's unprofessionalism and greed for more money, our day in Martinique was ruined. Please beware of this scam. I would be curious to know if anyone who goes to Martinique sees him standing there with his "dummy" sign. I would not chance ruining your day in Martinique by using this guy....BEWARE!!!!

[Postcookee]

Don't fret about your lost tour with Kleber. You really didn't lose much. We booked him with another couple. March 12 th. Whenever the Sun Princess was in Martinique. He stated $40. Well when we changed it into Euros it became $54.50 per person. We could have paid this price and booked with Princess.

Then the tour began. Well if you can call it a tour. He was very difficult to understand and we had to keep asking him questions rather than he narrating the tour.

We were very disappointed and felt he is very much overpriced. I do agree with you I don't know who this other post was from about how good his tour was but I feel it may just be false advertising.

[Jill and Jo]

Thank you for making me feel better! You can imagine how ticked off we were!! I would have loved to see the volcano ruins...but I am sure I will be back there again sometime! You have brightened my day!!