How are A & E tours???

[Luvin' Cruisin']

I guess my input is a little of each - before my cruise, I did a ton of research into various tour companies - I wanted a very specialized tour (two specific rum factories, beach, and lunch) for a group of 10. Based on the terrific response I got from Eddie - as well as the price: $28pp for half-day tour - I selected A&E.

 

When we got to the terminal in Grenada, we discovered another small group of people waiting with the A&E rep. I asked if they were going to be ok with our modified tour - we did not want the standard "Spices" tour, and I was assured that everything would be fine. However, it later became apparent that they were indeed taking us on the standard "Spices" tour. We did not get to go to the main rum factory that I wanted to visit, and we only got about 15 minutes at the beach (instead of the hour-plus we wanted). We were also delivered back to the ship about 30 minutes before I had expected the tour to end.

 

With that said, I have to say that the tour was great (Ft George, Laura's Spice Garden, and Clark's Court Rum, aka "The Sugar Factory"), and that the people in my group seemed to be happy with it. The vans were air conditioned, clean, and in good condition, and Eddie was a careful, considerate driver.

 

Hope this is helpful...

[Wineguys]

I’ve been meaning to write about my experience with Eddie of A&E Tours for almost a month now, and I’ve run out of reasons for my procrastination. People on this board were raving about Mandoo and his tours and since I knew exactly what my group of 9 wanted to do, I figured I should try to book with someone else since I waited until late November to book; otherwise I might be shuffled off to one of Mandoo’s secondary drivers (always a possibility when you go with an island’s main tour guide!).

I contacted Eddie myself via phone, was VERY specific about what I wanted and used my Roll Call to guarantee that I had enough people to fill a van. He assured me he would be my drive, so I made arrangements for December 29th in Grenada. I told him my itinerary – a spice station, Annandale Falls, Grand Etang crater, followed by a drive down the east coast to a particular beach along the unspoiled southern shores of Grenada for some lunch and a peaceful afternoon at a beautiful, quiet, unspoiled beach that looked like something out of Gilligan’s Island, swimming and sunbathing in paradise.:D :cool:

Eddie and his sidekick Michael treated us like royalty the whole way, and we all had a great day in Grenada. They were courteous, helpful, and informative, (Michael was particularly knowledgeable about the flora of the area), and they made sure our belongings stayed safe when we all decided to go into the water (although this beach was very out of the way from the chaos of something like Grand Anse). We left the cruise terminal around 9:00 am and returned to the ship around 4:30 or 5:00 pm – the price was around $40 or $45 a person (I forget!). We left a good tip since that was a long day for such a small price.:)

I highly recommend Eddie and A&E Tours to anyone that wants to go off the beaten path (I suppose his beaten path is pretty good too!). Ask Eddie for “Patrick’s Miss Grenada Beach Tour:cool:!” It is 100 times better than Grande Anse or any other beach. (Ok, the secret beach is La Sagesse!)

[Iceman-007]

I’ve been meaning to write about my experience with Eddie of A&E Tours for almost a month now, and I’ve run out of reasons for my procrastination. People on this board were raving about Mandoo and his tours and since I knew exactly what my group of 9 wanted to do, I figured I should try to book with someone else since I waited until late November to book; otherwise I might be shuffled off to one of Mandoo’s secondary drivers (always a possibility when you go with an island’s main tour guide!).

 

I contacted Eddie myself via phone, was VERY specific about what I wanted and used my Roll Call to guarantee that I had enough people to fill a van. He assured me he would be my drive, so I made arrangements for December 29th in Grenada. I told him my itinerary – a spice station, Annandale Falls, Grand Etang crater, followed by a drive down the east coast to a particular beach along the unspoiled southern shores of Grenada for some lunch and a peaceful afternoon at a beautiful, quiet, unspoiled beach that looked like something out of Gilligan’s Island, swimming and sunbathing in paradise.:D :cool:

 

Eddie and his sidekick Michael treated us like royalty the whole way, and we all had a great day in Grenada. They were courteous, helpful, and informative, (Michael was particularly knowledgeable about the flora of the area), and they made sure our belongings stayed safe when we all decided to go into the water (although this beach was very out of the way from the chaos of something like Grand Anse). We left the cruise terminal around 9:00 am and returned to the ship around 4:30 or 5:00 pm – the price was around $40 or $45 a person (I forget!). We left a good tip since that was a long day for such a small price.:)

 

I highly recommend Eddie and A&E Tours to anyone that wants to go off the beaten path (I suppose his beaten path is pretty good too!). Ask Eddie for “Patrick’s Miss Grenada Beach Tour:cool:!” It is 100 times better than Grande Anse or any other beach. (Ok, the secret beach is La Sagesse!)

 

I have booked with A&E I will post my experience

[Cruise buddie]

Like Wineguys I've also been meaning to post my experiences with A & E Tours. We were in Greneda on 18th January this year

I contacted Eddie by Email and his responses were very quick. There were 4 of us so we gave him a list of what we would like to do while in Grenada. The ship was only in port from 12pm -5.30 so our time was alittle limited . He explained that he already had a booking from another couple on our ship and would we like to join them . We agreed as it kept the cost down. The ship was due to dock at 12pm but arrived alittle earlier. Eddie was already waiting for us.

He introduced us to the 2 ladies who were joining us and we hit it off straight away.

Eddie and his assistant Michael were brilliant guides. Eddie making us laugh along the way and Michael was so knowlegeable about flora ond forna .

We had a great time and finished off at the beach for about 30 minutes.

 

We would recommend A & E to everyone.

[Peace2U]

Eddie returned my email saying that he can do the things that we want in 3 1/2-4 hours. He said we start at 9am which is when we arrive at Grenada. Is there a way to be there at the same time we arrive? We can surely be waiting to leave ship as soon as we arrive but can we be off in a few minutes? What if we tender? Will he wait for us? Also we will have a 4 year old on ship while we are doing this and it worries me that there could be a chance of missing the boat. Am I better to do the tour through Princess or A&E? This has just bugged me from the start-the only port I'm taking a real tour through, and the only one that we have limited time. Help!

[Peace2U]

Eddie returned my email saying that he can do the things that we want in 3 1/2-4 hours whereas we have to take a water taxi separately to see Grand Anse Beach if we go with the Princess excursion. He said we start at 9am which is when we arrive at Grenada. Is there a way to be there at the same time we arrive? We can surely be waiting to leave ship as soon as we arrive but can we be off in a few minutes? What if we tender? Will he wait for us? Also we will have a 4 year old on ship while we are doing this and it worries me that there could be a chance of missing the boat. Am I better to do the tour through Princess or A&E? This has just bugged me from the start-the only port I'm taking a real tour through, and the only one that we have limited time. Help!

[allen.crawford]

We are arranging to go on the Best of Nature tour. We are wondering if we will need bug repellent?

[nicschick]

We went with Eddie from A&E in January, and it was one of our favorite tours. He was very friendly and informative about his island. I would definitely recommend him.

 

We arrived in port on time and met Eddie shortly after 9. We visited a spice factory, Annandale, Grand Etang crater lake, rum factory, and Grand anse beach. Our port time was extended so we didn't leave Grenada until 5pm and got to change our tour up a little bit. We did not use any bug repellant and didn't ever notice any bugs.

[sharmca]

We just returned from our Emerald Princess cruise. Our best of nature tour booked through A&E tours was disappointing. Eddie promised the 6 of us he would be our guide but when we arrived he said he had promised 3 other groups the same thing so he passed us along to a nice enough young fellow who was not very knowledgeable and very hard to understand. The van was also very uncomfortable. This was our third visit to Grenada. The first time we just went to the peir and hired a cab. A&E tours was exactly the same tour as the taxi. We also did a tour several years ago with Mandoo. My advise is go with him. He does a fabulous tour and is a wealth of information

[JeannetteC]

We took the Best of Nature Tour this month. Eddie had two vans and we were assigned to Elvis's van. Elvis was a fine guide. There was some confusion over the itinerary. My itinerary said that we'd go to the falls, the fort, the lake and either the rum distillery or the beach. Some people said they were told they were going to the distillery so some people were disappointed when we ended up at the beach. I forgot to check with Eddie on exactly where we were going and I didn't know we would spend an hour at the beach. Several of us didn't have towels, swim suits or beach stuff to enjoy the visit.

 

For no reason, Elvis skipped the fort and spent an overly long time at the Grand Etang Lake. Unless you've never seen a lake in a rain forest, this was no big deal.

 

Annadale Falls were pretty but also not a big deal if you've seen a tropical waterfall before. It's the dry season in March and the falls weren't that spectacular. There were men jumping off the top of the falls and that was impressive. You won't like being hassled for photos with women wearing fruit hats, men with monkeys or men playing guitars and following you around until you give them money but it wasn't that bad.

 

The biggest problem is that there is one road which forks to the falls and the lake. Construction is on-going and there's one turn around area just before the fork. Every vehicle returning from the falls must use the turn around area to change direction and go up the mountain to the lake.

 

By the time we were coming down from the lake, there was a line of vans and taxis waiting to get through the turn-around area to take the fork to the falls. The line of vehicles had to wait for other vehicles returning from the falls to turn around one at a time and take the fork to the lake. They also had to wait for our line of vehicles to come down from the falls through the turn-around area. Elvis said that some of them would be waiting an hour to get through. This is NOT a way to spend your time on Grenada. If you don't get up there by 10:30AM or so, don't go.

 

When we got to the beach, we were thirsty and hot. There's a little shack place on the beach where you can eat and drink. Thinking that we could do better, we walked down to the Ramada Renaissance Hotel. They have a nice shaded pool bar and we ordered drinks. I recall that it was $15.00 for a drink with liquor and $8.00 for the cheapest non-liquor drink. I got a very small plastic cup of fruit punch for $8.00 and my husband got plastic cup of beer for about $8.00.

 

The women at the bar didn't give us our change for a $20 bill for over 20 minutes. When we asked for the change, they said they had to go to the main lobby and get the money. That sounded really lame. They kept us waiting another 10 minutes. Finally, we said we wanted to see the manager and they came to life and a cashier came to the bar and tried to give us Caribbean dollars (not U.S. dollars). They said it was the hotel policy to take U.S. dollars but not to give U. S. change. We declined and asked to get our $20 bill returned and charge the (lousy) drinks. More fuss and more delay.

 

We suspected that they wanted us to give up and return to the ship and leave them the change. An Assistant Manager told us that the Manager was busy but she got us our money back. Another of the hotel's guests heard us complaining and she agreed that the hotel was ripping them off.

 

By the way, hot dogs were $20 and a hamburger was $28. Nachos and other appetizers were all in the $20 range. I'm glad I wasn't staying there!

 

Anyway, check with Eddie before you take the tour to make sure you know where you're going and how long you'll stay at each site. The entire tour was about 4 hours. My husband described it as "a waste of a morning" but then he's seen a lot of waterfalls, lakes and beaches. He didn't like spending half the time in the van driving rather than enjoying the outdoors. However, he did enjoy Elvis's descriptions of the sights and the island.

 

Jeannette

[wendyam76]

Well we had a totally different experience. We were unable to dock due to safety reasons and had to tender - we were 90 mins late but they were still waiting at the dockside for us. There were only 4 of us in the mini-bus (they took the other couple on a tour of the market while waiting for us) and we had a fantastic half day tour. Even though we were late they gave us the full time. We really appreciated them waiting for us.

[Peace2U]

We used A&E last week and it was great tour. We saw Annandale Falls, Grand Etang Lake, Basse Terre, went by the rain forest, Rum Factory, and Grand Anse Beach. It was $30 pp and our son was free.

[selgie]

My family went on a half-day with A&E Tours. We had a fantastic time. We stopped at a spice plant for a demonstration and shopping, Annadale Falls, Fort Frederick, Rum Distillery (with complimentary samples), Grand Etang Forest Reserve/Volcanic Lake (and Mona Monkeys) and Grand Anse Beach. The driver was very informative and we learned a lot about this beautiful island. We paid $35 per person and our son was free. The tour was about 3.5 to 4 hours.

[CruiseDuck]

We used A & E last week and had a great time. Eddie and crew were waiting for us inside the terminal. We had Eddie as our personal driver and he was informative and a great driver. The roads in Grenada can be very treacherous but I felt safe with Eddie. He was a fountain of information about the island and kept us well informed during the entire tour. The Annadale Waterfalls was crowded with people and vendors trying to sell you everything imaginable. Also the locals wanted a tip to jump from the falls. They were a nuisance. We were fortunate to see about a 10 year old tourist take the leap from the top of the waterfall. In hindsight we should have tipped the kid! The traffic was terrible and congested but Eddie did his best. He had no control over the traffic. The island still shows some signs of damage from Hurricanes Ivan and Emily. According to Eddie some of the Insurance companies became insolvent from the storms and have not paid for the damage to homes. The people of Grenada are having to rebuild their lives on their own. On the visit to the sugar factory we were able to sample some of their rum products. Beware, some are strong :eek: . At the factory you can buy a sample package, Spirits of Grenada, of 5 of their locally made rums. For $8 it's a great deal and makes a nice gift.

 

We had limited time in Grenada as our ship was only in port from 9 - 2. Eddie did a great job and we would highly recommend A & E tours.

[gatec1008]

We've booked with Eddie for our December day trip to Grenada. Has anyone toured with him recently? The comments on this Board has been mixed, some good and bad experience. We booked with Eddie because his price was the lowest so we were willing to take a chance.

 

If his service is not worth taking a chance to spoil the day, please let us know and we'll have to reconsider.

 

Thanks :)

[Bob7]

We've booked with Eddie for our December day trip to Grenada. Has anyone toured with him recently? The comments on this Board has been mixed, some good and bad experience. We booked with Eddie because his price was the lowest so we were willing to take a chance.

 

If his service is not worth taking a chance to spoil the day, please let us know and we'll have to reconsider.

 

Thanks :)

Used A & E twice in the last 2 years, ask for Eddie to be your guide, great job.

[bigB30]

Used A & E twice in the last 2 years, ask for Eddie to be your guide, great job.

 

We had friends who used them and said they were good but I am getting mixed reviews on the boards and want to make sure we pick the right tour.

[Cleocruiser]

Any new reviews in 2009?

[thatbloominplace]

we just toured with edie 2 weeks ago. his tour was ok, but he seemeed somewhat disinterested. more like a taxi driver taking you to places than a tour guide. we went with mandoo 2 years ago and wanted to try a different guide. we will definitely go back to mandoo next time.

 

steve

[mister exec]

Has anyone taken the A & E spice tour? They are about $20/perspn less expensive and one hour shorter than Mandoo. I saw many postings about how great Mandoo is, but I didn't see anything on A&E.

[Cleocruiser]

Just returned from Geneada. We did the spice tour. It was very good. The tour was very informative. We had a group of about 10 people in a van. We stopped and had a nice presentaion of spices. The roads are crazy! I'm glad we had an experienced driver. We stopped at a waterfall and afew aother places. Lots of vendors trying to sell things, but a no thanks was all it took. They were not agressive. Traffic was crazy at the port, but overall, the tour was fine. We had read about A and E, but did not have a reservation. We just inquired at the port and were able to join the group.

[vplsh]

Anyone have an experience with A & E recently? Looking for tours in Grenada for March 2010.

[presnat]

We went with Eddie on the island tour in mid December. He is a good driver and knows a lot about plants and trees. As a tour director, however, he has significant limitations. In comparing notes with others who booked Mandoo, it was obvious that they had a much better tour.

 

It was an omen when we were delayed 1/2 hour late because he had to call for a larger van. Apparently he didn't expect everyone that had reservations to really show up.

 

We rushed through the most important stops (Grand Etang and Grand Anse Beach)--only there for 10 minute "photo stops". That was very disappointing as we had been led to believe there would time for hiking and for time at the beach. But he didn't cut short our souvenir-shop stops (showrooms for spices and rum), and that was at least half of the tour--very boring and a waste of lots of time.

 

On the upside, Grenada is a beautiful island, although Anendale Falls is weak imitation of Trafalgar Falls (Dominica) and is overrun with peddlers.

 

So, town and island have lots of potential but suffers from far too many over-zealous peddlers/ scam artists, and poor tour directors that leave visitors dissatisfied with the island experience.

[Billy101]

we took the "Best of Nature" tour, but honestly, I think all of the tours are pretty similar. Here was our review:

 

After having debated long and hard about doing the river tubing, we ended up taking this island tour instead. From what we heard from others, we didn't miss very much, as the ride to the site was longer than the tubing itself and what we had done in Dominica and Belize surpassed what we could have done here. So on to our tour experience. We ended up being the only ones on the tour (although they had told us we could bring others if we wanted), so we were appreciative of getting a private tour at the same cost it would have been had there been more people. Because we left so early, we tended to be the first people at each destination. It seems that the people of Grenada were feeling like tourists were taking a long time to get off the ship, and that many weren't getting off the ships at all when they stopped in Grenada. This seems quite troubling to them since they rely heavily on tourism, especially as they are still recovering from hurricane's from a few years ago. It was a beautiful island and well-worth the visit. We also found that we did most of our gift shopping here, both as we thought they may need it more than the other islands (our guide told us, however, that he considered the island to be mainly middle class, not too much poverty) and because spices suited our wants. Our guide was very personable and answered all of our questions about the island. We felt through most of the tour, he was more like a driver than a guide, as he didn't volunteer much information other than what we asked, and did not accompany us at the various destinations. The stops we made were good, but do bring a few extra dollars, as entrance fees to the national park and fort are not included in the tour price. At the park, we took the path to see the lookout, which was well worth the trip. The information in the house was also very interesting. We didn't get to see the nutmeg factory as it was closed when we went by the first time, and although our driver said we'd see it on our way back, we never did. Our driver said that he had checked that it would be open, but it is possible that it was not, since it was Christmas Eve. Many of the areas we visited were going to close early. The waterfall was pretty, but a very brief stop. Again, it was nice to see it while no one else was there, as it would get crowded very quickly. Our driver was also very good about warning us when locals would be looking for money for various points. We didn't find them aggressive at all, but some others from the ship did. I do not know if this was due to our timing or our driver. The rum distillery was a bit of a disappointment, as we didn't see anything happening. We were told a little about each type of rum and offered samples, but it seemed to be mostly a stop to encourage us to buy something. The fort was lovely and we felt that the extra views it provided was worth the $2 entry, but there's not really a lot in it, so you do go in mostly for the views. There were a couple of information panels, but not nearly what we're used to. Finally, the beach was beautiful and amazingly uncrowded. I can see how the locals would be frustrated by the lack of tourists getting off the ships, because this beach could have accommodated a whole lot more. In all, it was a satisfying way to see several highlights of the island.

[Private Island]

We booked a 1/2 day tour with Agnes and Ed called The Best of Nature Tour when we visited Grenada on the Summit January 12th. You can email them at aandetours@spiceisle.com I can't recommend them enough! They were very prompt with any information I requested and very professional! I posted the information on my Roll Call and had 18 people sign up for the tour with us. Agnes had 2 very clean new vans waiting for us at the pier on time with Ed. We saw everything listed on their web page. Ed had a snack and drink for us half way through the tour and made sure everyone was comfortable and happy through out the morning. He knows the island well and how to drive it safely too. We felt very safe and knew we would arrive back at the pier on time with no worries. At $40 a piece you can't get what we received on this tour from the ship. Give them a thought, you won't be sorry! Sue