Any good shorter tours?

[vacruizer]

I've read the rave reviews here of Charlie Soto and Oscar brown, but have noticed that most of their tours are 7-8 hours and seen a couple of comments about "just" making it back to the ship. They also seem a little hectic with all the different stops.

We went through a close call in Grand Cayman last year and don't want that stress again so we're looking for maybe a 4-5 hour tour.

 

Anyone have any recommendations for a half day tour of some kind? Not really interested in the banana plantation/sloth sanctuary kind of stuff but would love to see the countryside and rainforest. Something like hiking for a couple of hours would be perfect but can't seem to find anything like that.

 

Any ideas?

[Trvlr37]

We took the banana plantation tour (with coastal highlights). The Dole plantation was very interesting and we were there a good hour. Our guide was extremely friendly and helpful as well. This tour is also paired with the tortuguero canal tour, but we didn't want to be gone too many hours, either. We drove a ways through the rain forest area and also watched for monkeys and saw some toucans. We also had a shopping stop at a nice hotel to pick up some coffee (although, coffee was cheaper at the banana plantation when we stopped at the gym for a bathroom break). It was a great short tour and I'd recommend it.

[Trvlr37]

Sorry, I just read you weren't interested in the banana plantation, but the other tour is the Tortuguero Canal tour (which is just a ride through the rainforest on a boat) - you might like that much better.

[LHT28]

Charlie has "A1 Tortugero Canal Tour - 5 hours" tour which we are looking at.

I am sure he would customize it for your group leaving out the places you do not want to go to.

[EricaLovesCats]

I thought I read somewhere that Charlie and Oscar will customize something for you, you just have to ask beforehand. That is what we will be doing, like you we don't want to cut it close. Plus some of the things in the A1 tour we weren't overly excited about anyway!

[birdlady24]

We too want to go see the Tort. Canals and see animals and birds but don't care about shopping or banana plantation. Want a shorter tour but seeing lots of wildlife. Any recommendations? Anyone have the email for the tour operators? Jill

[vacruizer]

After much deliberation we finally decided to do a ship tour to Bocuara preserve. I would prefer to use an independent operator but just wasn't that thrilled with Charlie and Oscar's offerings - they all seemed a little too hectic and we really wanted to hike in the rainforest - not just do a bus or a boat ride. I will report back in a few weeks as to how it went.

[LHT28]

You can always just ask Charlie to do a shorter tour ...just pick the places you want to go.

[noothername]

we just got back from the liberty and went with oscar ziplining, sloth visit, banana plantation. He was very accomadating and we never felt rushed and got back with at least an hour to shop at the port. I would highly recommend him and the zip lining was great at Ranch Cedar Valley only a 45 min drive from pier. KIM:o

[Driftwoodgal]

Oscar will put together any type of tour that you want, all you have to do is ask him. I was one of the first people to recommend him after our tour years ago. I found out about him from a poster called BasketLady. Her husband is handicapped and she couldn't find anyone to help her out. She located Oscar and came back and posted a great review of him. To bad the post was on the old boards and was lost.

 

We put together a group of 25 of us from our M & M thread. A few people backed out at the last minute because of the torrential down pour when we arrived in port. As we were getting off the ship the Captain was at the gang way handing out garbage bags as rain coats. Oscar didn't charge a fee for the people that backed out of the tour.