Dominica on our own

[Denham33]

We will be in Domica in a few weeks with Celebrity Summit. I have read about the different tour companies offering excursions, but I think we prefer to just hire a taxi and do our own thing for part or most of the day. We have done this in the past in Grenada, Barbados, & Cozumel, (and probably elsewhere!). Can I assume that we will have no problem finding available taxis for this when we get off the ship? I think I read elsewhere on this board to go past the docks for cheaper taxis?? The size of our group seems to keep changing (my husband & his sister are going scuba diving, my parents may or may not join us....), so reserving a tour isn't a good idea for us.

 

Assuming we find a taxi (and I am assuming this will be easy), I have read about Trafalger Falls, Sulpher Springs, Rosea lookout point, & Mr. Nice's fruit stand. We want to get a feel for the island and see some of its beauty and culture. Can all of these be done in one tour? If not, any recommendations? We would really like to stop at the fruit stand since there's nothing like the fresh stuff, especially when we're coming from cold New England!

Thanks for any input!

[pholter]

Yes, you can hire a taxi once you get off the ship, however, not all drivers are licensed/bonded/certified tour operators. The drivers/tour operators you see talked about on this board all the time are the recommeded ones with all the proper credentials.

 

I would highly recommend emailing one of them and they are all very happy to accommodate your personal needs at an extremely good price.

 

I used Reyno Tours and was extremely happy: reynotours@hotmail.com

[murphity]

Just returned from Dominica on Jan 30 and also had a wonderful experience with Reyno Tour Company-I would highly reccommend him to show you the island-he will make sure you see everything-including Mr. Nice's Fruit stand..Delicious. We are also from New England and sailed on the Noordam. What a wonderful cruise we had-Dominica is really a beautiful port. Enjoy your time there-we did!

[tnsail]

If this is your first time to Dominica you might want to take a step back and rethink your plan..... Dominica is a beautiful island with many sights and even sounds that you will not see on other Caribbean islands though one would imagine that this is how they all looked before man laid this hands and tools upon them.....

 

Dominica is not your normal tourist island. I do not doubt that you'd be able to locate a cab and come to an agreement to the cost of being transported to the places mentioned, but this island is not Barbados or Cozumel.... You would be time and money ahead trying to locate a reliable tour guide to take you around the island before hand.... Having been there I know that I would not be comfortable trying to arrange transport at the dock the morning my ship arrived....

 

Joey

[Denham33]

Thank you all for the quick input. This is our first visit, although not my parents'. I am worried it might be too late for the tour groups now, but I think it is worth looking into. I remember being a bit nervous about doing the independent thing in Grenada too, but it was probably our best tour. However, a good point was made that this is not the other islands!

I guess I'd better firm up who will be going with us & get on it!

[pholter]

Thank you all for the quick input. This is our first visit, although not my parents'. I am worried it might be too late for the tour groups now, but I think it is worth looking into. I remember being a bit nervous about doing the independent thing in Grenada too, but it was probably our best tour. However, a good point was made that this is not the other islands!

I guess I'd better firm up who will be going with us & get on it!

 

Most of the vans can hold 8-10 comfortably and 12 if it's the beginning of the cruise before everyone has eaten at 8 buffets daily! :) If you've got less than that, then you can join another tour or pay extra for private services. If you choose a specific operator and they are full, they will recommend one of their closest friends/operators in the business whom you will be able to trust as if it were the person you contacted initially. They depend on our tourist dollars there and you'll be rewarded with an awesome, memorable day. :)

[kathychiara]

We were just in Dominica 2/11/08 with the Celebrity Summit and arranged a private tour with Woody below. He drove us off road in his range rover, to private beaches where they filmed Pirates of the Carribean and to the rain forest and a waterfall. I would not feel comfortable driving alone in Dominica although I have been to over 30 countries - the roads are not great, the drivers are not great.

 

the tour with Woody was excellent, he is a former Olympic swimmer, his Dad was the first on the island who had a scholarship outside of the island. Woody has lived in Switzerland and is very well educated and provided interesting history about the island.

 

Off the Beaten Trail [adquatics@yahoo.com]

Woody Lawrence

Manager

Adventures & Aquatics

P.O Box 796

Roseau, DOMINICA

(767) 275-1317

[bonniemari]

Thank you all for the quick input. This is our first visit, although not my parents'. I am worried it might be too late for the tour groups now, but I think it is worth looking into. I remember being a bit nervous about doing the independent thing in Grenada too, but it was probably our best tour. However, a good point was made that this is not the other islands!

I guess I'd better firm up who will be going with us & get on it!

 

Denham33 were you on a cruise on the NCL Dream to Aruba back in 2000 or 2001? I vaguely remember doing a jeep tour in Aruba with a couple I met here on CC? Sorry if I am wrong my memory is not as good as it should be.

 

We are going to Dominica on the Destiny's May 4 sailing and I am also searching for things to do.

[chillies2]

It can all be done in one day - you can contact kojak tours when you get there. He gave us a really good deal back in December. My family and I did an island tour with him.

[Denham33]

Denham33 were you on a cruise on the NCL Dream to Aruba back in 2000 or 2001? I vaguely remember doing a jeep tour in Aruba with a couple I met here on CC? Sorry if I am wrong my memory is not as good as it should be.

 

We are going to Dominica on the Destiny's May 4 sailing and I am also searching for things to do.

 

We were on the Dream in Aruba in 2000, and did the Jeep tour then as well. If you are Bonnie of "Larry & Bonnie" which is what is written on the back on my jeep tour photo, then that was us! This was our 1st time back, and we did the tour again, with Dennis driving again. This time they are using Land Rovers with bench seats in the back.

 

REYNO TOURS: I want to thank the person who suggested this to us. I e-mailed Reyno, and found he had availability. We decided to just rent the van for our group of 5 instead of going with another group, since the price worked out to only $10 pp more, and it gave us more freedom that way. In the end, we agreed to let another couple from the ship go along as well, but they only did part of the day anyway.

Reyno was our driver, with a wonderfully knowledgeable young woman as our 'guide' along the way (so sorry - I forgot her name! :confused: ) This allowed Reyno to focus on the 'scary' roads while she gave us all kinds of information about the gorgeous island. The van was very clean, Reyno stopped along the road repeatedly so we could see various plantlife and views, and even brought a few plant samples into the van (lemon grass and cinnamon bark - both smelled wonderful). We never felt rushed, and any questions we asked were well answered. We actually chose to end the tour a little early (didn't go to the sulpher springs), only because we were still exhausted from a horrendous trip to San Juan, and just needed some R&R time on the ship before dinner.

I would highly recommend Reyno for your visit to Dominica. It is a gorgeous island, Mr. Nice's was the best(!!!) and Reyno made us feel comfortable and safe the whole way.

Kim

[tnsail]

We were on the Dream in Aruba in 2000, and did the Jeep tour then as well. If you are Bonnie of "Larry & Bonnie" which is what is written on the back on my jeep tour photo, then that was us! This was our 1st time back, and we did the tour again, with Dennis driving again. This time they are using Land Rovers with bench seats in the back.

 

REYNO TOURS: I want to thank the person who suggested this to us. I e-mailed Reyno, and found he had availability. We decided to just rent the van for our group of 5 instead of going with another group, since the price worked out to only $10 pp more, and it gave us more freedom that way. In the end, we agreed to let another couple from the ship go along as well, but they only did part of the day anyway.

Reyno was our driver, with a wonderfully knowledgeable young woman as our 'guide' along the way (so sorry - I forgot her name! :confused: ) This allowed Reyno to focus on the 'scary' roads while she gave us all kinds of information about the gorgeous island. The van was very clean, Reyno stopped along the road repeatedly so we could see various plantlife and views, and even brought a few plant samples into the van (lemon grass and cinnamon bark - both smelled wonderful). We never felt rushed, and any questions we asked were well answered. We actually chose to end the tour a little early (didn't go to the sulpher springs), only because we were still exhausted from a horrendous trip to San Juan, and just needed some R&R time on the ship before dinner.

I would highly recommend Reyno for your visit to Dominica. It is a gorgeous island, Mr. Nice's was the best(!!!) and Reyno made us feel comfortable and safe the whole way.

Kim

 

I'm glad that you decided to pre-arrange your day at Dominica.... So many folks arrive there without a plan and are disappointed when they leave this paradise..... Dominica is a beauiful island and it was such a shame to listen to fellow cruisers running it down because they didn't take time to pre-plan there....:(

 

Joey

[bonniemari]

Yes that is us. We had such a great time with ya'll and we were lucky to have Dennis expertise as a driver.

 

We did another Jeep Adventure when we were on a cruise in Hawaii a couple of years ago with Larry doing the driving. I remember telling him that Dennis was a better jeep driver.

 

We went back to Aruba and spent a few days there last year and it is a beautiful island.

 

Still haven't decided what we are going to do in the ports on our upcoming Destiny cruise but your excursion in Dominica sounds wonderful so I think I will try to contact Reyno Tours.

[Denham33]

Bonnie -

Dennis & I both had a good laugh over your comment on his driving. We actually were talking about you guys when we did this last tour. We were telling our family (my parents, our son, and Dennis' sister & our niece) about how we had done this before, and Den would offer to let Larry drive but he was content to sit in the back and ride! I actually thought that most of the road wasn't as bad this time; it was a little less scary. Such a shame the Natural Bridge collapsed - so glad we saw it when we did!

Great to hear from you. I love the CC boards for this reason. And you should definitely look into going out with Reyno - it was a great day!

Kim

[loverboy]

I'm glad that you decided to pre-arrange your day at Dominica.... So many folks arrive there without a plan and are disappointed when they leave this paradise..... Dominica is a beauiful island and it was such a shame to listen to fellow cruisers running it down because they didn't take time to pre-plan there....:(

 

Joey

 

We went to Dominica several years ago on one of Carnival's ships (probably the Destiny). I did research at the library as I was not a member of CC. We got off the ship and walked up the hill, through the Botanical Gardens which were lovely, saw a tree which had fallen on an (empty thank God) school bus during Hurricane David back in the early 80's which just happened to have significant interest to me as that particular hurricane happened to wend its way all the way up the East Coast, gather more steam over the Hudson and make it to Maine where I was alone in a log cabin with 3 young kids. We then went back and bargained with a cab driver who took us to Emerald Pool and Trafalgar Falls. We returned to the ship for lunch, grabbed our snorkeling gear and had a driver take us down the coast to Champagne Reef. We only had 15 minutes of snorkeling time but it was a day that, in my lifetime, I will NEVER EVER forget. I finally get to go back in November of '09. It has to be the last bastion of eco-purity left. Go do it.

[ColoradoCruzers]

I saw that your husband and sister are going diving. I would highly recommend Irie Safari at the trailhead to Champagne Reef. My review under the champagne reef thread if you are interested. Such a beautiful place, I can't wait to return.

~Machelle

[Aplmac]

It has to be the last bastion of eco-purity left.

Now there's a powerful statement - ;)

 

______________________________________

Anybody else buy the wacky chicken toy??

[quietly80]

We didn't have a wonderful experience with the tours as many of you had, but we absolutely loved the island. Coming from the breath-taking beauty of Alaska, none but the best would do for us.

 

We liked what we saw so much that when my husband was looking for a medical school in the Caribbean, we applied here and were accepted. So we get to live in this paradise for over three years.

 

As for tour guides, the little operations who take you around for the day are much better than the big tours arranged by the cruises.

I wouldn't suggest the tours from the ship if you are adventurous.

 

Bring bathroom money just in case. But in my experience, only the ones on the large tours are charged the bathroom fee. Except public bathrooms - even residents pay because they don't have toilets in their home.

 

A local tour guide we have used extensively is the bus named Sweetness. A man named Ashworth drives the bus and he can go nearly anywhere. His van has seat belts for 16 but that is crowded.

If you hire a bus for a day it is typically $300-$350 EC. ($115-$130 US) That is the price if it is just one person or fifteen.

If you try to get a van full with other people, it will cost about $45 EC ($17 US)pp for the day. Obviously a driver can make more charging per head with a full van. I prefer to hire a van for the day.

I can post his email address if anyone is interested. But I won't if not asked.:D

 

We have traveled extensively but enjoy the Caribbean as it is close® to our family in the US.

[quietly80]

If you hire a bus for a day it is typically $300-$350 EC. ($115-$130 US) That is the price if it is just one person or fifteen.

If you try to get a van full with other people, it will cost about $45 EC ($17 US)pp for the day. Obviously a driver can make more charging per head with a full van. I prefer to hire a van for the day.

 

I have committed a faux pas by applying prices to this post. My sincere appologies. To find the prices of this gentleman, email him.

 

sweetness4t@yahoo.com

[BabySis]

We didn't have a wonderful experience with the tours as many of you had, but we absolutely loved the island. Coming from the breath-taking beauty of Alaska, none but the best would do for us.

 

We liked what we saw so much that when my husband was looking for a medical school in the Caribbean, we applied here and were accepted. So we get to live in this paradise for over three years.

 

As for tour guides, the little operations who take you around for the day are much better than the big tours arranged by the cruises.

I wouldn't suggest the tours from the ship if you are adventurous.

 

Bring bathroom money just in case. But in my experience, only the ones on the large tours are charged the bathroom fee. Except public bathrooms - even residents pay because they don't have toilets in their home.

 

A local tour guide we have used extensively is the bus named Sweetness. A man named Ashworth drives the bus and he can go nearly anywhere. His van has seat belts for 16 but that is crowded.

If you hire a bus for a day it is typically $300-$350 EC. ($115-$130 US) That is the price if it is just one person or fifteen.

If you try to get a van full with other people, it will cost about $45 EC ($17 US)pp for the day. Obviously a driver can make more charging per head with a full van. I prefer to hire a van for the day.

I can post his email address if anyone is interested. But I won't if not asked.:D

 

We have traveled extensively but enjoy the Caribbean as it is close® to our family in the US.

Quitely80, we will be visiting your lovely island in January with Celebrity's Summit.... we will be with a group of physicians and will check with Sweetness to see if they are available for that day.