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Forum » Amerika » Mexico

Sian Ka'am Tours von Tulum/Playa d. Carmen mit Easy Tours: Scam/ Abzocke!


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Verfasst am: 15. 08. 16 [02:24:00]
Verfasst am: 15. 08. 16 [02:24:00]
KleinerAdler
Dabei seit: 15.08.2016
Beiträge: 1
Easy tours and Infiny tours – Scam!
We wanted to do a tour in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve South of Tulum to experience Yucatan’s flora and fauna and to support Mayan communities. That’s why we decided to book a tour which was a lot more expensive than the regular tours we normally book.
After having read some reviews we decided to book with Community tours. Luckily – we thought – the Infiny tour booth close to our hotel offered tours with Community Tours.
After having asked how many people would be on the tour ‘a maximum of 24’ and if it was offered by Community tours ‘oh, yes’ but also which animals we would see ‘manatees, crocodiles, dolphins and turtles’, we decided to book the Deluxe tour and invest the 120 Dollar fee to support Mayan communities.
The tour turned out to be the biggest scam in our very long travel history. Not only did we not see any crocodiles or manatees. The latter, we were told were in a mating season and you were not supposed to stop anyway (quote guide).
Also there were 8 boats with a total of 44 tourists and only 1 guide! This guide told us exactly two things about the mangroves and the pelicans (roughly two sentences) on a 9 hour day. Since she was on another boat we weren’t able to ask any question about the biosphere reserve. At lunch she again was so busy collecting the entrance fee (which was not included!) that there was also no chance to talk to her at all.
Of course the guide was not Mayan or Mexican but Italian, hence not being able to tell you anything out of experience anyway.
The snorkeling with 44 people turned out to be a waiting session, since the boatmen were our ‘guides’ for that part and were told to take care of 12 people each, most of which of course, weren’t very good swimmers or didn’t listen to any instructions. We had about 10 minutes of effective snorkeling time.
Put in a nutshell we spend 120 Dollars plus 35 pesos each for a very long water taxi ride through mangroves without seeing any wildlife but some birds, then spotted some dolphins and a turtle from the boat when on the sea, had about 10 minutes of snorkeling time where we had to fear one of the 88 feet would kick us into our faces and a decent lunch at a beach that was full of garbage (in a biosphere reserve!). We also had about 20 minutes to swim in a lagoon before having another seemingly endless water taxi ride.
When confronted with these facts Easy tours claimed that Infiny tours had lied to us by promising us wrong things (‘you never get to really see the manatees’) and Infinity tours claimed that of course there were manatees and when they had joined the tour there was a maximum of 24 and they were so shocked to hear this. Of course nobody felt responsible and there were no refunds.
We clearly don’t recommend any of these tour agents. It’s scam and the money does not support Mayan communities but some boss in Playa del Carmen. He made 6000 Dollars on that day but the guide still told us to tip the boatmen generously because their salary was too low and she was the only one being decently paid…
We still cannot figure out why there are so many good reviews about the biosphere reserve on trip advisor but these two tour agents were definitely not the reason why. Also there is plenty of free beaches to snorkel and see turtles as Akumal or Tulum and to see mangroves. Do not pay that kind of money. It’s scam.


[Dieser Beitrag wurde 1mal bearbeitet, zuletzt am 15.08.2016 um 02:44.]
KleinerAdler
Dabei seit: 15.08.2016
Beiträge: 1
Easy tours and Infiny tours – Scam!
We wanted to do a tour in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve South of Tulum to experience Yucatan’s flora and fauna and to support Mayan communities. That’s why we decided to book a tour which was a lot more expensive than the regular tours we normally book.
After having read some reviews we decided to book with Community tours. Luckily – we thought – the Infiny tour booth close to our hotel offered tours with Community Tours.
After having asked how many people would be on the tour ‘a maximum of 24’ and if it was offered by Community tours ‘oh, yes’ but also which animals we would see ‘manatees, crocodiles, dolphins and turtles’, we decided to book the Deluxe tour and invest the 120 Dollar fee to support Mayan communities.
The tour turned out to be the biggest scam in our very long travel history. Not only did we not see any crocodiles or manatees. The latter, we were told were in a mating season and you were not supposed to stop anyway (quote guide).
Also there were 8 boats with a total of 44 tourists and only 1 guide! This guide told us exactly two things about the mangroves and the pelicans (roughly two sentences) on a 9 hour day. Since she was on another boat we weren’t able to ask any question about the biosphere reserve. At lunch she again was so busy collecting the entrance fee (which was not included!) that there was also no chance to talk to her at all.
Of course the guide was not Mayan or Mexican but Italian, hence not being able to tell you anything out of experience anyway.
The snorkeling with 44 people turned out to be a waiting session, since the boatmen were our ‘guides’ for that part and were told to take care of 12 people each, most of which of course, weren’t very good swimmers or didn’t listen to any instructions. We had about 10 minutes of effective snorkeling time.
Put in a nutshell we spend 120 Dollars plus 35 pesos each for a very long water taxi ride through mangroves without seeing any wildlife but some birds, then spotted some dolphins and a turtle from the boat when on the sea, had about 10 minutes of snorkeling time where we had to fear one of the 88 feet would kick us into our faces and a decent lunch at a beach that was full of garbage (in a biosphere reserve!). We also had about 20 minutes to swim in a lagoon before having another seemingly endless water taxi ride.
When confronted with these facts Easy tours claimed that Infiny tours had lied to us by promising us wrong things (‘you never get to really see the manatees’) and Infinity tours claimed that of course there were manatees and when they had joined the tour there was a maximum of 24 and they were so shocked to hear this. Of course nobody felt responsible and there were no refunds.
We clearly don’t recommend any of these tour agents. It’s scam and the money does not support Mayan communities but some boss in Playa del Carmen. He made 6000 Dollars on that day but the guide still told us to tip the boatmen generously because their salary was too low and she was the only one being decently paid…
We still cannot figure out why there are so many good reviews about the biosphere reserve on trip advisor but these two tour agents were definitely not the reason why. Also there is plenty of free beaches to snorkel and see turtles as Akumal or Tulum and to see mangroves. Do not pay that kind of money. It’s scam.


[Dieser Beitrag wurde 1mal bearbeitet, zuletzt am 15.08.2016 um 02:44.]



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