WARNING: Avoid David's Adventure Tours, San Ignacio, Belize
Apr 14th, 2009, 05:49 PM
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WARNING: Avoid David's Adventure Tours, San Ignacio, Belize
We recently returned from a wonderful trip to Belize that included a few days on Caye Caulker snorkeling and a few days in the North and West of the country visiting ruins and going on various adventures. All were fantastic experiences, except for the day we were supposed to go into a Mayan cave with David's Adventure Tours near San Ignacio in the Cayo District.
Based on a strong guidebook recommendation (Rough Guides), we chose to explore Barton Creek Cave with David's Adventure Tours. Unfortunately, this turned out to be the one negative experience on our trip. In summary, we paid $180 Bz up front for our tour. On the morning of our tour, the guide (David) said he could not take us and had one of his assistants drive along in our car (rather than theirs, as it should have been) to the caves. We subsequently paid an additional $45 Bz to hire an alternate guide that the assistant said we would be reimbursed for upon our return. The cave tour itself was incredible and well worth it. Unfortunately, when we returned to David's office, David was drunk and had just left for his home outside of town. Neither David nor his partner, Larry Wellington of El Guacamayo Campground in San Ignacio, made an effort to pay us for the $90 Bz we requested as reimbursement for the additional money spent on the guide and the fact that they had not completed the tour with us. We came back twice - following their instructions or those of their employees - expecting to be met by David or an associate with money, but neither David nor Larry showed and their workers had no cash with which to reimburse us before we departed San Ignacio.
We've also been in contact with another couple who had a similar experience. Bottom line: DON'T USE DAVID'S ADVENTURE TOURS or the El Guacamayo Campground.
Based on a strong guidebook recommendation (Rough Guides), we chose to explore Barton Creek Cave with David's Adventure Tours. Unfortunately, this turned out to be the one negative experience on our trip. In summary, we paid $180 Bz up front for our tour. On the morning of our tour, the guide (David) said he could not take us and had one of his assistants drive along in our car (rather than theirs, as it should have been) to the caves. We subsequently paid an additional $45 Bz to hire an alternate guide that the assistant said we would be reimbursed for upon our return. The cave tour itself was incredible and well worth it. Unfortunately, when we returned to David's office, David was drunk and had just left for his home outside of town. Neither David nor his partner, Larry Wellington of El Guacamayo Campground in San Ignacio, made an effort to pay us for the $90 Bz we requested as reimbursement for the additional money spent on the guide and the fact that they had not completed the tour with us. We came back twice - following their instructions or those of their employees - expecting to be met by David or an associate with money, but neither David nor Larry showed and their workers had no cash with which to reimburse us before we departed San Ignacio.
We've also been in contact with another couple who had a similar experience. Bottom line: DON'T USE DAVID'S ADVENTURE TOURS or the El Guacamayo Campground.
Apr 15th, 2009, 09:29 AM
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Pls go to www.travelbelize.org who issue tour operator licenses so they can have this on file and perhaps intercede and get you your money back. I'm sure yours wont be the only complaint on file for him.
Apr 15th, 2009, 05:02 PM
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If you could also post this on TripAdvisor, it would go a long way towards warning other potential users. Thanks for your story, and sorry to hear that this happened. I've sent friends there, and they said the service was shoddy.
May 1st, 2009, 05:46 AM
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I remember this incident with the customer, and although I did try and get David to respond to the customer he failed to do so in an appropriate manner.
El Guacamayo Campground is affiliated with Davids Tours of San Ignacio, however we are not responsible for the actions of his office.
I did speak with the customer and told him that I would talk with David which I did do.
The customer was never a guest of El Guacamayo Campground and therefore I never had the opportunity to apologize directly to them. It is unfortunate that David did not handle this problem in a professional manner.
Larry Wellington
Owner / Manager
El Guacamayo Campground
www.elguacamayo.com
[email protected]
El Guacamayo Campground is affiliated with Davids Tours of San Ignacio, however we are not responsible for the actions of his office.
I did speak with the customer and told him that I would talk with David which I did do.
The customer was never a guest of El Guacamayo Campground and therefore I never had the opportunity to apologize directly to them. It is unfortunate that David did not handle this problem in a professional manner.
Larry Wellington
Owner / Manager
El Guacamayo Campground
www.elguacamayo.com
[email protected]
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