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Opcal
The experience was like nothing I have ever done before. AMAZING!!!! EXCEEDED ALL EXPECTATIONS!!!We were picked up at our hotel at 6:30, picked a few more folks up at other hotels (typical van transport kinda vacation experience) and arrived at the beach which I think was a little under an hour away from San Juan. No problem.We arrived about 20 min before the instruction began so we grabbed a beer and Daiquiris right across the street from the sign in area. They also had some great lookin eats at the food truck, but the hotel told us to eat before we left, so we didnt eat out there. (this was on a Monday night, so I am guessing it is there most of the time)And then we met Nathan! Nathan MADE the experience for us. He started out by instructing us on the fine art of Kayaking. I had been before, but always helps to review.We were there pretty close to a full moon and some guests we met at the hotel said it wouldn't be very visible because of the light of the moon. WRONG!!! That made it even better in my opinion.The moon was beautiful in the darkness as we entered the water. The trip through the mangroves was magical. If there was no Bio-luminescence I still would have said this was a magical exceptional evening.Near the opening of the waterway into the bay we immediately started to see millions of little lights on our paddles and along the stream of water about the kayak. There were other kayaks on the canal into the bay but all groups seemed to know how to handle traffic, even in the dark. In fact, everyone was calling out HOLA and PADDLE SLAP and that just added to the fun.We spent almost 40 minutes in the bay. Nathan was a wealth of information and his 13 years of experience as tour guide really made our trip!!!! It was obvious he has a special love for the bay and the plankton. The tour really felt more like a local showing us his secret and enchanted cove. I cannot imagine doing this with anyone else!As we were making our way back through the mangroves a 4-5 foot tarpon swan right next to us. When he realized we were there he whizzed away leaving a fairy dust illuminated plankton trail in his wake.I did not use the bug spray they suggested, but never needed it.I did wear a bathing suit which was needed. After the trip I changed in the public bathrooms at the park, which are like just about every park bathroom in the world near a beach.I hate to say even one negative thing about this tour because it was the most exciting event of my trip to Puerto Rico, but here goes for the 'here's some things I would do to enhance the experience". Number one, have someone taking pictures of the event and sell them to the participants. I have only a few pictures before we left the beach as I didn't want to risk getting my cell phone\camera wet. Number two, have a stock video about the plankton and maybe some professional footage of the plankton. Number three, have the option for snacks\lite dinner in the gourmet category, even if you have to charge for it. Or contract with that food truck to have some fish, ceviche etc ready when guests arrive...that menu looked delicious!!! You might even consider buying 15 camping chairs and serve us dinner right there before we leave for the kayak. Truly a once in a lifetime experience!!!!
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johncE6835ZW
Directions were easy to follow. Our guides were great -- they let people kayak/learn on their own but were there to help when needed.
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Msgraceful
We were directed to this tour with this company from our hotel concieger. Total time for tour was indicated to be 2.5 hours. We had a small bite to eat before being picked up from our hotel expecting to be back for a late dinner. We were picked up at 6:30pm, driven to 4 other hotels to pickup additional people then told an hour drive to the bay. Once at the bay, the bathrooms were disgusting, no toilet paper, toilets full of s*%#, filthy floors, then guided through Mangroves to Bio Bay where the only thing that illuminated was our paddles through the water. Then back through the Mangroves to beach where we were given a snack size bag of chips and water, the shuttle to get us home had a dead battery, we could not get our dry clothes out of the shuttle because the door wouldn't open and 4 guys who couldn't even connect jumper cables correctly. After two pairs of jumper cables (because they burned the first pair) we were able to get our dry cloths, change and head back to the hotel. We arrived back at our hotel at 12:15am. What should have been a 2.5 hour trip turned into a 6 hour trip. There were no restaurants open when we arrived back at our hotel and if we wanted to go get something to eat it was going to cost us $20 round trip via taxi. WORST EXCURSION EVER! Save you $100 per person.
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ESP2217
We went to bio bay and it was amazing in every way! Definitely worth it- just bring bug spray- those Mosquitos are relentless!
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nmhen
To be honest, this wasn't the first tour company we called trying to get a reservation for a bio lagoon kayak tour. But boy are we grateful that we ended up going with them. Excellent guide(s), and the tour seems like the same one the other companies provide. However, some people have commented they felt they didn't get enough time in the actual lagoon, and we did not have that issue. Perhaps it was because we were on the later (last) tour of the night. For the most part, WYSIWYG with these bio lagoon kayak tours. I didn't mind not having a clear-bottomed kayak, and certainly wouldn't pay extra for one. A bio lagoon kayak tour is simply awesome. So different from anything else I had ever done. Very peaceful and relaxing.
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107juliev
If your idea of nightlife is looking at a starlit sky versus going to a casino then this is the thing to do. I was a little nervous at first because I had never kayaked but in the end the effort was worth it. What could be more amazing then witnessing one of the wonders of nature under a blanket of stars? Admittedly, going through the mangrove tunnel to get to Bio Bay was a little bit like bumper cars with kayaks but if you are willing to laugh at yourself then you will be fine. And the payoff for a little chaos is so worth it!! Really enjoyed our group leader Jake who was very funny and nice despite having to "herd cats".
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8ydneyfox
Whilst in Puerto Rico for a conference, my partner and I arranged with the hotel to go on a bio-luminescence kayaking tour with Las Tortugas. The mini-bus picked us up on time and we made a couple of other stops at hotels (waiting for other guests at one hotel for over 20 minutes), before driving for around an hour and a half to the meeting point. After lots of waiting around and feeling awkward, we saw the kayaks we'd be using, all with coloured glow sticks on the fronts and backs. Las Tortugas's colour was blue, which matched the glowstick on the life jackets that were passed around. Other tour groups had different coloured glow sticks on their kayaks and jackets.A guide gathered all of us around and gave instructions for kayaking (where it quickly became apparent that there were people there who had never kayaked before), that we would all be kayaking down a dark river to get to the bay, and we'd be going in single file. Instructions would come from the guide at the front (e.g., to move to the right if kayaks were coming the opposite way, low branches etc), and would be passed on from kayak to kayak. At this point, we started to get nervous. Having done a lot of kayaking, we opted to stay near the back, out of everyone's way, but despite our best efforts, we couldn't avoid being slammed into by others who couldn't control their kayaks or oars. We were quickly soaking wet. It was also PITCH black - couldn't see anything at all. We tried to stay on the right side of the river, but would hit mangrove roots and low hanging branches that we couldn't see, and were hit by others in their kayaks, who were out of control. It very quickly became obvious that there were about 5 other tour groups in the same narrow pitch black river, each with around 15 kayaks, and each with beginners slamming into and overtaking each other. From time to time someone out of control would hurtle down the middle of the river in the opposite direction. At some stage, someone slammed into our kayak and tore our glow stick off, so we became invisible. It was also clear that instructions for low branches, incoming kayaks etc, were not being passed along. At some points the river was only 2-3 meters wide (or narrow).When we finally reached the wide open bio bay, it was beautiful and had masses of space and we could kayak around. The water and phosphorescence was amazing, but we were only able to stay in the bay for about 5 minutes before being herded back into the hellish pitch black river for the return journey. If there were less tours, with fewer people, who only allowed people who had previous kayaking experience, the whole experience would have been amazing. As it was, we were so focused on staying away from other kayaks, flailing oars, and keeping afloat, that the whole tour was way too dangerous to enjoy. If you do go, I definitely recommend taking a helmet.
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shunorir
THIS COMPANY STOLE MONEY FROM US!While the actual experience of the bio bay was very nice, you can get that with any company - DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. We kept our belongings in our car, and one of their employees made us go back and give them to her for safekeeping instead, saying that it wasn't safe to keep it in our car since car's had been broken into. When we checked our wallets (me and my boyfriend), we were missing $440. They had strategically taken half of our total money from our separate wallets that were zipped in my purse. We booked through our hotel (Sheraton Hotel and Casino, San Juan), so we complained as soon as we came back to the hotel/when we realized. The company refused to take responsibility, despite the fact that their employee specifically asked us to take our stuff out of our car and give it to her for safekeeping. They suggested that we were making up the fact that money was stolen, since they "didn't see how anyone could have access to our bag" and they "vouched" for the employee who kept our stuff. And then on top of that, they refused to at the very least refund us for the $110 that we paid for the excursion. They told us we could file a police complaint if we wanted -- we had two days left on our vacation, you know that we're not going to spend most of that time finding the right police precinct to report to and filing a complaint. It was really ridiculous, and a terrible experience. I repeat, DO NOT USE THEM.
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athied
We visited Puerto Rico this month and we went for Bio Luminicient Bay with Las Tortugas. We were initially quite apprehensive about them as we had read not so good reviews here, but then once we started off , it was the best kayaking experience ever.They had the best guide ever and he guided us very nicely :)Not to forget about Cliff, he was to our rescue every time we got stuck in the mangroves. They were really good and made our Bio Bay experience worth a lifetime
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TanteJaye
We just got back from a well needed cruise vacation to parts of the Caribbean. The highlight of the week was the night time kayak tour of a bio-luminescent lagoon. We booked through our cruise line, Holland America, and hooked up with Las Tortugas Adventures, Inc. Our tour guide was very informative about the scientific and fun facts of the water and constellations as promised in the web-site. He could have been a bit more helpful with the kayaking instructions for those who had never used one before. but maybe that was the plan all along - to make the trip more adventurous. It was so amazing to paddle down the channel seeing all the flora and fauna of the area then as darkness and the quiet of the evening settled down upon us to look into the water and see tiny stars appear before us, (the luminescent life-forms) a few then many at a time then to dip hands into the water and watch the glowing trails like comet trails in the night sky. Breath-taking. Highly recommend taking this tour. Ages 6 and up. Wear bathing suit for sure. Bathrooms nearby bring food or purchase at restaurant. Small snack available after tour.
