Authentic Samana Tour: Beach and Waterfall Day Trip from Punta Cana
Overview
- Day trip on the Samaná Peninsula with a visit to Cayo Levantado
- Wander through the tropical gardens of Ceyba Park
- Take a horseback ride and capture amazing views of El Limón Waterfall
- Stroll about the white sand beaches of Cayo Levantado
- Tuck into lunch at a restaurant on El Malecón, Samaná’s boardwalk
- Entrance fees, light breakfast, lunch, limited drinks, boat and hotel transport included
From EUR151.66
Lowest Price GuaranteeYou’ll disembark at Santa Barbara de Samana and hop into a safari truck that will take you through the tropical foliage of Ceyba Park. Explore the garden, which is home to some 100 exotic plants and sample local fruits fresh from the trees! Relax for a light breakfast before taking off on horseback in El Limon.
After a brief safety meeting and orientation, you’ll embark on a 20-minute ride with a local guide. Take in the surrounding landscapes and learn about the flora and fauna that line your path along the way. Take a refreshing dip in the swimming hole at El Limon Waterfall before saying so long to your horse.
Travel by foot along the famed El Malecon—the boardwalk that winds along the coast of Samana. You’ll enjoy a savory lunch at a local restaurant filled with Caribbean cuisine. (Rum, juice, water and soda are included.)
Finally, climb back into your catamaran and venture off to the shores of Cayo Levantado—known also as Bacardi Island. Take some time to enjoy the white sandy beaches and crystal blue waters while sipping on a cold beer, juice or soda (provided). When the day is through, you’ll head back to Miches and finally be dropped back at your Punta Cana hotel.
Reviews
Viator Traveller's Reviews
This is a full day filled with adventure! You take a bus ride to the town of Miches, it's about an hour and a half from Punta Cana and then you take a catamaran to Santa Barbara. Once there you get on a safari bus that takes you around the town of Santa Barbara. It is so nice to see the houses and the people. You get a small glimpse into how they live. The bus then takes you out to the ranch where you gather under a small pavilion and the locals teach you about cocoa and how they make Mama Juana. There are also vendors there selling jewelry, carved wood pieces, cigars, alcohol and more. Highly recommend bringing plenty of cash. Afterwards you go to pick up your horse. Each horse has a person walking with it. You will have someone walking next to you the whole time while you ride. My calf got rubbed a little raw in one area due to the stirrups rubbing against them. So I would recommend bringing a pair of pants with you or high socks. It happened to my husband as well. It was about a 30-40 minute horse ride. The horse ride can be a little scary if it is your first time. There are a lot of rocks and they go down hill quite a bit. They also will gallop or run if you let them. The guides with us were all very friendly but most do not speak English.
So, the horses drop you off at the top of a hill and you have to take stairs all the way down to the waterfall. There are a lot of them and remember you have to walk back up those stairs. The waterfall is gorgeous! There are people around with parrots and they have you hold them while they take pictures of you with your phone. The gentleman who took our photos took a lot and only asked for a tip. The water was cold, but felt fine once you got into it. We spent about 30 minutes there and then headed back.
Heading back meant walking up the stairs and another horse ride. This was not as much fun because by then I was hurting. But overall it was fine. We dropped the horses back off at the ranch and then took our buses back into the town of Santa Barbara, where we had a delicious Dominican lunch at El Timon Restaurant. Afterwards we took a catamaran to Bacardi Island. Again, I would highly recommend bringing cash because there were a lot of vendors there, as well. The island was beautiful and we got to spend over an hour on it.
We left the island around 4:30 pm and got back on the catamaran to head to Miches which is about a 30 minute boat ride. They offer rum and other soft drinks on the ride back. Once you get to Miches, you get back on the bus and head back to your hotel. Overall, we had a great experience.
I would say it is about four and a half stars. The horseback riding was uncomfortable for me, but again, the rest of the trip was great.
This tour was great! Beautiful beach, waterfall and lovely horse tour. Papa George was our tour guide and he was great. I bought tea and honey to bring home and just tried it, so tasty.
Only downfall was the local contact trying to ensure everything was confirmed the day before, they never called back. I had to call three different numbers to try to confirm I was all set and wasted over an hour trying to get these numbers. If you like rum that really is the only alcohol option we had. Draft beer on the beach for just the hour we were there.
We took the day long tour to visit Samana island and El Limón Waterfall. We started at 6:15 morning from our hotel and after 20 minutes ride to a common point we boarded the bus and it took about 1 1/2 hours to reach the boarding point to boat. We traveled by boat for about 45 minutes fotunate to see a whale close to our boat and then transferred to Safari truck After 20 minutes ride in the truck we reached a ranch and then horse back riding fortunately I took the boots provided by the ranch company otherwise my shoes would have drenched in mud for another 30 minutes plus trekking for about 15 minutes finally we reached the water fall by noon. It was great getting into the water near the falls. On the way back we stopped for lunch before boat ride. The boat also made a stop at a beautiful beach and we were allowed to spend about an hour at the beach. We reached the hotel late in the evening by 8 pm. Overall it was a wonderful tour.
Good news
The ranch operator provides a guide for each horse and so we could ride safely though it was mud althrough the way.
Bad news
The tour operator recommended a video guy who was travelling with us and took the footage. But the DVD delivered to us the next day did not have any of our faces. So the amount paid 35 is a waste.
Quite simply the poorest value for money day trip that one can imagine.
I'm a simple Pearson, ham and cheese kind a guy. But my expectations for this trip were high. Food provided was awful, cold, uncovered, swarmed with flies, "horse" back ride was a torture for the animals, tour guide was lovely tho.
Tour was everything they said it would be. Long day but included so much. We went whale watching, drinks or a swim on the beach, lunch at a restaurant in town. Riding up into the mountains in the truck, horse back riding to the falls. Lots of stairs/trail to the waterfalls. Falls were stunning and a local boy climbed up the falls then jumped into the pool at the bottom. The bus rides were long between destinations. You actually do a large amount of sitting. Carry your own snacks as no food is provided after lunch. I would recommend for the person who wants to get off resort for the day and see some of the real Dominician.
For the cost I wouldnt recommend. You spend have your day in a bus, it is very unorganized. We bought a cd of our pictures from the horse ranch and there was not one picture of us on it. They put a picture of you on the cd cover and thats the only pic you get, the pics on the cd are of the land, not the pics that are being taken, the picture on the cover wasnt even on the disk so you will pay 10 for that one paper picture. The horses are small and the waterfall, although its very pretty, is so crowded that you cant enjoy it, we couldnt even get in the water it was so crowded. Lunch was ok but short. The beach stop was the best but you only get an hour there and only beer or soda, unless you want to pay for mixed drinks. The beach was packed as well, they tell you its 50 public and 50 private, there was no private about it.