Top Dominican Republic Horseback Riding - page 4

Carlos and Fernando were our guides. They were beyond fantastic. They were professional, personable, kind, and knowledgeable. My husband and I were the only 2 who booked this trip on Viator on this cruise. Seriously?! We literally spent HALF of what the cruise ship charged and had such personalized, top-notch service it was unbelievable. We were on the excursion WITH passengers from our ship but they paid 2x as much for the exact, same experience. If you worry about booking outside the cruise line, stop worrying. It's these people's job to give you a fantastic experience when you book with them. Could you imagine if they didn't get you back to your ship on time? They would never stay in business. The waterfalls were fantastic. It was shaded, stunningly beautiful, and quite the adventure. Definitely not an excursion for those who can't climb stairs or hike up a hill, but for those who can handle it, this is an excursion not to be missed.

My husband and myself really enjoyed this excursion, they were incredibly friendly and helpful, Oscar, Liam and another gentleman whos name I cant recall sadly, were great company and extremely competent. We felt very safe and well taken care of, highly recommend! There are locals offering sales and hair braiding at the beach but theyre very friendly and not aggressively pushy, just there trying to make a living. Beautiful beach and the trail through the woods was very clear to navigate. I was a first time rider and despite how inexperienced i was, they were kind and patient!

I rounded up to give this a 5 star because overall the experience was wonderful but it’s probably more of a 4.5 star. I’m glad I read other reviews so I was prepared. The pick up was a a little clunky. When I booked the excursion there was only 1 option for pick up in Bavaro which was Hard Rock Hotel. We were staying in a resort down the road so we got a taxi and went to the Hard Rock for pick up. Since we weren’t staying on the property the security guard wouldn’t let us drive in to the Lobby which was fine but then we got a call from the excursion operator asking which Lobby we were at. There’s more than one entrance so after a few calls back and forth they found us and off we went to the Ranch. We did a private daytime ride that started at 10am. We are a family of 4. Mom, Dad, two boys ages 11 & 13. We thought the horses looked healthy and well cared for. We enjoyed our ride through the Ranch, in some city streets , the trail and down to the river and beach. There were times it felt more like getting into the right position for pictures than enjoying the moment but I loved the pictures and videos at the end. The guides did a good job, we have ridden horses some before so we felt comfortable on our horses. The guides did want us to trot a little more than I was wanting but it was so fun overall. I read some of the reviews on here prior to our trip so I knew we would be quoted a price for the pictures/videos at the end. We were quoted $150 and my husband didn’t feel like haggling so we paid it plus tip of $20 each for the guides. Gallagaraga (sp?) takes the pictures and he is a fun guy. He let my boys go around the ranch and look at the animals. They had 4 new puppies, chickens, turkeys etc and my boys liked that. The Ranch family was very nice. I would recommend wearing jeans or pants for the ride. After our ride, the driver took us back to our resort instead of Hard Rock which was nice as well. Overall we really enjoyed the excursion and would recommend it!