Abe's Snorkeling & Biobay Tours — Attraction in Isla de Vieques

We booked a snorkeling and bio bay tour with Abe's.

The snorkeling was really confusing. We ended up going to the wrong tour and went to a different location on top of that due to bad visibility in the original location. They lacked extra equipment, my group had a hard time getting their snorkeling masks to work. Mine even snapped but I was thankfully offered a new mask with no charge. Snorkeling was fine afterwards though there was hardly any checking in and we were very separate/confused on where the guides were. If you were an inexperienced swimmer, I definitely wouldn't recommend as they didn't even bring enough life jackets for everyone.

Now onto the real tea - the biobay tour. We had no car so we had scheduled a taxi in advance for when the tour was scheduled to finish at 10PM. We arrived at ~8:45 for the 9 PM tour and it took us over 30 mins to even leave the parking lot. They did a lot of explaining and prep work which would have been beneficial, if any of it had been accurate. Once we arrived to the biobay, it took us another 30 mins to even get on our kayaks as they were waiting for the other group to finish (foreshadowing). By this point, it's around 9:30-9:45, the time our tour was supposed to be finishing up. Regardless, we got on our kayaks and started the tour. It was pitch dark as it was a new moon and we could hardly see. We were told Abe would have a flashing red light at all time. He had a white headlight he turned off 90% of the time. We were rushed during the tour with hardly any checking in and barely knew where we were going. Once we regroup, Abe then spent more than an hour talking about nothingness, and getting defensive when anyone asked a question about the biobay. A repeated answer was "How am I supposed to know this??" Despite him stating he had been doing this for 30 years in the same sentence. He also constantly made comments on how tired he was and how long he'd be up. We hardly got to explore and truly enjoy the biobay as we were stuffed like sardines waiting for Abe to finally stop talking. We were constantly hitting each other with paddles and I even saw someone with a busted lip because of it. At this point, it is around 10:30 and we finally started heading back towards shore. It took us another 30-45 minutes to arrive back to the lot.

Transportation was another story. We arrived from vans and on the way there, it was fine, but on the way back, despite us all fitting original, suddenly there was no room for most of my group. The other van left despite us still trying to figure out where we should sit. We had to sit our each other's lap though it was a short ride so it was fine.

Thankfully, our taxi driver waited for the additional hour+ it took, he didn't even seem surprised so this makes us think it was a recurring behavior. All and all, I highly recommend you go with someone else, especially if you're on a tight schedule. We had to wake up pretty early the next day and lost 2 hours to this man yapping.

TL:DR - PICK...

Beautiful snorkeling location, beautiful bio tour, lots of great historical info from the tour guide, with sandwiches provided on a private beach. The only reason I didn't rate 5 stars is because Abe Jr (Abe-E) is extremely rude at times when it comes to his misguided temper. He doesn't exactly know how to be a tour guide, as in knowing how to properly explain the "how to" and "why" of things. Examples: When we went snorkeling, he told us all to put on the masks, but not how to properly do it. When I adjusted my mask tighter, he said in a very snapping tone "why did you do that? No body told you to do that, if you make it too tight it will leak." Okay, rude. first off, he never explained that, only stated tp put them on and get in the water to see how the mask feels, second ...it was huge on me and it NEEDED to be adjusted or else it would have been a necklace.... Once we were all in the water, my eyes started to burn, I guess I had excess eyelash glue still from earlier, so I took off the mask to relieve my eyes.... Again, he snaps " okay, WHAT is the deal? What is going on? Why are you taking off your mask?!" I told him what happened and he responded again, very rude... "seriously, eyelashes? You have glue from your eyelashes?! well I wish you had thought of that, the more you take off your mask, the more it will fog!" Again, talking in a very rude and arguing tone, and again, he never explained the masks beforehand about how to adjust, or about the fogging, nothing. Later on, when we were going to our second location, if anyone in the car would talk low or make a comment amongst themselves while he was talking, he'd stop completely and say "WHAT, no please share, I'm happy to answer any questions." Just unnecessary. And lastly, he was fixated on one girl in our group. Kept calling her by name specifically "oh look at this, oh come over here, oh see this, feel that" while the rest of us were kinda just waiting for instructions a lot of the time or exploring on our own. When it came down to kayaking, of course, he took her in his. 🙄 didn't give us proper info on how to kayak....how to hold the paddle, how to stop, turn, which person should go where, who follows who's paddle, etc.....luckily my boyfriend and I knew how to from experiences past. He would yell to make sure we kept up, but when it came down to him making abrupt turns BACK in our kaykas direction "so the girl could get cute splash photos🙄"(literally the reason...) we had to suddenly stop as hard as we could so we didn't run into them. Just annoying things like that. Abe...please work on your people skills. Be more informative as a guide to ALL of your guests, who are paying you a lot of money for exactly that, GUIDANCE, NOT for your snappy comments. Also his driving is completely psychotic. 5 stars for the snorkeling location, bio bay, and private beach, 3 stars for the guide, only cause he did have historic info too, which was great to learn....when he wasn't...

Review for Snorkeling tour with Abe's:

I am a complete non-swimmer (Can't even float. I will drown faster than a rock tied to a heavier rock) but I enjoy water activities: Snorkeling, Kayaking, beaches, pool etc. I don't fear water, but I am not comfortable in places where my feet don't touch the water bed.

Previous attempts of Snorkeling in my life have been really underwhelming. I have never put my face under water for more than a minute without looking up. Didn't know what to expect on this one. We were a group of 10.

Harold and Victoria were our guides for this tour. There is something about both of them that is super comforting. They did everything from their side to ensure we left happy.

Harold was super calm and confident that all our fears would be overcome today. Really methodical the way we put our gear on and gradually took the next steps.

Also, his was the best ever Snorkeling equipment I have worn till date. Glasses didn't fog once. There were very few episodes of water entering my mouth. Nose was tightly sealed off. Fins were perfect.

Harold and Victoria never once left the company of the ones who were a bit scared. Comforted them and told them to "Trust the equipment. You will all have happy faces when we come out in 45 minutes. We are gonna see an entirely different world out there"

I was slow at the start, Victoria held my hand and swam with me till I reached my group. She even taught me an easy stroke.

And oh, we saw plenty of beautiful aquatic life. Large Stingrays, Turtles and lots of colorful fish. I never once lifted my head up and got super comfortable in the water in no time.

Our group had an amazing, surreal experience. Thanks to both Harold and Victoria for taking such personalized care and interest to ensure had an unbelievable experience!

Highly,...