Aqua Sunset Tours - Bio Bay — Attraction in Isla de Vieques

When I tell you awesome, I mean - over the top!! We left crying (happy tears) !! CHRISTY THANK YOU!! Christy was our main guide and she is SO smart, informative, friendly, funny, patient, kind, energetic and we are so so lucky she ended up being ours. Clear bottom kayaks are a must! We chose a moonless night about 3 or 4 days after the full moon to go to the BioBay. But we forgot to book a tour!! It was our only night in Vieques and we were so upset we would miss going! We called Aqua Sunset and they book us 3 hours before the tour started...all over the phone. Easy peasy. $65 a piece. The man on the phone spoke English and Spanish and was able to answer all questions. They gave us a meet up spot and took us to the BioBay in a shuttle bus (covid temp check and masks up). They fitted us with lifejackets and 2 person kayaks with 1 paddle each person. They gave us instruction and we slowly paddled out into the bay. If you can move your arms you can do this! If not they'll rope you! Lol! It was simply AMAZING. Speechless. A once in a lifetime sight (unless you go back which we will!)!!! The night we chose was perfect and the water was bright with movement! Not bright enough for pictures on 98% of phones but can capture on DSLRS. I captured a little by activating them with my hand and taking time lapse video on my LG Wing cell and posted screenshot pictures but it is hard to see. Doesn't do it justice at all!!! Anyway- DON'T HESITATE!! DO THIS!! and do it with Christy. She's young and chose this as her passion early on by moving to Vieques to share this with us. She speaks both English and Spanish and has the correct answer to a variety of questions about not only in and around the bay but the island, area...

This company was recommended to me by the Esperanza Inn. They gave a list of about 5 tour companies, and said this company got the best feedback from their guests, and also had clear kayaks. I did the same tour with another company that same week and would agree that Aqua Sunset is the better tour company (the other was Black Beard Sports).

They pick you up in a small bus, and take about 20 or so people on the tour at a time (maybe a little more than that), but it didn’t feel too crowded and it was easy to follow their guides. They gave us some information about the stars and the ecology of the bay, but not so much as to overtake the actual purpose of the tour, which was to see the lights in the water. Even when they were educating us, they allowed us some freedom to float around in our kayaks and see the water. They even showed us how to set the shutter speed on our iPhones in order to capture some of the light in photos (fun fact: the way the camera picks up the light is why it looks blue in people’s pictures, but in reality it’s actually white).

They took us to multiple areas of the bay so we were able to see how the concentration of the dinoflagellates was different in some areas than others (the more of them there are, the brighter the light and vice versa), so it was nice that they let us kayak over such a wide area because we ended up finding the spot where it was the brightest, and it was such a cool experience, and a really neat thing to see.

I highly recommend this company. They were professional, on time, had good, safe equipment, and is the only company that has fully clear kayaks (other companies have clear bottom kayaks which is also cool, but the fully clear ones...

Find other tour guides in Esparanza that have their act together. This company doesn't. I arrived at the meeting spot, as they instructed us to do so, at 7:15pm. We didn't touch the water until 8:45pm. There was a delay, and they did nothing to inform us ahead of time. For a full hour we sat around while the van driver watched MLB on his phone.

Also, if you don't already know, many of the taxi drivers in Vieques stop working after dark - you have to make a special reservation for taxi rides if you're staying on the north side of the island. I initially told mine we'd be done at 9pm because that's what it says on the website. Then when I asked Aqua Sunset, who gave us zero updates about the delay, they said we'd return to the meeting spot at 9:30pm, which turned out not to be true. When we finally got to the bay, we had to sit and wait even longer in the van as other tour companies dropping off their customers ON TIME. After a while, it was clear we weren't going to return by 9:30. The tour wasn't enjoyable because I spent all of it worrying and fretting about whether or not my taxi would still be waiting for me by the time we actually returned. For all I knew, I might have been stranded, not that anyone at Aqua Sunset actually cared.

I messaged Aqua Sunset the next day. They offered to give me a discount on another tour the next time I was in Vieques. Given that I don't live anywhere near Puerto Rico, it's a pretty hollow way of making up for such a bad experience.

Don't bother with these folks. Try...