Samaland Tours — Local services in Santa Marta

We booked a tour for Tayrona 1 day trip and visited the park last Saturday. The tour was only in Spanish, although from the website info we would have expected to be in English too.

In our opinion the tour wasn’t worth the price. We paid 200k per person for the transfer, guide and entrance fee. Food, beverages etc. weren’t included. The entrance for foreigners seems to be around 90k.

The agency told us we would have around 2 hours at Cabo San Juan beach with the hiking tour. But our guide only gave us 25 minutes. Then we had to hurry back to the parking lot for the bus and had to wait almost 45 minutes till the bus left. When we reclaimed at our guide she and the other guide just laughed. So we could have more time on the beautiful beach. For another 90k per person on top we could have taken a lancha back to Santa Marta.

For everyone who wants to visit the Tayrona Nationalpark. Try to do it by yourself and avoid a tour. You are faster (we would have hiked faster on the way back without our guide, we were only 2 persons plus guide. The others booked a lancha. Agency didn’t tell us about this possibility for the way back). You can choose where you wanna eat and you are free when you want to return. The path is easy to find. Safe the money and be more flexible! And you have time to rest and take some pictures during the hike.

When we texted our contact of Samaland tours after the tour about our complaints he didn’t even answer till now. They got their money so why...

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Attention tourists in Colombia! Avoid cheap boats when visiting Tayrona National Park, especially with Samaland Tours in Santa Marta. We had a horrible experience: they sold us the trip, claiming it was safe and fast (1 hour), but the sea was extremely dangerous, with red flags on every beach and almost no boats in the water except for those from cheap tour agencies. The boat was constantly hitting huge waves, the trip took 2 hours, and the captain ignored us even when we asked him to stop. We arrived at the park exhausted and shaken, so we decided to hike 2 hours through the jungle instead of risking the boat ride back. Then, we had to take a bus to return to Santa Marta.

When we complained at the agency, the owner lied, saying he warned us about the danger and that it was our decision to go. He also claimed he had to pay extra because the boat returned with two fewer passengers. But we paid for a round trip, meaning he lost nothing—he was just making excuses to avoid a refund.

On top of that, when people leave negative reviews, they blame the tourists, saying they were drunk, didn’t understand Spanish, or it was a misunderstanding. In reality, they just want to make money at the expense of tourists, putting lives at risk. Don’t fall...

Do not bother going with this company tour to tayrona park . It is a waste of your money you can get to the tayrona park and back without needing the tour. We did the tayrona park tour. We were told we would see 7 different beaches, have a guide, bus transfer, security in and out of the park and they organise your entry. But this is not completely correct. They were a little late picking us up in the morning but The bus ride there was ok. When we got to tayrona park and gained our access we began walking. At the 3 beach after 1hour walking we went to have a look but when we turned around the guides had disappeared. We walked for a long time trying to find them but they were gone. We tried to call but no reception in the area. I hurt myself, so couldn’t walk back quickly and the bus was gone when we got back. We had to buy a ticket back to Santa Marta. We went to complain and was told they would get back to us about want happened and they didn’t. So we went back again, told the same thing…we still have not heard from anyone. I am very upset that they have not bothered to contact us after we went to the 2 times, when they said they would. So unprofessional. Unorganised and don’t have a duty of care for there customers. You pay for insurance and you don’t get any. The least they could have done was offer a...