Adventure Boogies — Local services in Higüey

Me and my wife did enjoy the excursion overall. The stop at the park was absolutely beautiful, and the cave swim with a live DJ was without a doubt the highlight – proper good fun and a real vibe. The whole park you stop at is stunning, great showcases of the local food, coffee and chocolate.

But when it came to the actual buggy ride… let’s just say it could do with some fine tuning – excuse the pun.

From the get-go, things were a bit chaotic. We’d specifically asked (and paid) for one of the big Can-Am-style buggies but were initially lumped into a small two-seater. It was low on fuel, so they eventually moved us into the proper one we’d booked – result, or so I thought…

There must have been at least 100 people in our group, split into convoys, but even early on it was clear there were issues. As we made our way out to the trails, loads of locals were running alongside the buggies trying to high-five you, sell fruit, or ask for tips. With the sheer size of the group, we were crawling along, and I genuinely felt a bit on edge as kids darted in front of vehicles.

Once we hit the trails, the pace didn’t improve – 10–15mph max, and often slower. I’m comparing this to a previous buggy tour I did in Cape Verde where we could let rip in a proper 1000cc monster. This was very different. Every time I tried to pick up a bit of speed, I was told to slow down again. The huge convoy meant it was stop-start the entire way, which quickly became a bit tedious.

After what felt like a short loop – maybe a few miles plus the stop – we had a chaotic 50+ buggy U-turn on a narrow trail, then headed back. Not exactly adrenaline-fuelled.

As for the buggies themselves – the smaller two-seaters looked like they’d seen better days. When we were finally upgraded, I realised the brake pedal barely worked and the doors wouldn’t stay shut. One bloke had his bonnet fly off mid-drive and managed to catch it! We saw at least 5–6 breakdowns along the way, and even an exhaust fall off one.

That said, credit where it’s due – the staff were really friendly and tried their best despite the language barrier. When we got back, they had showers ready, a tidy little shop, and some genuinely warm hospitality. We even bought a nice pair of Zol sunglasses.

So all in all, yeah, we had a laugh and made the most of it. But compared to my previous experience, this one felt a bit underwhelming, slightly mad, and in need of a serious rethink.

My advice for all it’s worth? Probably take out less people, fix up the buggies a bit more and let people go a little faster if they like. That’s where the adrenaline is. Oh and maybe charge less for photos? You might sell more....

We were sold this tour through our Resort Dreams Palm Beach. My children were very excited as the tour guide at the resort spoke highly of his company. We were picked up in a really cool Safari Style multi-person truck and driven about 35 minutes away from the resort. When we got there it was obvious that this was a business designed to pump people through as fast as they can. We were in a group of approximately 100 120 dune buggies (250 ppl) When we arrived we waited for almost 30 minutes inside a little Hut crammed in like sardines and were then advised we should be picking up bandanas to make sure we don't inhale the dust, to which, they clearly sold at ridiculous prices. After we got started there were dune buggies breaking down left right and Center, and you could tell that many of the vehicles were not in the best of condition. Furthermore, when you are on the tour it is really really slow because the line you are following ridiculously long and they need to stop vehicles at intersections to let you get through. The roads are also incredibly rough, needless to say the drive wasn't very enjoyable. Your first stop is a beautiful cave to go swimming, however, there is literally a thousand people trying to get in and again you are being sold things immediately. We were told that the property the cave is on is owned by the same owner as the dune buggy operator. It would seem that they simply want to sell you more of their product. After leaving the cave you go to a beach predominantly used by locals where people are waiting for you to sell you more needless items. The road you travel are all back roads and full of pot holes and muddy/dusty (I don't think you would mind that if you're actually having some fun in the vehicles). When you get back to the camp they funnel you into a massive shower type area to wash off the mud bring you through another gift store through a small Cafe and then back onto the buggies to your Resort. We were gone for approximately five and a half hours. I think this company probably was quite enjoyable before they decided scale their business and bring in hundreds and hundreds of people a day. There is nothing personal about the experience and you feel like you are cattle being heard into the direction the employees want you to go. I will say that the staff is relatively friendly but you can tell that they are exhausted and simply trying to get you through as fast as they can. On our travels we passed numerous other dune buggy operators that were not busy but seem to be a lot more fun and their vehicle seem to be in considerably...

4 hour trip total, good for the price which was $65/person for my boyfriend and I, but it was $50 for a different group, so try to negotiate if you can.

The bus from the resort was right on time. Don't be afraid to say no at the gift shop you start at because they will try to price gouge and they seem to be pretty good at it if you don't realize (somehow). Bring cash if you are going to buy anything. We didn't want to buy bandanas so we tied a shirt and shorts around our faces, which worked fine lol and saved us probably $30 USD. First, we drove to swim in a pretty cave (chest to neck deep water), watched a tribal dance (which was nice but felt very Caucasian to us LOL), and had some coffee and hot chocolate samples from the cacao farm. Hot chocolate was yummy but tasted suspiciously like Swiss Miss, may just actually be that good though. Then, we drove to the Macao beach, also very beautiful but people will try to sell you things of course. Someone put a monkey on me after I declined and when we took pictures on our phone, he told us it would be $45. We said that's too much and that we would delete these pictures in front of him so we got the price down to $15, which he seemed to be fine with. After the beach, there was a beautiful drive through the country back to the gift shop and bus pickup. There are showers to wash off.

Beware: A lot of these other people driving seem to not have their driver's licenses, or do and just drive horribly. They might rear-end you, fall behind the group, go the wrong way, brake too hard. If you know how to drive, it will be fun and you won't get too dirty unless you want to drive through the mud on purpose for the fun of it which we did on the way back. It was also very sad to see children and mothers running alongside the buggies selling things and asking for help. PLEASE be careful not to hit them, if you are not a good driver. I heard there's supposed to be some "trickle down" scheme here where the community will get a portion of the earnings from these companies, but I don't know if I believe that and I think someone higher up would watch and take the money the children earn. Very sad situation, and they should be giving back to the community.

Fun experience overall if you’re smart. Just go into it knowing that these locals are there to make money just like any of us are when we go into work. Don't be a foolish tourist, take your own pictures, you don't have much time in each location so hurry, and don't be afraid to decline. And don't endanger others if you don't have someone in your group who knows...