Punta Cana Adventures — Local services in Higüey

We (my boyfriend & I) did the triple jungle adventure park with Punta Cana Adventures! This was the perfect excursion. Highly recommend for anyone looking for a day absolutely chock full of adventure. We stayed at an all inclusive resort and this was our one day break from the leisure life, and how happy we both were to have pushed ourselves to try all of the day’s activities. The crew and workers at each stop were so helpful, respectful, thorough, talked us through all the safety precautions, and even offered instructions in various languages. Incredibly accommodating. The man that helped me put on my safety harness before zip lining even asked me to adjust the couple pieces of straps that were in the consent-only area of my body. That really stuck out to me & I commend the ways each small interaction was done intentionally in ways to create a feeling of safety and comfort.

We started our day at the zip lining portion. 12 lines through the jungle at various heights and lengths. They communicated a couple of times before we went what the hand signals meant to keep us safe while we zipped over gorgeous terrain & vegetation. They also let us know before we arrived, and then while at the safety briefing, we could do all 12 lines if we so chose, or we could commit to 2, then stop, commit to 4, then stop, commit to 6, then stop, commit to 8, then stop, but after 8 if you start 9 you must finish all 12. This was great to know going in, because 12 felt intimidating and I wasn’t sure if I was going to try. I ended up doing just 2, but I was so happy to have the option to feel it out and quit if I wanted, or to continue along. Major props for that.

After zip lining we had a local lunch buffet and it was incredibly tasty. Various options with meat, without meat, soda & coffee were included, and a cute lounge area with hammocks to relax in after eating. Great food experience.

From there we did my favorite portion of the day which was Monkeyland!!! Again, very thorough safety instructions to make sure that both we & the monkeys were safe & comfortable. They were tiny little adorable spider monkeys, very curious, very very interactive. Even before handing us bowls of food, the monkeys were jumping on us as soon as we entered the enclosure, but the food also helped guide them to each individual so they could capture really amazing pictures. Each person got photos taken with numerous monkeys climbing on them or jumping on them. We were also free to bring our own phones and cameras for free pictures, but the ones they took were worth paying for!

After that we did a little walk down a path through the jungle and stopped to see how they make cigars. We were offered to try the cigars and then walked through a cigar shop to purchase if we wanted. They also poured us some free shots while we were in the shop!

Then we started our buggie adventure! Really cool but I’m a little less on the adventurous side with driving, and I tried it out and didn’t want to continue driving so they had an instructor hop in to drive me the rest of the way, from there my comfort went back up and it was a really enjoyable and beautiful ride. Very much appreciated that accommodation because I get anxious about driving sometimes and that part wasn’t for me. But everyone else seemed to have a blast with it!

From there we got to see how they make coconut oil, coffee, espresso. We got free tastes of some yummy coffee and coconut hot chocolate and then of some MamaJuana which is a liquor they make there, and I don’t remember the ingredients but it was tasty and felt warm in my belly!

Such a thorough day. This is the only excursion we did and we felt like we got to see it all. Everyone was so knowledgeable and made sure we were all together before leaving for the next activity. Incredible day, way worth the money & then some!!! Thank you to all the staff for a remarkable...

While the tour itself was okay, though short, we had an unfortunate incident with our driver during our tour. The review rating reflects the customer service we received in response to the incident.

Our family of three did the speedboat snorkeling tour and we boarded with one driver. He allowed both my husband and I to drive the boat. He took pictures of us along the way, including while we were snorkeling. He then returned us, by boat, to our resort, which we thought was odd. Our tour was supposed to be four hours and he returned us to our hotel after 2 hours. We assumed the time difference was due to the time saved in a shuttle back to our hotel.

Once at our hotel, he told us we could buy the photos he took either from him or from the company, but if we bought from the company he wouldn’t get any money. We felt bad for him, so we agreed to buy the photos from him directly. We tried multiple times, spending upwards of 30 minutes, to download the photos from the GoPro, but nothing worked. Because he had spent so much time trying to get the photos to us, we trusted him and thought he would send them later. We paid him $60 in cash and he said he would send them via WhatsApp once he got a stable internet connection. He never sent them. We contacted Punta Cana Adventures and while they attempted to get the photos for us, they weren’t able to do so. They issued a refund for the cost of the photos plus an additional $50 for the inconvenience, along with the following response:

“I want to extend my deepest apologies for the experience you've had. I truly appreciate your feedback, and I'm sorry for any inconvenience that may have been caused. I can assure you that we take all customer feedback seriously and strive to ensure that each of our clients has a positive experience with us.

With regards to the GoPro images, I deeply regret the inconvenience caused by this. Unfortunately, we were not able to recover the images due to a technical malfunction with the equipment. I understand that these photos would have been a precious memory of your snorkeling adventure, and I am sincerely sorry for this.

In light of your experience, I have issued a refund for the amount of $60 that you paid for the photos. Additionally, considering the overall inconvenience you experienced, I have issued an additional refund of $50.

While I know that this cannot undo the disappointing experience you had, it is a sincere attempt to make amends. I will personally investigate the issues you have raised to ensure this does not happen again to you or any of our other customers.”

We are still very bummed not to have the photos to document the experience since it was our first time snorkeling, but appreciated the effort that went into making things right for our family.

We were told after the fact that for photoshoots, the company works with professional, third-party photographers who provide a receipt and safely send pictures over services such as WeTransfer. This was never offered to us and we naively assumed the driver was trained to take photos in addition to driving the boat. If you do this tour and want photos to document it, I highly recommend communicating with the company ahead of your tour to ensure a photographer will be there so you don’t fall into the same...

The Saona island is excursion. Overall, just not a good experience. We have done a lot of excursions in many different countries. We did an excursion on this same island off a cruise ship about 5 years ago that was 5 stars!!! Our pick up was 45 mins late. This would have not been too big of a deal, but we did not get to eat breakfast because of the early pick up time. Nowhere is anybody represented as Punta Cana adventures it seem to be a totally different company. The bus ride was good until we made a stop for 20 mins at a tourist trap for coffee and snacks. We arrived at the onboarding for the boats and were placed on a catamaran. Our group was about 45 people (the website said 30). On the catamaran there was another 45 people. This is very misrepresented online. We chose to go with your company because the group size was only 30 people “supposedly” whereas, a lot of the other ones were 150. The other big problem that I had on catamaran was the staff passed out bandana/ scull caps to almost everyone on board, then, 10 minutes later came around to collect five dollars for the hat! Again, another misrepresentation. I’m OK with them selling the hats on board but you need to tell me upfront that it cost money and it’s not free. We arrive to the island and had to walk to the other side of the island, because the waves were too bad for them to dock the boats. We understood this and walked. Once we arrived to our side of the island, we were informed that we would only have 2 hours instead of the 3 to 3 1/2 hours, when we’d been told 3 -3.5 on the catamaran. And our designated time, we proceeded back across the island to the boat pick up. Once we got to this point, we had to wait another 45 minutes on our boat to come back to pick us up. This is a really big problem and a waste of our time! They knew what time we were coming back so the boat should’ve been ready. Next we proceeded to the shallow water where the starfish were. Driving the boat through the area they pointed out to lots of starfish, and then proceeded to park the boat in an area where there were no starfish. Throughout the excursion, we were hounded by the photo guy even though we had told him multiple times that we did not want pictures. At the end of the excursion, and instead of kindly, asking if we wanted to leave a tip we could. They had one of the staff walk around with a hat, almost demanding tips. We finally get back to the bus to again have another person come on the bus to try to sell us something else. I understand the people on the beach trying to sell stuff that’s how they make their money but for the company of the excursion to allow these people in to the bus is ridiculous!!! I booked through your company instead of trip advisor because I always like to use...