Bermuda private guide

[ashmac8]

On another note, what is an appropriate tip for the driver? 10%, 20% and extra hour's fare???

 

Thanks

[Bababooey Land]

If you are happy with the driver, i usually tip 15% - 20%.

[ktbmhb]

Just got back from Bermuda on Thursday. We were on the Explorer of the Seas with about 14 of us. Had a BLAST!

 

We did book a private tour thru Nadanja...image2entertainment@yahoo.com! Since we were 12 ppl we had 2 vans. Very clean, air and great drivers. Nadanja and his cousin J were very knowledgable and took us all over the whole island. We fed the fish at Somerset Bridge, climbed the Lighthouse steps, saw a private home that had a manmade pond of the island, very cool, went to the Swizzle Inn and met Aunt Rita, really his aunt, saw Horseshoe Bay, Tabacco Bay, and stopped at Sea Galss Beach where we picked up lots of sea glass. He dropped off half of our party in Hamilton where we caught the 3:30 ferry back to the dockyard, so we could see the island from the water and J took the older folks right to the dockyard, so there was not alot of walking for them.

 

It was the right thing to do for our family and I would reccommend him.

 

Please if you do use him, let him know we suggested it.

 

Michelle

[CruisinEars]

Just wanted to share our experience in mid July after asking for recommendations here.

 

We booked Nevis Barbosa and he turned out to be great. He was waiting for us as soon as we disembarked and he has a Toyota minivan. We had 6 in our party and were quite comfortable. We had asked for an island overview and a lunch stop at the Swizzle Inn. We got exactly what we asked for and it was a very nice day. Bermuda was very windy that day, so a beach day was not what we wanted. We did stop and he gave my dd a baggie to collect some pink sand at the beach. I do have to add that the Swizzle Inn was just okay. It was very pricey and the service exceedingly slow. The food was pretty good but it cost us $107 for 6 and that was with my parents sharing a sandwich. They also automatically included a gratuity for our party of 6. Be forwarned if you plan a stop there.

 

Nevis and his wife were very good about communicating with me and I even got an email while on the cruise to confirm our tour. Thankfully we had a stop in St Thomas first so I was able to use my phone to reply.

[Nora4sure]

I just wanted to chime in before collecting my thoughts and putting a review together of our week in Bermuda on NCL's Dawn. We hired Duke Soares for a full day tour this week. Just prior to leaving I emailed him and asked if he had availablity for a second day since we wanted to see and do a lot; happily he was available for two back to back days of sightseeing.

 

Seeing it all comes at a price however, but my husband and I saw the whole island, enjoyed lunches and the beach and felt like we were treating ourselves to something special. Duke is indeed a knowledgeable individual who is happy to talk about any subject; history, marine biology, weather, wildlife, cars, government, economy, culture, his family. You name it, we talked about it as we meandered through the different parishes over the course of our two days with him. We were very pleased and would highly recommend him.

Nora

[mackfam]

Our group of 10 had Colin Jennings and his friend Donny booked for a tour of the island on August 3rd. We split our group between the two cars. I was with Colin and found him to be friendly and somewhat informative. We saw pretty much the whole island which was great. After we were all dropped off in Hamilton at the end of the tour, the group who had been with Colin's friend commented that their driver had hardly said a word the whole time and hadn't pointed out any landmarks. He had basically just followed our car. I was somewhat disappointed as I had heard so many good things about Colin and expected his friend to be equally good. The other group were the younger members of our party so weren't too upset about the lack of info but felt they didn't get their value for money. I have to admit that even Colin was not as informative as I had expected from reading this thread. The taxi driver who drove us from the ferry in St. George to Tobacco Bay the next day, told us more about the area in that ten minutes than Colin had the day before. So to anyone disappointed that they can't book Colin Jennings for their tour, he's not the be all and end all.

[DrFootball]

I just wanted to chime in before collecting my thoughts and putting a review together of our week in Bermuda on NCL's Dawn. We hired Duke Soares for a full day tour this week. Just prior to leaving I emailed him and asked if he had availablity for a second day since we wanted to see and do a lot; happily he was available for two back to back days of sightseeing.

 

Seeing it all comes at a price however, but my husband and I saw the whole island, enjoyed lunches and the beach and felt like we were treating ourselves to something special. Duke is indeed a knowledgeable individual who is happy to talk about any subject; history, marine biology, weather, wildlife, cars, government, economy, culture, his family. You name it, we talked about it as we meandered through the different parishes over the course of our two days with him. We were very pleased and would highly recommend him.

Nora

 

 

Except he's not answering his e-mail as of yet...

 

Bill(DrFootball)

("Air CAV! If you Ain't Cav, you Ain't *&%$")

Bill's Brainiac Random Quote Generator V0.94 final beta for Mac

[FoodieNJ]

Except he's not answering his e-mail as of yet...

 

Bill(DrFootball)

("Air CAV! If you Ain't Cav, you Ain't *&%$")

Bill's Brainiac Random Quote Generator V0.94 final beta for Mac

If you are trying to reach Duke Soares, make sure you are using his current email address "dukesoares@gmail.com." He responded to me within 24 hours.

[DrFootball]

If you are trying to reach Duke Soares, make sure you are using his current email address "dukesoares@gmail.com." He responded to me within 24 hours.

 

Thankyou!!:D

 

Bill(DrFootball)

(This Medal is awarded for to the Aviator who has “distinguished himself by Heroism, Gallantry or Extraordinary Achievement while participating in aerial flight.” - The Army Distinguished Flying Cross)

Bill's Brainiac Random Quote Generator V0.94 final beta for Mac

[Nora4sure]

Yes, I too had the wrong email originally and inquired on here a few days later. When I used the email mentioned above, Duke was in touch immediately. In our opinion, he was outstanding.

 

Nora

[janetz]

Yes, I too had the wrong email originally and inquired on here a few days later. When I used the email mentioned above, Duke was in touch immediately. In our opinion, he was outstanding.

 

Nora

 

 

How old is Duke?

Edited August 14, 2011 by janetz

[grandmaR]

Do all of the guides adhere to the current guidelines for price or do some of them charge more?

[janetz]

Do all of the guides adhere to the current guidelines for price or do some of them charge more?

 

 

All the same.

[tiggrbaby]

Just got back today from our NCL Gem cruise. Took a fabulous tour the first day with Judith and Robin. They had a vehicle large enough to accommodate our group of eight that included a someone in a wheelchair. They were very knowledgeable and did not rush us. We got a great overview of the island and learned much of the history. We were very glad we went with them!

[Nora4sure]

Duke is in his mid 60s, Id say. He is a slight man and very fit. He greeted us with orange bermuda shorts and an appropriately matching short sleeved collared dress shirt, grey woolen knee socks and shined loafers(our second day with him we wore yellow bermuda shorts). It all sort of "worked". He is soft but very well spoken. Wife and two kids that he filled us in on. His wife Sandra works for the Harbormaster in St. George's and also for one of their sons who owns some sort of watercraft business on the island(and apparently does very well for himself). His other son's career was vague but he drives for Duke on the weekends. I told Duke that we had heard about him on these boards and he said that he hadnt read the boards but did know they existed.

Nora

Edited August 14, 2011 by Nora4sure
spelling

[janetz]

Thanks!

[pbnjrockette]

Our group of 10 had Colin Jennings and his friend Donny booked for a tour of the island on August 3rd. We split our group between the two cars. I was with Colin and found him to be friendly and somewhat informative. We saw pretty much the whole island which was great. After we were all dropped off in Hamilton at the end of the tour, the group who had been with Colin's friend commented that their driver had hardly said a word the whole time and hadn't pointed out any landmarks. He had basically just followed our car. I was somewhat disappointed as I had heard so many good things about Colin and expected his friend to be equally good. The other group were the younger members of our party so weren't too upset about the lack of info but felt they didn't get their value for money. I have to admit that even Colin was not as informative as I had expected from reading this thread. The taxi driver who drove us from the ferry in St. George to Tobacco Bay the next day, told us more about the area in that ten minutes than Colin had the day before. So to anyone disappointed that they can't book Colin Jennings for their tour, he's not the be all and end all.

 

We (a party of 4) had pre-booked Colin Jenning for a tour on July 7th. We found him very personable and friendly. He gave a great commentary throughout our 5 hour tour. We had already been to St. George so we toured the rest of Bermuda and I felt we had an excellent experience!! We did have a general idea of what we wanted to see and Colin made sure we did it all...even taking us to a very difficult to reach beach. We plied with him many questions so there was lots of chatter! He stopped wherever we wished for photos. We decided not to spend 'tour' time eating lunch so grabbed a hotdog at the Dockyard and treated Colin to lunch. Very enjoyable. Well worth it!!

[DrFootball]

To Say that We are Booked With Duke for 11/3! DW & I are very pumped!:D:D

 

Bill(DrFootball)

("the past is the past, Look forward to the future instead of dwelling on what already took place")

Bill's Brainiac Random Quote Generator V0.94 final beta for Mac

[PurrSusan]

We (a party of 4) had pre-booked Colin Jenning for a tour on July 7th. We found him very personable and friendly. He gave a great commentary throughout our 5 hour tour. We had already been to St. George so we toured the rest of Bermuda and I felt we had an excellent experience!! We did have a general idea of what we wanted to see and Colin made sure we did it all...even taking us to a very difficult to reach beach. We plied with him many questions so there was lots of chatter! He stopped wherever we wished for photos. We decided not to spend 'tour' time eating lunch so grabbed a hotdog at the Dockyard and treated Colin to lunch. Very enjoyable. Well worth it!!

 

We're going with Colin in a few weeks. Could you list where he took you? We'll be going to St George because we haven't been there before. Just trying to decide what other places we don't want to miss :) I think we are going to have him end in Hamilton & we'll take the ferry back to the dockyard.

[Host Caroline]

We went with Colin in June to Somerset Village (Narrow bridge and then we stopped to make res at watersports place), Gibbes Hill lighthouse (we climbed, he waited); along south coast to Horseshoe Beach for photo op really and another beach (not "beach people"), to Flatts Village, St George for snack lunch and quick tour, Tobacco Bay, Fort St Catherine, Tucker Town (what you can get to), Caves (we did Fantasy Caves, he waited), Paget Marsh (lovely) and then into Hamilton where we got ferry (no 4pm ferry to dockyard though FYI). We didn't have a long list of "must sees" and he was very chatty and personable..

[cruises42]

Do you know if it is usual for a private tour guide to take you to places you don't want to go as part of "his" tour? I thought we (the passengers) choose where we would like to go on a tour.

[cruises42]

Just got back from Bermuda on Thursday. We were on the Explorer of the Seas with about 14 of us. Had a BLAST!

 

We did book a private tour thru Nadanja...image2entertainment@yahoo.com! Since we were 12 ppl we had 2 vans. Very clean, air and great drivers. Nadanja and his cousin J were very knowledgable and took us all over the whole island. We fed the fish at Somerset Bridge, climbed the Lighthouse steps, saw a private home that had a manmade pond of the island, very cool, went to the Swizzle Inn and met Aunt Rita, really his aunt, saw Horseshoe Bay, Tabacco Bay, and stopped at Sea Galss Beach where we picked up lots of sea glass. He dropped off half of our party in Hamilton where we caught the 3:30 ferry back to the dockyard, so we could see the island from the water and J took the older folks right to the dockyard, so there was not alot of walking for them.

 

It was the right thing to do for our family and I would reccommend him.

 

Please if you do use him, let him know we suggested it.

 

Michelle

 

Just wanted to share our experience in mid July after asking for recommendations here.

 

We booked Nevis Barbosa and he turned out to be great. He was waiting for us as soon as we disembarked and he has a Toyota minivan. We had 6 in our party and were quite comfortable. We had asked for an island overview and a lunch stop at the Swizzle Inn. We got exactly what we asked for and it was a very nice day. Bermuda was very windy that day, so a beach day was not what we wanted. We did stop and he gave my dd a baggie to collect some pink sand at the beach. I do have to add that the Swizzle Inn was just okay. It was very pricey and the service exceedingly slow. The food was pretty good but it cost us $107 for 6 and that was with my parents sharing a sandwich. They also automatically included a gratuity for our party of 6. Be forwarned if you plan a stop there.

 

Nevis and his wife were very good about communicating with me and I even got an email while on the cruise to confirm our tour. Thankfully we had a stop in St Thomas first so I was able to use my phone to reply.

 

We went with Colin in June to Somerset Village (Narrow bridge and then we stopped to make res at watersports place), Gibbes Hill lighthouse (we climbed, he waited); along south coast to Horseshoe Beach for photo op really and another beach (not "beach people"), to Flatts Village, St George for snack lunch and quick tour, Tobacco Bay, Fort St Catherine, Tucker Town (what you can get to), Caves (we did Fantasy Caves, he waited), Paget Marsh (lovely) and then into Hamilton where we got ferry (no 4pm ferry to dockyard though FYI). We didn't have a long list of "must sees" and he was very chatty and personable..

 

Did you choose where you wanted to go or did the driver have a planned tour that you had to do?

[FoodieNJ]

Did you choose where you wanted to go or did the driver have a planned tour that you had to do?

cruises42, some individuals feel the driver has additional insights about Bermuda and can choose the best locations, others have specific plans and the driver might suggest some additions/changes ... bottom line, you can plan as much of your taxi tour as you want or let the driver design the tour. My personal style is to pick what I want to see (e.g., read guide books, read what is on CC) so I can figure out my must sees as well as what I think would be fine to skip ... and I will happily listen to any suggestions the taxi tour driver has, but at the end of the day it will be my/your choice ... that is on of the key reasons I decided upon a taxi tour, otherwise I would have just signed up for one of the preplanned cruise ship tours.

Edited August 19, 2011 by FoodieNJ

[lady lyn]

Had the pleasure of having a tour in Bermuda with Unique Vacations with Judith and Robin. Judith was very knowledgeable about the island and Robin was a super driver as well as being very informative. Their bus/van was very clean and comfortable and could hold 10 in comfort. It is also wheelchair accessible in case anyone needs that. Judith had numerous books with pictures of the island over the years. Willing to go where you want and never felt hurried.

Edited August 19, 2011 by lady lyn
forgot to mention where we were

[sccoast]

Do all of the guides adhere to the current guidelines for price or do some of them charge more?

 

 

i contacted 4 different taxi tour guides that i read about in this thread, i was quoted anything from $40hr to $60hr. i asked for a 3-4hr tour, some said they would but would leave me in hamilton at the ferry, others insisted it had to be 5hr. i believe it was duke who said he didnt' drive on sundays but his son would. it was dennis hollis who said $40. someone told me that because of the 25% sunday surcharge that is why i was quoted higher fees. contact them, get the specifics all ironed out is all i can say.