independent tour operators

[braveslake]

What kind of transportation does she use for her tour and is it air conditioned? Thanks in advance for your answers.

[sarar]

What kind of transportation does she use for her tour and is it air conditioned? Thanks in advance for your answers.

 

I would say it's something like a small fiat, not all that modern and quite small. I dont know if she has larger vehicles for larger groups as there were only 3 of us, I would ask her, she is very good at replying to emails and does so from her Blackberry. From what we can remember, her car did have AC.

[Paumavista]

Solimare will rent a van if you have a larger party (our group of 6)....in fact on the day of our tour her rental van fell through unexpectedly....she had to quickly get a friend of hers to do the driving - so we had a driver & a tour guide & plenty of room in the air conditioned van! She is resourceful & has lots of friends and connections - she will find the right means of transportation to fit your group.

Judy

[dlt1250]

We just booked Solimar for April!!!! Can't wait....I'll give feedback after the trip.

[Fluffy Terry]

Is there a website I can look at to see what they offer. We are not going till March 2013, but am starting to do our homework now and trying to find independent tours

 

We just booked Solimar for April!!!! Can't wait....I'll give feedback after the trip.

[dlt1250]

Hi,

 

As far as I know she doesn't have a website...but her e-mail is:goutvisje@hotmail.com

 

She is an independent operator.

[Fluffy Terry]

I was wondering about peter trips as the web site doesnt go into too much detail of what they offer.

 

I used petertrips.com for an all day island tour. We went everywhere, and his educational .narration was very thorough. Mostly Europeans on the tour, so narration was bilingual. Lunch, on your own, was at a beautiful resort. Truly first class operation, IMO.

[4bunns]

Hi,

We used Solimare and she was excellent!!! We had the following tour:

I can drive you around for a six to seven hours tour showing you the hightlighs of the island.

 

I can provide you with a tour around the Island, We will start the tour in the Capital Willemstad that is divided in 2 parts, Punda is the commercial part of our capital and Otrabanda is the residential part of our capital. We continue to a Jewish neighborhood Scharloo where the Jewish build there houses close to Punda. Visit the liqiour distillery where our liqiour is made out of orange peels grown here on the island. After the distillery we go to the west side of the island the more natural side of the island what we call Banda Abou. We can have Lunch at a local restaurant named Komedor Krioyo, make a picture stop at an ex-slave house named Kas di Pali Maishi. Visit a cave named Boca Tabla and visit a beach for some swimming (Cas Abao).The cost of the tour is $45 per person.If you want to add or adjust anything no problem since this will be a private tour.

[MSUcruisers]

If anyone has taken a tour with Solimare lately, I would like some updates about your experience including price and type of vehicle she drives for a 2-4 people. I am not comfortable with a small car.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

I would also be interested in updates. We will be going to Curacoa next year and a half day tour with time for shopping sounds great!

[CRUISING71]

We took private tour with Dushi Taxi and Natajsha is wonderful. Check her out on Facebook.

[4friends]

I have e-mailed Solimare twice in two weeks with no response. Maybe she is no longer in business. Anymore info on Dushi taxi or other options? I am looking at Irie tours as well.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

I had the same thing happen - no response. We have a group, so we have booked a private tour with Irie Tours, 3 hour tour in the AM, not mid day llike their regular tours. We have filled her a/c van with our group.

[4friends]

Never did get a response from Solimare or a couple other taxi guides I e-mailed. I did contact Natasja Gibbs with Dushi taxi and she has responded promptly to every e-mail I have sent. Her tour is $10 per person per hour and she will go wherever we want. We have booked her for our upcoming cruise.

[muffin]

I am unable to find an email address for Natasha Gibbs with dushi cabs. I can only locate her facebook page, but the possible connections from there do not work. I do not use Facebook. She sounds good, but I need more info please. Does she have a website in addition to her fb page? Thx for any help..

Marg

[4friends]

I am unable to find an email address for Natasha Gibbs with dushi cabs. I can only locate her facebook page, but the possible connections from there do not work. I do not use Facebook. She sounds good, but I need more info please. Does she have a website in addition to her fb page? Thx for any help..

Marg

 

Her e-mail is natasjagibbs@hotmail.com. I don't think she has a web page but she responded to all my e-mails promptly an provided lots of of info.

[KAWS]

Never did get a response from Solimare or a couple other taxi guides I e-mailed. I did contact Natasja Gibbs with Dushi taxi and she has responded promptly to every e-mail I have sent. Her tour is $10 per person per hour and she will go wherever we want. We have booked her for our upcoming cruise.

 

I saw what Natasja has posted on her FB page. How on earth did you ever make your mind up as to what you wanted to go and see? The first big paragraph described what I thought would be a full tour for the 4 hours. Is the rest a list of optional add on's? Sorry to sound like a dolt but it always takes me a while to process all the info for a new port that we've not gone to before. Are you doing 4 hours or more and what are you doing that day? I'd rather do more island tour and see the culture and enjoy a lunch than just hang out at a beach all afternoon and she does list a lot of great ideas.

[4friends]

I saw what Natasja has posted on her FB page. How on earth did you ever make your mind up as to what you wanted to go and see? The first big paragraph described what I thought would be a full tour for the 4 hours. Is the rest a list of optional add on's? Sorry to sound like a dolt but it always takes me a while to process all the info for a new port that we've not gone to before. Are you doing 4 hours or more and what are you doing that day? I'd rather do more island tour and see the culture and enjoy a lunch than just hang out at a beach all afternoon and she does list a lot of great ideas.

 

We want to make a quick stop at the curacao liqueur factory, go to the salt ponds, Shete Boca park, stops at scenic areas for photos. We are wanting to see areas of the west side. We also want to spend some time at a beach to do some snorkelling. We have booked for 6 hours to include the beach time. She has told me she will plan for whatever we want to do.

[caly603]

Does Solimare tailor the day to what you want to see? And what did it cost? We'd like a smaller tour like this as well. I can't find any threads for a tour that we could join and there are only 4 of us.

Sorry it's taken so long to post back from our trip.

Solimare met us and took us first to Lagun Beach for some snorkeling (unfortunately the weather wasn't the greatest)....but Lagun beach is really pretty (although not a good "beach") and would be wonderful in sunny weather. We did snorkel for awhile and the kids even saw a turtle.

Solimare is VERY knowledgeable and was a great guide sharing alot of info about Curacao along the way....

We then went where they have divers off a cliff into the water (near a restaurant)...unfortunately it was raining by this point so we didn't get out but it would have been a nice stop for a drink and to watch the divers.

Then it was off to Knip beach in the hopes of more snorkeling....this is a nice sandy beach where we also tried to do a little snorkeling before it rained.

Since snorkeling/beach stuff wasn't working out we went to the other side of the island by Westpunt and the national park and there is a place with a blowhole/cave in the rocks and a Natural bridge you can walk to....well finally the sun came out but the wind was still blowing and it made the waves spectacular!!!!! WOW, what a neat place, we could have watched those waves for hours! It was beautiful. One wave surprised us....we were soaked but luckily already in our bathing suits. I'm so glad we got to see this area (and I know we wouldn't have if the weather had been sunny and we'd stayed snorkeling....so it all worked out great).

After the waves we headed back to town near the pier where we wandered across the bridge and did a little shopping (Curacao has the BEST shopping area of any port we visited this cruise)....it's so pretty with little eating areas and such colorful shops.

Now be sure to WATCH OUT for the bridge...just when we were getting ready to go back to the ship the bells started blowing and we ran and jumped on the bridge before it started swinging open (well all of us did except for my 22 year old son).....so now we are on the bridge and he is on the other side...for some reason the bridge stayed open for a long time.....we ran across and jumped off the other side near the ship.....but they never closed the bridge while we waited.....after awhile they started running ferries across between the two areas.....we got nervous for a few minutes even though we had about an hour before the ship left....luckily he noticed the ferries and jumped on!

 

I highly recommend Solimar....and I highly recommend touring on your own. Make a list of some places you've heard about here on the board and put a tour together...ask for her suggestions and see what you want to see at your own pace.

 

Judy

[caly603]

We want to make a quick stop at the curacao liqueur factory, go to the salt ponds, Shete Boca park, stops at scenic areas for photos. We are wanting to see areas of the west side. We also want to spend some time at a beach to do some snorkelling. We have booked for 6 hours to include the beach time. She has told me she will plan for whatever we want to do.

 

 

 

I sent an email and a FB request to Natasja Gibbs, since it sounds like she's easier to contact. We're on the Breeze, leaving Saturday. Is this the cruise you guys are on?