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Hiring a tour guide at the dock in Nassau?


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Has anyone done this before or does anyone have knowledge of this? I read in another forum that someone recently hired a tour guide in a van at the end of the dock once they got off the ship.

 

The tour was $25 per person for about 2-1/2 hours and they went to a lot of familiar places as well as some that I hadn't heard mentioned before. The review was glowing and I'm just wondering if anyone else has experience with this. Thanks!

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The Taxi Tour with Perry in Nassau is the best. We take a family cruise every year. There are 10 of us. He was standing there and said as we walked up, can I have the pleasure of showing us he's island. After finding out that it was $35pp. I wasn't to into that. So glad my mom and a few others, that didn't want to walk said we were doing it. You get to see so much more of Nassau. You are in a A/C van. That is a BIG plus. He would stop and let us walk around. He also was happy to take group photo's. It is always hard to get a photo with everyone in the picture. We have used him for the last 3 years. I have him as a FaceBook friend and tell him the day we are coming and he's there waiting for us. His name is Perry Mcphee and his FaceBook page is www dot facebook dot com/perry dot mcphee dot 9?fref=ts

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We took a tour from a taxi driver we met at the end of the pier as well. His name was Gladstone "GMan" Mcfee. I believe it was $25 pp or a little less even. The tour was about 2 1/2 hours long and hit all the high spots. He was very informative and funny! I would definitely recommend using him. He is on my Facebook and I can get his contact info if you are interested.

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On our tour with GMan we rode in a van and there were 5 other people with us. We never had to wait. He was awesome about taking our pictures and so informative. When you get off the ship towards the end of the pier there will be several guys standing around waiting to take you on these kid of tours. They will have picture name badges on showing they are approved by the Bahamian government.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have tried contacting Perry McPhee numerous time - via email, via FB, through the tour company he was with (DivineServantsTours - which apparently no longer exists, or is no longer on the web).....

 

I have not had any success.

 

Hope others have better success than we have had...

 

Was the "Sandra" someone above used from the Sandra Ferguson tours???

 

so frustrated trying to find someone who has been reviewed on CC.

 

blessings..robin

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I have tried contacting Perry McPhee numerous time - via email, via FB, through the tour company he was with (DivineServantsTours - which apparently no longer exists, or is no longer on the web).....

 

I have not had any success.

 

Hope others have better success than we have had...

 

Was the "Sandra" someone above used from the Sandra Ferguson tours???

 

so frustrated trying to find someone who has been reviewed on CC.

 

blessings..robin

 

Sandra can be found at: www.sandrastaxibahamas.com

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I sent her a message using the Contact Us section of that website several weeks ago and never received a reply. A friend recommended someone else that they used recently. I don't have the contact info handy, but I'll post it on here later.

 

hmm. Sometimes those things don't work very well, especially in the bahamas. use the email addy or txt her. She answers quickly.

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Wow. We used Gladstone back in May off NCL Gem. We found him standing at the pier. There were many drivers there with badges. All safe. Our excursion from the ship was cancelled due to rain. We thought we would just walk around until we went our guide.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Instead of paying for cab tours you might want to try the Bahamas People to People Program through the Bahamas Tourism Office, I believe. I have not had personal experience with this but have read reviews raving about these free local tours through them. When our daughter is older and more interested in an all day tour we are going to try it if the program is still available.

 

Sent from my LG-L38C using Forums mobile app

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Instead of paying for cab tours you might want to try the Bahamas People to People Program through the Bahamas Tourism Office, I believe. I have not had personal experience with this but have read reviews raving about these free local tours through them. When our daughter is older and more interested in an all day tour we are going to try it if the program is still available.

 

Sent from my LG-L38C using Forums mobile app

 

. . . for our visit next week. Very personal service, no fee for the tour and they will take in any points of interest or other cultural places you wish to visit. We are planning on bringing a gift, from our state, for our host and provide them with a tip in accordance with the service. They get back to you promptly and then schedule your host about 2 weeks prior to scheduled arrival.

 

Will post a review after 10/19/13

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Sorry for being late at getting back to everyone, but I wanted to share our experience. We decided to just wait until we got to Nassau and see if we could find a good driver. Before we even got to the end of the dock, there were several drivers there soliciting passengers for tours. None of them were pushy and they all had credentials from the government hanging around their necks with their names and other info clearly printed for everyone to see.

 

The first one to approach us was a man named George Murray. There were three in our group and he politely asked us to wait a few minutes until he could get a few more passengers for his van. The wait was probably no more than 5 minutes and he made sure that we sat in the shade as we waited. He had a fairly large van and there were a total of 8 of us who went on the tour. His van probably could have held another 6 people.

 

He only charged us $20 per person. When he was explaining where his tour goes, I asked if it included the Marley Resort. He said no, but he would be happy to add that to his tour. He was very funny and informative and gave us quite an interesting education throughout the entire trip. We went to Fort Fincastle, the Queen's Staircase, stopped at the far end of Junkanoo beach, went past Fish Fry, stopped at the Marley Resort (only the gift shop was open due to renovations), drove through several areas of Nassau from the very wealthy to (as he called it) "the hood" and we ended with a 30 minute stop at Atlantis before he took us back to the port area.

 

I would have gladly paid twice what he charged and we made sure to tip him well to show our appreciation for the extra stop and how great of a job he did. From what I've heard from others, you can expect this same level of service from any of the tour drivers. I would gladly do it again without any hesitation. I hope this helps with anyone who is considering hiring a driver in Nassau.

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Does anyone know if these vans could accommodate a fold-up walker. My sister cannot walk long distances and uses a walker. I had thought we would have to stay on ship, but perhaps this type of tour could work for her. do you get on and off the van many times?

 

thanks!

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Does anyone know if these vans could accommodate a fold-up walker. My sister cannot walk long distances and uses a walker. I had thought we would have to stay on ship, but perhaps this type of tour could work for her. do you get on and off the van many times?

 

thanks!

 

The van that we rode in can definitely accommodate a walker, as could most of the other ones that I saw. We got out of the van only a few times. Some of the people in our group did not want to walk down the Queen's Staircase, so our driver drove them around to the bottom to wait for the rest of us. I think your sister would be fine and would likely enjoy getting out to see and learn about Nassau.

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The van that we rode in can definitely accommodate a walker, as could most of the other ones that I saw. We got out of the van only a few times. Some of the people in our group did not want to walk down the Queen's Staircase, so our driver drove them around to the bottom to wait for the rest of us. I think your sister would be fine and would likely enjoy getting out to see and learn about Nassau.

 

Thank you so much! She's been ( as have I) to Nassau many times - but our trips were years ago and strictly to Atlantis to swim and gamble.

 

She will definitely enjoy the cruise more if we can get off the ship at least once.

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