Tour guide in Rio

[ptcellen]

We are trying to decide which tour guide to hire in Rio. Our choices are between Daniel Cabral or Manu Peclat. Both have wonderful reviews on cc and trip advisor. If you have had any personal experience with either of them, please let us know.

 

Thank you.

 

Ellen:)

[nancy2406]

We are trying to decide which tour guide to hire in Rio. Our choices are between Daniel Cabral or Manu Peclat. Both have wonderful reviews on cc and trip advisor. If you have had any personal experience with either of them, please let us know.

 

Thank you.

 

Ellen:)

 

Hi Ellen,

We toured with Daniel in 2012 after disembarking the Marina in Rio. He picked up our group at the pier around 9am, had a nice mid-sized bus that we intentionally filled only half-full (12 people in a bus that held 24), we had a bus driver and Daniel as our guide, took us sightseeing, and dropped us off at the airport around 5:30pm. We toured the previous day as well, but Daniel took us to Sugar Loaf, the Sambadome, Metropolitan Cathedral, lunch along the beach, a leisurely walking tour in the Botanical Gardens, and a drive through the main beach areas. His English is good, he is very personable, and we enjoyed our day with him. The only drawback was that it was hot on Dec 10th and a few of our group were not able to do so much walking. I don't think you will be disappointed with Daniel as your guide.

Nancy (Nancy2406)

[RetiredFL]

We used Manu for two days of sightseeing and were very well pleased with him.

His english is perfect and his knowledge very good.

[tanny18]

We are trying to decide which tour guide to hire in Rio. Our choices are between Daniel Cabral or Manu Peclat. Both have wonderful reviews on cc and trip advisor. If you have had any personal experience with either of them, please let us know.

 

Thank you.

 

Ellen:)

 

We used Manu when we were in Rio and had a wonderful time with him...knowledgeable, personable and fun to be with. I'd recommend him without reservation. Arlene

[ptcellen]

Thank you for your responses. So far 2 for Manu and 1 for Daniel.....We will decide in the next few days. I feel confident that either one will be excellent.

 

Thanks again.

 

Ellen:)

[cpinstein]

Ellen, we did not have such a great experience with Manu. If you email me privately, I will be happy to elaborate.

 

cpinstein@gmail.com

[corpkid]

Somehow I missed this thread but YES - Manu was great a year ago (for us - sorry cpinstein had problems with him, and I have to admit I'm a little saddened to hear that.) We hired him for 3 days and was the highlight of our entire trip and he became a friend. Fantastic guide in every respect based on our experience.

[Mura]

Okay, I'll chime in. We used Manu on our recent visit and he was wonderful. For the second day tour (where we went from ship to the airport) he sent an associate because his niece was being baptized that afternoon and he had to be there, so couldn't be with us ...

 

Victor was also excellent. Both had superior English skills as well.

 

I'm sure you'll do fine with either guide.

 

Mura

[Relaxing Rita]

We had Manu on our TA in Dec 2012... He was good for half of the first day, then he spent most of his time on the phone eventually advising us of family problems... the next day, because of these family problems, he sent someone else to guide us who was just OK... we later found out that he had bumped us completely to take on another bigger group, from our ship no less! We were not happy with him naturally.

[ptcellen]

Again, thanks for all who chimed in. We ended up booking with Daniel, and we hope we made the right decision. Like others have said, I'm sure either Daniel or Manu ,would be good.

 

A big thank you to all who gave their opinions.

 

Ellen:)

[redrocksailor]

We had Daniel as our guide for the final two days of our recent Oceania cruise and he was excellent along with Manolo, the driver.

 

Fran

[ptcellen]

Hi Fran,

 

Thank you so much for your reassurance of Daniel as our guide. I am confident we made the right decision.

 

Ellen:)

[Mura]

I'm sure you'll be fine with Daniel.

 

I'm just distressed at the negative report on Manu because he was so responsive for the full year we were talking before the cruise, and certainly there with us all day. Maybe it was because we were a larger group, I don't know. (My group fluctuated ... at one time we were 22, then 14, and we ended up, I think, at 18.)

 

Another passenger on our cruise booked him also, but she had a smaller group and had Victor as the substitute guide. They were very pleased with Victor, as were we on our second day when Manu wasn't available.

 

If my group had been bounced at the last minute for a larger group on my cruise I'd have been muy upset as well!

 

I find that complaint hard to reconcile with the Manu we met and spent the day with but cannot deny the report. After all, he'd have gotten a lot more money from a larger group. So I guess he had an incentive to do so ... but it should have occurred to him as well (he's far from stupid) that negative reports hurt him in the long run.

 

And none of this excuses his leaving one group for the other, especially at the last minute.

 

Mura

[A Knitter]

I'm sure you'll be fine with Daniel.

 

I'm just distressed at the negative report on Manu because he was so responsive for the full year we were talking before the cruise, and certainly there with us all day. Maybe it was because we were a larger group, I don't know. (My group fluctuated ... at one time we were 22, then 14, and we ended up, I think, at 18.)

 

Another passenger on our cruise booked him also, but she had a smaller group and had Victor as the substitute guide. They were very pleased with Victor, as were we on our second day when Manu wasn't available.

 

If my group had been bounced at the last minute for a larger group on my cruise I'd have been muy upset as well!

 

I find that complaint hard to reconcile with the Manu we met and spent the day with but cannot deny the report. After all, he'd have gotten a lot more money from a larger group. So I guess he had an incentive to do so ... but it should have occurred to him as well (he's far from stupid) that negative reports hurt him in the long run.

 

And none of this excuses his leaving one group for the other, especially at the last minute.

 

Mura

 

Mura, Pedro Novak did the very same thing to us two weeks before we left after reserving him for a private tour 18 months advance notice and we had been in contact since my first trip to Rio in 2006. He apparently got a better offer for the first day in Port and hoped we would understand and would continue with the remaining 3 days. Not so. His loss and a negative review. We did hire another wonderful guide highly recommended and his English was far better.

[Mura]

It's depressing when this kind of thing happens. In our case, I was talking to Manu for a year in advance and he did indeed give us a great job, but we were a larger group -- ended up at 18. We were 22 at one point, and down to 14 at another. But on a per person cost, it was to his advantage to take our 18. (And his substitute the second day when we were only 8 was also excellent.)

 

Then we've also heard stories of other passengers getting the information about your guide and offering more money. Obviously the guide wants to make as much as he can, but in the long run news gets around. Especially on Cruise Critic!

 

So the guide should be advised to play straight ... as should other passengers. Because if he'll do it to someone else, he'll do it to you, too.

 

Mura