Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

hiring a driver for the day

tyson

By tyson,
in Cozumel

 Share

Recommended Posts

familycruzer

familycruzer

Posted
Posted

Well here is my review from my second day spent with Gerry.

 

I was not sure if our ship would tender or dock in Cozumel so Gerry had to get the scoop before our arrival. When we did arrive and luckily was able to dock at the International Pier he was waiting for us with our name on a sign. He quickly whisked us away from the crowds and we headed south along the shore line. Our first stop was Playa Palancar. Before entering the beach area you drive along a very rough road and past swamp land. Right outside the beach entrance there was a fence and a crocodile right within reach. We walked to the beach and it was nice but very narrow. The use of the chairs is free but they ask you to spend money on food and or drinks. From Playa Palancar we headed off to Punta Sur and then El Mirador. I honestly could have spent the entire day at either of the two stops. The views were breathtaking. We had a quick bite to eat at Playa Bonita and then ended at Los Cinco Sols in the downtown shopping area because my nephew wanted to shop his day away.

A quick word about Gerry, my nephew came along with us on this trip and he has never traveled before. We put him in the front seat with Gerry and they had some wonderful talks about Cozumel and he learned so much along the way. We all hugged Gerry goodbye and hope to one day get to visit with him again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mamacat3

mamacat3

Posted
Posted

Just returned and I must say that our best day was spent with Gerry!!!!:D :D He is such a nice man and a gentleman. We pretty much left our tour up to him. Spent 7 hours with him and wish we had had more time. He is so informative about the island and had many good ideas about what to do and where to go. We had lunch at Playa Bonita and WOW is all I can say. Gerry ate lunch with us and had some suggestions and it was wonderful..

 

I would highly recommend Gerry to anyone visiting Cozumel. I certainly look forward to visiting again and spending another day with him. Any questions feel free to ask!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kenf333

kenf333

Posted
Posted
Just returned and I must say that our best day was spent with Gerry!!!!:D :D He is such a nice man and a gentleman. We pretty much left our tour up to him. Spent 7 hours with him and wish we had had more time. He is so informative about the island and had many good ideas about what to do and where to go. We had lunch at Playa Bonita and WOW is all I can say. Gerry ate lunch with us and had some suggestions and it was wonderful..

 

I would highly recommend Gerry to anyone visiting Cozumel. I certainly look forward to visiting again and spending another day with him. Any questions feel free to ask!!

 

Glad your day was great... What else did you do or see??? :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mwsrccl

mwsrccl

Posted
Posted
Just returned and I must say that our best day was spent with Gerry!!!!:D :D He is such a nice man and a gentleman. We pretty much left our tour up to him. Spent 7 hours with him and wish we had had more time. He is so informative about the island and had many good ideas about what to do and where to go. We had lunch at Playa Bonita and WOW is all I can say. Gerry ate lunch with us and had some suggestions and it was wonderful..

 

I would highly recommend Gerry to anyone visiting Cozumel. I certainly look forward to visiting again and spending another day with him. Any questions feel free to ask!!

 

 

Thanks so much for the review. We have Gerry booked for Sept. and cannot wait.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
familycruzer

familycruzer

Posted
Posted
Just returned and I must say that our best day was spent with Gerry!!!!:D :D He is such a nice man and a gentleman. We pretty much left our tour up to him. Spent 7 hours with him and wish we had had more time. He is so informative about the island and had many good ideas about what to do and where to go. We had lunch at Playa Bonita and WOW is all I can say. Gerry ate lunch with us and had some suggestions and it was wonderful..

 

I would highly recommend Gerry to anyone visiting Cozumel. I certainly look forward to visiting again and spending another day with him. Any questions feel free to ask!!

 

 

We ate at Playa Bonita too. What an amazing view to sit and have a bite to eat. I am glad it all worked out for you. Gerry is a real find in Cozumel.

Darlene

2901521810069756907LLAKIh_fs.jpg.3b5d061ee4b72319dcc465bb90a5b0c1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
houcruzer

houcruzer

Posted
Posted

Based on CC recommendations, we will be with Gerry on Feb 8. I will pass along our experiences when we get back.

 

We are looking for a nice place to eat, have a drink or two, watch people and enjoy the scenery. From reading this thread, sounds like Coconuts, Mescalitos and Playa Bonita would fit the bill. For stunning scenery and/or beach sounds like Chen Rio, Punta Sur and El Mirador will be good.

 

Anybody additional thoughts or suggestions?

 

Thanks,

 

hc

Link to comment
Share on other sites
familycruzer

familycruzer

Posted
Posted

Your day with Gerry sounds perfect and pretty much the same that we did. If you can, have Gerry drive you down the dirt road to Playa Panacar and if you are lucky the crocodiles will be within sight. Warning, there is not much between you and them.

 

Darlene

1932564777_enchantment134.jpg.10a7ee8b6d5191e6a2673b1b4242877b.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...
bflysmile

bflysmile

Posted
Posted

Based on recommendations from this board, we hired Gerry as our driver in Cozumel last week - week of 2/14/08 - and had a horrible experience with him, so I thought other people should know.

 

We had 8 people on our tour, but had originally thought we would have up to 10 and couldn't have fit 10 in the van. The van was very run down (at one point Gerry's door opened while driving and he had to stop and fix it!) to the point where he had to use OUR time to stop and put air in the tires. The windows were so dirty, you couldn't take pictures out of them.

 

If he was supposed to be a tour guide, he was horrible. He drove aimlessly, not telling us where we were going and only spoke to the 2 people in our party who had to share the front seat with him because the van didn't fit us all.

 

He obviously does the same 'tour' for everyone and we were told it wouldn't be a problem to diverge from that and do what we wanted - that he'd take us wherever we wanted to go. But that couldn't have been further from the truth. It was obvious that he was getting kick backs from each place he took us (even took the money right in front of us!) and tried to get us to agree to stop at cheesy stands for "photo ops" where you could - conveniently! - buy over-priced souvenirs.

 

The worst thing, though, was when he stopped by a broken down van and proceeded to tell the people on the road that they weren't having as bad as a day as he was because his van was filled with "fat and messy women." He obviously didn't know one of us spoke Spanish and when he did find that out, he "tested" her spanish, obviously trying to figure out if she could tell what he was saying. If you are over a size 14, I guess Gerry doesn't want you in his van!

 

Needless to say, I would NOT recommend Gerry to anyone going to Cozumel. He was pushy about what we should do, rude when we told him we didn't want to stop at each stop and wanted to get to a beach. It really seemed like he was driving really slowly just to run out the clock so he'd make more money.

 

Other than that, Cozumel was a beautiful island and I wish we could have enjoyed it more with a driver who was willing to listen to us and not be outright offensive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
bflytwo

bflytwo

Posted
Posted

i was with bflysmile on the same tour, and her review is entirely correct- i know, we were so disappointed after all the good reviews he'd gotten. he was nothing like we expected, and it felt like he was just trying to run out the time so we'd have to pay for more hours. :mad:

 

 

Wow, that is so much different of a review than everyone else has given... :confused:
Link to comment
Share on other sites
familycruzer

familycruzer

Posted
Posted

Are you sure this was the same Gerry that we have talked about? I have spent two days with him on tours and have experienced the total opposite from what you have stated. He has always been kind, not one bit pushy, or slow to make the time go longer than needed.

 

Darlene

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Iam9a

Iam9a

Posted
Posted
Based on recommendations from this board, we hired Gerry as our driver in Cozumel last week - week of 2/14/08 - and had a horrible experience with him, so I thought other people should know.

 

We had 8 people on our tour, but had originally thought we would have up to 10 and couldn't have fit 10 in the van. The van was very run down (at one point Gerry's door opened while driving and he had to stop and fix it!) to the point where he had to use OUR time to stop and put air in the tires. The windows were so dirty, you couldn't take pictures out of them.

 

If he was supposed to be a tour guide, he was horrible. He drove aimlessly, not telling us where we were going and only spoke to the 2 people in our party who had to share the front seat with him because the van didn't fit us all.

 

He obviously does the same 'tour' for everyone and we were told it wouldn't be a problem to diverge from that and do what we wanted - that he'd take us wherever we wanted to go. But that couldn't have been further from the truth. It was obvious that he was getting kick backs from each place he took us (even took the money right in front of us!) and tried to get us to agree to stop at cheesy stands for "photo ops" where you could - conveniently! - buy over-priced souvenirs.

 

The worst thing, though, was when he stopped by a broken down van and proceeded to tell the people on the road that they weren't having as bad as a day as he was because his van was filled with "fat and messy women." He obviously didn't know one of us spoke Spanish and when he did find that out, he "tested" her spanish, obviously trying to figure out if she could tell what he was saying. If you are over a size 14, I guess Gerry doesn't want you in his van!

 

Needless to say, I would NOT recommend Gerry to anyone going to Cozumel. He was pushy about what we should do, rude when we told him we didn't want to stop at each stop and wanted to get to a beach. It really seemed like he was driving really slowly just to run out the clock so he'd make more money.

 

Other than that, Cozumel was a beautiful island and I wish we could have enjoyed it more with a driver who was willing to listen to us and not be outright offensive.

 

I really felt the need to reply to this post. We had Gerry as our driver when we visited Cozumel in late Nov. 2007. We felt that he took us exactly where we requested. He was very informative about the island and answered all our questions. He took us to places where we made purchases, I don't know if he gets a kick back from these places, all I know is we purchased what we wanted for a price we felt was fair and were happy we did not have to spend a lot of time looking for what we were wanting to buy to take home. He was very polite and friendly and always a gentleman in our presence. When we looked at booking official "tour guides" the price was very much higher then booking Gerry, "the cab driver". Any one interested in taking a "tour" should check out the professional tour companies. We were not expecting a "tour guide", but only someone to take us to places to do a little shopping, the other side of the island, and then to our final destination of Playa Uvas. He did exactly what we expected, in a timely fashion so we could have lunch at Playa Uvas and a snorkle tour and get back to the ship in time. I am sorry if Gerry did not meet your expectations, but I do believe the majority of the posts have only good things to say. I feel we got what we were wanting for a reasonable price and I would recommend him highly from our experiences. We were more comfortable having a "cab driver" that had been recommended then just grabbing a taxi at the docks with someone that maybe could not speak English, drove crazy or fast (would prefer "slow" in Mexico) and had absolutely no idea of what we were wanting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Iam9a

Iam9a

Posted
Posted
Based on recommendations from this board, we hired Gerry as our driver in Cozumel last week - week of 2/14/08 - and had a horrible experience with him, so I thought other people should know.

 

We had 8 people on our tour, but had originally thought we would have up to 10 and couldn't have fit 10 in the van. The van was very run down (at one point Gerry's door opened while driving and he had to stop and fix it!) to the point where he had to use OUR time to stop and put air in the tires. The windows were so dirty, you couldn't take pictures out of them.

 

If he was supposed to be a tour guide, he was horrible. He drove aimlessly, not telling us where we were going and only spoke to the 2 people in our party who had to share the front seat with him because the van didn't fit us all.

 

He obviously does the same 'tour' for everyone and we were told it wouldn't be a problem to diverge from that and do what we wanted - that he'd take us wherever we wanted to go. But that couldn't have been further from the truth. It was obvious that he was getting kick backs from each place he took us (even took the money right in front of us!) and tried to get us to agree to stop at cheesy stands for "photo ops" where you could - conveniently! - buy over-priced souvenirs.

 

The worst thing, though, was when he stopped by a broken down van and proceeded to tell the people on the road that they weren't having as bad as a day as he was because his van was filled with "fat and messy women." He obviously didn't know one of us spoke Spanish and when he did find that out, he "tested" her spanish, obviously trying to figure out if she could tell what he was saying. If you are over a size 14, I guess Gerry doesn't want you in his van!

 

Needless to say, I would NOT recommend Gerry to anyone going to Cozumel. He was pushy about what we should do, rude when we told him we didn't want to stop at each stop and wanted to get to a beach. It really seemed like he was driving really slowly just to run out the clock so he'd make more money.

 

Other than that, Cozumel was a beautiful island and I wish we could have enjoyed it more with a driver who was willing to listen to us and not be outright offensive.

 

I really felt the need to reply to this post. We had Gerry as our driver when we visited Cozumel in late Nov. 2007. We felt that he took us exactly where we requested. He was very informative about the island and answered all our questions. He took us to places where we made purchases, I don't know if he gets a kick back from these places, all I know is we purchased what we wanted for a price we felt was fair and were happy we did not have to spend a lot of time looking for what we were wanting to buy to take home. He was very polite and friendly and always a gentleman in our presence. When we looked at booking official "tour guides" the price was very much higher then booking Gerry, "the cab driver". Any one interested in taking a "tour" should check out the professional tour companies. We were not expecting a "tour guide", but only someone to take us to places to do a little shopping, the other side of the island, and then to our final destination of Playa Uvas. He did exactly what we expected, in a timely fashion so we could have lunch at Playa Uvas and a snorkle tour and get back to the ship in time. I am sorry if Gerry did not meet your expectations, but I do believe the majority of the posts have only good things to say. I feel we got what we were wanting for a reasonable price and I would recommend him highly from our experiences. We were more comfortable having a "cab driver" that had been recommended then just grabbing a taxi at the docks with someone that maybe could not speak English, drove crazy or fast (would prefer "slow" in Mexico) and had absolutely no idea of what we were wanting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...