How did you book with Gus?

[awatt]

Did you do it all beforehand, or at the pier? Is the price teh same for both? Read somewhere on another post it was significantly cheaper at the pier, but I wouldn't think that makes sense.

[saraisarai]

I booked with another group ahead of time via email----on the boat I found out that others were getting the tour for 1/2 the price as we paid---I asked for an adjustment in price and they said booking in advance reserved my spot as most of the time they fill up! Will NOT use them this December! But will book at the pier!!!

[monicajay]

When I went with Gus it was the same price in advance as at the pier. Personally, I like to know what I am doing before getting off the ship. Maybe some days they have to drop the price if the competition does, there is often more haggling in Central America than here. I still feel that the tour we did with Gus was the best shore excursion we have ever taken. This year we are going on the Eastern Caribean so we won't get to go back to Guatemala but next year I will book that route again.

 

Looking forward to seeing Gus again.

[Virginia97]

Gus has a website--gowithgustour.com You can sign up for one of the tours there or email Gus and he will set-up one for your unique needs. He works mostly on the Carribean side of Guatemala, but took us on a tour out of Port Quetzal on the western coast. I could not give anyone a greater recommendation than Gus--he's the best! :D

[Jennifer in Atlanta]

the gus website is getting an error. Can you send me a direct link?

[masq]

Add an 's' to the end of tour for the correct website. :D

[elaineagogo]

We just got back from trip to Panama Canal and went to Antigua with Gus and had a great time he was very easy to deal with took us to a coffee plantation where we rode mules through the plantation, lunch in a really good restaurant and toured through the city and some other places we really enjoyed the time he also had his wife with him who was just wonderful. you will really enjoy him he is a great person.

[Froggy615]

Was wondering what the cost for this excursion was...thanks, Annetta

[bethcollins]

I've emailed Gus several times without getting a response. Not impressed with that type of customer service so we'll be going elsewhere.

[TAD520]

We have just returned from Guatemala last week and went with Gus. I am surprised you have not heard from him. The e-mail address I have is gustavo@turcios.com I am not sure this is the same as you are using.

 

I can honestly say it was one of the best tours I have been on if you want to find out about the real country and not just the tourist hype.

 

Hope you manage to get your tour sorted.

 

Regards,

 

Tracey

[babyapple]

I know that the Go With Gus tours are popular here. But I wanted to share my negative experience with their booking process. We booked the Las Escobas Waterfall and City Tour before we left. We received confirmation from Go With Gus and our paperwork said our tour would leave at 9am. We arrived at the port in Guatemala and were at their stand in the tourist building by 8:30. When we arrived, there was no record of our reservation, even though we had sent in a deposit and received confirmation.

Another disappointment was that I was quoted $50 for the city and waterfall tour. They were selling this exact tour for $40 at the port. Other vendors were selling it for $35. I refused to pay the remaining balance of $50 and only paid the extra $30.

2 of their employees were arguing very loudly in front of me and were acting very unprofessional.

Lastly, the tour we were scheduled on for 9am left without us. We were waiting in the main area where we were told to wait. We had to wait over an hour for another tour to fill up with enough people to take us. They’ll put you on the tour with other tour companies. As soon as it has enough people, they go. It doesn’t matter who you book with. It’s so not worth it to book ahead of time. Just get there and get the best price you can.

The tour itself was lovely, but the experience with the booking service was a prime example of very bad customer service.

[jp2001]

I too had a bad experience with Go with Gus. I already posted it on this board but if you haven't read it, I will post a copy below.

Gus read my post and said he was sorry about my bad experience with his company and offered to reimburse me. I wasn't sure I would accept his offer but I finally did. I have not got my money yet but it has been only 2 weeks since I accepted the offer (he is supposed to mail a check). I will definitely come back to this thread to tell you if I did or did not get my money back in the end.

 

Here is the story:

Different experience with ''Go With Gus''

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I had heard so many good things on these boards about ''Go With Gus'' tours that I wanted to go with them but be advised that not all tours are good from this company. We didn't pay in advance, I can't comment on this and my intent is not to bash on them, I just want you to make a well informed decision if you decide to go with them. Here is a section of my cruise review posted on the Norwegian board:

 

I heard many good things on these boards about ‘’Go with Gus Tours’’ but I had a different experience. We worked it out and we finally had a good day but I know it was more expensive than what it should have been.

 

I had e-mailed Go with Gus twice with no answer. I wrote to the other address (there were 2) and explained that I heard good thing about his company on CC but didn’t get a reply (we wanted to go to the Banana Plantation Tour). He replied saying he had already replied (I doubt of this since I check my emails daily, including the junk mail bin just in case). He said he would take us on a Banana Plantation Tour.

 

We saw Gus near the Terminal entrance and he said we were the only ones for this tour and he would try to find other people. At this time, I told him that if he couldn’t find other people, we were open to other tour suggestions. We came back to his booth 15 minutes later, as agreed and we had to wait about 15 minutes more. During that time, I realized that they advertised the Banana Plantation Tour at 35$ per person (while we were asked 45$ per person, as per their internet rate). I asked for a 10$ pp refund but then he told me that it was another Banana Plantation, not the same quality tour as we would get (Yeah, right…. I didn’t believe this one). He didn’t find anyone else to go with us. I told him we could go on another tour, that we are not difficult people but he said it was alright, that he would give us the tour anyway (then, I felt that the 45$ pp was OK if we got a private tour instead of a group tour.

 

Here is the exact description of the tour, directly from his website:

Banana Plantation Tour

See how the Chiquita bananas that are enjoy in the US

are grown, harvested and packed.

2 1/2 hours tour

Price per person including entrance fee $45.00

 

The driver didn’t speak lots of English but enough to get by so it was ok for us, we thought the tour would be held by the plantation people… WRONG. We drove about 20 minutes, we stopped on a small street near banana trees and the driver wants us to take a picture of him and then we walk around for about 10-15 minutes (more 10 minutes I think) and he shows bananas and bags, and a guy in a tree but there were no real tour or any explanation given and he drove us back to the pier. I told him the tour was supposed to take 2.5 hours but he said Gus told him only the Banana Plantation and back since we were only the 2 of us).

 

When we came back to the pier, I was pissed off but Gus was gone with his Humanitarian Tour. His staff was very nice though. One guy couldn’t believe we were back already. I was very emotional (I can’t help it) and told him how much I was disappointed. I told him we were not difficult people and asked if he could arrange something so we have something to do that day, I said a ride to a nice beach and back later in the day would be ok, or almost anything else he could offer. He made a arrangement with another company that sells tours (it cost him only 5$ pp, nothing to us) and we had a boat ride to a resort. There was the bay view, a pool, food and beverage service (overpriced… 8$ for a burger with fries).

 

The banana plantation driver came to the resort and offered a city tour for 30$ for the 2 of us (we refused) and then for 20$ and we accepted (Catherine really wanted to go – if it were me, I wouldn’t have given one more cent to this company).

 

The city tour was nice and the guide very, very knowledgeable (I don’t know from what company but they operate a small white and red boat next to the ship). People in the van had paid about 40$pp to go to some falls and the city tour. They definitely took advantage of us when we compare but it’s ok, it’s a learning experience and we still had a good day in the end. The City tour included some very poor areas, the guide was telling us about the good and bad things about his country. We even saw 2 little girls handling coal with bare hands and no mask; poor girls… I wonder if their parents know they will probably die in their twenties suffering from lung problems.

[jp2001]

No, no check yet... I'll write to Gus again and I will keep you updated.

[salty dingo]

Sounds like the disgruntled people here were wanting refunds because other people got the same thing for less than they paid.

 

Problem is, you agreed to a rate. It does not matter if you pay more than someone else. That is not how business works!

 

If they charge you more than agreed, that is one thing, but if they charge you the agreed upon amount, that is something else. If there were not enough people to do the tour, you could have backed out of it and had a refund or not been charged.

 

I do not see anything wrong with what Gus did, and I am puzzled why someone would want to shave $10 or so off a rate they agreed to in advance ??? Does $10 matter that much to you?

[newmexicoNita]

Sounds like the disgruntled people here were wanting refunds because other people got the same thing for less than they paid.

 

Problem is, you agreed to a rate. It does not matter if you pay more than someone else. That is not how business works!

 

If they charge you more than agreed, that is one thing, but if they charge you the agreed upon amount, that is something else. If there were not enough people to do the tour, you could have backed out of it and had a refund or not been charged.

 

I do not see anything wrong with what Gus did, and I am puzzled why someone would want to shave $10 or so off a rate they agreed to in advance ??? Does $10 matter that much to you?

It doesn't sound like much of a tour for the price, but I agree; when someone agrees to a price they should live with it. We had an experience in Belize about 6 years ago, I won't go into the details, but we got royally ripped off, but didn't expect any refund. We agreed to the price, they did come through, but the overall discription was very misleading.

 

Nita

[TallGuy and the Redhead]

Just to add my two cents...

Our cruise doesn't leave for several months, but I have been doing a lot of research on our stops. I emailed Gus, stating that we would be in Santo Tomas and asked about their tours. I got a very brief email back with some information on the tours on the Pacific Ocean side of Guatemala. I replied back, stating again that we'd be on the Santo Tomas side of the country, and could he please give me a little information on the tours I was interested in. That was about six weeks ago, and I've never heard anything back.

On the other hand, I also contacted Luis with Turix Activo tours, got a very prompt and descriptive reply along with a full-color brochure in PDF format. I asked several questions and always got a prompt reply.

Now, I understand that that email service can sometimes be sketchy in Guatemala... but I have to say that I really didn't get a good impression of Gus' company. Maybe he's gotten enough recommendations that he doesn't need my business.

Regardless, I'm planning to use Turix for our stop in Guatemala.

 

I'll report back after our return to let you know if I was pleased.

 

~The Redhead

[jp2001]

Sounds like the disgruntled people here were wanting refunds because other people got the same thing for less than they paid.

 

Problem is, you agreed to a rate. It does not matter if you pay more than someone else. That is not how business works!

 

If they charge you more than agreed, that is one thing, but if they charge you the agreed upon amount, that is something else. If there were not enough people to do the tour, you could have backed out of it and had a refund or not been charged.

 

I do not see anything wrong with what Gus did, and I am puzzled why someone would want to shave $10 or so off a rate they agreed to in advance ??? Does $10 matter that much to you?

 

While I did mention the 10$ difference from their website vs. booth price, this was not the reason I was unhappy with my experience with "Go with Gus". Still haven't seen any money from Gus but his last e-mail said he gave the GO to his accounting dept. to mail me a check but since my experience with the company in Guatemala AND my experience dealing with Gus after the fact was, to say the least, complicated, I'm not sure I would go with him in the future. We are planning a cruise that stops in Guatemala next year and I may try their Humanitarian tour since everyone raves about it but I won't be taking any other tour they offer.

[jp2001]

As you know if you read in my previous posts, Gus offered to reimburse us for the banana tour that turned out being very far from a good experience (read previous posts for more infor). After a couple of e-mails, I finally got reimbursed (in the form of US postal check... anyone knows where I can change it, US post office or US bank since I am Canadian but going to Maine in a couple of weeks?). Thank you Gus!