Has anyone taken the NCL Samana Highlights tour?

[Sandyrella]

I would love to hear more about this. It says that you have about an hour in Las Terranas to walk around on your own. I was wondering if one of the beaches is nearby.

 

Any insight would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Sandy

[Sandyrella]

it doesn't exist :D.

 

Sorry, I meant the Discover Samana tour....

 

Anybody?

[Nickymjw1]

Wasn't worth much. Of course it might have changed. Guide did not speak English. Hopefully that changed! I reported it to NCL.

 

Was mostly a bus ride through the beautiful countryside. Over the mountain to Las Terrenas. Guide tried to get us to go to his friend's store, so lost time there. Then walked a little on our own. Not much to see. Beach is somewhere there, never had enough time to go find it. Bought some nice local crafts and a painting. Then on bus ride back stopped at a farm where we saw how cocoa grew...

 

If you go to this link you can see some of our pictures. Semana pics start about midway with lady leaning against palmtree. Then it ends when you see man back on ship. For some reason my slideshow loaded backwards. So the first pictures you see is actually upon our return, we had lunch at Cafe de Paris on the main road by the bay where ship is docked. Great food! Other pictures as you move along are from the tour and Las Terrenas. The plain beach was somewhere along the way where we stopped for a photo op for a few minutes. Hope this helps. Like I said, it was 2 years ago I think we were one of the first cruises that stopped at Semana.

 

[Sandyrella]

For the honest response and for sharing your beautiful pictures. I really enjoyed looking at them and getting an idea of what to expect in Samana. We did end up booking this tour so hopefully NCL has learned from their past mistakes. We don't speak Spanish at all so everything would be lost on us. French on the other hand....:rolleyes:

 

Two more weeks!

[Nickymjw1]

Well the guide back then did say he was used to French and German tourist so you might be in luck :-) (I speak some Spanish so we did communicate some)

 

Like I said, the countryside in Dominican Republic is beautiful. Las Terrenas is just a little town, but I enjoyed the little time we spend there because I found a store on the main rd with genuine arts and crafts which I collect.

 

I am sure things have gotten better over the years. I was looking for narration of the island history etc. on the tour and that is what I was missing the most. So you might enjoy the tour a lot.