Gordon's Scenic snorkel adventure tour

[robinsongirl]

Has anyone done Gordon's snorkel tour? We are having a difficult timer deciding what to do in Antigua and are considering this. However I do not see any comments about it on the boards. Any help you can provide would be greatly apprciated.

[lilytuck]

Has anyone done Gordon's snorkel tour? We are having a difficult timer deciding what to do in Antigua and are considering this. However I do not see any comments about it on the boards. Any help you can provide would be greatly apprciated.

 

We did Gordon's Island Tour and LOVED IT.:D We saw more of the island and leaned more about the people than any ship book tour would have. We were able to snorkel for a little over an hour at Longs Bay. Gordons favorite beach. I loved it. :) I could have spent 8 hours a day for a week there and not covered all of it. :D

 

You can not go wrong with Gordon.:D

[robinsongirl]

Thanks for the information. We are doing similar tours on both St Lucia and St Martin. We have 2 daughters (ages 12 and 16) so I am concerned that another tour like this may seem boring to them. Is there a lot of time riding around?

[zoethesailor]

Going on an Independent tour with Gordon means you can choose what you want to do. When he saw that our group was interested in the cultural aspects of the island, he took us to his neighborhood that he grew up in, telling us about the public showers, bathrooms, showed us the water spigot he would get water from for the household. He is very accomodating, just need to ask.

[lilytuck]

Thanks for the information. We are doing similar tours on both St Lucia and St Martin. We have 2 daughters (ages 12 and 16) so I am concerned that another tour like this may seem boring to them. Is there a lot of time riding around?

 

On our tour I don't think ever spent more than 15 to 20 minutes in the van at one time. Most of the time it was less than 10 minutes from one stop to the next. And we had plenty of time at each stop.

[Anyislandwilldo]

How do you go about contacting Gordon? This sounds like something we would be interested in. I would rather see how the locals live as opposed to some big fancy sight seeing adventure.

[fletch6919]

We just did a cruise last week and took a tour with Gordon. He was AMAZING. Part of our group wanted to do the Zip Line tour so he took all of us to the zip line and the ones who didn't want to zip line sat and relaxed and watched the others have a great time. Then we went for a tour of the city--he was very informative and explained alot about the island of Antiqua. This included the Nelson Dockyard which was very interesting. He even picked us up a snack from one of the vendors at the Dockyard--it was delicous. He then took us to the Long Bay Beach which was the most beautiful beach of all of our islands that we visited. We stayed there for an hour or so and then he picked us up and we continued with a tour on our way back to the ship. He was very easy to work with on scheduling what we wanted to do. You can combine any part of the tours that you want. You can reach him at tourinfo@tourguidegordon.com. Be sure and tell him the Fletcher's sent you.

[bellasdesk]

Hi...Just read about your wonderful time in Antigua. Does Gordon require a certain # of people for his tours? How much does he charge? Thanks much!:)

[SHParrothead]

I don't know if he has a minimum requirement or not.

 

Don't be concerned about boredom. It's your tour and Gordon will customize it however you want.

 

I can tell you the tour was very interesting, the food was great and the beach was even better. Book with Gordon and you won't be disappointed.

[burm]

Hi...Just read about your wonderful time in Antigua. Does Gordon require a certain # of people for his tours? How much does he charge? Thanks much!:)

 

He wants a min of 3 people for his tours.

[msinkcmo]

We just came back from a Royal Caribbean cruise which stopped in Antigua. We did the Stingray and island tour with Gordon and I couldn't be more pleased. He worked so hard to give an explanation on everything on the tour, and the history behind the island. The Snorkeling with the Stingray was also a great experence even for our 18 and 21 year old loved the tour with Gordon. Gordon if you see this, we really will be coming back to tour with you and go on the Ziplines.

 

I have include some images of Gordon giving us a tour and then also some of the great views of Antigua he was able to show us.

[csaeroach]

We were a group of 50+ that toured with Gordon in Jan 2009, and I can not say enough about this guy! It was awesome. A group this large, and he was so organized, we had 4 vans in total that followed each other, and everything could not of worked out better. I will be booking Gordon again when we go back to Antigua. You can not find a better tour then Gordon! Highly recommended!

[anita0427]

We just got back from the Carnival Freedom. We had Gordon as our tour guide. I can not say enough good things about him. He really takes good care of his guests. He is so down to earth. He goes out of his way to make sure you are comfortable. Trust me if you go with Gordon you will not go wrong. His tours is worth every penny and then some.

 

HTH

Anita & Maurice:)

[dz63]

We booked the Best of Paradise Island Tour with Gordan for July 10, 2009. The Snorkeling Adventure tour and Best of Paradise Island Tour are similar--except the Snorkeling Adventure will give you two beach stops and does not include Nelson's Dockyard.

 

We had a great tour with Gordan and although we did not book the Snorkeling Adventure, I thought I'll share my review with photo's on the Paradise Island Tour. This might help you to know what to expect.

 

Our tour began at 9:30 am. We had no problems finding Gordon on the boardwalk, wearing his straw hat.

 

On the boardwalk--that’s Gordon in the white shirt!

 

 

About 20 minutes later, we boarded Gordon’s bus, along with many other Cruise Critic members. There were some couples from our roll call who booked the Scenic Snorkeling Adventure with Gordon but received the Island Tour with us instead. I don’t know if they were disappointed or not, but at least there were no complaints about who would get Gordon as their guide!

 

Gordon had a cooler filled with soft drinks and water. He made one stop during the day to purchase more drinks to restock this supply.

 

As we departed from the cruise ship pier, we drove through St. John’s, the capital of Antigua and passed the monument of V.C. Bird, the first Prime Minister of Antigua and its sister island Barbuda.

 

 

Our first stop was at St. Barnabus Anglican Church, a historic church in Liberta.

 

 

As we continued on our way, Gordon pulled over to the side of a road, where we climbed a few stairs to get this view.

 

 

 

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[dz63]

Next we went to Nelson’s Dockyard—the world’s only remaining Georgian dockyard still in use. We had ½ hour here. After paying the $5.00 admission fee, we were given a “Personal Tour Guide Map”. Since we requested a guided tour of the Dockyard, we were told that our maps were no longer necessary and they were quickly taken away. (We thought that was a little strange). Anyway we followed our guide a short distance, where she stopped and talked a little about the history of Nelson’s Dockyard.

 

 

It wasn’t long before it started to rain. Our guide told us to look around and we’ll meet back after the rain stops.

We went inside the Admiral’s House which is now a museum and gift shop.

 

Admiral’s House

 

It didn’t rain long and after investigating the Admiral’s House, our group gathered to continue the tour--but our guide was no where in sight. She had deserted us! So everyone walked around and explored the Dockyard, on their own, without the assistance of a Guide Map!

 

Personally, I didn’t think there was that much to see at Nelson’s Dockyard. Although the historic buildings depict beautiful Georgian architecture, I thought they would be restored as a museum, showing what they were used for back in the 1700’s. Instead most of the historic buildings were converted into restaurants, hotels, offices or shops.

 

The Officers Quarters Building now houses a restaurant, pharmacy, art gallery and picture framing shop

 

The Officers Quarters Building and Capstan House from the pier

 

 

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[dz63]

We did walk around the grounds and saw some interesting things, like the massive Camelford Anchor, the three capstans used to remove barnacles from vessels and the Boathouse pillars with wet dock.

 

This was also interesting--an old cannon sticking out of the ground for decoration

 

One of the Capstans

 

Boathouse Pillars

 

 

It would have been interesting to walk over to Fort Berkeley, but we didn’t have enough time to do that.

On our way out, we asked for a tour guide map. . .now we know what we saw!

 

 

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[dz63]

Once back on Gordon’s bus, it was a short drive to the Blockhouse. This was a lookout post and stronghold in 1787.

The officer’s quarters and main buildings now lie in ruins.

 

View from the Blockhouse—we could see Eric Clapton’s house

 

Another beautiful view

 

A large restored gunpowder magazine

 

The cistern and catchment area of the Blockhouse

 

 

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[dz63]

It was another short drive to Shirley Heights, located on the most southerly point on the island. From here we got a fantastic view of English Harbour—a safe harbour for ships during hurricanes.

 

 

Gordon told us that every night a large chain would be drawn across the channel from Fort Berkeley.

This was done to help prevent sieges by blocking ships from entering the harbour. I thought that was pretty amazing!

 

Fort Berkeley

 

Shirley Heights Guard House

 

 

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[dz63]

Our next stop was Long Bay Beach. We spent 1 ½ hours here.

 

 

 

For those that wanted to go snorkeling they had the opportunity to do that here. Even Gordon went snorkeling!

 

 

Our last stop was Devil’s Bridge located on the Atlantic side of the island.

The surf is very rough here, so Gordon made sure everyone walked where it was safe!

 

 

During the course of the day, Gordon offered us delicious sour bread with cheese and fresh, juicy pineapple. After our beach stop Gordon wanted to offer us some meat patties, but when he opened up the container, he only had one left. He ended up giving the last meat patty to our youngest son. No one else in our family got a meat patty as he had run out. It is possible that Gordan didn’t have enough meat patties for everyone, but I’m guessing people were helping themselves to them and took more than one.

 

 

We had a great day touring the island with Gordon. Gordon was an excellent guide. He kept his eye on everyone in the group and explained points of interest at all the stops.

 

We arrived back at the ship around 4:30 pm.

 

Gordan and us

 

 

 

cz

[lgarner]

Gordon sounds like exactly what I was looking for for Antiqua. Does anyone know if he has a website or is it just the e-mail? I'm wanting to get more info on the snorkel trip that was mentioned here. DH and I love beaches and snorkeling and are not very interested in the dockyard.

 

Also, those who did the stingray tour - was this in an enclosed area or were the Stingrays wild - we have done the stingray tour in Grand Cayman and the first time it was not crowded - the second time, we could barely move or we would bump into other people from other tours - was this tour crowded?

 

Thanks everyone for the great info.

[dz63]

Gordon sounds like exactly what I was looking for for Antiqua. Does anyone know if he has a website or is it just the e-mail? I'm wanting to get more info on the snorkel trip that was mentioned here. DH and I love beaches and snorkeling and are not very interested in the dockyard.

 

Also, those who did the stingray tour - was this in an enclosed area or were the Stingrays wild - we have done the stingray tour in Grand Cayman and the first time it was not crowded - the second time, we could barely move or we would bump into other people from other tours - was this tour crowded?

 

Thanks everyone for the great info.

 

Yes, Gordan does have a website.

 

http://www.tourguidegordon.com/index.htm

 

 

This second link will take you directly to the Snorkelling Adventure tour description.

 

http://www.tourguidegordon.com/Scenicsnorkeladventure20092010.htm

 

 

cz