Fun Horseback Tour in Mismaloya

This is our second time with this family owned business and they are so wonderful! We had a quiet, relaxing ride up to the falls, I can’t tell you how nice it is to just take in the surroundings peacefully and not having someone talk your head off the entire time. The guides will answer questions if you ask them, but otherwise there just accompanying you for your safety, and it’s just the most relaxing time! The horses are clean and exceptionally maintained and know the trail well, so the ride is stress free. Our guides: are professional and so sweet and polite, the son (an excellent horseman) was our trail guide, and the daughter was on foot as our photographer. Her photos are EXCELLENT and very well priced for the amount and quality we received on a disk drive. Definitely take this option if she’s available. Easily the best photos we’ve received on any tour. I can not give enough compliments to this young duo who took us on a private ride in which I was proposed to at the falls. A perfect setting and a perfect day! There is a small shallow creek to cross that the horses know well. No need to stress, as long as your paying attention, and hold on the horn, the horse will handle everything easily and will appreciate your trust in letting it do its job.

The tour was very fun, but I had thought we'd be getting a guided tour with someone talking about the history/ecology of the area. Instead they just guided the horses to where we were going, and they'd answer questions, but other than that, didn't talk much. They were very friendly though. I got to ride a mule named Shakira who was gentle, but she didn't seem to want to listen to my prompting a lot of the time. She was like "I know what I'm doing" ???? The tour goes to a restaurant/natural pool area where part of the movie Predator was filmed, and you get about an hour to eat or swim (the water is freezing because it comes from a mountain spring). It was fun to snorkel a little and then warm up in the sun in the hammocks, but make sure you bring bug spray because I got a ton of bug bites on my legs! There are a few spots on the tour that were a little scary, and especially would be if you've never ridden a horse before - where you're going down a narrow pathway between rocks or crossing a stream, and the guides don't warn you ahead of time. It still felt fairly safe overall, but I was a bit nervous on those parts.

The tour guides were awesome - experienced and friendly. The location was easy to find > parked on the street outside of Hotel Barcelo, walked across the bridge and made a left. You can see the horses immediately. Dona Carmen came out and greeted me and we got going. I ended up riding this large beast named Hercules. We crossed a few sections with water and some rocky terrain. The horses were obedient and gentle. We ended up at El Eden and enjoyed the waterfall and some food at the local restaurant. It was a lot of fun - but I would do things differently next time. The one low I had is that I wasn't able to spend more time at El Eden - I wish we could have enjoyed the shade of the trees and the natural spring a few hours longer. I was told by the proprietor that they book One Way Tours> which is what I will do the next time I'm up there. Ride up on a horse and have a taxi bring me back down. I can make the trip as long as I want.