Y1660PWkathym
27 Sep 2025
I selected the private option as the ad made it sound like that was how to get our transport from Cap Cana included. The evening before our excursion, we were informed that we had to pay another $60 (plus 15% for using a credit card.) for transportation. I assumed I misunderstood the ad and I wanted to go riding, so I agreed. My fault. Next hurdle was getting the driver into Cap Cana. Thank goodness the concierge was diligent and helpful! It took most of the day to get the driver permission to get into Cap Cana! I advise you start making arrangements way ahead of time! Along the way, the driver picked up another passenger who wound up riding with us on the beach.
The tour says three hours with the horseback ride beginning at 6PM. I DO NOT consider a fast car ride through city streets and the mall to pick up another participant, that started at 5 as part of the tour, nor riding through some seriously sketchy areas to take her to where she was staying on the way back. Nothing scenic to look at, no history presented. (Our driver played the music fairly loud the whole time, until I finally begged on the ride back to the hotel, for the volume to be turned down as my husband had developed a terrible headache.). As soon as we arrived at the ranch via a muddy, little track, we are given a quick tour of a few tobacco plants and how they roast coffee beans and cacao, shepherded into the gift shop where we got small samples of coffee and their Mamajuana. They then tell us that we HAVE to make our purchases then because we wouldn’t have time after our ride. Someone was assigned to the girl that was picked up on our way over and to me. Polite thing to do, I spent another $25.00 + 15% on a couple cigars for a friend back home and a jar of cacao. As soon as that transaction was complete, we were hustled outside to begin the ride itself.
We are given basic instruction on how to communicate with the horses (husband and I both were around them as children so we weren’t worried.) and away we go. It had rained the night before so the small and very rocky trail out was dicey. My husband’s horse slipped multiple times. One of the times he was in front of me and I witnessed the left rear ankle joint roll quite drastically, causing the horse to stumble. I was surprised the horse didn’t go down all the way! We eventually made it to the beach. “Ahhhh….. Here we go! This is what I was expecting!” We come upon another group of riders heading back, so now I’m thinking that’s that’s the route we’ll be taking back too, which was a little concerning due to the condition of the small trail. We trot down the beach to a larger group of riders hanging out that were off their mounts. The photographer was there and spent a fair amount of time with the girl that rode with us. Then it was my turn for some photos. Great! I smile and pose as directed, then got some photos with my husband who opted out of any others. While we’re getting that done, our guide is acting like paparazzi or a personal photographer for the girl, taking stills and videos of her walking, kissing, petting, etc her mount. We’re left sitting there for about 5 or so minutes after the photographer was done with us, while they do this. I didn’t mind too much at this point because it was only a few minutes and I was finally on horseback after 25 years! As we start a little way back up the beach, she’s after the guide to repeat the photos again, but from a different direction. Now I’m getting annoyed. I feel like the guide should have told her no more as this caused us to sit around for about another 10-15 minutes. (After asking, I did get our guide to snap 5 quick pictures of my husband and me that took less than a minute before we started back.) It’s now fairly dark. Instead of doubling back, we now cut through an opening in the fence and take the street back to the ranch, which had us at a brisk trot all the way back. Maybe that’s what was supposed to be our route back? Of course our driver is already there and waiting since we were late getting back. The time actually spent riding was NOT an hour to an hour and a half.
We walk inside the gift shop, are handed bottles of waters and where the photographer has uploaded all the images. I’m allowed a quick glance and told the whole package is another $60 + 15%. I wasn’t offered an option to select the ones I liked. It was a take them or leave them option and had to be done right then and there. Since this was most likely the one and only time I’d get to experience all this in the DR, I went ahead and purchased them. They were air dropped to my iPhone (convenient, which was great!). I will need to open them in Photoshop to see if I can salvage them as almost all of the images are over exposed (yes, I am a semi-professional photographer and have my minor in it!) While I could be wrong, I don’t believe the girl bought those photos. Why should she pay for that, when she managed to get everything she wanted from the guide!?
In summary-
Read the ad carefully
Don’t be a pushover
And advocate for yourself.
The time spent actually riding was great