Half-Day Spanish Lagoon Mangrove Trail with Private Guide

Aruba Nature Adventure Tours was an incompetent disgrace that made the Spanish Lagoon and Mangrove Trail Half-Day Hike with Private Guide as unpleasant as it could possibly be. We paid $200, albeit through Viator as middle company, for this hike. On our way to the rendezvous point for the hike, we called the point person at Aruba Nature Adventures. He told us that nobody was there to meet the us, the hike customers, at the appointed 7:15 a.m. time and hung up on us. How do you not know the day, time, and location that your paying customers are scheduled for the hike and make preparations for this?! After Aruba Nature Adventures hung up on us and we turned our cab around to go back to our hotel, then their man called us back and wanted to reschedule for another day. After some back and forth about that, he later said he had someone to guide us on the hike, after all. We then had to turn the cab around YET AGAIN, to meet at the rendezvous point! Thankfully, Rambo, our guide, who later said he was called in on spur of the moment on his day off, was the MAJOR high point of the hike. He was AMAZING and only his wonderful guidance through this made the hike worth it! He knew every animal, tree, bush, shrub, rock, river, lake, fish, and path in the park, as well as the history, back story, and entire life story of them all, too! He went beyond the call of duty in not just his knowledge, help and making the hike as easy as possible for us (this was an intermediate level hike); but he also went out of his way to drive us to the main Oranjestad Bus Station after our hike. So, although our marvelous guide, Rambo, would get more than 5 stars, if possible, this company Aruba Nature Adventure Tours would get ZERO stars! All the initial rudeness and back and forth was too much problematic inconvenience for us as customers. I would not recommend Aruba Nature Adventures to my worst enemy. The company is bad. Avoid it like the plague.

Rambo, our tour guide, was the major high point of the tour. He went beyond the call of duty in not just his knowledge, help and making the hike as easy as possible for us, and this was an intermediate level hike. He also went out of his way to drive us to the main Oranjestad Bus Station after our hike. Aruba Nature Adventure Tours was an incompetent disgrace that made this hike as unpleasant as it could possibly be. Only Rambo’s wonderful guidance through this saved Aruba Nature Adventures in our hike. We paid $200, albeit through Viator as middle company, for this hike. On our way to the rendezvous point for the hike, we called the point person at Aruba Nature Adventures. He told us that nobody was there to meet the tour customers at the appointed 7:15a.m. time and hung up on us. How do you not know the day, time and location that your paying customers are scheduled for the hike and make preparations for this? After Aruba Nature Adventures hung up on us and we turned our cab around, then their man called us back and scheuled Rambo, on his day off, to guide us on the hike. This was too much problematic inconvenience for us as customers. I would not recommend Aruba Nature Adventures to my worst enemy. The company is bad. Avoid it like the plague.

Through our hotel, we booked a private tour with Jorge that included the Spanish Lagoon/mangrove but also the Bushiribana gold mill ruins, and the natural bridge. Jorge's passion for ecology and conservation was clear and gave us context for our stay in Aruba. The resort area is nice but manicured and not what the "real" Aruba is naturally. Jorge was very knowledgeable about native plants, birds, and history. I highly recommend his company and his tour!