We were sold this trip on the pretence that our 6 month old would be ok on this trip and had the trip gone as planned….. this still wouldn’t have been the case. We were booked to go snorkelling, however, after travelling 2 hours to get there with them, that’s when they decided to tell us snorkelling was off due to the weather…didn’t think to tell us that before and give us the option of refund. Instead, we were told we would drive around the island, stop for lunch, tequila tasting sessions, then some free time on the beach with possible snorkelling later.
The buggy’s were cars with the doors off and my 6 month old was expected to sit in there on my knee, it wasn’t until I showed serious safety concerns, that a car seat was provided.
We toured round some derelict areas which offered nothing pleasing to the eye, stopping off at a boring covey beach for 10 minutes and then a cliff, to which a few of us didn’t even bother getting out the car to, again, 6 month old baby in tow why would I want to see the edge of a cliff?
We then reached channkanaab and by this time, was hungry, however rather than take us to lunch (it was past lunch time) we were taken to a sea lion show (much to my disapproval as I hate this kind of stuff).
We mooched round a garden area and then went to tequila tasting. Sure, we got to sample 5 tequilas, but again, kids in tow, what could they do other than watch?
We went for lunch. Rubbish. Really had no flavour, not much variety and a waiter overly encouraged us to leave tips, this by the way cost us £250 for this so clearly, no tipping that day.
We finished lunch and as our tour guide didn’t seem to be pointing us in any direction, we took ourself off for a breif 5 minute walk, before we were instructed back to the buggies, and to kill half an hour in the town centre, before heading back on our 2 hour journey home.
No adequate facilities for our baby’s milk, we had to find cafes to help us, nothing for our other kids to do, and absolutely zero refreshments offered during the day, which actually put one of our kids, who suffers from epilepsy, under a lot of stress that day which caused a few mild seizures.
Now had we of gone snorkelling as planned, I’m sure we would have been happier, but to have no suitable alternative till we were already there and could not exactly head back on our own private ferry, this was an abysmal trip for us all.
We have since been trying to get back in touch with the operator who did say minimum, we would get half our money back, but this is nowhere to be seen yet and we have had zero response from anyone and I am now seeking a full refund via any means necessary.