A Great Team to Work With! - This was the best tour booking experiences I have ever had for a tour we were ultimately unable to take. I had worked with Tom at Manta Tour Guides for over a year to set up several tour groups in Manta for friends and I as we cruise South America. He was always responsive to every question I had, marvelous to work with and ready to work with us based on our time requirements. Unfortunately uur port stop in Manta was cancelled unexpectedly and Tom worked with us again on refunds. I would not hesitate to recommend Tom and his team!

Caring and Compassionate Tour Company - I was scheduled to take an all-day tour with Manta Tour Guides as part of a private 8-person group, but the day before the tour, my husband and I both became very sick. The clear, written policy of Manta Tour Guides requires at least 48 hours notice to receive a 50% refund of the prepaid tour. I emailed Tom Davison, the founder and owner of the company, and explained our situation. I was able to find a person to take 1 of our 2 slots. With compassion and caring, Tom made an exception to his policy and refunded 100% of our tour cost. I was taken completely by surprise with his generosity. BTW - my friends that went on the tour said it was fabulous!

Great time :) - Great tour that brings you to several hot spots from the cruise port. Wonderful English-speaking guide! Thank you, Juan! I’m a solo cruiser. This tour picks you up IN the port office and it was very safe.

Rain forest, coffee, chocolate, and Panama hats - Our Manta Tours guide Christopher and his driver we waiting for us at the terminal even though we were 30 minutes early. This gave us a very long tour, and we enjoyed every minute of it. First stop was Dos Manos coffee plantation with 75,000 coffee plants. The owner employs 9 full time workers and hires 20 more for the month of September to do the hand picking of the beans. We had a lovely hike through the rain forest plantation and were thankful we had remembered our Deep Woods Off wipes. Managed to exist with lots of mosquitoes without a single bite! Lots of fruit trees were growing among the coffee bushes and many trees were filled with bromeliads. The jungle home had outdoor furniture made with wood from a tree called Samon. All pieces were beautiful. Next stop the home of the plantation owner which was an ocean view home he had designed and built himself after his first house was destroyed by an earthquake in 2017. While there we were given a demonstration about how the cacao bean was turned into chocolate and were able to taste both solid and liquid versions of the results. Yummy!! Ecuadorian chocolate is among the best in the world as is their coffee. Another big export is roses which the locals claim have the biggest buds in the world. These grow around volcanoes in the rich volcanic soil. Chris had brought a little fly box with about 15 kinds of chocolate for us to sample while driving. Next he pulled out a flour and butter dish he called Ecuadorian pretzels. The slight problem was the small bag contained 8000 calories of delicious snacks. We worked hard to control ourselves. Since there were just the 4 of us on the tour, we went to a restaurant Chris loves at a beach where he brings his family. First we shared Charlotte’s shrimp ceviche, which was quite good and not raw tasting at all. Next we all had a yellow rice dish filled with local shrimp. The mound of rice was the size of a large mixing bowl on each of our plates, and we enjoyed digging for the shrimp without consuming too many rice calories. The local beer was a perfect side dish. The restaurant was filled with local families enjoying Sunday lunch and a day on the beach. This is the first country other than the US I have visited where the currency is the U.S. dollar. Seems in the late 90’s they were having trouble stabilizing their currency so just switched to the quite stable dollar in 2000. I’m somewhat surprised the entire western hemisphere has not followed suit. Chris said his grandfather lost ⅔ of his savings with the change, as did most of the people who had accumulated any wealth. The wealthiest people in the country seem to be the owners of the tuna fishing boats. Off to Montechristi, a town near Chris’s house and the home of the famous Panama hat. It seems Panama hats were first made by 19th century revolutionaries and sold to Panamanians to raise money for the cause, hence the name Panama hat. The authentic ones are still hand made in Montechristi, and, of course, Bob had to do the finishing touches to one and buy it. I’ll admit he looks dashing in it! The hats are made from fibers in the stem of a plant that looks just like a SSI palmetto plant. On the way back to the ship Chris shared his adventure in the 2016 earthquake. He was 200 miles from home purchasing peach trees with a friend and driving toward home when the road suddenly started buckling like a roll-a-coaster. Everyone started turning back to the hills fearing a tsunami. Chris and his friend headed back to town and their hotel not even thinking about how dangerous the building was. There was no phone or radio service so no one knew what was happening. Chris finally found a police officer who let him listen in to his radio where Chris learned emergency vehicles were on the way. He and his friend joined the convoy toward Manta which was led by army engineers who repaired roads along the way. At one point there went over a big mountain of rubble only to discover several days later the bottom of the pile contained a bus filled with people who did died. Fortunately, Chris’s family was all safe but much of Manta was destroyed. The main business district had to be demolished because none of the buildings were safe. All in all it was a great day in Ecuador!

Great tour, small group, fun day out - Everything about this tour was perfect. A small group led by Juan who was very engaging and informative. The pace of the tour was perfect and the lunch was great. Tom who greeted us and was also there at the end of the tour to make sure everything went smoothly. I learnt a lot and saw lots of new things on my day out. Thank you for making it so special.

Unforgettable day in the surroundings of Manta - We had a very interesting tour with Alex, a young guide, born in Germany, and his wife Kata from Manta. Both waited for us and the other people of the small group outside the cruise terminal. Alex is able to speak english, german and spanish fluently, so it was easy for us to follow his explanations. First we saw the fishmarket and got a lot of information. After a dinner with a yummy ceviche we had a little walk through the rainforest. Sadly there were no monkeys to see, but to hear. But that is nature! We spent sufficiant time at the shop of the hatmaker for the famous Panama hats. We bought two! Dear Alex, dear Kata, we enjoyed our tour with you so much. We had a lot of fun. We will never forget your dancing lessons on the bus on our way back to the ship!!! Thank you. Beate and Dieter from Germany

Rainforest and Montechristi - The rainforest was amazing! There was a little bit of a delay as we had to wait on a a guide from the actual park service. Our guide, Maria, had actually done the tour herself before but they assigned us a Spanish speaking guide (Adonis) and Maria interpreted. We were amazed at the howler and spider monkeys! We would give this part of the tour 5 stars. We went to see a lighthouse and many people climbed up the hill to it. We only went part way. We would have been happy just to view it. After the lighthouse, we had lunch at the beach. Lunch took way too long so the rest of the tour got shortchanged! We would have been happy with a sandwich instead of an hour and a half lunch. When you are only in the location for one day from a cruise ship, you want to see the sites! We didn’t get much time at all in Montechristi but were thrilled to get to see the Panama hat factory and bought a hat for our grandson. We would have gladly skipped the lighthouse and the long lunch to see more of this interesting town.

Cancelled - Our ship didn’t stop at this port due to political unrest and an assassination. I have been unable to contact you. Please process refund. Thanks.

Rat trip in Manta - Rainforest interesting flora. Too long at hat shop 😬. No local Tonga available at restaurant. 🥺 Chocolate stop rushed 😬

A tour which did not match our expectations. - The tour guide, although very friendly, could have been more informative. The beach cafe lunch was way too long and the food was not great. No point in going to a closed fish market. Very few opportunities to see any animals on show. You should consider refunding us.