Bomba Dance History: Explore Cultural Heritage and Cuisine in Loiza, Puerto Rico
4.2
23 Ratings

For this tour you will learn about the history of Bomba in Loiza in a Cave, you’ll learn how to cook Afro-Puerto Rican food, you’ll learn how to dance and improvise with your body to Bomba music.

Duration: 6 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Campamento Piñones - We’ll first start by taking you to a Puertorican Cave “Cueva María de la Cruz” where you’ll learn about the Bomba rhythms that were born in Loiza. After that we’ll go to “El Batey de los Hermanos Ayala” one of the families that have kept Bomba alive, there you will also experience the instruments of Plena which is another puertorican genre and also hand crafted art. Then we’ll proceed to Playa Azul for a cooking lesson of our afro-puertorican food, after that get ready! We’ll take you to one of our parks “Parque Luis Muñoz Rivera” for the Bomba Lesson, there you will learn how to dance, sing and play the drums (tambor), you’ll be using the movements of your body to create the beats for the Bomba players!
What's Included
  • Snacks
  • In-vehicle air conditioning
What's Not Included
  • Gratuity
Additional Information
  • Please reconfirm your reservation with the local operator 24 hours prior to your experience. If you do not contact the operator they will attempt to reach you via phone or email to confirm your reservation. Please ensure you have provided a valid phone number when booking.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.2
(23 Ratings)
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Jessica_w
Jun 4, 2023
Bomba! Eso es! - Great tour for family with children. Our favorite part was the Bomba dance lesson and impromptu drum lesson for my daughter who was able to learn 5 rhythms from our incredible teacher Yumma _rootsandculture on Instagram. Josh was a very knowledgeable and personable host. The next best part was the cooking lesson and tasting authentic dishes in Luisa. Great afternoon of active learning about African and Puerto Rican history!
Review provided by Viator
Imanig54
May 22, 2023
Amazing Experience!! - Amazing Experience! Got to see so much that I wouldn’t have been able to find on my own! From food tours, a day on the yacht, sightseeing (waterfalls, beaches, etc) and they even set up an in house massage for us! Definitely will be back! The vibes were amazing & the food/drinks are to die for! Thank you so much for your hospitality!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Alyssa_t
May 17, 2023
Fantastic way to experience Puerto Rican Culture - Katherine our tour guide (goes by nickname Tiana) was fantastic. She was with us the whole time as we went to several different stops. There was the Bomba dance lesson and the food stop which is what we signed up for, but she also took us on some special stops to see local art in the town of Luisa. That was amazing and it felt like we were experiencing some real Puerto Rican heritage and history. Tiana also shared many stories with us as we traveled between stops and went out of her way to make sure we felt comfortable and had a great time. I highly recommend this tour if you want something different and personalized and if you like meeting people and experiencing culture.
Review provided by Viator
Kaumeshua
Jan 22, 2023
Great end to our trip! - Sarah was an amazing driver and host! I don’t like to dance in public but Yuma made me feel so at home and comfortable! The crab alcapurria was delicious! This was a great way to finish off our time in Puerto Rico!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
S7615ualisap
Oct 22, 2022
Heritage food & Dance - Wonderful Experience, We had an awesome tour & tour guide. Will definitely do this tour again. Loved it
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Anjay1
Jan 9, 2023
An Awesome Experience! - Sarah was patient and very respectful. We really liked him. Yumi was the best dance instructor ever! I would recommend both of them. We liked everything about this tour. The places to visit, Loiza town, the park, the family would have been good but was replaced by an art gallery. I will post pictures on Trip Advisor. It was all wonderful. Sarah is very knowledgeable on Puerto Rico’s African (Afro) heritage. We liked that he could answer most, if not all of our questions. He was patient when I had a prescription called in to a local pharmacy and he took us to the pharmacy to pick it up before heading back to the hotel. I really want to thank him for that because that medication is necessary for my heart. I will not go into details on why I had to have it sent as it’s not pertinent to this review. Just know Sarah was patient, kind, respectful of my health issues. Yumi, our dance instructor, was very good as well. Her positive energy was infectious. She explained the history of Bomba and explained and demonstrated dance steps. She played the drum. She explained the relationship between the dance and the dance moves. It was just wonderful. Now for a few “constructive criticisms.” We all know nothing is perfect for everyone but this would have been perfect for me if: 1). Sarah had a small cooler in his trunk or front area with ice and water. I believe any tour over 2 hours in hot climate, that the tour guide should have water for customers/clients 2). The family simply was not aware that we were coming so they were totally not prepared. The main guy, Tito, I think was his name was, not even at home. An elderly lady told us about the art gallery down the alley (walking distance from the house) so we went there. If you like art in general but specifically Afro centric art, you would love this gallery. We were blown away by the details in each piece. This gallery should be added as part of the tour even if Tito get it together and be home for tours. 3) Last one, saved most important for last. Dancing or walking is a lot of movement and may cause you to have to use the bathroom. A Bathroom break need to be incorporated if these places do not have a public bathroom. The dance instruction was given on the basketball court of a park. Luckily one of the workers in the area could direct us to a nearby restroom and of course it was not the best ( no paper, soap, or water in the sink). I highly recommend a better place for the dance instruction. I did not really like being entertainment for the work crew. Overall, an awesome experience!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Almamcalpin
Apr 17, 2023
TOTAL RIPOFF. STAY WAY FROM THIS TOUR. - I would like to start by saying that our guide Catherine was really good. Any comment I will make be making does not reflect the service or her knowledge of the history in Puerto Rico. With that said, I would not recommend this tour. It's not worth $155.The tour description was well written, but it was very deceiving. The whole thing was luck luster, very poorly organized. The dance to traditional Bomba music was the only one worth doing. (that lasted 45 min.) The instructor was very knowledgeable and very good. The cave part was a disaster. We didn't get in because they were charging an extra $7 for entrance fee. Even the guide said it was not worth to see a piece of Rock. It's just a cave. And honestly she was right. Just a cave. Again not worth the extra $ they are asking. Then the culture art was like show and tell in elementary school. It might be historic but again not worth the tour price. The lady didn't speak English and our guide who translated, didn't speak good English herself. So we understood 30% of what was being said, we were respectful of the owner and acted like we were interested because we felt bad. It was a little house not a museum or even a building of some sort. Lastly, for us the cooking lesson was not what we expected. Again the cook was very nice and sweet and we felt bad once again. So we cooperated and smiled and tried to make the food. (He did not show us anything from scratch, the filling was already there, basically the guide was telling us what was in there. Again no English and the guide was also having a hard time finding the words for cassava or taro root) All we did was put the mix in the leaves THATS IT!!) HOW IS THAT A COOKING LESSON.) The chef did not speak a word of English and was very shy. The whole thing was embarrassing to me. I felt bad for them. The place was dirty. But the owner of the tour company should be ashamed for charging $155. Literally driving around took most of our time. The actual "event " maybe less than 2 hrs. A total RIP OFF STAY AWAY FROM THIS TOUR. Oh FYI no snacks was givin to us not even water and No Cave.
Review provided by Viator
Joannecreuter
Jun 11, 2023
Save Your Money - I never leave a bad review unless I think people need to be forewarned. I have traveled the world and taken many tours, and this was literally the worst. Real PR did not deliver the services advertised and described in the Viator site. I relied on the descriptions under Overview and What to Expect sections on that site. This is a list of the services not delivered: 1) The tour was four hours, not “approximately 6”, 2) I very quickly concluded that our driver, while a very nice fellow, was no tour guide. He told us his last job was an Uber driver. As we drove along, he provided only the names of the areas that the highway went through. He did not provide any information on Afro-Puerto Rican culture or history. At the cave we first drove to, he pointed out two beehives and mentioned that archaeological artifacts had been found there 4,000 years ago without giving further information. He said nothing about Bomba, except we had to wait for the teacher because she had another lesson. I hoped the rest of the so-called tour would be better. It was not. 3) We stood around at the cave for some time doing nothing until we could leave for our “cooking lesson,” 4). The “cooking lesson” simply did not occur; 5). There was no family visit with El Batey de los Hermanos Ayala or instruments of Plena or handcrafted art as described on Viator; 6) Finally, we arrived at the public park for our Bomba lesson with Yuma, which was fun and informative. BUT this was essentially just a poorly planned trip, a long drive, hanging around the mouth of a cave, a one-Alchapurria snack and Bomba lesson. There are a couple of other one star reviews on this site. I expect that the owner of Real PR will respond with excuses as usual. If you read the chain of reviews, it looks like this started as a pretty good tour with a guide named Catherine, but then deteriorated and then she was gone. I am trying to get a refund, and even offered to pay for the Bomba lesson, but no go.
Review provided by Viator
Voyage577706
Feb 27, 2023
Don’t Do It! - I am writing this review as we are the driving us back to our car from this tour. For the price of $150 per person, this was the worse tour I’ve ever taken. The dance part was ok, a bit long because our instructor was waiting for our driver to come back and get us. The driver text and said after a hour and a half for us to come back to the parking lot when we are done. When we got back to the car, it stunk of marijuana. He then told us that the next part of the trip to the cave didn’t have enough bees and we had an option to see the murals. We drove around for over an hour while he was showing us local bars and buildings which was not representative of the afro culture. I could hardly breathe because of the strong marijuana smell. The driver was nice but he constantly was answering his phone and and texting while driving. At one point my wife had to tell him that she was feeling unsafe. We almost got t-bone by an SUV which was very scary. My wife had to ask him when are we going to Loiza, the area which was of importance to learn about the afro culture. He said that we were on our way. When we got there, we were excited about the cooking lesson. We pulled up to an outdoor shed with a gentleman with some deep fryers and two customers from another tour. He was scooping out some crushed plantains and putting some meat stuff in the middle then dropping them into the frying pan. I was waiting to be taken to the back or somewhere to start our cooking lesson. My wife then indicated to me that this was the lesson, to watch him scoop some crushed plantains into a leaf, put some meat on it and he then puts it into the fryer. I was shocked. We did it leaf and meat thing and it was not tasty at all. We didn’t even eat it. We then ask the driver where do we go next and he said the tour was over. I was shocked. I would recommend that nobody take this tour. Absolutely waste of your money. You can drive over to the area or Uber. For the dance, watch a utube video. The next disappointment was to learn that the owners were not of African descent. I wanted to support local afro business and this was a gut punch. I’m trying to see what’s going on with his life. Oh thank you have a good day. Thank you for touching something, so do you want me to look up anything home from adopt me?
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Anne_j
Jan 11, 2023
The Worst “Tour” ever! - Do not, I repeat, DO NOT take any tours from this company. The owner, Tanya, gave us a guide named Sarah, who picked us up at the cruise port in a small sedan. So my family of 5, which included my two-year-old had to jam ourselves into this small hot car. We couldn't even put the child seat, so we had to put my son on our lap and pray Sarah was a good driver. Unacceptable. Then we went to a sketchy-looking park to take a dance lesson. Construction workers were sleeping in the bleachers, and homeless people walked past us as we tried to learn the BOMBA. The class wasn't terrible, it lasted about 90 minutes, but it would've been better if there was a drummer AND a dance instructor, not all in one, which seemed to be the theme of this tour. Next, Sarah took us to a beachy area of Loiza, where we sat down to eat. When I asked him if we were learning to make some food, he told us that this part of the tour was eliminated because the cook asked for too much money. However, they never informed us of this, nor did they offer a refund for this part of the tour. We booked the tour expecting the chance to learn to cook puerto Rican food and a cultural dance experience, which did not happen. The guide, Sarah gave us no history of Puerto Rico; he barely spoke with us and walked incredibly fast as if he was trying to lose us. We are ad id travelers and have never encountered such horrible service and experience. The entire day felt wasted, and I regret not taking on $480 and spending it on something more interactive and fun.
Review provided by Viator
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