Jungle Buggies and River Swim in Punta Cana

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Renita H.

November 07, 2025

The rating is not for the adventure activities, but more so for the extreme disorganization with them and the rudeness of certain tour guides with me. Thomas was introduced as our tour guide but we only seen him on the buggies and didn’t see him anymore after we put on life vest for the sacred river which there was no instructions given just followed a path and follow everybody else. Nobody knew what to expect and people had on their gymshoes and didn’t get a chance to change out of them because they told us that for every activity we will come back to the lobby and you can change and go to your lockers. I have never been to a Caribbean island and felt prejudice being Black until I got to Punta Cana. I was told by Dominican Americans that Dominicans will make sure I have a good time as they love Americans. This was not my experience! I was ignored as I was by myself celebrating my birthday with a birthday shirt on. I tried to sit with other people or walk with them to make sure that I wasn’t forgotten. The direct rudeness was when I went to ride the horses. I walked the trail by myself trying to follow signs because I was told just to go and walk down that way over there. Walking through a jungle not sure where you’re going and there’s nobody else around didn’t feel secure or safe. I followed the path until I got to the barn and then I heard other people come in so I waited. I walked with the other Americans to the place where the horses were. There was a guide standing there telling us we had to put helmets on for the horses. I was the first one there in front of him. He ignored me and began to put the helmet on the young girl behind me. I didn’t think much of it, but you stood there and waited. After her, he proceeded to put the helmet on her boyfriend so I just looked at them because they were behind me so he had to step past me to do this. They walked and sat down. I’m standing by myself with him waiting for a helmet, and he starts fooling around. Now a group of guys walks up Behind me and they were just chatting and not paying attention. The guy proceeds to put the helmet on them. So I said to him, do you not see me standing here and everyone looked at me the other guides and the guest. He proceeded to not say anything, but put the helmet on the guys so I walked away and sat down and the picture you see that the photographer took is of me sitting down without a helmet on because he did not put my helmet on for the horse. When I got up To step up on the horse, the other guide says, you know you need a helmet on and he had a smirk on his face, and I looked at him and said you know good and well that he did not put a helmet on my head & you heard me say something and he said yes, but you still need one so I’ll go get you one. None of them check the rude behavior of their peers like it was common. I had to also ask the photographer to take pictures of me because he was not taking pictures of me. The famous zip lining down into the water, they let us go one at a time so that they can capture the picture of each one coming down. When I came down to the water, the photographer was standing there, looking at me, not even holding the camera up so he did not take my picture so while other people have many pictures in their package, I had 26 pictures but because they were multiples of the same shot they were only about 7. When getting my pictures, I asked the One who spoke English and was selling the pictures where are my other pictures for the other activities and he said well we are still uploading and don’t worry, you will have them sent to you in the email the next day. That is when I saw about 26 pictures of multiple shots and only about seven being different. The guides had the audacity to say that they work for tips! I bring singles $5 and $10 usd with me to tip when I go to countries that I know are relying on tourism and this is the first time ever that I returned back home to the United States with 80% of my tip money.

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K S.

October 07, 2025

This is definitely something the DR put together for tourist. The water areas were beautiful but if you're not a fan of bugs, the water is not for you. The pool area was the only place where the bugs was very minimal. Everything else had a lot of leaves and dead spiders, bugs, etc. Wanted to do an excursion with my daughter for her 22nd birthday but she did not do anything at this park because of the bugs. We ended up leaving early. She only did the pool. The photos they post are being but you don't see the bugs and things in the water. If you're not afraid of bugs and leaves, etc, then this is for you.

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Mollie B.

September 14, 2025

Spent most of the day here today (2 adults) the park itself is unexpectedly vast, guides are very welcoming, friendly, and very funny! We were lucky to have Carlos taking us round the resort - lovely, polite, passionate and knowledgeable gentleman. We did the buggy rides which far exceeded are expectations - plenty of time for both myself and partner to have sufficient time on the buggies to really enjoy it. Two stops - first one approximately 20 minutes at the cenotes which was fantastic and a short talk by Carlos about the history of the area was welcomed. Second stop was for lunch where there is a lovely shaded area you can enjoy a Dominican meal included in the price - as someone that doesn’t usually eat meat it was very enjoyable and we both finished the lot! The jungle river was awesome to finish off the buggies in a relaxed manner, we then headed to the waterfall where there is also a bar for refreshments. Would highly recommend and will certainly return when visiting the Dominican again! **what we didn’t realise before going was you went allowed phones at all on the buggies - however there is someone around for each activity taking plenty of photos which are a very reasonable price at the end!