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Small Group: Half Day Dominican Republic Cultural Tour

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

5 hours
Pickup offered
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

This tour is a great way to see the traditional side of the Dominican Republic. Many tourists only see the resort side of the country, but this tour shows the country's history and culture. Start your day in Higüey, one of the most popular cities in the country. There you will visit the Basilica and the Dominican Market, where you can get to better understand Dominican culture and society. After lunch it's time to visit Anamuya River, where you will have time to swim, enjoy nature and even slide on a 100 foot natural slide into the river.

The tour includes transportation to and from all the different attractions
Your group is small for a more intimate experience
Learn about the coffee, vanilla, and cocoa industries in the Dominican Republic.
Get acquainted with Dominican Republic culture and cuisine

What's Included

Basilica of Higüey
Dominican Market
Anamuya River
Macao Beach
Transport
Typical Dominican food and snack
Coffee, vanilla cocoa and fruit tasting

Meeting and Pickup

Pickup points

Select a pickup point

Start time

07:00 AM

Pickup details

The driver will always go with a banner in his hand where the name of the travelers will be written.

What To Expect

Immerse yourself in Dominican culture and nature on this half-day guided tour from Punta Cana. This convenient tour combines several different attractions and activities with transfers and food.

Your day starts with pickup from your Punta Cana hotel. Travel to Higuey by air-conditioned vehicle. At your first stop, go horseback riding at a ranch. You'll also visit the Basilica of Higuey and browse the local market.

At the Anamuya River, you can swim, play on the natural water slide, and savor a lunch of typical Dominican fare. Afterwards, learn about the coffee, cocoa, and tobacco industries at a local house and factory, and stop at an art school.

The last stop of the tour will be at Macao Beach, where you can relax on the sand, or enjoy a swim in the ocean, before getting dropped off at your hotel.

Higuey

5 hours • Admission Ticket Free

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Near public transportation
Infants must sit on laps
Transportation is wheelchair accessible

Not recommended for travelers with back problems
Not recommended for pregnant travelers
No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
Most travelers can participate
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 50 travelers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.

Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.
This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Reviews

5.0

1,060 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

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Showing 1-10 of 1,060 reviews

Awesome tour!

Jill_S, May 2024

We really learned alot about the culture of the area. Also bought some great chocolate and coffee! Guides were awesome.

Definitely recommend!

Cynthia_R, May 2024

Great tour! Weston and Robinson were awesome! Really get to see Dominican culture and the beautiful mountains.

Meh- not 5 star by any means.

Melisa_F, May 2024

Good value for money but not a 5 star experience. Unfortunately it’s advertised as a half day tour but we were picked up at 7a and dropped back off at 4pm- which had implications on the rest of our day. I picked a half day tour for a reason. The tour guide was knowledgeable- but I don’t think he was sharing a lot of his knowledge- didn’t always do a good intro to each stop/location. I wouldn’t highly recommend this tour.

Roller Coaster Tour - Not Worth It!

Gregory_F, May 2024

Overall it was a roller coaster of a day. First, they told me I had to walk up out of my hotel and meet them outside the gate..:didn’t feel safe initially. Then when I said cancel it, they came in and apologized. Then we had multiple stops and did some very fun activities: church, horseback riding, coffee/chocolate. We also did some sketchy things: stopped at a souvenir shop where the tour guide was friends with the owners…felt like prices were high. Stopped at a very dirty smelly marketplace, and when we thought our day was over, the tour took us to a beach where vendors were ripping off tourists and our tour guide had us there for 30 minutes. They charged $80 American dollars for two bracelets that cost about $10 to make but they didn’t tell you the price until your partner had them on their wrists. They also tried to put an iguana and a parrot on people’s shoulders and then wanted people to pay $25 for a picture with them. Total ripoff and did not need to be part of the tour. Tour was supposed to be 4 hours plus travel time. Tour took 9 hours in totality…should be 6 hours at most with just doing church, horseback riding, coffee/chocolate and cigar making only…all the rest was worthless and a money grab by tour operators and vendors.

Best Experience in DR

Nancy_E, May 2024

The cultural tour that we did with Mike and Sandy was by far the best experience we had in DR. Mike was so nice and knowledgeable. We learned so much about DR on this trip. The food was amazing and the people were all so so nice! It was a great change of scenery instead of just seeing tourist areas. We plan to come back to DR again and book with this company. You can tell that Mike is such a caring person who wants people to learn about Dominican culture. My husband and I had a blast at every location we stopped at. Our driver was also so nice! I wish I caught his name. We hope to come back to DR soon and book another trip with this company. Thank you Mike for everything! You and your colleagues really appreciate all you’ve done to make this trip memorable!

Awesome tour and people

Jessica_o, May 2024

We love love loved the trip with Weston (our driver) and Robinson (our tour guide). We learned so much this day. It was awesome to see the marketplace where the locals buy there fruits and veggies etc. The basilica the higue so beautyfull. We went to the cocoa, coffee and Vanille plantation so great to see. Also we went to the sigar factory and saw how the sigars are made and Macao beach was a bit wilde today but all in all great experience. Weston great driver an photographer. Robison a great storyteller and very sweet person with a heart for his work. Real Dominican people and they took good care of us and Robison is a very good photographer. Thank you guys for making us part of the Robison family. Till next time!!!

Good but more than 5 hours

Hans_B, May 2024

Very good tour, you get to see the other side of the DR and how people live. Food was amazing, the church was historic, and all the stops (bring cash and negotiate because it’s all about you buying things) were good. Only problem is this tour is longer than 5 hours, so don’t plan anything else for the day cause you will miss it. They definitely take the time to show you everything, so it turned out to be about a 8 hour tour and we missed out on our other excursions and did not get a refund.

Great peek outside of resort stays

Malia_J, Apr 2024

Great way to get off of a resort and better understand how locals live. Our guide Teo was very warm and accommodating. Know that you’re with a mixed group and your guide can only follow the schedule if the others on your tour move along appropriately so I would assume a minimum of 7+ hours for this tour.

Good to see Domenican Republicans culture and thier life style

Raghuma_C, Apr 2024

Awesome experience and we really liked it, coca forms, horse riding good to experience with friends and families.

Culture tour

Shveti_S, Apr 2024

Great tour. Did a lot. Well worth it. Drove thru rolling hills, horse back riding, Dominican lunch, visited Dominican family, cigar rolling, Macao beach. Packed a lot in one day

Just ok

Tracie_P, Apr 2024

Countryside was very beautiful! I gave this a 3 ⭐️ because most of the day was spent riding in this big truck that was very uncomfortable! Much longer 1/2 day than anticipated. Tour guide was very nice.

Best experience. No regrets!

Shiloh_L, Apr 2024

This was so much more than advertised! Thank you so much to Robinson & Sandy for a great day and for sharing their culture. They pack so much in that it is a little more than a half day. 100% worth every minute! Some resorts may not give them entrance which may cause delays.

Half day DR culture tour is a must try

Kemorie_B, Apr 2024

My half day DR cultural tour was enjoyable. Daniel the driver and Robinson the tour guide was a great team. Making sure we enjoy our outing from the pick which Robinson made hype and funny to the end of our trip. First stop was horse ranch for horse riding. Where the owner of the ranch was friendly and those who didn’t want to ride Robinson took us around on a small tour of the ranch. Enjoy the market, the Tobacco factory where we get to try make tobacco and we also went to a house to see how coffee and chocolate is made. The lunch was great. Like Robinson says “No bla bla bla or Mickey Mouse just authentic Domican republic food which was the best meal I had since getting here. There is also a river below the place we had lunch and we get to go down to the river. We visited an old church. The design there was impressive and it is still in use. Our finial stop was the beach. We Robinson went above is job and stop someone from over charging me. I will use them again and refer them to my friends.

Amazing

Amelia_T, Apr 2024

Me and my friend had an amazing time! Everyone was nice the horseback riding was beautiful! The food … OMG.. Amazing. And our driver Darwin was amazing . He was super sweet and he answered every question we had! Thank you so much Darwin for making this experience us amazing!

Would’ve been perfect if we had better transportation.

Deanna_D, Apr 2024

I really liked the variety of cultural activities we took part in during this trip. All in all, it is a good way to catch a glimpse of life in the Dominican Republic, especially if you’re staying in a resort. Here are a few things to take note of in order to decide if this day trip is for you: 1) the transportation is an open air style bus. (I will add a photo for reference.) When driving on the highway, be prepared to be wind whipped. When driving down many of the side roads or driveways, it was very rickety and bumpy. For me, it was okay the first hour or so but after seven hours, it was too much. 2) Depending on your pick up time, be prepared that an extra hour + may be needed to pick up all of the other passengers along the route in order to officially begin the tour. This is what adds on most of the “extra” time. 3) Time in the market is very quick. You will only spend about 10-15 minutes here. It is very tight in there; not a lot of opportunity to stop and purchase many items, although at the very end we were able to buy some mangos. 4) the river isn’t for swimming. We didn’t see any 100 foot natural slide… perhaps this was at a stop we didn’t go to. (We all voted to skip the stop to the beach because we were just so worn out by the end of the tour.) Our tour guide was knowledgeable; the basilica was beautiful, and lunch was nice. Horseback riding was my favorite part. You will also visit someone’s house where you’ll learn about cacao and you’ll be able to purchase some of their homemade items. The cigar factory was another quick stop where you will be able to roll your own small cigar and take it with you. They also give you a free sample upon entering and later you can try local drinks such as mamajuana. *Be sure to bring some extra money if you like to purchase small items such as: typical gift shop items, fresh coconut water from street vendors, fruit from the market- if there is time, cacao items from the home visit, and for items at the cigar shop. There were some children at a few of the stops, offering picked flowers in exchange for a dollar or two. I think we all would have been able to handle the tour a lot better if we had transportation that was better suited for a tour of seven hours with so many stops.

A good way to see DR

Heather_O, Apr 2024

The market was interesting. I really enjoyed seeing a traditional DR home and how they live. Our guide Mike was very knowledgeable. Horseback riding is included in this tour, although it doesn’t say it. They were an hour and half late and that is the reason for the 4 star review. I texted, I called no response. Finally called Viator and was told an additional 10 minutes- it was an additional 30 minutes.

Amazing experience

Selly_V, Apr 2024

Our tour guide Jefferson was amazing from the moment he picked us up to the moment we were dropped off. The tour started with horse back riding in a ranch although it was short about 10 minutes still very enjoyable we then proceeded to the cathedral where you pay $2 to enter and take picture/video or pray. Then we proceeded to a souvenir stop and the local market which was amazing to experience so many amazing agricultural finds. We then proceeded to lunch on the mountain next to - river which was delicious 100% authentic Dominican food. We the. Toured a typical Dominican house, watched how to make cacao and then to a Tobacco factory where we were able to make our own. We the ended the day at the beautiful Macao beach where we enjoyed some swimming time. Throughout the tour Jefferson explained everything we saw and expirenced also offered to take pictures of us throughout the day. I would 100% recomend this tour if you want a look into the Dominican culture.

Overall a great tour

Nyla_S, Apr 2024

This was a nice tour. We got to see a lot and really go in to towns and see how the locals live. If you have a soft heart bring dollar bills to hand out because they will definitely be asking for them, and if you give out one you will be bombarded to give out more. The horses were great, the scenery on the ride was beautiful. I would recommend this tour to anyone who likes to leave the tourist area and see the real lives of the people there.

Tour on point. Timing off point.

Sheryl_C, Apr 2024

The tour stops, tour guide, locations visited were amazing. Felt like we really got a glimpse into the DR culture. However, our pickup time was 1.5 hours later than initially told. So we had to sit in the “lobby” of our resort watching other tour buses come & go. And the tour was advertised as a half-day tour but it went well over 2 additional hours. I suggest you not take this tour if you have something else planned for the day.

Excellent local trip

Jessie_L, Apr 2024

Our guide Robinson is well knowledge and he brought us a lot of fun. Thank you for your hard working and we are appreciate for your tour!! Highly recommend Robinson!!

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