Colonia Day Trip & Optional Private Transfers From Buenos Aires

Having a driver and ferry tickets, with the one hour walking tour made the day trip from Buenos Aires easy. The driver was waiting for us at our hotel on the dot to take us to the ferry. Returned to BA on an earlier ferry and made arrangements with our driver who once again was on time for our drive back to our hotel. The walking tour gave good historical and cultural background; pointed out the highlights as a foundation to our own exploration of the town. I would say however, there were plenty of taxis and ride shares available on the return; and when we changed our ferry time through ColoniaExpress it was very easy. With that said, one could book this there independently. Viator made it easy as a package; doing it alone would be fine too.

Trip was fine. Ferry ride was great. Did have a great experience with the personal driver. Once in Uruguay we would have rather just done our own site seeing.

The travel to and from was wonderful. Colonia is a cute little town with a much slower pace from Buenos Aires. I would have liked a longer walking tour with more historical details. I would go again.

Pretty expensive for the experience. The English tour guide is a joke. Also the company who ever reserved or organized my trip mixed up with timing of return ferry and wasted lots of our time. I would recommend just buy the ferry ticket and go on your own than booking through these companies.

My wife an I booked this ferry trip to Colonia, Uraguay online, prior to our tour of Brazil & Argentina. We had a free day, so we chose to add another country, as a day trip from Buenos Aires. Colonia is an old walled city and there are many shops and restaurants in an area which is an easy walk from the ferry terminal. A relaxing treat!

The ride to the ferry and home after we’re great. The guía in Colonia was ver good, but the whole “tour” only lasted maybe 45 minutes, then we were “on our own” for 4 or 5 hours. Three of us hired the guide independently for a couple of hours and that was great. Without that, it would’ve been a bust

The tour was a waste of money. The tour guide guided us for about 45 min then we got into some van that drove us out of town for lunch for 2 hours. The food was awful. Then we only had an hour to explore colonia after lunch before heading back to the ferry port. Total waste of money.

We chose to meet the tour at the ferry terminal, which was an east thing to do. It saved a lot of money to take our own taxi transportation. All the details went exactly as described, and we hAd no complaints with the tour operator. The problem is: Colonia is deadly dull and really not worth a day

We decided ahead of time to book this trip and it was worth it. Colonia is beautiful. The ferry is not a complicated process and tickets can be purchased at the Colonia Express terminal. We were on the 9a.m. ferry but were picked up at our hotel at 6am, which was too early. We sat at the terminal for 1 hour before others passengers arrived. A 7 am pick up would allow ample time to check in. Colonia is charming and a perfect day trip from Buenos Aires.

- guided tour was too short- problems with the lunch-value for money - really poor (assuming that the ferry ticket can be bought for 80 USD, paying 112 USD for that one was waste of 32 usd)

Ok, so first off, I have to tell you, that we didn't actually get to go on the tour, even though we paid for it, however, the trip is NON-REFUNDABLE. So, you are probably wondering why I would even write a review then, well, let me tell you. I hope I can save you some frustration and money by avoiding this tour. A month prior to our trip, I booked this event as I have been wanting to see Colonia. As we were only in Buenos Aires for 4 days, I also wanted to book an evening dinner and tango show. Immediately after booking this activity, I received an email stating I needed to confirm this booking with the local company and an email address was provided, so I sent an email to Tangol (the local company). I indicated that I was reconfirming the booking and requested information on the length of the tour. Most activities indicate that in the description, but this one did not. After 3 weeks with no response, I emailed again asking for the information, again with no response. So, I booked an evening event, assuming that the tour would last 8 hours at the most. The afternoon before the scheduled activity (yes, less than 24 hours prior), I received an email from them requesting passport information, date of birth, full names, etc for my husband and I. As we were out in the city, I did not see the email for 2 hours. Then I had another email from them telling me they were picking us up at 0615h and we would be returning on a 2015h ferry. Are you kidding me! No one would knowingly book a tour that lasts this long. So I called the number they provided on this email and after being transferred around, finally spoke with a woman regarding the situation. She told me that Viator must not have forwarded my previous emails (way to place blame). So, unfortunately, my husband and I decided we would rather go on the evening activity than deal with a completely inefficient and frustrating organization. I find it interesting that they received my emails from today, but claim to have not received my previous ones, even though they all went to the same email address. I will never book an activity/ tour with Tangol or Viator again after this. And to have a no refund policy, so we are our $272 USD. I should have known after reading some of the other reviews. So disappointing.

Basically you do everything yourself until you get to Colonia Uruguay. This means check in via immigration and customs, boarding the boat etc Once you get there it is quite nice (scenic and outdoorsy) and my tour guide Fabian was very knowledgeable with a good sense of humour. There is a lighthouse, restaurants, old buildings amongst other things. The guided tour was good and informative, otherwise without it, it would’ve just seemed like five blocks. Instead you learn above the lifestyle and what influenced all the different building types. They do allow you to use Argentinian Pesos but expect the shops to dictate the conversion rate and things to be quite pricy as with most tourist spots. Walk a bit further away from the water/river and you’ll have more selection of food and more fairer prices. All in all i thought it was worth it, If you plan to have lunch or early dinner here. Sit back in the sun and have a few drinks because if you don’t like these things you’ll run out of things to do and just be waiting for your boat to go home.

The trip was well organized. A driver picked us up at our Airbnb and dropped us off at the end of the day. The walking tour of Colonia upon arrival was very good. Maria was very knowledgeable. We had the rest of the day on our own to explore the city. The weather was lovely and we had a great time walking the streets of Colonia.

Colonia is pleasant, but there is nothing really special here. There are a few historical (17th-18th century ruins) but otherwise this is just uninteresting and a bit touristy. Our guide was a real sweetheart, and did have some interesting things to say about the history of Uruguay. The ride over was nice, but if you have limited time in Buenos Ares, pass on this. Unless you want the passport stamp.

We booked the previous evening and paid $110 pp. It is bigger square of cobbled streets. Laid back and quiet like any small town. Nothing special. May be if you stay for a couple of days you would enjoy the walks and slow pace. But for a day trip at that price definitely not worth it.

<p>It was perfect. Nice difference between BA and Colonia. I wish I could have stayed a few days there to really slow down. Everything was good and I encourage anybody to go.</p>

Quite an unexpected surprise to have an opportunity to do a day trip to Uruguay . Well worth a visit if you can organise it before you leave overseas. If not , don’t rely on web site for bookings better to go to their downtown office. We were not prepared for Colonia Uruguay it was quite different but also refreshing. Money well spent I would do it again. Hint : book online before you leave your country, passport required, sunscreen, sunhat , Travel motion boat gear , camera and good footwear

I need to be clear that Colonia is definitely worth seeing. We had a good time and got another stamp in our passports. The prices for lunch etc. were reasonable and the people laid back. I just have no idea how they justify this tour's price. I later found out you can get your own tickets for the Buquebus 1 hour boat ride for $90. That includes both a mediocre lunch on the boat and a reportedly mediocre one hour bus tour of Colonia in English. But hey ---- it's a lot cheaper.

<p>We feel this tour was a rip off, extremely expensive for what we got. The guided walking tour was about 15 minutes. Colonia is just not that interesting. It is worth about an hour visit to see a few old buildings and some ruins. The rest of the town is souvenir shops and restaurants. It ended up being a 12 hour day, very tiring waiting for the ferry, a crowded boring ride, and a minimal tour. Don't waste your time or money.</p>

<p>This tour was horrible. Actually it wasn't even a tour, in fact I would give it a 0 if I could. Somebody picked us up at our hotel, took us to the Port. When we got to the port we just learned that the tour will meet us in Uruguay. We could travel with ourselvs on a ship, but it was verry disappointing that the Viator didn't say anything. After 3 hours boat ride we got to Colonia. There was another ship. We asked the personal at the port and they told us that we came on the slow car ship. Again we were speachless, why Viator placed us on the car ship when we could go with a fast one that only took about 1 hour instead of 3. We waited on a long line for our tour in Colonia. Then The Day Tour person did not even speak a word of english, she started screaming at us and other people why we didn't speek spanish. She threw all our papers at her collegue who knew english. The second one left us at a Hop-On Hop-Off Station in the middle of nowhere. She told us that we paid about 600 dollars for a Hop-On Hop-Of. On the website said we were paing for a tour, not for a Hop-On Hop-Off in a village that is so small you don't even need a bus. You need a tour guide to explain the history. We could buy our ship ticket much cheaper than 600 and go to Uruguay by ourselvs. So, we just walk around the Colonia by ourselvs. Don't get me wrong Colonia was amazing. Even though we went there in Christmas resturants were open and a couple of the souvinier shops. Colonia is also very pretty evert cobelstone street leads to another one and the prettyness never stops. Viator told us that there would be someone wating for us at the Port of Buenos Aires to take us to our hotel. But nobody was there. We had to take a Taxi there were not many at 10:30 pm. So this 'tour' was the worst 'tour' we ever had. But if you are in Buenos Aires you should go to Colonia.</p>

<p>This is the worst tour I have ever been on, if you can even call it a tour, which is such a shame as Colonia seemed lovely! We got off the ferry and it was very disorganised. Eventually we were put on a bus which is pointless as it is no more than a 5 mins drive but we had to sit on it for almost 30mins. There was a lot of confusion with how the tour would work and whether it was a walking tour or a bus tour. The walking tour offered no interesting information on the place or history of Colonia and we didn't even go into the main attractions such as the church! We then got on a bus to see a bit more of Colonia and again the explanations offered were not very interesting. I was comparing my experience to my friend who had been on another tour the week earlier and told me how great it was. Our ferry back was not scheduled until 9pm, which we managed to change but then no one understood that we needed to change our pick up from the ferry terminal to our hotel to arrive earlier so we gave up explaining and just got a taxi back. Below is an equivalent explanation in Spanish if you wish to forward it to the provider.</p> <p>A quien corresponda,</p> <p>Buenas tardes, mi nombre es Zahra y escribo para expresar mi profunda disconformidad con el servicio que me ha prestado la empresa en términos de organización. <br/> Desde un primer momento tuvimos problemas con el bus, tuvimos que esperar mas de 20 minutos a que el mismo comenzara lo cual no fue un buen comienzo. También tuvimos problemas para regresar a nuestro hotel una vez finalizado el tour. Siendo que el transporte de regreso estaba incluido, tuvimos que toma un taxi por nuestra cuenta.<br/> Pero lo mas decepcionante es que el tour en si mismo no nos proporcionó ninguna informaciónon sobre el valor histórico del lugar que era lo que a fin de cuentas mas nos interesaba.<br/> Espero que esta información sirva para que puedan mejorar el servicio.</p>

<p>Colonia was lovely, it is a sleepy little town that you can wander and shop and see a bit of history or go down to the water with a coffee and relax. Not a ton to do there, but a nice change from busy Buenos Aires. We chose the pickup service from the hotel, which drops you off at the ferry and leaves you to figure out how to get on it yourself. It feels daunting at first since there are very little English cues but it actually is easier than it first looks. First, you line up at check-in. Show your reservation voucher on a phone works get your tickets and then head for immigration. Immigration has both Argentina and Uruguay side by side so once you are through you are done. You meet the bus tour at Colonia after a ferry ride - it is on a Buquebus the same company as the ferry. If you tried to book it yourself you would find the website a nightmare so through Viator worked so much better for us. Some people told me the bus tour was not necessary. But we enjoyed it and it follows the hop on hop off route so can decide later if you want to do it again and get off at places. We stayed until the 7:45 ferry but if you are in a time crunch, the 4pm ferry would give you enough time as well. The one thing I would change was the driver that picked us up after the day and took us home was truly terrifying. Reaching speeds of 100km/h in downtown Buenos Aires. have travelled the world and been in taxis in many countries, including India, and they don't hold a candle to how scary this guy's driving was. He started going the wrong way so we made him stop and walked the last few minutes home.</p>

<p>Here's what I got with the tour: a hotel pickup at 6:30am, ferry ride roundtrip, 1 hour walking tour of Colonia, driver holding a sign with my name to take me back to hotel when we got back to Buenos Aires at night. If you were to buy all of these separately, you'd pay less than half the cost of this package. I only recommend the package if you feel it's worth 100 or more to not have to plan the items individually.</p> <p>Because the walking tour was done by 11:15 am, and the return ferry doesn't leave until 8:15pm if it's on time, we had 9 HOURS to kill. I used the time to eat lunch, shop, climb a lighthouse, and pay for a driving tour that included a winery visit in the afternoon. Even with all of that, there was so much extra time. One thing I could've done was visit the museums. That would've used up some more time. </p> <p>I wish this package had the option of the earlier return ferry which left Colonia at 3:15 or 4:15, something like that. I would've rather get back to Buenos Aires with some remaining daylight.</p>

<p>My wife and I enjoyed this tour, unfortunately as the weather was not great and everything was pre-booked, The option to come back on an slightly earlier ferry was not possible, even though space was not an issue. In hindsight, some flexibility would have been nice.</p>

<p>Didn't need a tour. Just go buy a ferry ticket on Colonia Express. My booking was sold three times to end up not matching the detailed meet up instructions given. Guide's English was poor, just stopped a few times and was set off to explore on your own.</p>

<p>It was okay, I didnt really like the guide, made it a big deal that she had to speak English as I was the only non-Spanish speaking person in the big group.</p>

<p>Fun way to spend an afternoon. La Boca was the highlight of the trip. We spent a lot of time there. Only downside was the driver wouldn't drop me off at my hotel, and I had some difficulty finding my way back to my hotel.</p>

<p>If you have the luxury of a few extra days in Buenos Aires and want something to do some extra touring, this would be great. There's so much to do in BA that I would've been perfectly happy to have stayed in the city. The people were really nice in Colonia and it was cool to see the settlement buildings.</p>

<p>I just took this tour yesterday, and while the tour was ok, the description of the tour is inaccurate.<br/> When you arrive in Colonia, there is no bus tour and the walking tour is given in Spanish only. The lunch <br/> is included a package lunch at the Yacht club restaurant which was quite good, but not necessarily worth the price paid here.<br/> A couple of side notes need to be mentioned. This tour uses the Colonia Express ferry, not the larger buguebus ferry. The CE terminal is in a different area of BA, take note when arranging your transportation. Also, the CE ferry doesn't return until 8:30pm depending on the day of the week. The walking tour finishes at noon, which leaves a LOT of time in between. You might want to consider renting a golf cart to drive around, its a nice alternative to taking the bus tour. There are several companies around the Colonia ferry terminal and a few in the old town area.</p>

<p>Not worth the money spent. The guided trip is only one hour long while the guide did her best, I cannot see how 8 hours can be spent in a small picturesque town just shopping and looking at historical sites. There should be an option to return at 4 pm instead of at 8-30 pm I don't see how the amount charged is justified. A ferry ride and an hour of a guide's time. Really? The problem was not the guide or the place. Please rethink this one. Colonia can be made cheaper and shorter. Give people the option of a shorter or longer trip. Definitely not worth the money or the time. This fault lies with Viator</p>

<p>I loved Colonia, but the time spent there was too long for the winter. Most everything shut down around 5pm and the ferry didn't leave until 8:45pm. I would only do this tour in the winter if you can leave on an earlier ferry.</p>

<p>Weather was nasty but still worth doing. Problem I had was falling at the zoo and was unable to walk as much as normal our guide said if we went back to the ferry building we could change our ticket back to an earlier return time. That was not honored.</p>

<p>I would highly recommend visiting Colonia. It was a great chance to get away from the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires. I walked along the beach and the small town. It was quite relaxing.</p>

<p>Trip was overpriced, actual guided tour was only for over an hour and not much information provided.</p>

<p>NOT VERY HAPPY - we had got communication from your Co. to say that pick up at the hotels would start at 7.30a.m. On 16th the phone rang in our room at 6.25a.m. and the man at the front desk said they were there to pick us up. We got ready as quickly as possible and WITHOUT BREAKFAST we then had to be taken by taxi. When we got to Buquebus there was nobody to tell us how to get the booking on the ferry done. After going to four booking in desks we finally got our boarding passes. When we got to Colonia again nobody there to tell us where to go to meet our tour guide and we were lucky again to be able to find the correct bus in time. With the money we paid not happy at all.</p>

<p>The day trip itself was very good - Colonia is a very picturesque town but you were left to your own devices most of the day. Once I was picked up at the hotel I was left alone to sort out check in at the ferry - it is very easy to navigate around the ferry terminal. Once in Colonia you had a guide with you for about 2 hours then the rest of the day you were free to wander - the lunch included was very nice though - 3 courses - drinks were extra. Then again left to sort out yourself at check on the way back. Enjoyed the day but because of the time spent on your own without a guide I don't think it was worth the money</p>

<p>Tour was good but overpriced. But otherwise, Colonia was beautiful! Would recommend visiting!</p>

<p>This was a scam. There was only a 30 min tour of the beach; no 10 hr excursion and no walking tour as promised.</p>

<p>I am very glad we went, it is a interesting city. I felt that the tour could have been better executed. The bus component of the tour was fairly short and not horribly informative. It would have been nice to stop at a few more places and had commentary while there. The tour guide did a good job in the format that was set out for her. She answered any questions that we had. The lunch was not the greatest. I would recommend not going to the restaurant included. The service was very slow and the food was not worth the wait at all.</p>

<p>I was very disappointed with this tour.<br/> I have booked tours around the world through Viator and expect a certain level of quality that was not achieved on this tour.<br/> The meeting point was set at the Ferry Port, however there was no tour information there. No information was provided detailing that you would meet up with the guide at the City of Colonia, which is unacceptable for a guided tour from Buenos Aires to Colonia, especially for an English speaking tour within countries that do not speak English.<br/> The tour itself was very brief only lasting at the very most 1 hour. For the price paid and description of a guided tour, this was unacceptable. Minimal value was added by having a guided tour, as most of the trip was spent exploring on your own.<br/> Colonia itself was an interesting, quiet City, however not exciting enough to explore on your own for hours, or for the price of the tour, which should include a full day tour, rather than a one hour tour and transportation.<br/> You would be better off to book the ferry on your own and transportation in Colonia.</p>

<p>Loved this tour Colonia is just beautiful, tour guide very friendly and informative, lovely little cafés to have lunch at was hard to choose which one to go in. Had the best gelato here outside of Italy, lovely Spanish and Portuguese buildings and roads, recommend highly!</p>

<p>It was perfect. The driver was on time, everything was easy!</p>

<p>This was FANTASTIC! it was the surprise of the trip! Beautiful, safe, clean. Rent a golf cart to drive around the city.</p>

Great day trip and a good escape from the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires. Colonia is a laid back and calm village with a lot of personality. It was great to spend the day there wondering around its colonial and quaint historical sector. Don't miss out on the city's entrance, the lighthouse and the famous cobblestone streets!

<p>Trip was good but I was unable to contact the supplier to reconfirm the trip on the phone number provided as requested. I was unsure if the trip would go ahead until I received advice about a pick up time late in the afternoon before the trip.</p>

Colonia is a quaint town. Lunch was very good. Arrangements went like clockwork. Would recommend leaving at around 5pm rather than around 8pm if you have the option. The 3 extra hours makes the tour drag a little.