Bay Of Fundy Shared Tour Adventure

Derick was our guide and was a great source of local knowledge. The reversing falls were a spectacular sight as was observed the river flowing both ways. Flowing to the sea in the morning and returning in the afternoon to view the reversal. The visit to the City Market and the Sea Caves were added benefits on this tour.

We had such a great time with Jeff and Jayme exploring around Saint John. They made the trip so much fun and being in a smaller group with so much better than a big bus.

Derek was a very knowledgeable and sophisticated in his presentation on the tour. The quality of the tour was excellent. It was, at times, very difficult to understand him. He is very friendly an an asset to your company@

6 adults, including 2 seniors were picked up in an older model mini van for a 5hr driving tour. we arrived 15 mins early and only the rear seat was available. so my sister and I, both seniors sat back there with one other person...so 3 people in the back of an old mini van (this was no Honda Odyssey). We had to continually exit and enter the vehicle in several stops which was not easy AT ALL. The temp in the van was so warm at one point, I started sweating, as did my sister who is NEVER hot and had to request air Then, as we were driving faster (getting to sea caves as an example), the driver would be talking, telling us all the information about whatever and we, in the back, could not hear much of it due to the road noise. The driver would point things out on churches or tops of buildings which we could not see since the windows were so small. Most of the stops were awe inspiring and wonderful, but the vehicle was so uncomfortable, I can't possible rate this higher than 2 stars, even though the driver seemed knowledgeable, but he also seemed to be script reading. I would not use VGO tours again. If you are taking 6 adults for a 5 hr driving tour, you should have a large van where everyone has a full window and/or a car like a Navigator, not a mini van (that should only be used as a airport taxi). Water for each member (we did pay over $125 per person!!!) should have/could have been provided or have available in a cooler (did I mention this was a FIVE HOUR tour?). We made the best of the stops but this was such a disappointment to a otherwise wonderful trip north on our cruise.

Excellent guide made our trip twice as nice. Sorry, forgot his name. Very knowledgeable and friendly.

Due to only 6 of us we were taken in a minivan instead of a 11 seater van. So that made the 5 1/2 hrs trip uncomfortable. We started with a tour of the city and then went to see the reverse rapids-15 mins.. Then to the bay of Fundy. We got 15 mins only to check out the caves which was disappointing. We also skipped Rockwood Park completely. On our return we went to see the Reverse rapids again to see the tide change. I booked this tour based on reviews but I’m sad I can’t give it even a 4

The excursion was terrible. We ended up in a minivan with a driver. While he showed us some town highlights, he had nothing to share for the entire rest of the day. It was like taking a taxi to places with little interest. Don't waste your time in St. John and certainly not with this tour.

Was a wonderful experience with our driver. It was more or less a private tour with one other guest, so we had the afternoon with him and learn a lot about the area

While yasir did a good job there were some issues with the transportation. They brought an 8 passenger van for 6 senior adults. This meant that 3 had to squeeze into the back row. It was uncomfortable, hard to get in and out, and very hard to hear him. For the $750 we paid I expected better transportation. Today my back is out from sitting back there. Very disappointed.

Best day ever We had Derek (tareq) He went the extra mile, brought us to the falls at the begining of the tour and back again at the end so we could see both the high tide and low tide Offered to drop us anywhere at the end of tour tour in order to accommodate us We where also just two my husband and I so we got upgraded to a private tour and I must say it was just fantastic

Great tour to see city and countryside sights as well as Bay of Funde tide changes. Our guide, Jeff, was fabulous.

Excellent tour of the reversing falls and other beautiful areas. Tour guide was very knowledgeable and friendly. Would recommend this tour if you're in the area.

This was a lengthy, but beautiful ride. Ell gave us a wonderful tour with lots of stops for photos and opportunities for questions. The only drawback was that we were in a minivan so there was a lot of crawling in and out from the back row. Things would have been more comfortable in a different vehicle, but still a great tour.

4 of us in our group. 2 gals and 2 guys, and our guys are big & tall. A text message and voice mail the day before said to look for the white bus with red & blue markings....no bus! A guy with a mini van, who was not a tour guide nor a local, but someone who only lived in Saint John for 4 years! He was also expecting 2 more people to join us.....not sure where in that mini van there were gonna sit! He eventually settled on just the 4 of us. 1st stop King's Square.....we never went there! 2nd stop Saint John City Market....he gave us the option at the end of our tour to be dropped off there or back at the cruise port. We got out there so we could see it. 3rd stop Rockwood Park....we never went there either! 4th stop Fort Howe National Historic Site....this was our first stop, he never told us where we were going, had no idea it was an actual fort until I saw the sign as we were leaving. No knowledge of the park at all. 5th stop Reversing Falls Rapids....we stopped here second, at a few different spots to see the falls, from the bridge, near the paper mill. He was very hard to understand as he tried to explain how it all worked. Three Sissters Lamp (pass by). That never happened either! 6th stop Bay of Fundy......we took a very long (and quiet) drive to St. Martin to look at a light house without knowing anything about it or exaclty where we were. From the light house we went to the actual town of St. Martin where the caves are in the Bay of Fundy. That was good! It says you have 3 hours for the Bay of Fundy, we thought we would be able to have lunch there....oh no, we had 20 minutes. I guess the 3 hours includes the drive there and back. We were also taken to the Moosehead Brewery after the fort. On the way back, we mentioned the places we hadn't been and were told that wasn't part of the tour, there was no more time. But, we then stopped at Catholic Church undergoing renovations before he dropped us off at the City Market. We didn't have a tour, we had a taxi driver who only knew how to get to certain places. Very disappointing!

We didn’t end up on this experience since the tour operator left us behind (VGO Tours) even though our ticket clearly stated 9 am and we arrived at the assigned meeting place at 8:45. The nicest taxi drivers attempted to help by calling VGO but they refused to come back for us, even after we shared the ticket that clearly stated 9 am. In the end another tour company came to our rescue! My husband and two others they also stranded allowed us to join their tour at no cost. We missed the first stop at the fort but saw everything else listed in this tour. So buyer beware in St John if you book. I’ve used viator for years and this is the first big issue. Otherwise it was a decent tour and the guide we had (Kevin) was great! Just don’t book anything with VGO Tours.

We were upgraded for free to a private tour when there weren't enough travelers booking that day. Our tour was more flexible and personalized because of it.

We waited for one person who wound up canceling. We went uptown to see the old buildings, then to City Market. We parked by a park and my husband was not interested in going into the market so we walked around the park. We then went to the Reversing Tides, where we learned about “slack tide”, which was occurring right then. We enjoyed seeing seals playing in the whirlpools. Next we headed to the little village of St. Martins, where we were able to walk across a covered walkway next to a double lane covered bridge. It was almost completely low tide. From there we drove to the caves beside the sea. There was only a trickle of water going out. We all got out and walked as close to the caves as we could. If we had walked through a couple inches of water we could have stood in the caves, but we didn’t want to get our shoes wet. We then headed back to St. John’s where we went to the Reversing Tides and saw the water coming in. It was not at full high tide, but the difference was very noticeable and the whirlpools much larger.

Good tour and guide, Tariq. He has a lot of knowledge about the area and knew people everywhere we went! We did have a lot of discourteous people who stretched out every stop. One woman decided to take a cab back to ship and didn’t tell the driver but sent her friend who isn’t very phone savvy a text she didn’t discover until we had waited 10 minutes. Thankfully Tariq didn’t penalize the group, but the 4-5 hour tour that started at 9am became 6 hours. I had something else I wanted to do at 230 and thankfully I didn’t prepay, because I would not have made it. Would book with the company again but make sure it’s a smaller group tour or even individual. Not having people you don’t know dictate your day by being late is worth the extra money. I won’t even get started on all the coughing and sneezing!

Horrible trip. Sent us in taxicabs with no guides. Stated bus was unavailable. Cab driver knew nothing, spoke little English. Squeezed 6 of us in a vehicle meant for 5. Went to places in wrong order so high tide didn't allow cave exploration. Missed 3 of the sites. So far refunded 50% of our money. Not enough. Terrible day. No history given, explanations, etc. would rather have stayed on ship. Waste of our day!

Dereck and ELL were excellent!! Very informative and entertaining.

El was a great tour guide. Very knowledgeable and friendly. I even left my phone in the van and he drove an hour to bring it back to me!

Derek was very informative and helpful with taking pictures along the way. Would recommend this tour and Derek

Derick was a wonderful guide. He was very knowledgeable and timed our tour so we hit the water features at the correct time. I traveled with someone in a wheelchair and Derick was very accommodating. The tour held only seventeen people so I did not feel left out as can happen with a large group. I would definitely recommend this tour.

Our tour guide was amazing -so knowledgeable and, however we had some rough people that didn't make it easy for him. But the tour was incredible!

This tour has a wide variety of things to see from Nature’s beauty to the city and culture of St. John’s.

Absolutely great! The owner and tour guide was very knowledgeable and friendly. The transportation was excellent, and the scenery and stops along the way wonderful.

Derek was our guide and our driver's name I can't remember but both were excellent. Learned tons of history of the area and we saw a lot of sights. They made sure we were able to see both high and low tide at the reversing river. The stops were quick but we saw a lot. Great overview of the area. So much to see that it was hard to see it all in one day. Made sure we were back in time to board the ship. Highly recommend this tour for a great overview!

It was very rushed. We would stop somewhere and were told we had 10 minutes, 1 stop was 5. The driving was rushed too, too fast. I paid more money for this than other people that were on the trip, which was not cool

Booked for the shared tour, but were given a private car. That worked well as we could spend what time we wanted at Rockwood Park & the sea caves at St Martin. We were also able to visit the reversing falls twice to catch the low tide and Ibrahim our driver stopped at a great lobster roll restaurant for us just outside St Martin. That said the saloon car wasn’t great for comfort as we had 4 passengers, so someone had to sit in the middle, and it was a coupe style so the windows were quite low for viewing. If I did this trip again would go for the private tour but would prefer a minivan.

Derek, the guide and owner was excellent. He was so conscious and anxious to please all of us. He even took us for a second look at the reversing falls so we could see slack tide. We we originally booked on another tour, but the cancelled and I scrambled to get this one. It really worked out beautifully. Meant to be. Thanks Derek.

Our guide Shawna (spelling ?) was determined to provide us with a great excursion and she and Derek did so. She needs to read the audience better. We didn’t need to be asked a hundred times how the tour is and are there any questions. Sometimes at the end of a cruise or last excursion of a cruise people are less enthusiastic about interacting than at the start of the cruise. Hopefully this is taken as constructive criticism because they both worked hard to make us happy. Good excursion.

The tour and the transportation was very good. The commentary related to the tour was very good, however the guide had a tendency to talk too much about other things unrelated to the tour and this keeps me from giving 5 stars. Everything else was 5 star worthy.

We we're instructed to be at the meeting point 15 minutes early, 8:45am. 9:30am and still no tour guide, another guide came to me with his phone, he had our guide on the line, he said we were early! Alot of confusion and we didn't depart for the tour until 11am. They said it was because the cruise ship was early which made no sense. I would go on a day where no cruise ship is involved but they don't give that option on the site. I would call to confirm next time. It was very inconvenient for the other couple they had to keep delaying their car rental return and we missed doing what we had planned after this tour, as we were expecting to be back by 2pm and didn't finish until 4:30pm. The tour itself was okay but a few incorrect statements from the guide. Not stopping long enough for tourists to take pictures at some points. Tour guide supplied water and candies. Met some great people on the tour.

Khurram was a great tour guide, making sure we got to the sites we were interested in. Great small Group of just 6 of us. He provided lots of interesting information and got us everywhere we were interested in going. Thanks Khurram for a fantastic tour!!

When booking tour, a pick-up time was not specified. I tried to reach out to the vendor directly but received no answer. I had to use Viator support to contact him, 2 weeks before my scheduled tour to find out when I would be picked up. The time changed the night before the tour, and there was a discrepancy on pick-up location. In front of the hotel to me is out the front door. He was waiting by the valet car area. The lobby should have been used to avoid confusion. Had a bit of a problem with rolling through stop signs or using signal lights. The passenger van/suv had a rattle in the front like the catalytic converter was loose. He seemed knowledgeable and we did enjoy the stops.

The sites of this tour were amazing. Derick was our driver and Shauna was the guide. Shauna was terrible. If she's your guide, do not get on the bus. She would have to look up things on google to tell us about certain sites-not very professional. Derick was very knowledgeable about most of the sites - especially reversing falls - although he is hard to understand with his broken English. Shauna needs to be more educated on the sites you see.

Boring. Our guide was terribly uninformed. Couldn’t distinguish between left and right. Confused the Atlantic and the Pacific. Too much time driving to see too little.

It should state that all listed “views/experiences” are (drive past). Listing admission free indicates we’ll stop and see the item. Instead we were offered random stops not listed (Horton for coffee that the group chose it to take) yet we still “ran out of time” at the end. Time management a huge issue but also our guide talked nonstop about absolutely nothing! Couldn’t remember right from left when talking to the group and randomly pointed out things with her hands no one could see saying things like: “This is a street that’s got stuff on it” “We’re getting close to where they store the things” “Got vials of perfume for $10 and they smell pretty nice” “and this here is another body of water” The changing tides is cool, but likely actually cool when you’re there during the change (again false assumption from me that I thought they would specifically navigate us there during a time of change). Moosehead brewery, we saw the parking lot with no option to stop (but twice offered Tim Horton coffee when we drove past.) The Sea Caves are cool (I assume) if you arrive at low tide (we didn’t) with an overpriced mediocre restaurant (with minimal bathroom capability) that’s the only place to be while you wait for the time to reload the bus. Then an hour drive back to be told we’re out of time so we could be dropped at the market or our pickup spot. Absolutely nothing like what was described in the tour. And an experienced knowledgeable guide probably would have at least entertained through the disappointment instead of adding to it. Play music if you don’t know what to say. At another point verbally referred to her cheat notes to find something to say and came up with “recently changed”. Wowsa. Between the uninteresting and meaningless chatter, lots of plugs to boom directly with VGO to save a couple bucks from the 3d party sites! Yay! Constructive feedback for the guide: learn port and starboard so the left right doesn’t confuse you. No matter which way the tour guide is facing, to the port is “left” and starboard is always to the “right”. Or paint one side of the bus blue and the other red. Whatever will help!

Great communication before the tour. Comfortable vehicle. Nice guide. We enjoyed our time Kavy. Thanks!

Awesome day! Derick is a very friendly, knowledgeable guide. Saw the highlights of Saint John.

Great size vehicle and driver. Disappointed in guide. -general lack of historical information -commentary provided was factually incorrect (for example Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949 not 1975) - disappointed as a fellow Canadian that not a good ambassador (especially right now!) for Canada and showed disrespect for Quebec

Driver was great! Tour Guide worst ever! Took unplanned stops so ran out of time to complete the planned tour. Missed the “Shopping at the City Market” so just offered to drop off and we could walk back to the ship. Tour Guide says it was her 4th Tour and lived in New Brunswick her entire life but was disorganized and confused.

Did the Bay of Fundy tour. It was amazing.. Went at low tide, got to walk right up to the caves. Got some great pictures! The ride from St Johns was about an hour. The tour driver Mo pointed out a lot of interesting on the way so it didn't seem that long. Did four more stops in St John's all very interesting. I recommend this tour.

As a taxi service, this tour was fantastic - very reasonably priced, and it hit all the high points in Saint John and nearby Bay of Fundy. However, as a narrated tour, it was pretty average, in my opinion. I had Tariq, and I thought his narration could use some work. A lot of explanations were just recitations of fact without much storytelling. I believe English is not his first language, so there were some strange word choices in his narration (e.g. 1800’s century - is it the 1800’s or the 18th century, which are two completely different time periods). And there was a tendency to point out too many things rather than highlighting special things (for example, pointing out practically every church and high school in Saint John). Note that the Moosehead Brewery “stop” is just a drive by, so don’t expect to be able to try any beer. Also, the explanation of the meeting point could have been more clear/precise. They just gave the address of the cruise terminal, but there are several different exit points of the terminal, so it was a bit confusing to know where to meet. Not a big deal since I was able to find them, but just offering this as another suggestion for improvement. At the end of the day, I was satisfied with the excursion because I got to see the places I wanted to see. But just a warning to keep your expectations in check.

This was a 4.5 hour extensive tour of the city of Saint John and then off to the Saint Martin area if the Vay if Fundy. The tour kindly waited about an hour to start due to our cruise ship's late desembarkation due to a low tide. Our first-time tour guide, Shawna, was very informative and did an excellent job caring for the comfort of her passengers. I highly recommend this good value excursion!

Check the tide times to know if you can go in the sea caves. When we got there it was high tide. FYI you cannot take the rocks on a cruise ship.

Great experience. Sometimes the explanations were long-winded, but the staff was friendly and personable.

Due to a change of plans by another tour group, we ended up doing this as a private tour. We appreciated that the company made arrangements to take us out regardless, and had a very nice day with Derek all on our own.

We did the Bay of Fundy tour with VGO Tours and our tour guide was Derick. He was very informative and provided great knowledge of all the sites we visited. We were picked up at our hotel promptly and the tour began. Derick drove us from site to site advising us of the history. He stopped and let us take pictures and answered any of our questions. He also went out of his way to take pictures of us while we were viewing the sites and sent them to us later. It was great to have pictures of the both of us sharing the sites. We enjoyed the tour, had a great time, it was the best. We highly recommend VGO Tours, you won’t be disappointed! Thank you Derick. Donna & Mike from Ontario.