The best way to experience the north coast of the island during your stopover is through a local tour operator like Iguana Mama Shore Excursions. Continue reading below as we give you 5 great reasons why Iguana Mama is your Ultimate Amber Cove & Taino Bay shore excursion provider.
While cruise lines love to scare you with horror stories about taking an independent shore excursion BOO, they actually have a hidden agenda. After all, those dock fees, half full 24 hour casinos, empty cabins and empty bus seats won’t pay for themselves! Their MO is to paint a grim picture so you’ll book your excursion with them instead.
Here’s why what they tell you is a bunch of malarkey:
Iguana Mama is a premium, legally licensed and insured tour operator that’s been in business for over 28 years. We have over 1,100 5 bubble/star reviews across multiple platforms like TripAdvisor, Viator, and more. Our past customers know that as a local, independent Dominican Republic tour operator, Iguana Mama looks after them like the VIPs they are from port pickup to port return. 70% of our bookings are return customers!
Iguana Mama offers the five most sought-after excursions from Amber Cove and Taino Bay. We are more affordable, dive deeper into our local culture and provide a more intimate tour experience for all our customers. Don’t sweat it out with 50 other passengers on the cruise line crowded buses when you can book with Iguana Mama and relax. We cap our transports at 20 people (unless you have a larger group).
Our prices are more affordable than cruise line tours because their contracted operators have to make at least a small profit and... THE CRUISE LINES WANT A BIG PROFIT! In fact, the cruise lines squeeze the poor local operators who have contracted with them so hard the operator can barely breathe let alone provide you with the best possible experience and amenities.
We’ve been operating from Amber Cove and Taino Bay since the ports opened and we always strive to make our tours as affordable as possible, without sacrificing the five-star quality that our customers have come to know and love. Our excursions are priced at just the right amount to cover costs, pay our local guides fair and livable wages and of course, retain a modest profit for ourselves (we are a business after all) while still going above and beyond for you.
We may be more affordable than cruise lines, but our clients are like family to us, and we treat every one of them like VIPs. All our excursions, from our waterfall tours to our beach party include an authentic Dominican lunch buffet with unlimited local rum drinks, water and soft drinks. As a local business, we cherish our clients and show them the DR we know and love.
And FUN? We wrote the book on shore excursion fun! Not only do we keep you safe, we make it our mission to ensure you have a great time from start to finish!!
Did you know that if you book the Waterfalls of Damajagua through the cruise lines they don’t allow you to jump!? Imagine cascading without jumping. Absurd.
Without the intrepid cruise ship passengers who seek us out we’d be nothing. As the leading independent shore excursions operator in the Dominican Republic we understand you have options when it comes to booking shore excursions and we’ll do everything we can to earn your business, ensure your safety, and guarantee you have a great experience while docked at Amber Cove or Taino Bay in Puerto Plata.
We’ve worked with cruise passengers since the opening of Amber Cove on October 6, 2015 and Taino Bay December 15, 2021. We have an intimate understanding of the cruise departure and arrival schedules and have structured our excursions to accommodate your cruise schedule. We’ve never missed a sailing, and we guarantee you’ll be back on your ship at least one hour before departure.
Choose from our famous 27 Waterfalls of Damajagua, our Eat, Drink, & Be Merry Puerto Plata City tour, our ATV Quad Lets Ride Excursion, or our Castaway Beach Party for Groups of 20 or more.