Miami Combo Tour: City, Bay Cruise & Everglades Airboat Ride

The description is deceiving. The tour to the Everglades was fun, but the driver had the volume on his speaker way too loud and no gator bites to eat. When we got back to the center for the city/boat tour, we were told we had to wait 1.5 hours so we had lunch. The tour of the city was not very informative and we spent 10 minutes at an ice cream place and 30 minutes at a coffee place in Little Havana not as described. The boat tour was at Biscayne Bay at was essentially a list of the homes of the millionaires. The last tour did not start until 6:30 so we did not get back to the starting place until 9:30. Make sure you are prepared to be in the heat and sun all day with lots of water.

3 tours in one day; Everglades, Tourbus through the city and boat on the river watching houses of rich people No time for lunch or stops; we startet first at 08:00 and had to take last bus back to miamu beach hotel at 18:30 Dozbke Decker BUS is NOT hop-on hop-off, hust round tour....no WIFI!!! WHY?

We were put on the Everglades excursion in the morning. Good excursion. We saw turtles and gators in the water. Only 45 min on airboat but was good. Over 1 hour travel to Everglades each way. Poor coach driver missed the turning for the airboat and had to reverse back through the traffic. Took him 35 mins to reverse about 100 yards only to discover that it was the wrong airboat stop. Ours was further ahead. As a result we were rushed onto the airboat without time for a restroom break. Not really acceptable. After returning to the tour office in Miami at around 1pm, we were told our city tour would start at 3pm and our boat ride would start at 7pm. City tour was good with a stop in Little Havana. We were dropped at the boat dock at 5:30pm and waited for our boat trip which eventually started at 7:40pm when it was dark. This was poor as some of the houses were not visible. We then had to wait on the bus to return us to the tour office. So started the day at 8:30am and finished the day at 9:30pm. So 13 hours total with around 4 to 5 hours sightseeing. The rest hanging around. Viator states that the excursion finished at 6:30pm. If I'd known that the finish was actually 9:30pm and the boat ride in the dark then I wouldn't have booked this combo excursion.

Despite not setting off until 9.25 am (despite being told to be ready by 08.30 am) the Everglades trip was fine. Some history on the way would have been nice. My husband and I are both disabled but nobody assisted us getting onto the airboat first, the bus driver just stood chatting to other passengers; we were hustled onto the back row. The weather was very wet but we enjoyed the tour including the show afterwards. We arrived back at the offices at 1.30pm to be told it was their lunch break so the tour of Miami city would not start until 3pm but to be back by 2.40pm! By this time it was raining heavily, and although we managed to get a seat downstairs, others were told to go upstairs because the lower deck was full. The tour guide told passengers that standing was not permitted however there was at least 4 passengers standings. The guide told us there would be 3 stops on route. He stood with the driver at the front door of the bus which was open, so he could smoke a cigarette and tout for further business, repeatedly shouting to passers-by ‘City Tour/Bus trip’ - this made us think that he was on commission. He used the phrase ‘Ladies and gentleman, to your left/right is the beautiful island/street/place name but gave very little information, with the exception of a handful of facts about properties on Ocean Drive. Because we were not on the top deck we could not see the sights he mentioned, all we could see were bushes most of the time. He sold us all rain macs at an extra 3 dollars each and told us we would need to get off the bus at the designated stops even though some passengers were happy to stay on board. 15 minutes into the trip several passengers asked if they could get off the bus because they were getting soaked on the open top deck and they couldn’t hear what was being said by the tour guide. He let them off quite abruptly. The tour guide never stopped touting for business on route, offering pedestrians the opportunity to come aboard. My husband was in a wheelchair and myself on crutches and he made no attempt to help either of us, we relied on friends collapsing the wheelchair, on one occasion, the tour guide admitted that he had forgotten about the wheelchair! Our first stop was Winwood and when asked if we could go inside we’re told we didn’t need to as the art was all around us and it would be a short stop of 15 minutes, this also included us getting an ice-cream which he was obviously on commission to sell and no time really to look at the art. He almost drove off without one family! We were really looking forward to seeing Little Havana where the cigars were rolled. The tour guide told us he was taking a special route into Little Havana because they had a festival on, although we were told ‘you can’t wander off and must stay in the bar where we could enjoy a mojito! It took ages for us to arrive where the bus could stop because of road blocks and traffic - he repeatedly told us we were the only tour coming into Little Havana as it was closed! He hadn’t explained that all of the shops would be shut! He told us at least 5 or 6 times ‘Do not wander off’. Once he’d remembered that my husband was in a wheelchair he ushered us into a bar playing music by Cher, nothing to do with the festival! We did not want to pay 18 dollars for a mojito and were told to stay together. When asked about the opportunity to see cigars being made, he said not to worry as he had some we could buy on the bus. Everyone was thoroughly soaked. He then started his patter about collecting tips that were needed and relied upon by his family. He said the final stop would be Biscayne bay and would tell us what to expect next once he had collected ‘tips’ from us all - he literally stood in the doorway exiting the bus with a grey tub labelled ‘tips’ - at one point he shook it like the boy in the musical Oliver. Nobody offered a tip - not even one dollar! He then told us it was tea time and that at 5.15pm we could not get the boat until 6.30pm. This was the second hour we had had to wait in our busy day. He suggested after the boat trip - approx 8.30pm we would await another bus to take us back to where we all started. Not only had we lost 2 hours in the day for ‘breaks’ but wasted at least 45 minutes trying to go to Little Havana where we could not wonder off and should stay in the bar! At this point we had had enough of ‘Del Boy’ constantly trying to get us to buy things which were also in his best interests but ‘Rodney’ driving the bus was more interested in messages with his family, texting whilst driving and also flicking through photographs. I believe the driver and tour guide only collected a 5 dollar tip - from my husband as he felt guilty, this is not a way to transact business! We spent £200 as a family of 4 and feel we should be refunded at least half the cost, because half the tour was not accessible at all! Throughout the tour the bus was in darkness too.

We really enjoyed ourselves on the tour, however the quality was a little uneven. The Everglades Airboat tour was wonderful. The guides were knowledgeable and made the experience fun as well as informational. We, unfortunately seem to have missed spot on the bus tour, as we had to wait over two hours for the next bus. The Biscayne Cruise portion was enjoyable and informative, but we were unsure about how to get a bus. We had to end up paying for a taxi. Miami Beach and downtown portions of the tour were interesting, but the promised walking tour of Little Havana was only several hundred steps, from a gift shop to a cabaret to a park, which we did not go in. The music was enjoyable, but we were charged astronomical prices for mojitos that the guide almost insisted we purchase to support the business. And it was all very rushed. All in all, we had a delightful time, and really enjoyed ourselves. We would probably recommend the tour to friends with the caveat of warning about our experiences with the walking tour.