Santana AdventuresReviews of santanaadventures.com

I've been on many bike tours, but this is easily the most memorable! The Windstar ship, Sea Breeze, was excellent with all-suite accomodations, superb food, and great friendly crew. Santana owner, Bill, goes all the way with making the tour memorable, with his fantastic staff, the great excursions, fun entertainment, and super handling of loading and unloading bikes. These islands were stunning with flowers everywhere, gorgeous beaches, happy residents, welcoming dancers on several islands, and incomparable snorkeling. Truly an unforgettable experience!

Positives: 1. The routes were breathtaking 2. The boat crew was exceptional 3 For a small boat, the food was good. Suggestions: 1. Washing was great but wet clothes

The cruise line and staff did a great job. As was pointed out the entire crew were Portuguese. There was a lot of climbing but mileages were less to take that into consideration. Douro River valley is beautiful and the food delicious. The area history is amazing and hard to believe the river was used for transportation of the wine back in the day before the river was tamed

Can't say enough about the company. They go out of the way to make sure you have the best bike experience. Many added logistical issues on their end to make it all work as best as possible. Always an adventure with them and worth it. Not really sure who would be a close second in this type of trip category. They have support vehicle but expectation for you to manage minor things like a flat tire. Lots of people to help if needed.

Please be advised that this company has unrealistic refund policies. We had to forfiet a sizeable deposit with notice given a full 18 months prior to departure. Santana Adventures has poor customer service and a business practice of misleading hidden charges added after the initial commitment.... almost 20% ($2,130) tacked on to the already high price of a $10,798 cruise. POOR BUSINESS PRACTICE! I have been asked to provide more information. Here is the email I sent to Santana about a month after signing up for the Columbia River Cruise and more than 19 months prior to the depature date. My group of friends (there were 4 of us total) felt the additional fees were not properly outlined at checkout. This communication supports my comment above: Sent Sunday 1/16 @ 7:59am Hi Dustin, I am in receipt of invoice #17045 for the Columbia River Cruise-2023. Although I still plan to take the cruise, I feel it is poor business practice for Santana Adventures to tack on $2,130 additional charges (20%) after the commitment to cruise. I have cruised and taken several bike tours in which guides, ride support, admissions, port charges.... were part of the package charges declared on the front end. When I signed on for the cruise, it was my understanding that the total cost would be $10,798 (less gratuities). Did I miss the fine print? Thank you, Barbara T Subsequently, we decided to cancel our trip. We had a call with the President/CEO of Santana on 5/8/22 (16 months prior to departure) who made an offer to cancel our reservation, resell our cabin and return our deposit, applying $1,000 of our deposit towards his expenses and withholding an additional 3-1/2% of our deposit amount. No monies were ever received. I would just like to caution travel shoppers to educate yourselves on what you are signing up for when you book with Santana Adventures. Read EVERYTHING. Ask questions re: "cruise extras".

This is for families considering a trip with Santa Adventures - My daughter turned 7 on a Santana adventure, and she is now 15 and has a few under her belt. So we have had a number of different "bring the whole family" experiences. I highly recommend it, but with a caveat - know your family, and know your limits. It is a truly rewarding experience, your kids (and you) will see the world at the perfect pace, learn valuable skills, possibly history, culture and a few words of a foreign language, and maybe even what you hoped they would learn on such a trip. You get to eat with reckless abandon, having cycled off a zillion calories. Plus, there typically enough flexibility in a given day for families to venture different ways to satisfy their own vacation needs. These variations have differed as the age and needs of our daughter have changed Don't go on this trip if you are not bicyclists, as mentioned, the best experiences are seeing the world at a cyclists pace, but they cannot be enjoyed if you are uncomfortable on a bicycle. You don't need to be an Olympic athlete, but you need to be able to manage yourselves and your children, which might mean towing them up a very long hill on a tag along after you say, "power up the jets" and you hear in response, "the jets are broken" (followed by the continuation of the epic story of magical rainbow kitty that seems endless or charming) But then, you know your kids. Which brings me to type 1 fun and type 2 fun. Any trip that requires physical exertion results in both type 1 fun and type 2 fun. I recently learned about this - type 1 fun is where it is both enjoyable in the moment, and at the retelling. Type 2 fun is not as fun (and maybe at times not fun at all) in the moment, but is fun after the fact. Probably more fun than type 1 in the retelling. Guaranteed both types of fun on a Santana Adventure. I am happy to talk with any families if they have questions. Just ask Bill (Mr. Santana Adventures himself) for my info.

Avoid this company at all costs. The worst customer service I have ever received. Even though my husband and I paid in full for an extremely expensive cycling cruise, they didn’t bother to put me on their mailing list so we received NO updates about anything related to the cruise—including the fact that the cruise ship operator went bankrupt. I have had to constantly reach out since they refuse to communicate —even about the mountain of legal paperwork we have received from the cruise line. I usually love supporting small “mom-and-pop” businesses but the lack of professionalism and the fact that they refuse to communicate about our hard-earned money is outrageous. Apparently all customers will be forced to hire lawyers to fight the cruise line even though Santana has our money in an account. They will keep your money—highly unethical.

We have been on many adventures with the Santana crew and all have been amazing. We do multiple trips each year and all have offered their own version of magic. Bill is masterful when it comes to dealing with all that Mother Nature throws our way and I am always so happy to have him at the helm. We have done one already this year and have 2 more on the books. Can't wait.