We did the Kona Tour: Coffee Plantation, Kealakekua Bay, Kaloko-Honokohau Park and Bee Farm with Wasabi Tours. The entire tour was a disaster from start, our tour guide was in an accident, no-one hurt, but as a result could not take the tour.
So we had a stand-in tour guide that appeared to have never run the tour before. We were an hour late getting started (although still finished at advertised time). From there the focus of the tour was the coffee plantation, and the bee farm. The coffee plantation was more a visiting to one of the coffee plantations gift shop, which anyone could have done. The tour guide had limited knowledge of the coffee company or how the tours should have functioned. From the tour advertised, it was to visit the orchards, and learn about the coffee harvesting process, and coffee mills.
After that via some stops which, while planned, felt more like just being thrown into the tour to fill time. The tour guide at this point did have a lot of info on the history of the Hawaii Island, and how and why things are, but the tour was not fitting together.
Onto the Bee Farm, which the girl in the shop gave a great demo of how things all went together, what they do with the bees and probably saved some of the tour, but the advertised program included much more. We were informed by the Bee company that the bees were actually not in Kona at this point in time, so again raised the question, what was advertised was far from being given.
Based on our experiences today, I would be very hesitant to recommend this tour or even Wasabi Tours as a company.
Réponse de l'hôte
Feb 2016
Aloha Mike,
We’re very sorry that the Historic Kona and Coffee Farm Tour did not meet the expectations set in our advertising materials. As you noted in your review, the scheduled guide for the day was involved in a low-speed and no-fault car accident on the way to pick up the first group of guests – this necessitated a substitute guide for the day with very short notice.
Starting out an hour behind schedule is never ideal, however for this particular tour it also means missing our marks for the coffee farm tour as well as the demonstration at Big Island Bees. In short, starting only an hour behind could easily extend this 6-7 hour tour into the 9-10 hour range. Other members of the tour were vocal about having dinner reservations shortly after the end of the tour, and confirmed that the tour would still end at the advertised hour upon entering the van. We’re very grateful our guide was willing to step up and take the tour with no notice, and that the ladies at Big Island Bees didn’t hesitate to give the group a private lesson in beekeeping. With time constraints and no possibility of a rain date for most of the group, we delivered the best tour experience that we could.
While your substitute guide is very well-versed in many aspects of Hawaii life, history, and culture, we can understand that these extenuating circumstances would cause the tour to seem “thrown together.” Please know that our tours are not designed in this manner, and that your tour was the unfortunate result of events beyond our control. We would really appreciate it if you let us make it up to you. We stand by our product and guarantee satisfaction on all tours, so please give us a call at (808) 238-5222 or email us at
[email protected].
Mahalo nui loa,
Jay
General Manager