I am on this sham of a tour as I type this. I have never experienced such a terrible waste of time and money traveling ever. And have tried to get assistance from Viator and the touring company (Jupiter Legend) since this morning with zero actual help.
Started the morning by being picked up in a severely beat-up minivan by gentleman who speaks absolutely no English. He had one other couple in car (they don’t speak it either). I thought he was taking us to meet the tour group, as we had requested not to start in San Francisco as we’re staying in Santa Cruz. But couldn’t confirm due to language barrier. I did check to see if I had accidentally booked a tour group for their dialect, but my booking documents do all indicate it was an English-speaking tour. Unfortunately, made it hard for all of us.
But no, he was not taking us to meet the group. Realize when he takes us to 1st stop that he intends just to drive us around. He buys one group ticket for the redwood train and hands it to me. Making me responsible for the other couple while he leaves. Seriously. What? Train was fun, though. Just awkward having to keep the other couple in tow. For both parties.
2nd & 4th stops, literally just dumped off at the harbor and wharf and told to come back in 45 minutes to an hour. No context. No explanation. No maps. Just get out. We grabbed a quick lunch at the harbor and just waited to get back in the car at the wharf. At this point, just want to go back to hotel.
But 3rd stop takes the cake. Abalone farm. Which no longer even does tours. So we drove out there to find this out and left. I obviously don’t owe for any tickets for that as they clearly didn’t buy any. How do you not know they stopped giving tours? As a tour company??
So we leave and immediately pull to side of road for 10 minutes. Think we’re lost, but don’t know. Can’t understand what the conversation is. Finally get back on road for the bummer of the 4th stop.
Now waiting for the other couple to show up to get back to hotel. This was a very expensive waste of our last day. Won’t be using Viator or Jupiter Legend again. And will be contacting both for a refund. I’ll update review if either ever bother to respond.