To Bus Or Not To Bus?
Monday, December 28, 2015. 12pm.
Last night we booked ourselves on an organized tour today to visit the rain forests of El Yunque National Forest, about an hour southeast of San Juan. The highlight we're looking forward to is a short hike to La Mina Falls, one of the forest's main attractions.
Normally we avoid taking organized tours when we're on vacation. There are a litany of reasons. You only see what the operator wants you to see, the tours are generally short (not a full day), your group moves at the speed of the slowest individuals, the group forms its own crowd wherever it goes- and generally it goes to the same places at the same peak times as all the other groups, meaning you're sharing every experience with dozens to hundreds of strangers. Not to mention, such prepackaged and marketed-to-foreign-tourists tours feel much closer to made-for-Disneyland pabulum than authentic local experiences. For all these reasons we generally prefer self guided sightseeing.
Occasionally, though, taking an organized tour seems like the better way to see a specific sight. For example, when we visited Beijing six years ago we navigated around several sights in the city on foot, by subway, and via taxi. But we took a bus tour to visit The Great Wall and Ming's Tomb. The reasons were practical; we didn't speak enough Chinese to rent a car or drive safely, and hiring a taxi was 5x the price of two tour tickets.
Here, too, the reason came down to cost. We could have rented a car and driven it safely; the contracts are in English, and we read more than enough Spanish to follow roadsigns. But because of our planning this trip only late in the year and over the December holidays, cars were horribly expensive. Two bus tickets were half the cost (or less!) of renting a car for even one day.
Making a choice is not the same as being comfortable with it, though. With that bus tour in Beijing I expressed many of the same misgivings I've written about about here today. So the concerns are perennial.
As we boarded our bus this morning I sized up all the people on board: Were there any parents with tiny kids who might be unable to walk a few miles? Were there any elderly or visibly disabled people who might not be able to walk farther than 50 feet? Did anyone seem dressed more for the gift shop than a day in a rain forest? Thankfully everyone looks able-bodied and well equipped for the day. So that's one area of potential fail I'm more comfortable about avoiding. That leaves crowds as the main other area of fail. And on that score....
Holy cow, it's crowded. In fact the reason I am able to jot down these notes midday is because we are stuck in a traffic jam in the rain forest. We're in a long line of cars and buses waiting to get in to the park. Eek.
Continued in Hiking La Mina Falls....
Last night we booked ourselves on an organized tour today to visit the rain forests of El Yunque National Forest, about an hour southeast of San Juan. The highlight we're looking forward to is a short hike to La Mina Falls, one of the forest's main attractions.
Normally we avoid taking organized tours when we're on vacation. There are a litany of reasons. You only see what the operator wants you to see, the tours are generally short (not a full day), your group moves at the speed of the slowest individuals, the group forms its own crowd wherever it goes- and generally it goes to the same places at the same peak times as all the other groups, meaning you're sharing every experience with dozens to hundreds of strangers. Not to mention, such prepackaged and marketed-to-foreign-tourists tours feel much closer to made-for-Disneyland pabulum than authentic local experiences. For all these reasons we generally prefer self guided sightseeing.
Occasionally, though, taking an organized tour seems like the better way to see a specific sight. For example, when we visited Beijing six years ago we navigated around several sights in the city on foot, by subway, and via taxi. But we took a bus tour to visit The Great Wall and Ming's Tomb. The reasons were practical; we didn't speak enough Chinese to rent a car or drive safely, and hiring a taxi was 5x the price of two tour tickets.
Here, too, the reason came down to cost. We could have rented a car and driven it safely; the contracts are in English, and we read more than enough Spanish to follow roadsigns. But because of our planning this trip only late in the year and over the December holidays, cars were horribly expensive. Two bus tickets were half the cost (or less!) of renting a car for even one day.
Making a choice is not the same as being comfortable with it, though. With that bus tour in Beijing I expressed many of the same misgivings I've written about about here today. So the concerns are perennial.
As we boarded our bus this morning I sized up all the people on board: Were there any parents with tiny kids who might be unable to walk a few miles? Were there any elderly or visibly disabled people who might not be able to walk farther than 50 feet? Did anyone seem dressed more for the gift shop than a day in a rain forest? Thankfully everyone looks able-bodied and well equipped for the day. So that's one area of potential fail I'm more comfortable about avoiding. That leaves crowds as the main other area of fail. And on that score....
Holy cow, it's crowded. In fact the reason I am able to jot down these notes midday is because we are stuck in a traffic jam in the rain forest. We're in a long line of cars and buses waiting to get in to the park. Eek.
Continued in Hiking La Mina Falls....