The tour was spectacular. Totally not what i had expected at the onset. Our guide Ismael was amazing, great guy, very intelligent about the places we visited, very attentive and truly interested on making long lasting frienships with his clients.
Made sure we were comfortable, taken care of and made our time very enjoyable. It was specially nice to have such a small group travelling together.
The bycicle tour was great, we traveled through the reserve and then again from Punta Allen to Cesiak, the 6 hours we bike did not feel tiresome or long since we were biking through beautiful jungles and along the crystal clean water of the Carribean.
Griselda, USA.
3 day Bike tour Sian Ka'an
Both birding guides were very good, and together were able to help me see 180 species! I also thought the locations you chose were superb.The guide at Los Tarrales brought a scope with him, and he was able to set it up quite quickly and give me some wonderful views of birds far away. Miguel Marin, as you probably know, has knowledge of the area and history that go far beyond birds.
So, I was very pleased with the birding experience.
Paul Clements, USA
Birdwatching tours at Los Tarrales Reserve
& Tikal National Park in Guatemala
In summary, the trip was just amazing!! We all had a great time exploring the Mayan villages and ruins and shopping in the scenic towns of San Cristobal and Antigua. Almost all the pickups and arrangements happened as planned which was amazing. We enjoyed great food and mostly nice weather. We all 3 want to thank you for the hard work you did to make all these arrangements. We would highly recommend your services to anyone, so please feel free to use us as references.
Thanks again for all your help----it was a wonderful trip for all of us!!!
Ann Cabot & Eric , Canada.
12 days customized tour in Guatemala and Chiapas.
One word WOW!
I had a fantastic time, my personal guide ( Miguel ) and I went in a two person kayak and ended up going for over four hours. He said it was the longest trip he had ever been on with customers.
Dinner fantastic after tour. Well taken care of by taxi, no problems. More people should try this tour.
Thank you again for all your help, I´m sure you will hear from me again.
Take care
Don Pattie, USA.
Sunset Kayak Tour in Sian Ka´an.
We are back from our trip and everything went very well.
In particular, we loved Sian Ka'an: the place is beautiful, the accommodation very nice, the atmosphere is perfect and the people absolutely fabulous. Jorge has been an amazing guide and he is a wonderful person. He is extremely passionate about what he does, extremely competent and knowledgeable, very professional and a very interesting person to talk to and to spend time with. The best guide we ever had in all our trips, including Tanzania and South Africa! What is special about Sian Ka'an is that you can spend the morning in a beautiful Caribbean beach and in the afternoon being immersed in the nature looking for crocodiles and birds in the lagoon: a perfect combination!
Calakmul was also very nice: the archeological site is beautiful and the hotel in the middle of the forest is very nice.
Thank you very much for your recommendations and organization.
All the best.
Diego Raiteri and family, Italy.
Calakmul and Sian Ka´an Ecological Reserves.
Just wanted to say thanks for organizing such an amazing trip. From the moment we got into Guatemala everything went as if by clock-work.
The country was beautiful and had so much to offer and the people were wonderful, it was certainly a lot better than what I had envisaged prior to the trip. The bike ride through the highlands was spectacular, though Erin did have some difficulty with the 4km up hill portion of the ride. Lake Atitlan was spectacular and both Antigua and Panajachel were enjoyable. Tikal was quite impressive and our stay at Gabriellas eco-lodge and the ride to Nakum was a highlight of the trip. By the time we got to Flores both Erin and I were exhausted from the pace we had set for ourselves though still incredibly satisfied with our experience.
Thanks for organizing such an amazing trip.
Andrew Jenko
9 days customized tour in Guatemala.
Today´s trip was the highlight of the holiday. The tour by Beetle was something very different wich added to the whole experience. We were lucky enough to see a lot of great wildlife found by our leader but even if we hadn´t it would still have been fascinating.
Our guide spent the entire day with the 2 of us and even made the effort to find a turttle release for us. When we missed our ferry later, he even accompanied us for a drink! Dedication!
Stephanie Knapp, England.
One day tour Cozumel island.
I really enjoyed this tour, there was only two of us and our guide was attentive, polite, knowledgable, charming and genuine. Cozumel island is a natural wonder and it was great to have a guide who truly loved his job.
Well done Duende.
PS. The turttle hatching was fantastic.
Andrew Foxworth, Australia
One day tour Cozumel island.
Lucia and I had a wonderful trip through Mexico and Guatemala. All our transfers and hotel bookings worked very well. The language barrier was difficult, particularly in Mexico. However, we seemed to end up in the right place at the right time. Thank you for you excellent organisation and communication with us. We found your service to be highly professional and wouldn’t hesitate in recommending you to others. If we go back to Central America we will certainly go through Duende Tours.
John Shackleton, USA
11 days customized tour in Guatemala and Chiapas.
I had a fantastic time in Calakmul and Rio Bec Dreams. The atmosphere at the hotel was just great. The Canadian couple who owns the place is very sweet and they did everything to make my stay comfortable and nice. My Jungalow was clean and nicely decorated. At night you could hear all the animals as the place is right in the jungle – a great place! The service was always good and I was missing nothing.
The transfer to Calakmul was very good. As it was just me the driver took me to the site in a normal car. Getting there, I had all the time I wanted to walk around the ruins and climb the pyramids. Calakmul is an amazing place – if you have only time to visit one ruin you should go to Calakmul as it has everything of the other ruins – just combined: pyramids to climb (different of course but similar to the ones in Teotihuacan), jungle as in Palenque, view as in Monte Alban (just nicer J), animals as in no other side (including all kinds of Monkeys, Tarantulas, Tucans etc.) – and the best thing: no one is there. I think there was only me and a Spanish couple on the site all day long.
Thank you for organizing it. Calakmul was a very special place and I would not have seen it without you!
Cecilia Karl, Germany
We have had a fantastic journey on the Mayan Jungle Highlights Tour. Our guide, Jorge, has been a brilliant friend, very knowledgable and full of advice. Also thanks to Alex for his fantastic cooking, i still can´t believe how he managed to cook such good meals on a campsite! He also had so much knowledge about the jungle plants and animals wich was very interesting. The same goes for Lou´s knowledge of the Mayans history and the local bird life.
And we couldn´t forget about the yummy pies and cake. All in all a fantastic trip. Definitely money well spent and we learned a lot about the area.
We would definitely recommend Duende Tours ( specially our new friend Jorge ) to our friends. Thank you.
Unless you can stop the Mosquito biting there is nothing else to suggest! But it was worth putting up with for the fabulous trip we had.
Jo Hunter & Elliot Miller/ UK, Australia.
Mayan Jungle Highlight Tour
8 days From Mexico through Belize and into Guatemala.
We are a group of three who went on a Duende tour from Mexico trhough Belize to Guatemala. It has been a very exciting tour covering the Maya ruins in Tikal, exploration of a cave used by the Mayans, and a three-day canoe tour into the jungle of Guatemala. The canoe tour went into a protected part of the jungle, which allowed us to experience the wildlife and see less shy animals -especially groups of monkeys. During the 8 days we were acompanied by two guides from Duende and local guides with special knowledge about each individual area. This tour has exceeded my expectations and the fact that we were a relatively small group allowed for focusing on the things we found most interesting and taking care of our individual wishes for the tour.
Martin Moller, Denmark