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Baila Conmigo-Puerto Rican Historical Dance Tour & Food
Badge of ExcellenceJayuya, Caribbean
From $155.00
Select Date and Travelers
Free cancellation
Up to 24 hours in advance.
- 6 hours
- Pickup offered
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
Overview
Puerto Rico is more than just beautiful beaches—the Caribbean Island has a culture all its own. Gain a better understanding of Afro-Puerto Rican culture with this Afro-Puerto Rican History, Food, and Dance Tour from San Juan. Your guide teaches you about the history of this unique culture, some Bomba dance moves, and how to make some delicious traditional dishes all in one day.
- Immerse yourself in the Afro-Puerto Rican culture while in San Juan
- Learn to cook Afro-Puerto Rican dishes that you can make again at home
- Dance to traditional Bomba music while getting a mini dance lesson
- A guide tells you all about the history of Bombo in cave in Loiza
What's Included
- Snacks
- Air-conditioned vehicle
- Gratuity
Meeting And Pickup
Pickup points
Select a pickup point
Start time
11:00 AM
Pickup details
We will text travelers the night before the pick up and the next morning.
What To Expect
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Service animals allowed
- Most travelers can participate
- Please reconfirm your reservation with the local operator 24 hours prior to your experience. If you do not contact the operator they will attempt to reach you via phone or email to confirm your reservation. Please ensure you have provided a valid phone number when booking.
- This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate
Operated by Real PR Travel
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
- For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
- If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
- Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
- Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
- This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.
- This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.
Traveler Photos
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Reviews
4.5
22 reviews
Reviews by Viator travelers.
Showing 1-10 of 22 reviews
Save Your Money
joannecreuter, Jun 2023
I never leave a bad review unless I think people need to be forewarned. I have traveled the world and taken many tours, and this was literally the worst. Real PR did not deliver the services advertised and described in the Viator site. I relied on the descriptions under Overview and What to Expect sections on that site.
This is a list of the services not delivered:
1) The tour was four hours, not “approximately 6”,
2) I very quickly concluded that our driver, while a very nice fellow, was no tour guide. He told us his last job was an Uber driver. As we drove along, he provided only the names of the areas that the highway went through. He did not provide any information on Afro-Puerto Rican culture or history. At the cave we first drove to, he pointed out two beehives and mentioned that archaeological artifacts had been found there 4,000 years ago without giving further information. He said nothing about Bomba, except we had to wait for the teacher because she had another lesson. I hoped the rest of the so-called tour would be better. It was not.
3) We stood around at the cave for some time doing nothing until we could leave for our “cooking lesson,”
4). The “cooking lesson” simply did not occur;
5). There was no family visit with El Batey de los Hermanos Ayala or instruments of Plena or handcrafted art as described on Viator;
6) Finally, we arrived at the public park for our Bomba lesson with Yuma, which was fun and informative.
BUT this was essentially just a poorly planned trip, a long drive, hanging around the mouth of a cave, a one-Alchapurria snack and Bomba lesson.
There are a couple of other one star reviews on this site. I expect that the owner of Real PR will respond with excuses as usual. If you read the chain of reviews, it looks like this started as a pretty good tour with a guide named Catherine, but then deteriorated and then she was gone. I am trying to get a refund, and even offered to pay for the Bomba lesson, but no go.
Response from Host, Jun 2023
Thank you for your review. We appreciate your feedback, and apologize that you didn’t feel fulfilled from your tour. We will be address our
Guide regarding the lack of information and skipping destinations and the him not fully delivering on the tour. And will speak to the owner regarding the refund. We deeply apologize.
Bomba! Eso es!
Jessica_W, Jun 2023
Great tour for family with children. Our favorite part was the Bomba dance lesson and impromptu drum lesson for my daughter who was able to learn 5 rhythms from our incredible teacher Yumma _rootsandculture on Instagram. Josh was a very knowledgeable and personable host. The next best part was the cooking lesson and tasting authentic dishes in Luisa. Great afternoon of active learning about African and Puerto Rican history!
Response from Host, Aug 2023
Bomba! Thank you Jessica! We are really happy to know that you and your family had a blast learning the Bomba and drum lessons! The food! We appreaciate you trying the food from our tour and that you got to know about Puerto Rican history! Thank you and we look foward to planning your next travel plans in Puerto Rico!
Fantastic way to experience Puerto Rican Culture
Alyssa_T, May 2023
Katherine our tour guide (goes by nickname Tiana) was fantastic. She was with us the whole time as we went to several different stops. There was the Bomba dance lesson and the food stop which is what we signed up for, but she also took us on some special stops to see local art in the town of Luisa. That was amazing and it felt like we were experiencing some real Puerto Rican heritage and history. Tiana also shared many stories with us as we traveled between stops and went out of her way to make sure we felt comfortable and had a great time. I highly recommend this tour if you want something different and personalized and if you like meeting people and experiencing culture.
Response from Host, May 2023
Hi Alyssa!
Thank you so much for your review!
We’re so happy you enjoyed our tour and learned about the history of Puerto Rico!
Hope to see you on your next visit🇵🇷❤️
TOTAL RIPOFF. STAY WAY FROM THIS TOUR.
almamcalpin, Apr 2023
I would like to start by saying that our guide Catherine was really good. Any comment I will make be making does not reflect the service or her knowledge of the history in Puerto Rico. With that said, I would not recommend this tour. It's not worth $155.The tour description was well written, but it was very deceiving. The whole thing was luck luster, very poorly organized. The dance to traditional Bomba music was the only one worth doing. (that lasted 45 min.) The instructor was very knowledgeable and very good. The cave part was a disaster. We didn't get in because they were charging an extra $7 for entrance fee. Even the guide said it was not worth to see a piece of Rock. It's just a cave. And honestly she was right. Just a cave. Again not worth the extra $ they are asking. Then the culture art was like show and tell in elementary school. It might be historic but again not worth the tour price. The lady didn't speak English and our guide who translated, didn't speak good English herself. So we understood 30% of what was being said, we were respectful of the owner and acted like we were interested because we felt bad. It was a little house not a museum or even a building of some sort. Lastly, for us the cooking lesson was not what we expected. Again the cook was very nice and sweet and we felt bad once again. So we cooperated and smiled and tried to make the food. (He did not show us anything from scratch, the filling was already there, basically the guide was telling us what was in there. Again no English and the guide was also having a hard time finding the words for cassava or taro root) All we did was put the mix in the leaves THATS IT!!) HOW IS THAT A COOKING LESSON.) The chef did not speak a word of English and was very shy. The whole thing was embarrassing to me. I felt bad for them. The place was dirty. But the owner of the tour company should be ashamed for charging $155. Literally driving around took most of our time. The actual "event " maybe less than 2 hrs. A total RIP OFF STAY AWAY FROM THIS TOUR. Oh FYI no snacks was givin to us not even water and No Cave.
Response from Host, Apr 2023
Ma’am I’m sorry if the this local authentic Afro-Puerto Rican tour didn’t live up to your expectations. But your posting is a little offensive when speaking about people whom speak English with an accent or no English at all. You are visiting a place where the primary language is Spanish. Yes a good amount of people speak English but the most of them speak Spanish! no where in our description does it say this tour visits fancy places it’s all about the history & cultural of the Afro-Puerto Rican. The home you visited is a famous bomba family knowing as los hermanos
Ayalas. You can Google them to see what they are famous for. You also had a private tour for just you and your guest. Most tours do not offer private.
The Worst “Tour” ever!
Anne_J, Jan 2023
Do not, I repeat, DO NOT take any tours from this company. The owner, Tanya, gave us a guide named Sarah, who picked us up at the cruise port in a small sedan. So my family of 5, which included my two-year-old had to jam ourselves into this small hot car. We couldn't even put the child seat, so we had to put my son on our lap and pray Sarah was a good driver. Unacceptable. Then we went to a sketchy-looking park to take a dance lesson. Construction workers were sleeping in the bleachers, and homeless people walked past us as we tried to learn the BOMBA. The class wasn't terrible, it lasted about 90 minutes, but it would've been better if there was a drummer AND a dance instructor, not all in one, which seemed to be the theme of this tour. Next, Sarah took us to a beachy area of Loiza, where we sat down to eat. When I asked him if we were learning to make some food, he told us that this part of the tour was eliminated because the cook asked for too much money. However, they never informed us of this, nor did they offer a refund for this part of the tour. We booked the tour expecting the chance to learn to cook puerto Rican food and a cultural dance experience, which did not happen. The guide, Sarah gave us no history of Puerto Rico; he barely spoke with us and walked incredibly fast as if he was trying to lose us. We are ad id travelers and have never encountered such horrible service and experience. The entire day felt wasted, and I regret not taking on $480 and spending it on something more interactive and fun.
Response from Host, Jan 2023
Hi Anne, I'm so glad that you left this review so that our guests can get the full story of this experience. first things first, at the time of booking you put that you were a group of 4 and never mentioned that you guys had a 2yr old toddler, had we been informed of that we would sent the driver with a larger vehicle. Next you failed to mention that your group declined the complimentary mofongo "because you had ate already" and declined going to the cave bc as "you had been there already as well" Also our guide actually took you and your family through Old San Juan which is not a part of this tour to try and compensate for the last minute changes on the tour. Also, you failed to mention that you were given a refund of $100 for the inconvenience of your day. We're truly sorry that you didn't get the experience or service that you were supposed to get. So we will be making necessary changes. Thank you for your feedback.
Best experience ever
Sharron_H, May 2022
Our driver Catherine was awesome. She gave us a very detailed history lesson of the culture and her background. She was involved with us we weren't just tourist she made us feel like family. Catherine is highly recommended!
Response from Host, May 2022
Hi Sharron, thank you 😊 so much for your amazing feedback. We greatly appreciate it. And We’re so happy that you enjoyed your cultural experience with us and we hope to see you again! ❤️🇵🇷
A must on your PR vacation
DanielleThomas, May 2022
This was an AWESOME experience!! I really appreciate the personal touch of this private tour Catherine & @froanddrum!! Learning about Bomba and learning a choreographed dance was amazing. The way the drums 🪘 speak to your soul transports you to another time & space. The cooking experience was awesome!! Having the authentic Puerto Rican food was not only delicious, it was warming to the spirit. The shop’s owner was very patient while training us in the new dishes and while taking pics of all the seasonings. LOL
Response from Host, May 2022
Hi 👋 Danielle, it truly sounds like you had an amazing day and that is our main goal. Thank you so much for sharing your feedback. It’s greatly appreciated ❤️🇵🇷
Cultural experience
Sharron_H, May 2022
I enjoyed the entire tour. I enjoyed learning the history of Bomba and learning the dance. The food tour was awesome! Our driver Christine was the best.
Response from Host, May 2022
Hi, thank you for an amazing review. We are happy Catherine provided a great time and
service,we thank you again for booking with us! 🇵🇷❤️
Fun half day trip to experience PR like a local
YaraT_R, Feb 2022
The tour guide Tanya (who happened to be the company owner) was really nice, friendly, and personable. She made the experience very unique for my sister and I who happened to be the only ones taking this tour at that time. We were picked up around 10:30a and dropped off by 3p, so this is a good tour to take so you have enough time to do other stuff that day. The tour had 3 parts.
The first part of the tour was taking us to a public park to meet up with a dance/ music instructor who taught us several Bomba steps (basically it's a type of Afro-Caribbean dance) and how to combine them to react to the music. I'm sorry I forgot his name (Christian?), anyways, the instructor was really talented with his music, knowledgeable, friendly, and made us feel at ease.
The second part of the tour was taking us to this street strip known for the yummm 'fast foods' in this case meaning fried :) The street had lots of mini restaurants, kiosks, etc mostly known to locals, which made it all the better. This part of the tour was to show us how to make alcapurrias. Everything I ate was so delicious!
The last part of the tour was to take us to a partial cave area where slaves would commune with nature to escape their oppressive situation. The area was really beautiful with lots of photo ops.
I recommend this tour if you want to learn about parts of the island history and hang out like a local. My sister and I really enjoyed ourselves.
Response from Host, May 2022
Hi Yara, we are happy to have made your experience a memorable one! Thank you for booking with us
and we hope to see you again soon! 🇵🇷❤️
Authentic Local experience
Felicia_L, Dec 2021
I had young adults and an eight year old and we all enjoyed ourselves. The Bomba lessons were informative and fun. Cooking was fun and the food we made was super good. Tanya and Josh were great guides gave us a true local authentic experience. If you want an authentic real experience BOOK WITH THE REAL PR TOURS!!
Response from Host, May 2022
Hello, thank you for such amazing review. We are happy to have provided a great experience and
service showing you the RealPR! We hope to see you soon.Thank you again for booking with us!
🇵🇷❤️
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