Island Adventures Biobay Tours

They must really hate the bio bay!
Amazing that PR government actually lets them destroy the bay the way they do.
These guys use gas generators on their boats to charge batteries. So they basically are spewing exhaust and Ugh NOISE all over the bay. Forget about peacefully enjoying the amazing bay.
Choose someone else. There are many reputable companies that respect the bay you can choose from.

MAGICAL. I booked with Island Adventures because my husband hates to kayak. It was super easy to book over the phone. We paid when we checked in = credit card swipe… simple and fast. We stayed at Hector’s by the Sea so basically just had to walk up our driveway to get to the shop. Watched the informative video and used the bathroom while we waited for the bus — a simple but great start to our night.
I was all set to be underwhelmed by the biobay and instead found it to be a magical, amazing experience. This was in part due to the great tour we had with Dan and the crew. First, I wasn’t sure what to expect because I hate boats and get easily seasick — well the pontoon and the bay are about as flat and easy as you can get so rest easy there! The only part where I got a little nervous was the practical off roading to get to the dock — I think that was more my nerves than anything though… although seriously, it’s an old school bus and a bit of a bumpy dirt road. A minor adventure right there! Someone on my tour quasi-​complained about the road, but in my opinion I think it wasn’t that bad AND I can see the multiple reasons why you wouldn’t want to pave/​even the road (e.g. ecological, economical, etc)
But back to the tour — we learned so much and had a lot of fun. The bay was brighter and more amazing than I could have imagined. At first when I looked at the waves I thought I was making stuff up in my head, but then they pulled up two buckets for us to play with and WHOA — definitely a real phenomenon! Waving my hand through the bucket and then lifting it up to see my hands sparkle was so cool. I don’t know why but I kept thinking of the scene in Fantasia when Mickey is playing wizard. We got to stand on a ladder in the back of the boat and kick our feet in the bay (no swimming to protect the dinoflagellates — I definitely respect the efforts to be eco conscious), there was a bucket challenge (which I took — so fun!), water guns to light up the bay, a very awesome laser pointer and constellation/​astronomy lesson, and to top it off restaurant and activities recommendations from a guide on the way back to town! Obviously you’re dealing with nature so some days might not be as great as others — being that this was our first biobay experience I have no benchmark to compare it to but I can say it seriously made my vacation!
Oh and all the tips to not waste time taking pictures — it’s true — don’t bother. There’s something awesome about a kind of experience you can’t tweet, FB, instagram, but have to just experience and then try to describe to others. Rare but extra special in this hyper-​connected world we live in.

Just got back from the boat tour. The tour was amazing! We arrived early so we had to wait around a couple of minutes but that gave us a chance to use the restrooms which were very clean and nice. The person behind the counter greeted us nicely and informed us the tour takes 2 hours and there are no restrooms out there. The bus soon arrived and it was a bumpy but fun ride there. We joked around with the driver and he played music for us. It was a short drive to the bay, but we had fun. Our tour guide Robert is the Bill Nye of Vieques PR! He didn’t skip a beat when it came to tell us everything you could ever want to know about the bay. From the plankton that cause it to glow, to the history of mosquito bay, to the ecosystem living in the mangrove and all the beautiful constellations in the sky. We got to see the water glow and he brought up a bucket of water for us to put our hands in. Heads up, he can’t let you swim in the water BUT if you aren’t wearing chemicals like bug repellent, you can put your feet in the water and splash it to make it glow. It is honestly the best tour I’ve ever been on! Robert is not only knowledgeable, he also makes the tour extremely interesting and fun! I highly recommend this company for anyone who wants to enjoy the bay and learn as much as possible. It’s very romantic but please, leave your babies at home. It’s a night time boat ride. Not safe for babies or infants and other can’t enjoy the peace and quit of the bay. Not to mention the ride is extremely bumpy.

My wife, son, and I traveled to San Juan, PC for vacation. We have a 2 yr old son, and I read some reviews online which shows Island Adventures was kid friendly; so we decided to take a ferry, stay in Vieques for one night so we can experience the biobay tour. Going to Vieques was not an easy task, especially with a 2 yr old. Only reason why we wanted to go to Vieques was for the tour.
I book this tour about 1 month out. I never received any confirmations via email or phone call about where to go for the meet up point for the tour. Very unorganized. When we got to Vieques, I called to confirm the details of where to me. The guy on the phone had an accent, but I was able to understand him clearly. He knew the hotel we were staying at because that was the info they asked when I confirmed the tour about a month prior. The guy clearly stated that there was another couple that is staying at the same hotel and he can pick us both up for the tour since we are less than 5 mins away from the meet up point. Thought to myself, well, doesn’t make sense for me to drive if the guy is offing to pick us up and drop us off for no additional charge. He was supposed to pick us up at 7:15 PM… we waited until 8:00; and no one ever came to pick us up.
I then called them the next day and calmly asked what happened and why didn’t anyone pick us up? The guy over the phone got really defensive and combative. Didn’t really allow me to talk and kept talking over me. He also indicated that they NEVER did hotel pickup since the company opened 7 yrs ago. The reviews on Tripadvisor and others on the internet beg to differ. There are reviews which says they offered pickup at hotels in the past. I asked for a refund, and the guy says he will need to give the message to the owner and he will need to call me back. Two days passed, no return calls. I tried calling again, left a message, and still no return.
I’m sure the tour is a nice tour, but the company is not being accountable for what they committed to. There are many other companies on the island of Vieques which does this tour as well. I would HIGHLY recommend going with another company. We called other companies the same night Island Adventures failed to pick us up. They all were very helpful and wished they were still on land and would more than welcome us on their tours.

Me and my husband had the worst experience with these guys. Firstly we tried calling them from San Juan three days prior to visiting Vieques. No one ever picked the phone. Finally we landed in Vieques and tried calling from our hotel W. We were going to stay only for one night so it was important that we went the same day we visited. No one again picks up. The hotel concierge tried their best to contact them and again no response. Thing is I have spine condition and kayaking was not an option for me. Hence island adventures were the only company who conducted ferry tours for groups. On being told by the hotel that we should just directly go to the company and ask if they could take us, we agreed to do that and landed at their office. Upon reaching, the man incharge just blunty said -«no place»! We said we were leaving next day and it would be great if he could accommodate. He said if someone cancels he will see. When we asked why they don’t pick calls. He said they were booked since A week. But how would we know. Leave a recorded message atleast. We spent so Much just to see the bio bay. Anyway. Point was that the gentleman was so rude to us. We waited till his last customer showed up to see if someone cancels. Btw waiting is a task as you will be attacked by 600 million mosquitoes in the process. Finally he didn’t even bother to come and tell us that he couldn’t accommodate us. When we went and asked, he didn’t even look at us and acted as if we were non existent. So much for waiting 2 hours in an unknown island where locals are the only help you can have. Finally he and his customers rode of and he asked us to leave rudely as he was closing his café. So we had the most hostile behavior and experience. All we needed was a good behavior. Anyway alls well that ends well. The cab we called had a local girl who helped us see biobay even though we were prepared to go back to hotel. She insisted someone ride us in kayak while we sat behind and do nothing. We saw the bio bay all alone at 12 midnight. The best experience ever. And good people do exist. Kudos to the female cabby!

crap, never wrote a review and just realized it. No you can’t get in the water these days at the bay, don’t let is stop you from this really unique experience on a gorgeous island

We did a Bio bay tour with these folks while visiting Vieques.
First, I should mention that seeing bioluminescent plankton in the ocean is not new for me. I saw and swam with them while on a trip in Vietnam. It was a truely magical experience not just because of the glowing water. but also because the place I did this was a lot more beautiful than Vieques.
That said I enjoyed our tour from Island Adventure. Our guide was very knowledgable not just about the bay but also astronomy.
Bit of a bummer that we can’t swim in the bio bay but the plentiful fish made for an amazing visual (you can see the water around them glow as the swim away for the noise of the boat).

Good trip. Restaurant was closed when we came but that led us to Lazy Jacks so blessing in disguise.
Boat trip was good but instead of 1 hour 30 minute trip it ended up being only 45 minutes.
Definitely worth the money once we got to Bio Bay and its something I would do again.

I’ve been hearing about the biobay for such a long time before my trip and was really excited to see it. My boyfriend and I wanted to go with a company where you can kayak in the water but by the time we got there, all of the seats were taken. Biobay Tours was the only company with a boat tour that had extra seats left. Since we had driven all the way from San Juan to see the bay, we said why not. Boy, did we get lucky not taking the kayaks.
Yes, the kayaks would have been a great bonding activity for my boyfriend and I but knowing how paranoid I get about nature, especially in the dark, I’m really glad we took the Biobay tours. When you’re in the kayaks, they don’t have a light to show you the way so you can’t see the environment you’re in and since the kayaks do not go that far out into the bay (for safety purposes), you see the plankton light up less than with Biobay Tours.
With Biobay tours, you sit in the boat which was perfect for my boyfriend since he was pretty reluctant about doing the work kayaking (haha). The boat has a light so you could clearly see through the mangrove channel we had to go through before getting to the bay. This was pretty cool because I’ve never seen trees like them and our tour guides pointed out giant iguanas and termite nests hidden in the trees. Since we were in a motorized boat, we were able to go farther into the bay and the farther into the bay you go, brighter the plankton were. Also, since we were in a motorized boat, we saw the plankton light trail behind us (so pretty). On the boat, they gave us sticks to put in the water to agitate the plankton to see them light up. If you were lucky, you got to hit jellyfish which also lit up because of the plankton!
Our head tour guide was Mario who was super informative and really funny. We learned about the science and history of the mangroves and the bay and legends about the reserve. I had a couple of questions about the bay and he was able to answer my questions with no problem. It was also interesting getting to know him and the crew.
The price for a tour was $ 52 per person, only a couple dollars more than the kayaks. They take card so don’t worry about carrying a ton of cash with you.
Overall, I highly recommend Biobay tours and would consider coming back again.
Tips:
** Bring a DSLR camera if you can and if you can trust yourself with it. I was super disappointed that I didn’t bring mine with me because phone cameras cannot capture the light of the plankton. I consider myself a pro-​phone picture taker but you could BARELY see anything in the dark.
** Do not expect the plankton to be as blue as you see in the pictures. That’s the magic of photoshop.
** Plan out when you go to the bay. If the moon is really bright, it is really hard to see the plankton. Also, throughout our trip it rained a lot so we were really lucky we went on a night it didn’t rain.

Please note: newspapers have noted that due to unknown causes, the biobay is hardly glowing in the past several weeks. While this is not Island Adventures’ fault, my reservation was canceled just 4 days before the trip, though newspapers have reported bioblackouts since April. I’ve yet to fully resolve the issue, but be warned that any excursion from any company to the biobay will either not happen, or be far less glowing than you expect.

Fantastic Tour, Mario was fun and knowledgeable about the entire eco system that is located here, the boat is the way to go if you are not into kayaking. Not only do you see the amazing glowing water, but they show you several aspects about the area that are just impressive, as well their are iguanas all over. Just a neat trip, and kept my two teenagers enthralled the entire time.

I’ve called several times and left messages with no call back. How professional. I can only guess how flaky or unreliable they are if they can’t even return numerous phone calls.

This experience was simply amazing. Big thumbs up for a great family activity.

THE WORST PLACE EVER!
I literally called them 10 times for 3 days! The call either didn’t go through or the rude employer will pick up and ALWAYS says: Call back in 5 mins! Then hangs up on you!
If you don’t want to do business, then SAY IT!
Does it really take THAT MUCH effort for us to PAY YOUR MONEY?!
It’s ridiculous!

So, this is a post that I found from 2012. I will explain why I have copied it here.
«2.0 star rating 4÷16÷2012
We were scheduled to go on the biobay tour Saturday, April 14^th. Due to the horrible weather they canceled and promised we would be booked for the 9pm tour the following day. The next day I called multiple times to confirm but no answer. We showed up at 845 pm at the green store with another couple and the van didn’t show up until 930pm, only to say the packed all of the canoes away and that they didn’t have us listed even though they assured us on Saturday. I did receive a text from Gary today saying, „things happen for a reason …“ I guess they have enough business to just do that to us. Defiantly book with Abe’s next time»
Essentially the same thing happened to us. We were scheduled to go on Saturday night at 6:30 pm and they cancelled. It was raining and they said you will get wet, we talked and we decided we would go ahead and get wet. They then switched stories and said there was lightening at the bay. At this point it was no longer raining at their offices. We think they lost some business that night and were not going to take just two people out.
By the way, I happened to see their reservation book and they had us on the book at both 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm and that was before there ever was an excuse for rain.
It appears they never intended to take us out at 6:30 pm and did not care if we had to sit in their offices for two hours.
Did they try to get us on another tour, no. Did they try to make us comfortable about waiting for two hours — no.
Fortunately we called our hotel and they got us on another tour much earlier in the evening. I cannot say anything good about Island Adventures.
Is the bioluminescent bay awesome, you bet it is. Just bet on another company

We ended up on a tour with Island Adventures after our other tour provider left us standing in the rain for 15 minutes and never showed up to pick us up. Island Adventures was really nice about it and we were very glad they had room.
The guides were knowledgable and fun, and clearly had an established program while remaining authentic.
Unfortunately we got DRENCHED on this tour, completely unexpectedly. It had been a sunny day and the weather reports we looked at had no warning. We had to keep our cameras and valuables in a waterproof box on the boat, and got no pictures as a result. Everyone was soaked to the bone and freezing, even those who had rain gear and umbrellas were soaked through. The most prepared person had a waterproof camera… Nothing else was effective in dealing with this amount of rain, which came in horizontally, cold, and hard.
Despite the rain and cold, it was amazing to see the bio luminescence light up as the torrents of rain pounded the water. We also got to put our feet in the water and play with buckets of glowing water. The boat’s wake would light up, and you could see lots of glowing fish.
At the end of it, the guide helped us find a ride home. We were worried no taxi would want to take people as wet as us. I can’t say enough about the people at Island Adventures, and in fairness there was nothing more they could have done about the rain.
I would do this tour again, even in the rain. I would probably bring some very large garbage bags with me to use as ponchos.
Also, don’t believe any tours that offer swimming in the bio bay — it is actually illegal. The Department of Natural Resources recently closed the bays to swimming, but some tours are still advertising swimming and/​or breaking the law.

We were scheduled to go on the biobay tour Saturday, April 14^th. Due to the horrible weather they canceled and promised we would be booked for the 9pm tour the following day. The next day I called multiple times to confirm but no answer. We showed up at 845 pm at the green store with another couple and the van didn’t show up until 930pm, only to say the packed all of the canoes away and that they didn’t have us listed even though they assured us on Saturday. I did receive a text from Gary today saying, «things happen for a reason …» I guess they have enough business to just do that to us. Defiantly book with Abe’s next time.

These guys are awesome! Michael was the «main» info tour guide and had a great way of explaining the science behind the little bugs in the water. They accommodated our little group of 3 at the last minute. Superbowl Sunday created a mysterious cancellation of our previously scheduled tour. I’m actually glad the change happened as I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it as much kayaking out and back.
This is a definite for your bucket list. I wish we could have taken photos but apparently you need special cameras. Again. do NOT miss this tour.

It was easy to get reservations, and our guide Mark was very knowledgable about a lot of different subjects, including astrology and of course, the bioluminescent bays.
The bioluminescent bay is not something to be missed if you are going to visit Puerto Rico… but to see them you must plan a night in Vieques because you won’t be back until about 8:30pm, and the ferries don’t operate at night.
I was under the impression that we would be kayaking to the bay, but instead we took a boat, which was fine by me. Be careful because the mosquitoes are everywhere, but you can’t wear repellant if you are going to swim in the biobay because it ruins the habitat the organisms live in… Hence, I wore a jacket and capris and covered the rest of my legs with my towel.
The biobay consists of tiny organisms that when you touch, they glow! If you move your body slowly, you see the tiny specks glow around you; if you move faster, you just see a glowing light illuminating from you. What sucks was that this was very hard to get a picture of… the guide said you had to have at least 8 shutter speed to capture it… we had 16 and still couldn’t really capture it… so now I have no proof that I was there! Boo!

EVER SEE PLANKTON LIGHT UP?
Not me. Til that day. Lots of raving about this ‘must see’ adventure. It does live up to the hype though. Give it 2 hours. I was told this is better than Mosquito Bay. Heck, I got 20 bites WITH deet on. I don’t want to know how many I would get there. I digress. You kayak (1 or 2) into a hole in the bay which takes you into a mangrove that leads you to the Bio Bay. Nothing lights up until you get there. Depending on the current, you will row harder one way than another. You want to go on the early one (6:30pm), as the later one (8:30pm) has stronger currents and it’s pitch black. Too bad you can’t swim in it anymore, but I still saw the green light up from my HADUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKEN through the water.
Total came out to $ 48/​pp after everything.
Sorry, no pics. They won’t come out anyway. Too dark.