Hi. We are considering booking with this company for our San Blas charter, and the only info I see on TA is from 8 years ago. Does anyone have a recent experience to share? Thank You.
I don't have experience with the actual trip yet but have booked a trip for January 2023 in May after doing research and not finding anything concerning. Booking was easy, I paid a deposit and the company has been very communicative. It seems like the charter companies all use the same boats but change the names. We ended up with Kaya (which we didn't know was the actual name of the boat until after we booked) which has a lot of positive reviews all over the internet. I think iTravel by Boat called it Halo.
It sounds like you have gotten about as far as we have. Lol. We will have to report back so that there are some start-to-finish experiences on TA
My husband and I got back at the end of January and it was a fantastic experience. We would 100% book with them again if we went back. They’re a family owned and operated business and we were lucky enough to meet Nico in person. One of the sisters lived with the Guna for a couple years and she’s very loved and respected amongst the captains and locals.
The parts of the trip that were slightly inconvenient (ground transportation and small boats to the big boat) had nothing to do with iTravelbyBoat and you’d have the same experience no matter who you book through since it’s mostly one group arranging all of that. There’s a cultural difference with time and urgency and it’s just something you have to roll with.
We went, in January, and ended up booking with Cedric at http://www.sanblastour.com (great experience), since i-boats didn't have a suitable boat. Agree the "getting there," part, as well as the experience at the port, is a huge drawback. I'm not convinced the whole experience is worth the effort & the cost, though, so I don't think I would do it, again. $1250+/night for 4 ppl plus $140pp transportation to/from? C'mon.
We paid considerably less for a private boat with just 2 of us and we felt like it was worth it. We did 5 nights which allowed us to go to some far out islands so maybe that's why we feel the experience was more positive. Agreed that the port wasn't great but we went into it knowing that and it helped a little. We only waited 20 minutes on the way in and an hour on the way out. The people watching was good there, at least. We'd definitely try to find a way to take a plane if we did it again.
We ended up on another boat (Atila) and saw Kaya out on the water and were glad we ended up on the boat we did. The layout seemed much better on Atila.
DO NOT book with itravelbyboat. SCAM!
Do you mind elaborating on why it was a scam? I am currently looking to book with them.
Hi Brooke-
Did you end up booking with itravelbyboat? I'm in the process now.
Thanks!
Hi .. could you please let me know who did you sail with ?
Ended up traveling with I travel by boat last week. Highly recommend. Incredible experience.