Karen R.
Yelp
I will start this review with the caveat that I used Bayou Shuttle Service because I purchased a groupon. My boyfriend and I purchased a $40 deal for an $80 kayak ride. We bought it in November and decided to wait until spring to use it -- we had 6 months before the groupon expired. We started looking in April for May tours, but had trouble planning in advance because the company only posts the next month's tours a week before the end of the previous month. My first call to Bayou Shuttle was to find out when the tours would be posted, and when I asked, the guy told me I could book using the internet and that the tours would be up soon. That was the first piece of bad information, I needed to book over the phone, not the internet. We picked a tour that worked for our schedule and that was available through our groupon. I tried to book online, and I could not. I called again, the guy told me that that tour was no longer available to groupon holders because it was no longer being run by his company. As the groupon had not expired, it seems like they should have needed to completely honor its terms. The guy assured me I could use my groupon for a different tour and that I could book online. So, I hung up, and after figuring out a different tour, I tried to book online -- still couldn't do it. So, the fun thing about calling Bayou Shuttle is that they are only available between the hours of 12-5, but they don't actually answer the phone during those hours consistently. So, this led to me calling multiple times to even attempt to get someone on the phone. I got so frustrated that I called groupon about a refund -- it clearly said to call to book on their website and then every time I called, I was told to book online. This finally led to a call back to actually book. When I complained to the guy about the difficulty I''d had and that I couldn't book the tour I wanted, he was unapologetic.
Then, we get to the actual tour. It was led by 2, high school kids who were good kayakers but that was about it. They led a 2 minute orientation that simply explained "to go right, paddle on the left etc". Then they put us all in our boats, and sent us to go "paddle around" while they waited on late customers. We probably got in the water around 11am or so (after arriving at 10:30 for the mandatory training that if you were late for, you were supposed to not be able to kayak). We all sat in the water for a good 15 to 20 minutes while they waited. Then, when the guides finally arrived, one of them paddled in the front, the other paddled in the back. They offered no information or "guiding", just simply stuck with us and told us when to turn around. By the time we got out of the water and back to our car it was about 12:30 or 12:45, we realized we had probably only been on the water for about an hour when the tour was supposed to last 2.5 and be a 5 mile kayak tour. Ultimately, we had fun because we enjoy kayaking and being outside... but if you want anything more than being provided with a boat and being told to go, don't go through Bayou Shuttle Service.