Colonia Day Trip from Buenos Aires

The ride to the ferry and home after we’re great. The guía in Colonia was ver good, but the whole “tour” only lasted maybe 45 minutes, then we were “on our own” for 4 or 5 hours. Three of us hired the guide independently for a couple of hours and that was great. Without that, it would’ve been a bust

We decided ahead of time to book this trip and it was worth it. Colonia is beautiful. The ferry is not a complicated process and tickets can be purchased at the Colonia Express terminal. We were on the 9a.m. ferry but were picked up at our hotel at 6am, which was too early. We sat at the terminal for 1 hour before others passengers arrived. A 7 am pick up would allow ample time to check in. Colonia is charming and a perfect day trip from Buenos Aires.

We feel this tour was a rip off, extremely expensive for what we got. The guided walking tour was about 15 minutes. Colonia is just not that interesting. It is worth about an hour visit to see a few old buildings and some ruins. The rest of the town is souvenir shops and restaurants. It ended up being a 12 hour day, very tiring waiting for the ferry, a crowded boring ride, and a minimal tour. Don't waste your time or money.

This tour was horrible. Actually it wasn't even a tour, in fact I would give it a 0 if I could. Somebody picked us up at our hotel, took us to the Port. When we got to the port we just learned that the tour will meet us in Uruguay. We could travel with ourselvs on a ship, but it was verry disappointing that the Viator didn't say anything. After 3 hours boat ride we got to Colonia. There was another ship. We asked the personal at the port and they told us that we came on the slow car ship. Again we were speachless, why Viator placed us on the car ship when we could go with a fast one that only took about 1 hour instead of 3. We waited on a long line for our tour in Colonia. Then The Day Tour person did not even speak a word of english, she started screaming at us and other people why we didn't speek spanish. She threw all our papers at her collegue who knew english. The second one left us at a Hop-On Hop-Off Station in the middle of nowhere. She told us that we paid about 600 dollars for a Hop-On Hop-Of. On the website said we were paing for a tour, not for a Hop-On Hop-Off in a village that is so small you don't even need a bus. You need a tour guide to explain the history. We could buy our ship ticket much cheaper than 600 and go to Uruguay by ourselvs. So, we just walk around the Colonia by ourselvs. Don't get me wrong Colonia was amazing. Even though we went there in Christmas resturants were open and a couple of the souvinier shops. Colonia is also very pretty evert cobelstone street leads to another one and the prettyness never stops. Viator told us that there would be someone wating for us at the Port of Buenos Aires to take us to our hotel. But nobody was there. We had to take a Taxi there were not many at 10:30 pm. So this 'tour' was the worst 'tour' we ever had. But if you are in Buenos Aires you should go to Colonia.

the food was poor , all the rest was very good

Colonia was lovely, it is a sleepy little town that you can wander and shop and see a bit of history or go down to the water with a coffee and relax. Not a ton to do there, but a nice change from busy Buenos Aires. We chose the pickup service from the hotel, which drops you off at the ferry and leaves you to figure out how to get on it yourself. It feels daunting at first since there are very little English cues but it actually is easier than it first looks. First, you line up at check-in. Show your reservation voucher on a phone works get your tickets and then head for immigration. Immigration has both Argentina and Uruguay side by side so once you are through you are done. You meet the bus tour at Colonia after a ferry ride - it is on a Buquebus the same company as the ferry. If you tried to book it yourself you would find the website a nightmare so through Viator worked so much better for us. Some people told me the bus tour was not necessary. But we enjoyed it and it follows the hop on hop off route so can decide later if you want to do it again and get off at places. We stayed until the 7:45 ferry but if you are in a time crunch, the 4pm ferry would give you enough time as well. The one thing I would change was the driver that picked us up after the day and took us home was truly terrifying. Reaching speeds of 100km/h in downtown Buenos Aires. have travelled the world and been in taxis in many countries, including India, and they don't hold a candle to how scary this guy's driving was. He started going the wrong way so we made him stop and walked the last few minutes home.