Maui Tour Review: Halekala on Horseback

We just got back from a 1 week trip to Maui and wanted to comment on an extremely negative and rude experience we had with ';Halekala on Horseback'; (';HOH';).

www.haleakalaonhorseback.com

We booked and paid for a 3 person trip through our hotel with HOH. The cost was about $200 a person and we were provided with directions to the crater.

The drive up to the crater summit took about 2 hours from Kaanapali and was pleasant but uneventful. We reached the meeting area shortly before the scheduled meeting time of 8:30AM - well in advance of the departure time of 9AM - and we proceeded to wait.

HOH never showed up.

After a while, we decided to call HOH to see if they had canceled - no one answered their phone and there were no messages or calls made to our phones.

Shortly after 9AM, there was still no sign of HOH. The other operation that offers crater rides (Pony Express), was getting ready to leave with their group - and we were really getting worried that we had gotten our instructions mixed up and that maybe we had accidentally gone to the wrong meeting point.

We finally left the summit around 10:00AM. About half way down the volcano, we decided to call HOH again - and someone finally answered (Brian from HOH). When we asked about the ride - his response was ';you must be the party of 3 from the [omitted] hotel';, thus indicating to me that we were the only people scheduled for the tour.

We confirmed that we were the party of three and we asked why no one from HOH showed up. He responded that a truck had broken down. And that was it.

We then asked whether he had called or left us a message or whether he had made any attempt to let us know that the trip had been canceled. His response was simply ';no.';

There was no apology, no excuse, no attempt at lying to make him look any better . . . nothing other than ';no.'; Needless to say, I was stunned by his response.

When we got back to our hotel, I complained to Activities desk. They were able to get us a refund, but obviously there was nothing they could do about our wasted day.

I suspect that HOH simply did not think it was worthwhile for them to take a smaller group (of three) down into the crater.

In short, I would urge anyone considering a crater ride to steer clear of HOH.

Maui Tour Review: Halekala on Horseback

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. Thanks for the review.

AJAX in .net