Today I charged to my Visa card $34.99 for the Epic audio tour. I received the email confirmation and hit the tab GET TICKETS. A message came up and said “Oooooo, an error has occurred, retry “I retried several times, clicked on the help button to no avail, tried two telephone numbers nearly hidden that said “ a non working telephone number, called my credit card who said I have to file a claim after it posts, the website said “ a full refund if you cancel within 24 hours, but there is no way to cancel! BEWARE: nothing but a big SCAM!

We enjoyed the audio driving tours. They were a good value and it was easy to pick and choose what we wanted to see. Because of the audio tour, we visited a part of the Volcano Park we would have missed, and it was one of our favorite parts. We also learned some interesting historical events and legends. The audio did crash while we were in Hilo on the way to some waterfalls, likely due to spotty coverage there. Fortunately we could get Google to direct us to the falls. We would purchase more audio tours from this vendor.

These tours are great. We received a voucher for a free tour from the rental car company. I had mentioned we had planned to drive around the entire Island while we were here and the agent recommended this tour. After listening to the first one we decided to purchase the other four. While we didn't do any one of the tours in it's entirety the program kept up with us as we went around to different points on the island offering lots of local stories as well as points of interest based on where we were at the moment. Highly recommend, well worth the 29.00.

It was OK. There were a lot of interesting facts in the tour, but we are almost 70, so everywhere we stopped, it spent a lot of time talking about the hikes that you could do. It got tiresome after a while. Other than that, it was OK.

We absolutely loved this way to learn more about the island. I highly recommend this over a tour in a bus full of people. You can customize it to see what you want to see at the pace you want to see it. it was very informative, great directions, interesting stories, optional Hawaiian music in between info, and good restaurant suggestions along the way. And for the price, you can't get any better way to see and learn about the island. Will definitely use them again in other parts of the country.

By far the most useful tool for exploring the big island on your own (without a tour group). There were so many sights to see and suggested spots that we never would have known about, and it seems to be timed well so that you end up in Hilo by early evening. The narration that explained what you were looking at was great, and we loved the mood music. Tip: Leave early. We started out from Kona at 9:30. We were done with Hilo by 6, and decided to have dinner there. But that meant driving back to Kona on dark, twisty mountain roads at night. Nerve wracking. If I were to do it again I’d listen to the apps recommendation and start by 8-8:30, finish with Hilo at 5. Pack a picnic dinner or get some kind of take out in Hilo, then continue on to Mauna Kea (which we had to skip.)

We enjoyed the tours on Kauai, Maui, Oahu, and the Big Island. We did not drink the twisted dangerous roads on Maui. Very much enjoyed both driving and walking tours. Highly recommend a big money saver over bus tours.

I wrote this review for the Kauai bundle, but it stands true for the Big Island bundle as well. First up, the concept is great and when it worked it was fantastic. Loads of useful information, interesting stories - just what you'd hope for from a first rate guide on a private tour. The Shaka Tours narrator is a little hokey (which took a little getting used to) and it was a relief when we figured out how to turn off the background music. There's only so much ukulele music you can take. I have nothing but praise for the information and tales provided. BUT using the apps was a fingers in the eyes, frustrating experience. 1 - Mostly the tours run only one way. So annoying. I feel that this is the makers cheaping out. The content would be the same, it just needs running as a pair of apps. (Manually running the buttons was awful because many steps are a leading on to the next stop so it gets confusing really quickly.) 2 - Where you have crossing or looping tours the app gets confused and will flip you between legs. Wildly confusing as right becomes left and as you are 'trusting' the app you can quickly be baffled. On day one we learned to run Google maps on our other phone so we knew when we'd been sent wrong. The method of previewing the route is awful. Hard to get into, and zooms in and out depending on your activity state. 3 - The turn instructions are really dicey. They rely purely on GPS location (it would seem) so you get something like 'Turn right here" - which if you are on a 50 mph road in busy traffic may not be safe or practical. And keep in mind it will at times flip left with right as it seems to lose track of your direction. And joining the tours (we used 8 in our two week vacation) never worked once. Both these issues would be easily solved by just adding a little more information - it knows where you are - so, saying "Turn right just ahead by the mailbox (or whatever)" or join the tour at a fixed place - "Start the tour outside Safeway (or whatever)" would be so much easier. So, it it worth it. Yes. Would we buy it again. Yes - we bought one as a trial, then the rest of the bundle for a week on Kauai, then bought the Big Island bundle for our second week. Could it be better - oh, boy, it sure could. Bring your patience.

My phone didn't want to work well with the app. Couldn't get it to work with the vehicle. Didn't know where to turn until past the place to turn. May try again with the new phone.

I have used the Shaka guide on Kauai and on the Big Island. I like that you get a little history, they never expire so you can keep them and use them when you go back and that take you to places you may miss if you are trying to explore on your own. You can jump on anywhere and go clockwise or counter clockwise and skip any stops that you are not interested in seeing. You can also pause and pick up at a later date or time. I highly recommend this driving tour.

App is awesome when the timing is correct. We bought the bundle of 5 and seemed to have started a 10-12 hour tour when our intent was the 4-6 hour. Development should create it as a choose your own adventure style and put in your hours available and starting point then direction, and provide the stop options so it can be selected in advance. We have the bundle of 5 and they overlap so we didn’t have the most productive use of 12+ hours and missed many stops. These updates Would take it to the next level. Definitely worth the money but the bundle is confusing.

Code would not activate on the app. Called during business hours and message stated they were closed. Ended up successfully downloading in the Shaka app and liked the tour however it was twice as expensive.

Loved these!!! We bought the 5 pack for the big island of Hawaii and used three as we had already driven two of the areas without the audio--sure wish I had ordered and downloaded earlier so we could have had the commentary for those as well. Really worth it!!

This was a fantastic way to see the sites, get lots of background knowledge, know where the bathroom stops are and all the "extras" such as recommended hikes, spots to eat, etc.

This is our second set of a full bundle for a Hawaiian Island. This time the program worked much better than the last time. We were able to get the program to work through the car radio using Android Auto. Sometimes the dialog would repeat a few words and sometimes it would cut out but I would say 90% of the time it was a success. My guess is that they don't expect customers to download ALL the tours for this island. We found there was quite a lot of duplication or stories and such to the point that we just skipped 1 full tour and part of another. The price for the bundle is reasonable for what you get and I am still game to use this again for other travels. ***I had trouble downloading the programs on day 1 which was on a weekend. I tried to call in to get the info I needed to get started and because of the early timing and the weekend they were not open yet. We had to delay leaving on our first tour (which was a 8 to 12 hour tour) because I had to wait for them to open so we lost about 2 hours of touring time that day. However, in their defense... it was a weekend and early morning. Once they opened I was able to talk to someone that fixed our issue.