sugarland tours

The tour guide and driver, Bobby, did a great job. Very knowledgeable and I really learned a great deal about the sugar, oranges, and the area and history. However, it is a long tour and they do NOT stop for any bathroom break, so a big tip is to NOT drink any coffee that morning!!! There is no reason for not stopping, because toward the end of the tour, with about 45 minutes left, we went to the marina to see the dike and Lake Okeechobee and there was a very nice public restroom right there at which we could have stopped. If I would have know we still had 45 minutes on the bus, I would have begged him to stop. I thought that was a bit uncalled for to have to go that long without a restroom. Also, for the money, $38, it should have included some food or snacks. They used to have lunch at the end of the tour, but all we got were a few little lame coupons for a free drink at Subway and some similar $1 value coupons. With all the businesses in Clewiston, I would think they could have done better especially since you start your tour at the Clewiston Chamber of Commerce. Someone is missing the boat here.

I love Clewiston and the Sugarland tour. Its an important part of Florida culture and history, and was a quick trip from Miami. The countryside is lushly overgrown, the town is pretty and a little quirky, and its history is fascinating. The tour itself is amazing with threshing machines moving like giant robots across the fields; huge trucks hauling giant baskets of cane, and the sugar and orange juice plants were something you just never get to see anyhere else. If you want something a little bit off the regular tourist trail, and a entertaining couple of hours this is a great activity.

We loved the Sugarland Tour. It provided us with a close-up view of the harvesting machines coming ever closer like a science fiction movie. It allowed us to understand the stages in getting the cane from field to processing. Bobby, our tour guide, was very informative as he is a native of Clewiston. We also toured through some wondeful neighborhoods that cannot be seen as you travel through town on the state highway. Lunch was catered in the Clewiston Inn. The inn stopped dining room service in February but the tour is using the dining room most days for the tour group, otherwise you get lunch at the Elks.

Everyone at the Chamber of Commerce was friendly. Bobby was a great tour guide. Learning about the history of the town was fascinating. Although we couldn't leave the vehicle at the juice and sugar plants, it was still great information and we did get to see trains unloading at the sugar plant. Loved driving into the sugar cane field and getting samples. The buffet lunch was a nice touch of community support. My wife and I took the time to actually view every exhibit in the museum at the CoC and it was fascinating. Great for history buffs. We stayed in Orlando, but it was worth taking a day off from the theme parks and enjoying the drive down and the tour.

A great way to experience how sugar cane is processed, how orange juice is made and see a bit of the history of this unique town. View a short film and tour the Clewiston museum located in the Chamber of Commerce building in downtown Clewiston. Board a bus with a very knowable tour guide right out to sugarcane fields to cut and taste the cane! Discover the entire process all the way to the factory. Visit the local orange juice factory site to find out how orange juice is made. Buffet lunch at the historic Clewiston Inn. Then tour around the city seeing the dike and area. 5 hour tour. Because of OSA regulations people are not allowed to get off the bus when on the factory sites but tour guide and films on the bus help with the understanding of the workings of the factories. Good value

Totally enjoyed the tour. Bobbly, the tour guide, was very informative and made the time fun. We are farmers from Iowa and found this an excellent way to learn about the agriculture in Florida. The lunch at the Clewiston Inn was delicious. We thought the price of the tour was very reasonable for everything you saw and learned and the food. Would highly recommend this tour to anyone who is interested in different forms of agriculture.

Enjoyed a very interesting day with Bobby. Surprising artifacts at the Chamber, complete tour of the sugar cane industry, a nice buffet, and a visit to a juice operation.

I was deeply disappointed with this tour. It is advertised as a tour of a sugar cane mill, cane fields, harvesting and touring a citrus plant. This was not the case, there was no actual tour of the facilities, just a very limited windshield tour. It was expensive $42/pp. We drove a couple of miles outside Clewiston and stopped at a cane field where we got a piece of sugar cane to taste. We did not see any actual field burning, harvesting or rail car filling, as he would not drive out of this field. He said they were harvesting to the west, but we would not go there to see it. He kept saying we had a schedule, don't know why because we were not going to be taking an actual tour of any plants, just spent time sitting in the bus driving around. Drove into cane mill and saw them dump a railcar and saw a large pile of sugar, that was the tour!We drove to a citrus plant where we again just drove around to see some trucks of oranges parked in the parking lot and watched some oranges fall into a bin. No actual tour again. The fresh orange juice they promise you comes from a carton marked Tropicana. What a disappointment after being promised "fresh orange juice" You can see just as much on the road as you can see on this tour. Had lunch at the historic Clewiston Inn which was again extremely disappointing. Our salad plates had been set out for quite some time before our arrival, the lettuce was brown (which was obviously brown when it was put on the plate), the onion slices limp. Only ice tea was available. Had to ask for water. The buffet was very limited, chicken, very dry meat loaf, mashed potates, so stiff you could hardly get them on a fork, very small corn bread muffin which was quite good (the only thing that was good) and the vegetable was a California mix of broccoli and carrots which were so overcooked they were mush. Nothing for a vegetarian in our group. No one ever bussed the tables. While on the bus we saw a couple of videos of the operations so that is as close as we got to a tour. Our guide seemed to repeat what was in the video. I had read quite a bit before the tour as I wanted to be prepared. He missed many historic comments that would have been of great interest to the group.Did a quick drive through town and saw some historical homes and drove up to the boat launch. For this tour to be viable they need to coordinate with the facilities so the people on the tour actually get so see what they have paid to see. I do believe we have seen more just driving around. Skip this tour.

We rode on a bus through the sugar canes, and each got a piece of cane, and we learned a lot about the area , Lake Okeechobee, and cane farming. We also went to a factory where they process oranges int orange juice and other products. I was surprised to learn that NONE of the orange is wasted, and to hear about their energy making. Then we had lunch at the hotel. It was quite good (not enough for a vegetarian) , but the place was very COLD.