Every rum tour worth the drive, from Appleton to Casa Bacardí.
Which distillery pours the aged stock and which one stops at the white. What a tasting flight costs in Punta Cana. Whether the Bacardí Island day is a distillery visit or a beach with a famous name. Reviews of the rum tours you can actually book.
Four rum tours that explain the whole drink.
One tasting room, one estate that has been distilling for three centuries, one pairing and one cane-juice day in Brazil. What each costs and what actually gets poured.
01The famous oneRum Tasting Tour at Casa BACARDÍ in Puerto RicoCasa Bacardí sits across the bay from Old San Juan and pours the range in a guided flight. The ferry beats the taxi.
02The oldest nameMount Gay Signature Rum Tasting ExperienceMount Gay has been distilling in Barbados since 1703. The signature tasting walks you from the white through to the aged.
03The pairing101 Oliver Rum Tasting & Pairing And Taino Concept StoreAged Oliver rums poured as a flight with things to eat between them, ten minutes from the Punta Cana hotel strip.
04Cane juice, BrazilJungle Waterfalls and Cachaça Distillery Jeep TourCachaca is distilled from fresh cane rather than molasses, which is why it tastes green. Paraty makes it between the waterfalls.
Punta Cana is the easiest rum day in the Caribbean.
Three ways to drink your way through the DR: a tasting room ten minutes from the hotel strip, a cigar floor with the rum counter at the back, and the boat out to Bacardí Island. What it costs to get on each one.
Six islands where the rum tour is the reason to go ashore.
Jamaican pot stills in a valley two hours inland, a Barbadian house that has been at it since 1703, the Bacardí plant across the bay from Old San Juan, and the Dominican tasting rooms that pour the aged stock by the hotel strip.
What a rum flight actually pours, island by island.
Five measures, white through to the aged, usually with something to eat between them so the last glass still tastes of something. These are the tasting rooms people travel across an island for.
- 1Full-Day Tour with Rum Tastingfrom $37
- 2Casa Bacardi Distillery Tourfrom $44
- 3Rum Tasting Tour at Casa BACARDÍ in Puerto Ricofrom $89
The rum tours more travellers book than any other.
Every rum tour we have reviewed →The distillery visits and tasting rooms that stay busy from cruise season to carnival, and what earns each one the slot.
1
Full-Day Tour with Rum Tasting
Spend eight hours touring eastern Madeira in a small group of up to 14. You will visit Pico do Arieiro, walk the Balcões levada, see Santana’s thatched houses, taste rum in Porto da Cruz, and finish at Ponta do Rosto. Hotel pickup, a guide-driver, and drop-off are included.
From · $37
Read our review →
2
Casa Bacardi Distillery Tour
from $44
3
Rum Tasting Tour at Casa BACARDÍ in Puerto Rico
from $89
4
Rum Tasting and Food Walking Tour in Nassau Bahamas
from $98
5
Pub Crawl in Lapa with Cachaça Tasting and Live Samba
from $33
6
Full-Day Tour: Concord Waterfall, Chocolate Factory, Rum Distillery, Grand Etang
from $115
7
Topper’s Rhum Distillery Tour in St Maarten
from $39
8
Bundaberg Rum Behind The Scenes Distillery Tour And Museum Experience
from $21
Copper, cane and a warehouse losing rum to the heat.
The working tour runs in one order almost everywhere: the cane, the fermenting vats, the column and the pot stills, the flame put to a fresh barrel, then the warehouse where a share of every cask goes out through the wood each year.
What a rum tour costs, from a tasting-room flight to a private estate day.
Every rum tour on the site grouped by price. In most of the Caribbean the tasting costs less than the taxi that gets you to it.
Tasting-room flights, factory tours that finish with a pour, and the crawls you walk between.
Full days out: an estate two hours inland, waterfalls with a distillery stop, rum against cigars or chocolate.
Private drivers, blending benches where you fill your own bottle, and the boat days that end on a beach.
Three rum trips that exist nowhere else.
Distilleries are everywhere. A Jamaican estate in the Nassau Valley, a beach island wearing a rum brand’s name, and cane juice distilled the French way are not.
Appleton Estate
Appleton has distilled in the same Jamaican valley since 1749, and the tour is built around the cane rather than the bottle: the fields, the old water wheel, the copper pot stills, then a guided flight through the range. It sits two hours inland from Montego Bay, which is why nearly everybody books it with YS Falls or the Black River on the same day.
- 1YS Falls, Black River Safari, Appleton Rum Tour OR Pelican Bar (Choose Up to 3)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 90 reviews
- 2Private Transportation from Montego Bay to Appleton Estate & Pelican Bar★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 59 reviews
- 3Appleton estate,YS Falls,Black River Safari,Pelican Bar(any 3of4)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 23 reviews
Bacardí Island
Cayo Levantado picked up the nickname from an advert shot on its sand, and the name stuck to the boat schedules. There is no distillery on it: this is a small island in Samaná Bay reached by catamaran, with a beach, a buffet and rum punch included. Most trips pair it with the Limón waterfall, which is the half of the day that earns the early start.
- 1El Limon Waterfall and Bacardi Island Tour from Punta Cana with Lunch Included★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 · 119 reviews
- 2Samana and Bacardi Island Cruise and Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 3.9 · 28 reviews
- 3Samaná Experience Whale – The Lemon Waterfall & Bacardi Island★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 · 25 reviews
Cachaca and rhum agricole
Almost all rum is distilled from molasses, the syrup left once the sugar is taken out. Cachaca in Brazil and rhum agricole in the French islands are distilled from fresh-pressed cane juice instead, which is why they read grassy and sharp next to an aged Caribbean rum. Paraty makes the point best: colonial streets, jungle waterfalls and a run of small stills between them.
- 1Pub Crawl in Lapa with Cachaça Tasting and Live Samba★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 881 reviews
- 2Topper’s Rhum Distillery Tour in St Maarten★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 784 reviews
- 3Jungle Waterfalls and Cachaça Distillery Jeep Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 491 reviews
Nobody should be driving home from a rum tasting.
A flight is five measures and an estate visit usually ends with a cocktail, which is a poor combination with a hire car on a mountain road. These are the tours that include the driving, the ones that put lunch between the glasses, and the crawls you can walk away from. Tastings run 18-plus across the Caribbean and 21-plus in the United States, and the estates do check.
Four rum bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of a rum week can be arranged at the hotel desk the night before. These four run on timed entry, a fixed daily schedule and rooms that seat a dozen people.
- 01Casa Bacardi Distillery TourEntry runs on timed slots and each tasting session seats a set number. Cruise mornings take the early ones first.
- 02YS Falls, Black River Safari, Appleton Rum Tour OR Pelican Bar (Choose Up to 3)Two hours inland from Montego Bay on a fixed daily schedule. There is no later departure to catch.
- 03Mount Gay Signature Rum Tasting ExperienceThe signature tasting and the cocktail bench run a handful of times a day, a dozen seats each.
- 04El Limon Waterfall and Bacardi Island Tour from Punta Cana with Lunch IncludedYou get there by boat on somebody else’s timetable, and the last crossing back is not negotiable.
By island and country
The newest rum tour reviews.
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Soufriere Excursion with Rum & Chocolate Tasting
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Whale watch tour from Santo Domingo with Bacardi Island and lunch included
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Rum & Chocolate Tasting Tour : Journey into Flavor
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Authentic San Juan Guided Walking Food Tour with Pina Colada
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Old San Juan and Rum Factory Full-Day Tour: Minimum 8+ people
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Old San Juan Private Tour with Barrilito Rum Experience
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Punta Cana to Samana: El Limon Falls and Bacardi Island
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Appleton Estate Rum Tour and Tasting from Runaway Bay
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