Río Secreto Nature Reserve from Playa del Carmen Entrance or Tour

Overall a great experience! Victor our guide was great! He led us through the underground river secreto and was very informative regarding the rock formations and the ecosystem in general in Río Secreto. Would say that the transportation communication for pick up was lacking. You have to call or email them to arrange the pick up even if you select the pick up option on viator. Even then, if you have a Monday tour, I never got communication on Sunday even after attempting to call and text different numbers they provided. I had to reach to viator customer service for them to then reach out to the provider, who then gave me our pick up time. Such a hassle to just want to understand the pick up time. I would recommend calling or emailing them two days in advance given our experience with that. The good thing is that the excursion itself was worth it and would go again.

First, the tour was wonderful. Our guides were great. 10/10 experience for the reef snorkeling and caves. I highly recommend. I rated this a three however due to the poor coordination by the tour company. I was emailed at 10:45pm the night before our tour that we would be picked up several blocks from our hotel, which was fine, but I was very lucky I saw it in time to catch our transport. It resulted in a rushed morning where we did not eat breakfast. We expected Rio Secreto to be the first stop, but they switched it and we went snorkeling first. The reefs were amazing, we saw tons of fish and sea turtles. We finished up there around noon. When we got to the caves we expected to have lunch, but we're informed instead we would go directly on the tour. The caves were amazing and the highlight of our trip so far. Our guide was wonderful. I appreciated the natural caves and formations. There are no lights or infrastructure beyond your headlamps. The water is crystal clear. It was mostly knee deep, but there was one area where we swam. I have been in many tourist trap caves and this was not like that at all. With our small group in the quiet caves it really felt like a genuine experience in a beautiful natural setting. The water was cool but not cold. By the time we finished it was 4pm. At this point none of us had eaten all day. We were put in front of kiosks to buy pictures before they would let us proceed to the cafeteria to eat. When we were finally allowed to eat, the food was cold, picked over, and had flies in it. This simply could have been a wonderful experience. It really should have been. The late notice on the change in pick up location, change in schedule that disrupted lunch, and two starving kids really put a damper on the whole experience though. If you take this tour I would suggest packing a couple of granola bars.

Fernando was the absolute best guide I have ever had. He was very knowledgeable not only about the cenotes and the ruins but about the culture as well. They do provide all the items needed for the cenotes but I would suggest bringing your own water shoes.