Navigate82809
26 Jul 2024
Great value! Wear good footwear. Francisco was excellent as a guide. It easily exceeds expectations! It will take all day but worth it. Francisco ensured there were no awkward moments with tickets etc. If the history of the region is interesting to you this is for you! Bring an extra shirt the jungle gets a little hot. The trip is all day long. I was picked up at 7 am and dropped off at 9 pm.
We had a great day on our tour. We got picked up at hotel promptly at 6:50 as requested as we had to pick up other guests from other hotels before we made our way to Ek Balam. Francisco (our tour guide) was super friendly , talking to us on the way there about local Mexican history and about Ek Balam, Chitchen Itza and cenotes.
We started at Ek Balam, a lesser known Myan Ruin, and Francisco had all of our tickets ready for us, he was very informative about Ek Balam, educated us on the couple structures that were there.
Next week made our way to a local restaurant/buffet for lunch. Food was good. They had something for everyone, tacos (get the pork tacos, they was awesome!), steamed veggies, rice, spaghetti, fresh fruit, it was very good. We were all satisfied. The food was included in our ticket, any alcoholic beverages were not. FYI.
Then we went to Chitchen Itza. Again, Francisco took us around talking about the various structures there and what every thing was for. He was very knowledgeable. Then he let everyone explore on our own for about 45 min before meeting to head back to the van. Lastly, we visited a local cenote. The place we went to was so nice. The grounds themselves were really pretty, and the cenote was so cool! It was a big sink hole about 40 ft or so under ground, and they had about a 15ft jump that you could jump off of into the water, it was very cool. Plus there's places for some snacks and drinks (including alcohol) if you don't want to swim and just want to chill while you're there. Then we made our way back to the hotels.
It was a long day, I'm not gonna lie. Getting picked up at 6:50 and being the last off the van at about 8:15 or so, it was a long day, spending most of it in the van. But we knew what to expect as the trip says it's about 12hrs. But with the stops in between it didn't seem so bad. The longest was the ride back from the cenote to Playa Del Carmen where our hotel was, but again, we expected that.
All in all, it was a great day. Our tour guy Francisco was awesome. So friendly and knowledgeable. Our driver (I forget her name) was also friendly, didn't say too much throughout the day as she had to focus on driving, but she was also nice and got us back to the hotel safely. Definitely bring cash for various things. Tipping, any souvenirs /trinkets you might want to buy, there's plenty of places, alcohol if you want it, and cash for the life vest at the cenote.
I would definitely give this tour 5 stars and would highly recommend it to anyone looking to get off of the resort for the day.
The tour was great, combining the ruins with a Cenote was much needed with the heat. The staff was awesome and very knowledgeable. Marking off a star for the transportation - the van was way too cramped for the amount of people on the tour. The air conditioning was also not the greatest. I would have liked the transportation to be a bit more comfortable since the tour requires 6+ hours driving around to each site and back to the hotels. Overall great experience but could’ve been even better with more comfortable transportation.