Our guide, Limbert, was very knowledgeable of Chichen Itza. He could answer our many questions. He explained what the stone carvings and iconography were, what they meant and why they were import to the Mayans. We left, thanks to Limbert, knowing who the Mayans were and what was important to them.
My family booked this trip based on some recommendations found on r/playadelcarmen on Reddit, and my own research comparing private and group tours to Chichen Itza. We really wanted to visit this Wonder of The World, but were hesitant on the known 10+ hour dedication to get to and from the site from Playa del Carmen resorts. Carey Tours was very responsive via email when I asked a few pre-booking questions. They let me know it would be about 8 hours, and that we would could start at 6:00am or one later (8:30am I think). This would give us a full day of a tour of Chichen Itza and a visit to a Cenote and lunch. The 6:am tour would get us back to our hotel somewhere around 3:pm, which was very appealing to us. I also found that many of the other tour options did NOT include admission to Chichen Itza and/or lunch. Almost all tours seemed to stop at a cenote and/or Valladolid. It's 2.5 hours from playa resorts, so that is constant. We booked the 6am tour about 2 weeks before our vacation. Booking was easy, email confirmation, and follow-up reminders as our tour approached, which was super helpful on vacation (What day is it?).
There was a little disconnect on our part, because we did not ask our resort where tours pickup and dropoff. We did not know there was a set of stairs we had to go down. However, our Carey Tours guide, Perfecto, began texting me when our time approached and quickly helped me find the stairs. We were on our way at 6am, as promised. Perfecto also asked if we would like to stop for breakfast or anything, but we had prepared and were ok not stopping. Our guide drove us to Chichen Itza, pointing out and describing the communities we were passing on the way. It really helped me to understand more about the area. We pulled in to the site with no major car or bus traffic and parked in the shade. Perfecto let us know we could safely leave our bags or anything we didn't want in the van, which was also great.
We got the Chichen Itza about 30 minutes before the site opened, and Perfecto showed us where we could find some restrooms and refreshments while he got our tickets and waited for the site to open. I won't even try to describe the scene, you will have to see for yourself. But once we entered our guide began pointing out the various structures and areas around the site, explaing what they were and when we would get closer to them. He also explained we would tour with him for about an hour, and then have another hour (or really as long as we want) to walk around and exlore and shop on our own.
Perfecto brought us to the Chichen Itza sturcture, one face of it, and started telling us so many things, and really help "place" this site in perspective to time and people. Again, I won't go into details, because you really need to experience it for yourself. Our guide showed us images on his phone to illustrate what we were seeing and hearing. It was extremely cool, and Perfect is very good at his job. I have heard a lot of these tour experiences depend on your tour guide and how many people they are trying to lead. A private tour allowed for so much more interaction and questions answered, as I could see with the other small groups also touring the site at the time. Note, there were NO large groups at this time. Our guide offered to take photos for us, and we went home with some very cool photos of us in front of Chichen Itza and the other stuctures WITHOUT a large crowd in the background. This was amazing, and almost as if we got to experience this Wonder before all the "magic" gets chased away for the day. Truly unique.
Once my family and I had enough of the shopping and site views, I texted Perfecto, and we met our guide at the van. As we were leaving, we could see the busses lining up. The car traffic was already stopped, as the car lots were full. We left with no problem, and Perfecto drove us to Selva Maya, where we would see a cenote where we could swim, and also eat lunch. The cenote was was amazing to see and fun to swim in. We were only one of maybe 6 other groups at the cenote, and we could swim and enjoy. We then walked to the buffet for lunch, which was excellent. Our guide showed us what was on the buffet, and joined us for lunch. The food was excellent, and had enough options for anyone in our family. There would not have been any additional charge, but we decided to enjoy some cervezas, which we paid for directly to our waiter (paid with credit card, or could use cash). Water and soft drinks were no charge. Also note that all of the medium and large groups ALSO stop at this cenote, so we were very happy to be ahead of that wave of other tourists.
Once we finished eating, our guide offered to take us back to the resort, or make stop in nearby Valladolid. We chose to return to our resort, but I'm sure the town would have been cool, too. Perfecto drove us back to our resort safely, and much more informed and amazed, and with some great photo memories.
The entire trip was really one of the best tours I have taken in the Yucatan. I have experienced the medium and large group tours, but this private tour was a delight. If you want to visit Chichen Itza from Playa, I believe a private tour makes a HUGE difference in the experience. Carey Tours was an excellent experience from booking through follow-up, and look forward to trying some of their other tours on my next trip.