AMAZING TOUR: Tulum, Coba,Cenote and Playa del Carmen from Cancun

This packed day had highs and lows for our family of four. The trip started incredibly early for us as we were staying about 20 minutes North of the Hotel Zone. Pickup was at 6:50 am and resulted in transportation to a meeting point, where we sat for 15 minutes waiting for others. After another hour or so of picking up fellow travelers, we finally set out for our destination. I mention all of this, because I hoped to avoid it with a "small group tour" and was disappointed at it. Tulum was incredible, though the onsite guiding was pretty minimal and mediocre. Coba too is an unbelievable site - we could have spent hours there instead of the 1 hour we took. There was absolutely NO guiding at Coba, where we got what little information we could from the "tricycle drivers" we hired to shuttle us around quickly. We also visited a lovely cenote - especially in comparison with the over-trafficked cenote visited on a subsequent trip - for a refreshing swim. The biggest disappointment of the trip was our stop in Playa del Carmen. Advertised as an opportunity to enjoy sunset at the beach, it turned out to be a cheesy tourist stop at a "Tequilla Factory" blocks from the beach - basically dumping a busload of tourists to shop. It was a waste of an hour at the end of a very long day. We did not get back to our hotel until nearly 9 pm. By the time we got back, we had grumpy and hungry children. To make matters worse, we were traveling with our special needs child. He was terrific until about 2, held it together until 6 and then it all fell apart. I begged the staff to help us get back a bit quicker, but there was nothing they could do. I would elect a shorter tour or else be prepared for a VERY long day.