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This tour is a must do!! You are picked up from your hotel and taken to a drop of point to get the tour bus, then greatest by your tour guides, ours were amazing and entertaining making the 2 hour drive to the ruins seem like no time at all. I would recommend going to the toilet before you start as the toilet on the coach is for liquids only ;-). The tour guide (Fernandez) did suggest that there are many 'Mayan bathrooms' I.e. The jungle if you want to 'dial the number 2'. The tour guides provide a simple breakfast, which we did not know about so we ate before the tour, although we did eat most of the breakfast provided :-). On the way to the ruins, you get an account of where the Mayan people originate and how they were masters of astronomy and mathematics. You have the option to purchase two novelty gifts either a Mayan birth certificate or a silver pendent, both priced fairly reasonably. We bought the certificate with an amendment to document our engagement that we had a couple of days earlier. This is written in Mayan with the dates included and a guide on how to decipher it. When you arrive at The ruins... it's hot. I mean really hot, so much so that you are provided with a bottle of water and an umbrella to keep out the heat, I got no idea how they built the temples in that heat originally, unless the climate was much better. A word of warning: this place is huge and you only get an hour and a half to look around it all. We didn't manage it all, although after the heat you may not want to!! Second warning: this place is absolutely rammed with touters trying to sell you a lot of random rubbish, trust me by the time you leave you will be fed up with it. Although to be honest after being in Mexico a week I've learnt that this is the culture all over, in the parks to! Third warning: during the tour of the ruins, th tour guide uses a radio microphone to provide the tour, which he often had too close to his mouth, making what he said quite muffled. The signal is also not great so avoid point the receiver in your pocket and at each stop point get as close as you can to your tour guide. Fourth warning: the tour guide almost sprints through the tour, which was not good for my fiancée who has ME and cannot normally walk far. The general thought was that if we fell behind he would just keep going, and this I thought was bad since the heat could easily make someone collapse and no-one would know if your were on your own. If possible take someone with you. Once you've left the ruins, the bus provides a cold drink or beer to cool off and then you head to a genuine Cenote which is a giant sink while in the ground filled with water, unfortunately this tour does not allow you to swim in the cenote, although it is still a beautiful place. From there to Valladolid which is a quaint little town that I could not help but feel had some money issues. Although this didn't ruin the visit. The tour takes you to a lovey restaurant, which I forget the name of. The food hear was a buffet menu and had a lot of choice (all inclusive of the tour price) here was a little shop where you can pick up your birth certificate and charm if you've ordered them. After lunch you have another hour-hour and half in the town but this was not enough to explore everything. However by this point my fiancée and I were totally shattered and were thankful to get back on the bus home. Over all the tour was a great all around experience. The only improvement would be better radios at the ruins and less people selling rubbish as you walked around. Also if the tour guide could slow down at the ruins that would help. One last note, this tour is long!! Expect to be out most of the day.
Overall, this was a good experience. The tour guide was okay, they keep you on a tight schedule but provides lots of water, drinks and food. The food is not the greatest but okay. Worth checking out.
To begin, do not book a tour with anyone. Rent a car or go by taxi you will save much more money. The tours are not very informative all they do is tell you what you already know. At the site it is quite beautiful. Everything is very breathtaking. The downside of the site is that there are annoying vendors inside of the park pushing you trying to sell you cheap replicas. Furthermore, it is very hot and not a lot of shade.
When our family booked a trip to Cancún, we all knew we wanted to see the legendary ruins of Chichén Itzá, since it was our first time to the area. Chichén Itzá lies about three to four hours away from the main hotel zone of Cancún in the heart of the Yucatan peninsula. We wanted to learn more about one of the new seven modern wonders of the world by seeing it up close and touring it with a certified guide. Through various films and teachings, we had always heard of the mathematical and astronomical precision of the structures of Chichén Itzá and wanted to see them for ourselves. A quick search online led us to the Xichén Clásico Tour which was the most searched for and easiest to access online. For those booking online, you get a deal for 71 dollars. We considered the deluxe tour but at 98 dollars didn't seem worth it. We were led by our tour guide Manuel and our bus driver Ivan who picked us up at our hotel at 7:30 in the morning right on the dot. We were the last of five hotels on this trip and the bus was packed so off to the back of the bus we sat. It took over three hours to get from the hotel area to that of the first stop. While we drove by the historical church and town square near Chichén Itzá this was not our first stop. Our first stop was basically a pit stop at a mega store with a Mayan village next door to walk through. Needless to say it was disappointing, as it lasted a full hour with nowhere to go. It felt like this was a sponsored stop and had really nothing to do with Chichén Itzá just a place for retailers to make money. Then it was off to our first real adventure swimming in the sacred cenote azul, near Chichén Itzá, called Ik' Kil which was in their words was a large sinkhole. It was in fact very lovely and exotic but it was too crowded due to all the tour buses stopping off. Be forewarned everything costs money here, unlike the Xenotes Oasis Maya tour which is their sister tour and gives you almost everything you would need from life jackets to towels to complimentary bottled water . For this tour, you have to rent life jackets, towels and even lockers for your all of your stuff as you can't even leave it on the bus. My recommendation is to bring your own towels from your hotel and own purchased bottled water before you're picked up and remember to stock up. After swimming in the cenote, you get to enjoy a buffet lunch, which tasted decent at best, and be forewarned there was not a drop of Mexican food served expect for a little mole and flan and all drinks but ice water were an additional price. The food was rather bland, but the service was solid as we ate inside their air conditioned dining hall. I wish we had more time at the Ik' Kil Cenote as swimming was fun, but again we were under the clock to swim and eat or else the bus was leaving us behind for Chichén Itzá. Then it was off finally off to Chichén Itzá. Although it was easy to get in once our tour guide led us past the main gates, I noticed the weather was extremely hot, as in scorching hot, but Manuel was a solid if a somewhat long-winded tour guide. He had to speak to two different combined groups in English during the tour of the grounds. It eventually became so hot that I just wanted the tour to end. The tour lasted a little over an hour and you get free time to walk around for another hour. I just wanted to get back to the bus instead of walking around the entire historic grounds and that truly saddened me because it was really stunning seeing the ancient ruins. There were a lot of market stands selling genuine Mexican gifts. They hawk you everywhere you turn. They give you one chilled bottle of water with a lanyard around it so you don't have to hold it, which was a very convenient way to carry it but it turns lukewarm quiet rapidly due to the extreme heat. It was a solid day of adventure and history. Glad I crossed a visit to Chichén Itzá off my bucket list. The overall tour was fun, but not the most memorable adventure while in Cancún. The fact that they seemed to charge for everything only made it worse. Would I do it again? Maybe not, but I'd definitely consider it. At least I got the chance to vibrate with the mysticism of the Sacred Cenote Azul in Ik'Kil, while swimming in its refreshing waters (despite the mass amount of other people swimming in it). On top of being able to see the exotic and historical grounds of Chichén Itzá, for this dual experience I will always remember with fondness. read more
Did this tour!! It was very nice!! The guy needed alil work on his English !! His Spanish was great but a few people lost cause his English wasn't the same as Spanish !! But tour was good breakfast sandwich was ok and lunch in villadolid was good!!! 7 wonders of the world I recommend u go here atleast one time!! A lot of vendor selling stuff so bring your money if u want souvenirs !!! U won't get a better price all your trip so haggle and u will get a great price!!! read more
10 years ago
This tour is a must do!! You are picked up from your hotel and taken to a drop of point to get the tour bus, then greatest by your tour guides, ours were amazing and entertaining making the 2 hour drive to the ruins seem like no time at all. I would recommend going to the toilet before you start as the toilet on the coach is for liquids only ;-). The tour guide (Fernandez) did suggest that there are many 'Mayan bathrooms' I.e. The jungle if you want to 'dial the number 2'. The tour guides provide a simple breakfast, which we did not know about so we ate before the tour, although we did eat most of the breakfast provided :-). On the way to the ruins, you get an account of where the Mayan people originate and how they were masters of astronomy and mathematics. You have the option to purchase two novelty gifts either a Mayan birth certificate or a silver pendent, both priced fairly reasonably. We bought the certificate with an amendment to document our engagement that we had a couple of days earlier. This is written in Mayan with the dates included and a guide on how to decipher it. When you arrive at The ruins... it's hot. I mean really hot, so much so that you are provided with a bottle of water and an umbrella to keep out the heat, I got no idea how they built the temples in that heat originally, unless the climate was much better. A word of warning: this place is huge and you only get an hour and a half to look around it all. We didn't manage it all, although after the heat you may not want to!! Second warning: this place is absolutely rammed with touters trying to sell you a lot of random rubbish, trust me by the time you leave you will be fed up with it. Although to be honest after being in Mexico a week I've learnt that this is the culture all over, in the parks to! Third warning: during the tour of the ruins, th tour guide uses a radio microphone to provide the tour, which he often had too close to his mouth, making what he said quite muffled. The signal is also not great so avoid point the receiver in your pocket and at each stop point get as close as you can to your tour guide. Fourth warning: the tour guide almost sprints through the tour, which was not good for my fiancée who has ME and cannot normally walk far. The general thought was that if we fell behind he would just keep going, and this I thought was bad since the heat could easily make someone collapse and no-one would know if your were on your own. If possible take someone with you. Once you've left the ruins, the bus provides a cold drink or beer to cool off and then you head to a genuine Cenote which is a giant sink while in the ground filled with water, unfortunately this tour does not allow you to swim in the cenote, although it is still a beautiful place. From there to Valladolid which is a quaint little town that I could not help but feel had some money issues. Although this didn't ruin the visit. The tour takes you to a lovey restaurant, which I forget the name of. The food hear was a buffet menu and had a lot of choice (all inclusive of the tour price) here was a little shop where you can pick up your birth certificate and charm if you've ordered them. After lunch you have another hour-hour and half in the town but this was not enough to explore everything. However by this point my fiancée and I were totally shattered and were thankful to get back on the bus home. Over all the tour was a great all around experience. The only improvement would be better radios at the ruins and less people selling rubbish as you walked around. Also if the tour guide could slow down at the ruins that would help. One last note, this tour is long!! Expect to be out most of the day. read more
3 years ago
10 years ago
Overall, this was a good experience. The tour guide was okay, they keep you on a tight schedule but provides lots of water, drinks and food. The food is not the greatest but okay. Worth checking out. read more
12 years ago
To begin, do not book a tour with anyone. Rent a car or go by taxi you will save much more money. The tours are not very informative all they do is tell you what you already know. At the site it is quite beautiful. Everything is very breathtaking. The downside of the site is that there are annoying vendors inside of the park pushing you trying to sell you cheap replicas. Furthermore, it is very hot and not a lot of shade. read more
7 years ago
9 years ago
This tour was amazing, with cenote IK KILL - words can't describe how amazing it felt to swim in that water, same as where the Mayan gods bathed . We had a buffet lunch which was pretty nice how ever since our group was of 8 people - we had to sit outside and of course I got a lot of mosquito bites although I had put on a lot of bug repellent- plus it was really hot..next we did Chichen Itza - the view was breath taking, I do recommend to bring a hat and umbrella since it's soo tropical it was scorching hot then was raining.. sun screen and insect repellent is s must.. also this is prob the best place to buy artesenias, the best ones are the ones on the way to the other cenote past the Ruins I highly recommend to bring pesos since if you pay with dollars they exchange rate is pretty crapy also be prepare to listen to the guide since they tell you a lot of pretty interesting and cool information. I highly recommend this tour they came to pick us up st 715 am at our hotel and brought us back around 7pm read more
11 years ago
10 years ago
