Chichen Itza, Cenote, Buffet, Valladolid Tour - No hidden fees

Posted By : Rebeca_M
Loved this trip!! so many nice views, the tours were entertaining and knew how to keep the ambiance good and not boring! You do spend two hours at chichen itza so make sure to buy hats and take water!!
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-03-07 09:38:50

Posted By : Sightsee786615
If you can avoid the hotel transportation I would. I had to walk to a nearby hotel alone at 6:50am for my pickup even though no one else was going from that hotel. The coach turned up 10 minutes early and everyone else was late getting on, meaning we were on the coach a good 90 minutes before we actually set off! Far too much time is spent at Ebtum as there isn't actually anything there other than a shop and the lunch (which was average). Valladolid was a very short stop (20 minutes) but nice to see briefly. Chichen Itza was good but very little shade so you will need a hat/umbrella. Cenote was also good. The description of the tour states 11-12hrs but I didn't get back until 21:45pm so be prepared to warn anyone waiting for you and to potentially miss dinner! I did the classic package (no drinks included) and it didn't seem worthwhile to pay the extra $20 to add this on as you still had to buy drinks at lunch. Generally worth doing and you get what you pay for but expect a very long day!
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-02-25 12:42:34

Posted By : 870lisae
Well, to start with, after reading many reviews for this and many other companies offering a similar tour, I knew what to expect. I knew it was a long day with a 6-hour bus ride. I felt the bus was comfortable but was a bit sore as expected from sitting so long. Our pickup point was convenient. We did have to spend extra time in town to change buses. We really didn't get on the road until about 2 hours or so into the tour. The drop off seemed better and more streamlined. We did not change buses on the way back. But I don't know if there were people remaining at the end that had to change buses.
I thought our tour guide David did a good job of transitioning back and forth from Spanish to English and didn't feel that I missed any important information. I wish we would have had time to explore the cute town of Valladolid. We only took a short walk around the square with no time to shop in the cute shops or eat at the cute restaurants. After Valladolid, we visited the Mayan Shaman which was interesting. Though there was not much explained about the ritual in English, it was fun to watch. I would have liked to buy a souvenir or several souvenirs there, but the prices were so high. I just couldn't reason with the high prices. I feel they could sell more if items were reasonably priced. For example, a baseball cap cost over $30 USD. The actual Mayan souvenir costs were even more exurbanite. To be fair, though, the prices for souvenirs were very high all over Cancun, more than any other place I've visited as a tourist. The buffet lunch was just ok. But, again, I didn't read any reviews from any company that said the lunch was good. I had chicken tacos which were bland. But they did have delicious salsa which I used to flavor the tacos. One food item that I really did like other than the salsa were the eggs. We did have to pay for our drinks at lunch. But the Jamaica (hibiscus) juice I bought was most delicious. Next stop, Chichen Itza. The site itself was amazing. The problem there was, we really didn't have clear instructions on who our guide was. On the bus ride over, we understood that David would be the guide for the English speakers and Marcielo (sp?) would guide the Spanish speakers. But apparently, that changed. No one told us. So, we followed David in. Then, when we realized he wasn't our guide, we found Marcielo who said that he didn't know where the English-speaking group was. I asked if Fabian was leading the tour and he seemed to think so. We never did find our English-speaking tour. We toured on our own and read the signs that explained each structure. The other problem was that we were told we had 2 hours to explore when in reality, by the time the bus parked and we received our tickets, we only had 90 minutes. I thought we were able to see all the structures in that time, but realized after studying the layout, that we missed a couple. The entire process of getting into the site felt disorganized.
Finally, we visited the Cenote. We did have an hour there. We didn't go swimming so had time to enjoy the Cenote's beauty. The grounds were shaded, pretty and very serene. After viewing the Cenote, we had time to enjoy a margarita in the beautiful surroundings. The staff at the bar were extremely nice and the margaritas tasted good and were not overpriced. I can very much understand that the time would be tight if you want to swim at the Cenote. The bus ride home was fine but was more uncomfortable than on the way there. Understandable at this point.
If I could organize a tour, I would offer smaller buses, that were more comfortable. I would stop in Valadoid and let people shop and eat on their own. I'd skip the buffet lunch all together. I would consider including the Shaman and the gift store during our stop in Valadoid. I would lower the prices of the souvenirs. I would increase the time at Chichen Itza and the Cenote by 15 minutes each and would have much clearer instructions at Chichen Itza. Overall, given what I already knew from reading, the tour lived up to expectations. The crew was nice enough and seemed very attentive to the people who purchased the all-inclusive package. Fabian was working very hard the entire trip running drinks on the bus. I would do this tour again because I just wouldn't want to drive all that way from Cancun on my own.
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-02-07 20:02:25

Posted By : Vanessa_F
Though a very long day the highlight was Kulkucan at Chichen Itza and Mayan Community Village. The tour team of Chelino Armando and Fabian were excellent. A short driving tour of Valladolid and more time at Chichen Itza would’ve been preferred as 2 hrs was too little at this magnificent site.
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-01-11 00:54:21

Posted By : amitagargbapna
It was a very long trip. Some of it was a waste of time like visiting the "Mayan Village" where I felt like I got cheated, I haggled an item down to 50% of their asking priced and still felt cheated. However, The food was great. The guide was mediocre, not the most helpful.
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-01-08 18:00:41

Posted By : VishalJawa
Mixed bag.

Pros:
1. you save money with this tour operator, it’s cheaper than others and also includes the tickets for Chichen Itza.
2. Didn’t have to wait in the long line for visiting the monument.
3. Customer support at the time of booking was prompt.
4. The guide shared the Mayan knowledge and also shared some Mayan Artefacts that we could touch and feel. The guide was entertaining if you get the hang of Spanglish.

Cons:
1. You get a what you pay for. They probably try to compensate the cost by taking bus load of people to a sales shopping first thing in the day, spending precious time even before lunch and visit to any place.
2. That results in much less time available for rest of the day. Although there was enough time at Chichen Itza but hardly any time for the Cenote. And it was dark by the time we reached in the evening by 5 pm.
3. The tour guide had to mix English and Spanish, which I understand was needed since there was a mix of people.
4. Time organisation was not good because evening food break was not provided. So after 1 pm lunch time, the only next break we had was when we reached the hotel at around 10 pm when the hotel kitchen was closed. So I hated the fact that my family was hungry for that long.

So, if you prefer to have more time spent at a place that matters most, then prefer another tour. But if you prefer to save money then this wasn’t terrible.
I would not recommend it or do it again because my family did not have enjoy it.

The places were fantastic though: Chichen Itza & Cenote.

Rating :
Posted On : 2023-12-31 17:58:47

Posted By : Mahesh_V
This was an excellent trip led by our guide Carla. We’re promptly picked by 7:00 AM as mentioned in the email sent to us earlier. Our pickup was from Cancun downtown. BTW you should install WhatsApp application on your phones for better communication. But after picking us up we were taken to another place and then change of bus that took almost an hour. Chichen Itza is in different timezone than Cancun. In the bus Carla explained nicely about the history behind Mayan Calendar. This was done so that people who want their Birth Certificate with Mayan Calendar can get it in time. This is optional. After that we head to Mayan Village where they’ve have Shaman perform some activity and later we were led into a store to buy some souvenirs if we want. Nice to see the culture. I saw a little push to buy stuff from the store so that they can survive. The prices here were little high. Similarly at bathroom there are people providing you with tissue or pointing to empty urinal/stall you can use in exchange for a tip (which is unnecessary). Then we eat lunch in the village. It’s bus by bus eating, till 1st bus has finished you need to wait. There was little rush and some of the dishes finished. If you ask for a water bottle here the charge was 50 pesos but if you ask the same to bus operator it is 20 pesos. From there we head to Chichen Itza the main attraction of this trip. But by the time we arrived it was afternoon and sun was on top of us. It’s good we visited in US winter December so we were spared a little but if you go in middle of summer it might be very hot. Be prepared with hats, sunblock etc. Also they try hard to sell sunblock and bug repellent in the bus sighting the reason that sunblock/bug repellent we have is not environment friendly and not legally allowed. The time management was excellent and bus ran smoothly. The tour guides and bus operator really work hard to make sure they’ve counted everyone before leaving. We bought a souvenir from street vendor and reduction in price was almost 250-300 %. So you may need to bargain hard with multiple vendor to get good price. At Chichen itza the entrance fees was paid and Carla explained the history well. It was an eye opening activity personally for me. Her English was good with little accent but understandable. From here we went to Cenote Saaml. The entrance fees is paid by the tour operators so we just need to enjoy the Cenote. Those who would like to swim will need to rent the lockers/life jacket. If at certain time more buses are there then there will big line to go down to Cenote as it is single lane going up or down and slippery. The cenote was beautiful so we took some pictures. There are restaurants of various types at the location. If you would like to buy quick bite you can do so. After that we went to town of Valladolid. Here there was group of Mayan kids that were performing some acts, very nice and eye opening for me. Here at few places you may need to pay for bathroom, tour guide will stop at a place where there is no charge for us. You may also try some food items if you want. There are again some shops for souvenir and items to purchase. Then we head back to Cancun. Since we were in downtown and not in resort/hotel zone area we were dropped last around 10:00 PM. The tip logic is like this, usually we’re supposed to tip $1 USD or 20 pesos. At the time of writing this $1 USD = 18 pesos. So at the time of tipping it make sense to tip in USD but if you’re purchasing stuff the rate is different $1 USD = 15 pesos so if you purchase in pesos you will gain. I carried pesos with me and it was easier. I don’t wanted to use my credit cards in an foreign setting. My thinking is that we should stop giving tips as this causes negative effect. We want workers to be paid better by their respective employers and tipping them has negative effect.
Rating :
Posted On : 2023-12-29 16:23:44

Posted By : VBas0101
We researched a lot for a guided tour to Chichen Itza and found this to be most economical since it included the ticket to Chichen Itza and the cenote.

Even though the tour guide arrived 5 minutes before the schedule time 7:30 and our family was slightly delayed to be at the front , he waited and ensured all of us boarded the bus.

Once the tour started the guide Edwardo (Lalu ) gave frequent updates on the next steps and when and where he plans to stop and exactly how much time we have at each location, which was nice.

The lunch served was sumptuous. We are all vegetarians so didn’t have much expectation on the food but there was a variety of options for us also, which was good.

The tour guide Pablo at the Chichen Itza spoke very good English and was very narrative on the Mayan culture and the details. He kept us engaged along the way and spent adequate time to answer our questions.

The stops at the Cenote and Villadoid were for just enough time to enjoy a dip in the well and some shopping. We returned to the hotel exactly at the time the tour guide promised in the morning.

Overall very knowledgeable staff and guide and the tour was very satisfactory to see one of the wonders of the world.
Rating :
Posted On : 2023-12-26 18:19:08

Posted By : Karin_G
The bis was an hour late picking us up from the hotel. The 65 seater coach was ridiculously cramped for our 12 hour trip, with no leg room at all. The guide on the bus was informative, but for the full 3 + hours, never stopped talking.
Started off with a group blessing by a shamen, a trip to the mayan tourist shop, followed by lunch with dancing. Chitchen itza was amazing and our guide was brilliant.
We went to the cenote afterwards, but got there late, so never bothered to go swimming.
Rating :
Posted On : 2023-12-23 06:59:41

Posted By : Culture09632828742
Tour guide conducted the tour in Spanish (85-90%) . Non Spanish speakers were seated in the rear.
This is not fair and should be corrected.
Rating :
Posted On : 2023-12-16 20:36:37