Oplev Chichén Itzá: Heldagstur med Cenote og Valladolid

If you think you’re saving money with this tour operator, be aware that you risk wasting time and then losing money on your health. Very commercial – they didn’t give us time to visit the wonderful archaeological site, but made us spend a lot of time in the place where they were trying to sell souvenirs, and where we even caught a stomach flu. Soaked after the rain, we asked the guide to turn off the air conditioning on the bus. The request was denied with an obviously false excuse. The result: medical expenses the next day, a ruined vacation, and the support team didn’t even apologize, completely ignoring our complaint. Oh, and yes, they’ll ask for a tip at the end.

The myan tour guide was fantastic and great English and knowledge great day as it was not Hot. Great excursion for anyone. Also several vendors around to barter prices

To see Chichen Itza we would not recommend this tour. From a total of about 11,5 hours only 2 hours were actually spending time at Chichen Itza. We booked this tour via the helping chat of viator and asked about additional costs coming up. The answer was no additional costs, it’s all included from picking up to the entrance fees and everything else. We booked the tour at a price of about 120 Euros (already exchanged, we paid in Mexican Pesos online) for two people. The night before the trip started we got an email that we have to pay 570 Mexican Pesos per person extra. That is about 30 Euros per person in addition. Had to paid in cash when getting picked up. So the morning of the trip we got picked up on time in front of our hotel in Akumal. First we had to pay the additional fee (1.140 Pesos), then we started the trip. The bus was very comfortable, the tour guide very nice and friendly. We had one more stop at Tulum where all the rest of the people joined the trip. Then we started heading towards Chichen Itza. On the way there the tour guide gave a bunch of good and helpful information about all the upcoming events that day. After around 2 hours drive we reached a bombastic tourist restaurant. But first we all had to go through a professional organized tourism selling adventure before lunch. We didn’t buy anything there. After that we got lunch in a huge restaurant with the probably worst food we experienced here in Mexiko. The food was incredibly bad. Drinks were not included and have to be paid extra. We didn’t buy anything since we brought water on our own. After almost 2 hours stop at this selling and lunch place we continued heading on towards Chichen Itza. There we got a guided tour of 1 hour 15 Minutes and had another 45 minutes to explore Chichen Itza on our own. The Maya-Tourguide at Chichen Itza was very nice and friendly. He did a great job and explained everything! From Chichen Itza we drove another 20-30 minutes to a Cenote. Unfortunately this Cenote was also a tourism hot spot. We had 1 hour there on our own but it was crowded as hell with tourists. We hurried up to rent two life wests (mandatory for swimming in the cenote) and one locker for the two of us. By the way: life wests and lockers have to be paid extra and are not included in the tour. 2 life wests and 1 locker were approximately 10 Euros in total. BUT: Watch out for your receipt at the cashier desk! We had to pay an amount of 180 Pesos and paid with credit card. We asked for the receipt and saw then an amount of 240 Pesos. I directly asked the cashier about this amount and he said it’s a mistake. He gave us 60 Pesos in cash back. To be honest, it didn’t seem like a mistake. More it seemed like a routine they do with tourists and hope that the tourists don’t ask for a receipt. Inside the Cenote place it was a quick thing since we had 1 hour for renting the stuff, changing clothes and going down to the Cenote. We spent a few minutes in the water with a bunch of tourists. The Cenote itself looks nice and without all the people it could be a nice place but there were soooo many tourists that we didn’t really enjoy this Cenote. From the Cenote we stopped on the way back to the hotel at Valladolid. It was already dark when we got there and we had 30 minutes to walk around. A quick stop. But a nice town. From Valladolid we headed back to the hotel. After 11,5 hours we got back. We experienced a lot that day and it was nice to see Chichen Itza but in total it’s not worth seeing it in a tour like this with all the unnecessary side-stops. Visiting a nice Cenote and seeing Valladolid for sure can be nice and an experience worth but for sure the first stop at the selling place and lunch should be skipped - that was „horrible“ to say it in one word. Our tour guide Rheet was amazing, a great compliment to him! He did a very good job and seems to know a lot about the culture, the people and the country. Also the bus driver was a very kind person and drove us save the whole day from one place to the other.

What a lovely tour! Huge shoutout to Gonzalo - he is the man that knows it all! We learned so so much from him and truly recommend this tour to anyone!