Cenotes Avontuur

Cenotes were fantastic, but the experience was not ideal because of how it was run and the information that was given to us at the time of booking with the travel agent at the hotel. We were told 40 minutes to the cenotes. That would be true if we were not in a packed van with poor AC picking up people. For those picked up first their ride was closer to 2 hours. At the end of the day we are funneled into seating area and pressured to tip our guides. Then you are taken to a restaurant to get your taco snack, where you are pressured to tip your server. Then you are pressured to buy photos, then pressured to tip the dancers. Then we wait for our van ride home. No one knew when we’d be picked up to go home. We thought we’d be back at the hotel by 6 pm… we left the venue at 6:10. An experience that could have taken 3 hours took 6. Relax and enjoy your vacation. If you value efficiency skip this tour.

The tour starts from the Extreme Adventuring location, where you will check in, sign the waiver and be asked if you want to purchase more food for the end. From there, you ride in a buggy to the first cenote - it's a bumpy ride! The first cenote is a cave cenote with a 5m jumping platform. We had 30 min at each location, which was enough time to get in multiple jumps and to check out the cave area. After the first cenote, you walk a short distance through the jungle to the second cenote, which is a waterfall cenote, with a 10m jumping platform. This is the most beautiful cenote with hanging vines and trickling waterfall. There was also some tequilla tasting at this stop. After the second cenote, you get back in the buggy and drive to the last location. This cenote is fairly open, and has a zipline and a 15m jumping platform. At the first 2 locations, our group (about 20 ppl) were the only ones there, which was really fun gave lots of opportunities for everyone to jump as many times as they wanted. At the last location, there were a couple other groups as well so it was a bit busier, but a lot of people chose not to jump here because it was pretty high. After the last cenote, we went to an area where we had lunch (we opted to only have the 2 tacos provided and they were really good and filling enough that we were fine to not purchase any additional food). There was a short fire show, while we were eating, which was really well done and the performers were very talented. Some things to consider: 1. Water shoes make it easy to go from swimming in cenote to walking though the jungle; getting shoes on and off could take extra time 2. The buggy ride is VERY bumpy! It was fun, but I can imagine someone with back issues may not enjoy the experience. 3. No cameras are allowed in the cenotes. I took pictures from outside the areas, but could not get photos from water level. They do, however, have a photographer who does take amazing photos, that you can purchase at the end of the day. 4. It's a bit chaotic at the entrance because multiple excursions start at this location. The staff was friendly and guided us to where we needed to wait for our tour.