Nov 23, 2024
Highly recommended - This is such a great tour and experience. The whole day was filed with educational learning. The bus transportation was great. Thank you
Review provided by Viator
Apr 22, 2024
Change in tour, but was wonderful - Sadly the Chichen Itza, Elbalam tour ended up not being available, notified by the tour company the night before. Given a choice of refund or a Wonderful Tour of Chichen Itza, Cenote and Vollidad with a buffet. We changed to the new tour. The Tour Guide was top notch. Everything was wonderful and would absolutly use them again.
Review provided by Viator
Apr 20, 2024
Chichen Itza and Ek Balam, nuff sed - Nisa was the guide and Aron was the driver -- Nisa very knowledgeable, and seemed to have a deep connection to his ancestors and their ways of life. Additionally, he treated us to BBQ pork ribs on the way to the cenote from Ek Balam, and they were AWESOME. Obviously, we'll likely never get those ribs ever again, even assuming we could even find them the town again. Loved the whole experience, even though it was a long day (7am to 8 pm); very clean van, and they picked up from Live Aqua, which was a great plus, since some of the other tours would have required us to get to the center of Cancun city itself to get picked up.
Review provided by Viator
Feb 15, 2024
Pick this tour!! - The cenote was the best part! It was beautiful! It was located inside a cute hacienda with shower, bathroom, locker, and other amenities.
Our tour guide Patricio and our driver Eric (if I remember his name correctly) were super friendly. Patricio was very knowledgeable on Mayan history and culture. We learned a bunch on this trip.
Ek Balam was also very cool. It was waaaaay less crowded than Chichén Itzá and we got to climb the pyramid!
The only downside to this tour was that the mini bus’s seats didn’t have a lot of legroom. But I do want to point out that the group size is much smaller than other tours 👍
Review provided by Viator
Oct 27, 2023
10 out of 10 - Great tour. Thomas taught us so much about the Mayan culture and we saw so many things. The driver was great too!
Review provided by Viator
Dec 22, 2024
Biggest issue was late... - Biggest issue was late pickup, and surprise fees.
It took a few times reaching out to the tour operator or get a confirmed pickup location and time, and once it was confirmed, they were very nearly an hour late. Calling the three phone numbers provided got no answer, but after a while I did receive a text. We were told they'd be ten more minutes, but it was closer to 30, and the van arrived to pick us up at the hotel, where we waited close to five more while they called out the wrong name.
Read the fine print carefully to not be surprised by "taxes" that nearly double the cost of the tour, after you've already paid through Viator. And then, be prepared for a surprise charge of $4 USD per person for life vests which are mandatory to swim at the cenote. Add in fees for lockers at the cenote, and tips at lunch (which servers are somewhat aggressive in seeking), and you should be prepared to spend much more than you thought.
...but.
The tour itself was quite good. Knowledge guide, and incredible sites. It's a lot to do in one day, so you won't have enough time to really go in depth at either archaeological site, but that's the cost of hitting both in one go. Chichen Itza is a vast site, which goes WAY beyond the iconic pyramid temple. Take the opportunity to explore it. Ek Balam is less well known, but also less crowded and not at all overrun by Instagram tourists. It gives you the chance to feel more immersed in the historic experience. You can climb the main structure to see the incredible carvings and the view from the top, and enter smaller rooms in another structure. Parts of the site are unexcavated, with the jungle still covering the stone buildings. Highly recommend visiting either, or both ruins. I'd recommend shopping around before committing to this particular tour operator though.
Review provided by Viator
Aug 20, 2024
Trip Cancelled without notice - We woke up the morning of the trip to find that, upon checking the website, our tour had been cancelled. I received no email or any type of message to alert me of the cancellation. We were not charged.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jun 30, 2024
They cancelled without notice. - Might have been nice but they'll cancel on you without telling you. I had to reach out to them to confirm pickup since the tour was supposed to be tomorrow, they said they won't be doing the tour. They wouldn't cancel it, so Trip Advisor thought the tour was still going, which wouldn't let me cancel. I had to go through the headache of calling in just to get my money back.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
May 4, 2024
Wouldn't do it again even if they paid me. - In my opinion we had the guide from hell. We received an email the day before our tour to bring mosquito repellent. I rushed out the morning of our tour and bought some. When the guide showed up he told us that they would prefer it if we didn't use mosquito repellant and that we wouldn't need it anyways.
Our tour van was an 11-passenger van that had been reconfigured into a 14-passenger van (translation - less legroom than in an airplane).
Our tour guide told us about all of the different governments, politicians and tourist groups that he hated. Then he told us about his medical problems.
The tour description advised that you should be in good physical shape and that there would be a lot of walking. Our guide was in such poor physical shape that he couldn't climb stairs and had to cut his walking short.
Our guide used a microphone and a chest mounted speaker. It was painfully loud and I asked him several times to turn it down. Personally, even if they paid my $500 I wouldn't go on this tour again. On the other hand, my wife really enjoyed it.
Review provided by Viator
Jan 30, 2024
Operator changed the time with insufficient notice so we missed the trip and they offered no redress - The tour operators changed my departure time twelve hours ahead of the excursion, and we did not know to look for an email, so we missed the email and the pickup. I booked the 8:20am pickup, received a ticket that confirmed 8:20am pickup, got a confirmation text message the day before the trip that stated 8:20am pickup. None of the communication suggested that I also needed to log into my email the night before the trip to check and see if the times had changed after the morning confirmation text. Since I did not see the email telling me the new time, I did not acknowledge receipt or acceptance of the time change. The pickup time changed from 8:20am to 7:00am. When the operators arrived at my hotel, they did not attempt to call our room or my cell phone before declaring us a no-show to the pickup that we had not been informed was happening an hour and a half earlier than we expected. Would not recommend this company because of the poor communication.
Review provided by Viator