Cancún Bay Tours SA de CV - 77712 Playa del Carmen

Do not book the chichen itza tour! It was by far and undoubtedly the worst tour I have ever been on. I advise you pay more and book one of the small group early bird tours with other sites/providers or better yet drive there in the morning and spare yourself a day sitting on a bus throwing away a day. - The tour was disorganised and haphazard to an extreme. No plan for the day or itinerary and timelines were shared. The whole morning started an hour late and no revised explanation or plan was provided. Groups were not split by language and despite telling the guide in the morning we are English speaking, we were lumped into a “bilingual” group were the guides only explained in Spanish. - What was worse was when we asked questions or for explanations in English the guides were rude and contemptuous. It is an incredibly unique and fascinating experience to exchange money for condescension and belittling in return. Words cannot describe how awful the experience was. - Shopping is pushed. Massively. Extensively. In fact you will spend the entire morning at a market! - They forced everyone to have a photo taken before lunch - we refused and they insisted it was for ‘security purposes’. Later, they attempted to coerce us to buy some local liquor with our pictures on the bottle for 20USD. A violation of privacy and absolutely outrageous. - Timekeeping needs serious improvement. The start time communicated was 0800 - to be at chichen itza by 1300. We were at chichen itza at 1433!! Those of us who were early, let alone on time found ourselves waiting over 40 minutes outside and in the bus for the late arrivals. Tour operators seemed to just wait - no explanations. Understandably they are in a hard place to wait or leave behind those that are late but given the extensive communications in advance about the tour and timings. Day ended back in playa at 2143. Insanity.

This was an amazing tour! Starting off in the temple where we were given an amazing history lesson by our guide Herlan! He shared his wealth of knowledge. We then went to the cenote where we were able to really swim and enjoy the water. Finally the turtles and the guide for that Marcos was so kind and very helpful the whole time. Thank you Cancun Bay Tours for making this experience one of the best!

Read this before booking this tour!!! What to expect in the Chichén itza tour. *Tedious start: The pick up of all passnagers can take up to 3 hours if you are staying at playa del Carmen but quicker from Tulum. * Tourist Trap: Expect a long sales pitch as preparation to get to the " craft market "/ lunch spot (complete waste of time). It's very clear that the tour is based on profits made in this spot. Guides put a lot of attention on the obsedion stone and how the market has real Mexican craft / hand made by Mayan/ community building impact and deter customers from buying at Chichén itza. I was horrified at arrival at the level deceit to find mas produced craft not any different to a common trinket shop. There's a clear agenda around monopolising sales in this spot and I felt very uneasy with the exploitation of Mayan culture as a sales pitch. Expect to spend there up to 2 hours!! * Minimal time at rest of sites: Expect to get to Chichén itza at around 14:00 with decent time to get a guided tour and 1 hour free time. Very little time to spend at the cenote while sun is close to setting ( January) and hardly any time to spend at Valladolid town which is really charming and worth exploring. Expect 30 minutes break there which will give you just enough time to stand in a queue to buy a delicious chorros . * Late return: expect to get back in playa del Carmen at around 22:30 Some positive remarks: Competitive price ( though if I knew what I was in for I may have reconsidered) Knowledgeable guides ( though with agenda around money - there are more genuine ways to approach this matter!!)

I will leave two stars because the guides were nice and tried to make the trip more pleasant, but I would never in my whole life ever do a tour like this again!!! Never ever ever. You get to a meeting point at 7am - to then be dropped off at a tourist shop to get a wristband and wait for your bus - over an hour there. You need to go to a Mayan sales shop which I didn’t mind too much but it’s all to drive sales and get you to buy things - not much historical information. When you finally get to Chichén Itzá you really are already tired from the ride, food and dealing with being bus with over 30 other people. I feel like all I did all day was sit on a bus with people coughing, and kids being annoying. Just rent a car an do it yourself - it’s not worth the cheaper price tag with promise of so many activities.

Chichen Itza tour is better when taken with the amazing crews from Cancun Bay Tours. Andres our driver and Victor y poquito Juan, our amazing tour guides.

The tour was 10 hours and a lot of stops to sell you things. That aside the tour guides were lovely, food was good, and driver was safe. Bus had ac and bathroom, and was comfortable. Be prepared for a long day and a lot of sales talk, but if you can handle that and don't want to pay for a private tour, then I'd recommend them.

Overall, we had a great experience and would recommend Cancun Bay Tours for the Tulum, Coba, Cenote tour. I would also feel very comfortable going on another tour with this company. I’ll list a few key aspects of the tour, then more details of the locations following. Booking online was simple, and the company quickly emailed me to confirm the location and pick up time at our hotel lobby. We traveled comfortably in an air conditioned van with our guides and a small group 12 people. The tour stayed on schedule. We we were always given the option to kept our bags safe in the van while visiting the sites. We were offered cold water bottles through out the day. They gave regular bathroom opportunities. All the staff were professional, courteous, and respectful. Our guide spoke English well, and gave great information about the sites we visited throughout the day. Visited on 9/20/21. Our day started with pick up at 7:20 in our hotel lobby near Playa del Carmen. We then were transported to a large souvenir shop on 5th Ave in Playa del Carmen, which seems to be the companies center of operations. We payed the $6 per person fee for entrance to Coba, which was explained ahead of time as an extra fee. We had the opportunity to buy drinks, sunscreen, souvenirs, etc, prior to heading off on the tour. We were organized in our tour group of 12 people for the day. Then loaded onto the air conditioned van to head towards Tulum. Drive was about 45 min as our tour guides introduced themselves and explained our itinerary for the day. Our day began with the tour of Tulum. It was a beautiful site, with ruins overlooking the picturesque beach and water below. Due to Covid restrictions you are not currently allowed to go down to the beach. We we took pictures and enjoyed the views from the cliffs above. It was sunny, hot, humid, and without the ocean breeze we would have been sweating even more. We walked quite a bit over the entire site. Our tour guide gave a detailed explanation of the land, Mayan culture, and history of the area. We were then given about 20 minutes to explore on our own before meeting back up with the group. Next was the trip to Coba, about a 45 min drive from Tulum. The main temple building at Coba is approximately 1 mile, each way, from the entrance. It is covered with shade and so not too hot. You have 3 options: walking which is free, paying $4 per person to ride a bike, or paying $8 for a ride by a local on bike taxi. We chose the bike taxi to ride to the main temple, then decided to walk back to the entrance. We were given 1 hour total to explore at Coba. Due to Covid you are not currently allowed to climb the tallest building here. I could have enjoyed more time at Coba, as we were able to see just a small portion of the overall archaeological site. Coba was fantastic area with much to explore. Following Coba was the lunch buffet, which was very simple. It had seasoned chicken and beef, fresh fruit, spaghetti, rice and beans, chips, and tortillas. Drinks do cost extra ($4 coke), which was explained ahead of time. Lunch was nothing special but hit the spot when hungry after visiting touring until 1:30pm. Then off to the Casa tortuga tulum cenote. This was a great way to cool off in cold refreshing water the after touring Coba and Tulum. There was a simple place the change clothes into bathing suits and use the restroom. The Cenote was open to the jungle, instead of a deep cavern. It had beautiful clear and crisp water with platforms or stairs used to jump in. We stayed at the cenote for 1 hour and enjoyed our time. Our last stop on the way back home was to taste local cocoa and buy local chocolate. Which ultimately is a big store to buy souvenirs at the end of the day before being dropped off at the lobby our hotel. The van then drive to the various hotels to drop of our fellow passengers from the tour. Our trip was 11 hours, 7:30am-6:30pm, as advertised.

We had two tours with them, the first one was great we got so much fun packed into our day at Chechen itza. The second tour we did was of Tulum and turtles, our guid Herlan was amazing, he shared stories and the culture of the Mayan people. If you want an outstanding guide and someone who really makes this fun I highly recommend him and that tour.