Tour to Tulum or Tulum/Xel-Ha park

[marie61]

Can anyone clarify for me why both these tours are 8 hours, when the second one includes a beach visit lasting 2 hours?

 

The fine print outlines exactly the same time spent touring tulum, so the basic tulum tour must include something else to make it 8 hours long.

 

Any ideas?

 

My guess is shopping time--if so, are we stuck there or can we continue on our own back to the ship.

 

thanks in advance for all help!

[racepoint]

I have not done this tour through the cruise lines because I've heard the bus ride is very long from the port to Tulum. I did do this tour when we stayed at a local all-inclusive resort several years ago and it was awesome!! We had a short (1/2 hr. or less) ride from the resort to the ruins at Tulum. Very informative local rode the bus and kept us interested with Mayan facts and local lore. There was shopping before we went through the ruins. The tour was fascinating. Afterwards, they took us to Xel-Ha (eco park) where we snorkeled in a beautiful, fairly shallow lagoon. Ate tacos and drank margaritas at the lagoon-side bar/restaurant. Sat there in our bathing suits. Very casual (and delicious!) There was a gift shop at Xel-Ha, too. I really enjoyed this tour and would do it again in a heartbeat - just not sure I'd be excited about spending that much time on the bus ride both there and back. Maybe someone else can let us know exactly how long the bus ride from the port to Tulum is.

[oskidunker]

This was the most rushed tour I have ever been on. Mostly travel time. 1.5 hours in Tulum and only 2 hours at xcel park. Do yourself a favor and just take a taxi to Xhel. It is wonderful place and we saw about 10% of it.Long ferry ride and long bus ride.

[marie61]

Thanks but I already know the travel time is huge. We have to take a ferry from cozumel to Playa del Carmen (45 min. + seasickness), then 1 hr bus ride each way to Tulum. It is worth it to us because it is our chance to see some Mayan ruins (and we have no intention of vacationing in Mexico in the future).

 

But my main question remains unanswered. Both tours are the same length so it sounds like the basic Tulum tour includes 2 hours of shopping, maybe in Playa del Carmen, or maybe Cozumel. Are we stranded there with the shoppers or can we get back to the ship earlier?

 

thanks

[WeBeGone]

You are stranded with the shoppers unless you want to pay for a one way taxi back to Playa del Carmen and pay for the ferry back.

[serene56]

beach time is two hours and the time at the ruins is 2 hours.

 

Tulum is a 4 hour travel time. with two hours at the site.

for us the 6 hours is long enough.

Cant imagine what shopping they take you to over there. what little place we stopped at was surely a rip off- wait til you get back to the port and do your shopping there.

[Colo Cruiser]

Do the tour on your own, much more relaxed. :)

[Coral]

I personally would not do this tour on my own from Cozumel. Too many ways to possibly miss the ship. Maybe if you docked in Playa de Carmen but not from Cozumel. Just my opinion.

[oskidunker]

We were rushed from the bus to the ferry at the end. No time to even buy a taco. The ferry ride is very rough. Many kids got sick on our tour.Mexican authorities took forever to clear the ship when we arrived so I think we started the whole thing an hour late.Also we got back so late, we missed dinner.

[redrobin]

Marie,

Don't know if you found this doing a search (since it is spotty), but below I cut and pasted part of someones post (I'm not good with adding links) in a thread that I participated in last spring that gave a good description of just the Tulum tour.

 

We took tour #A-1, Tulum, Lost Civilization of the Mayans. The guidebook for Princess says this trip is 7 hours, but they gave us a notice after we booked that said they were changing that to 8 hours. Overall, we enjoyed it tremendously, having never seen anything like it. We learned a lot about Mayan civilization. The park was beautiful, and the ruins were fascinating. I'm glad we did it despite the "sheep" issues, and I would do it again (well, no, I'd see something new next time, but I don't wish I hadn't done it...how's that for a double negative).

 

The wait to board the tender was long, as I have mentioned earlier. There are places to sit during most of the wait. The tender ride to Playa Del Carmen was 1/2 hour, but you can also sit down. It's a pretty wavy ride compared to the cruise ship, so use seasickness medications if needed, and hope that others do the same! However, it's not bad. Neither my daughter nor I felt seasick, and we had both experienced seasickness a couple of days before on the Ocho Rios Semi-Sub ride (another story).

 

The bus ride started about 9am. I think there were three busloads of people from the Star on our tour. Each bus is like a regular bus from home, with air conditioning, cushioned bucket seats and a bathroom in back. Our guide was terrific. His name was Raul Torres. We learned a lot about Mayan culture from him. My daughter was taking notes, as she made a presentation at school about this trip when she returned home (she is 12). The whole trip was a little over an hour, as we stopped at a gift shop on the way, where they also had bathrooms. At the stop they gave out free tequila shots (at 10 am???). Back on the bus, Raul also stopped talking and just chatted with some passengers individually, as many people took little naps (we had gotten up so early!).

 

When we got to the ruins, Raul took us in with him. There is a 1/2 mile walk to get into the park, but there is also a sort of train pulled by tractors that you can ride for $2 round trip. Raul spent about an hour showing us around the ruins and pointing out differnt things. He always tried to keep us in the shade, as it was very hot. Hats and sunblock were very important. You can buy a hat for about $2 from the vendors you walk by at the front of the park. Then we had 45 minutes to walk around on our own. Some people were swimming, and others (like us) walked around the ruins some more. Some people went back to the park entrance and shopped. Note: the bathrooms there are not very nice. The toilets have no seats, and you can't flush toilet paper. Try to use the ones on the bus or at the stop along the drive. Also, most people brought water from the ship to drink. As for the walking, I guess the ruins might be as long as 5 football fields wide and 3 across. Maybe bigger. One of my photos shows the little model of the park overall, and then I will try to include some actual pictures that give a sense of distance. It depends on what kind of shape you are in as to whether it will bother you. There are paths to walk on, but sometimes you might want to walk off a path to get closer to something. Then you are walking on big rocks. You are also walking uphill as you get closer to the water and to the main temple.

 

We had to be back on the bus by 1pm, and when we arrived thay had lunch for us (ham and cheese sandwiches, a choice of chips, and cold bottled water or soda). We ate it as we drove off. An hour later (there is no stop on the way back) we were dropped off at the pier in Playa Del Carmen. Here my timing gets a little fuzzy, but I think we had about 45 minutes before the tender was due to arrive at 3pm. If you walk along the main road (Constituyentes)about 4 blocks up from the dock, there is a shopping area on the right (5th Avenue). It continues down 5th Avenue. We didn't shop, except for my new favorite store on the whole planet. At the intersection of 5th Ave and Constituyentes, there is a "Chocolate Cafe" called "Ah Cacao" that is like Starbucks but for chocolate milk. they also sell mexican chocolate and coffee and smoothies. Our guide pointed it out, and sure enough I saw him there buying his drink right after the tour. They have a website, but alas, they don't sell anything over the internet.

 

There is a restaurant called "Pelicanos" that is right next to the dock where many people got drinks while they waited for the tender. They have a bar, and also tables where you could order food. Their prices were steep ($14 for a frozen margarita and a virgin pina colada), but I had to have a margarita while I was in Mexico.

 

There is a shade shelter where people stood to wait if they weren't using the restaurant, but people lined up pretty early (a line formed at about 2:45). We just sat at the bar until the tender arrived and let others get on before us. We were still able to find seats on the tender. Remember, sit on the lower deck near the back to be off and back onto the ship first. Our three busloads accounted for about 150 people, and the tender was filled with 500 people, so there must have been people from other tours waiting as well. The tender ride is so long (1/2 hour each way) that they don't have tenders going back and forth as frequently as at other ports, so I guess more people are left waiting for the ones that come.

[Genessa]

Can anyone clarify for me why both these tours are 8 hours, when the second one includes a beach visit lasting 2 hours?

 

The fine print outlines exactly the same time spent touring tulum, so the basic tulum tour must include something else to make it 8 hours long.

 

Any ideas?

 

My guess is shopping time--if so, are we stuck there or can we continue on our own back to the ship.

 

thanks in advance for all help!

 

Marie,

 

I did the Tulum/Xel-ha tour and can't imagine what the two extra hours at Tulum would be for, unless it was a more in depth tour or more free time at Tulum.

 

We had an incredible guide, Julian, who really brought the Mayan people to life. We made the same "bathroom/gift shop" stop as described in that review. Julian guided us through Tulum and we stopped at every exhibit. We did spend about 45 minutes to 1 hour being guided - there were several groups and the guides were excellent at steering us towards an area that no one was at. Then, we had about 15 minutes of free time.

 

We would have liked more free time, there was a gorgeous beach "below" the ruins, but we explored the little shop area, bought a bottled water, used the bathrooms (BTW, the toilet paper was near the sinks when we went. They were discouraging the use, fills up the septic system quickly, I guess) and watched a pole dance.

 

We went to Xel-Ha after that and really enjoyed it,. There was not a second to spare when we got back to Playa Del Carmen.

[Gabrielle R.]

Hi! Just spent 8 days in Mexico over Christmas. Went to Xel Ha- Awesome! I do know we met some people who spent two ours at Xel Ha and were on their way to Tulum. They wer complaining about having to leav Xel Ha and leave what they were doing at the park. I wouldn't want to try to do both in one day. I Love history (I'm a history teacher), so would rather spend the day at a ruin sight. Hope this helps you. Gabrielle

[Wulff]

Kinda off track of the original question.....Xel-Ha and Tulum just can't be properly done in a few hours.

The actual walkthrough of the Tulum ruins can be done in about an hour but the fun part is going down the walkway and spending time on the beach area......bodysurfing is a blast and also hilarious when you get someone to pose for a picture and a huge wave knocks their butt from 50 yards to the shore.......

Xel-Ha has lots to do,you could easily spend the day there.(we did)

If you go off to the left of the main bridge (where they feed the fish) you will come up to a lighthouse and an area with hammocks and paths where you can walk for miles......

They also have a bus that takes you to an area where you jump in a tube and follow the current back to the main area...slow but relaxing...about 45 minutes.

Another thing to consider is checking out the Cenotes....

We just toured the highway around the Barcelo and found a cool place that had underground cave snorkelling as well as above ground....it is definately something you have to do if you have the chance

[GloriaF]

We thought Tulum was a not-to-be-missed sight!! We spent a good deal of time wandering around the ruins after our guided tour and loved every minute of it, but we did this from a land-based vacation. Tulum is one of the larger Mayan ruins, it is well worth a visit and is beautiful. We did not go down to the beach below, but could see it. When we were there, the Mexican government were still allowing people to climb on the ruins ~ I hope that is changed now as they will disappear over time if not protected ~ but at the same time it was awesome to climb to the top of the temples, and other ruins. We also walked through the shops at the ruins and saw the performance on the high pole with their costumes.

 

We also attempted to do Xhel-Ha at the same time, but it was rushed. If you have an option of doing only one of these visits, I would choose Tulum. Xhel-Ha was beautiful, but Tulum is exceptional and unique. A similiar visit like the one to Xhel-Ha can be duplicated elsewhere, but the Mayan ruins cannot.

 

***One last thing, I agree with Coral in that I would not try this tour on your own from the ship - too many things to go wrong and a long distance from port.

[MWcruiser]

We did the Tulum Lost Civilization of the Mayans last week. It was great! The ferry ride over was about 45 minutes, not too rough the day we did it. The bus ride is another hour. We stopped at a gift shop where locals were making clay molds and beautiful reproductions of Mayan art pieces/artifacts...masks, warriers, etc. The bathrooms here were fairly clean. We also had Raul as our guide once we got on the bus. Absolutely wonderful guide who brought the Mayan culture to life both on the bus and once we got to the ruins. The guided tour lasted about 45 minutes to an hour. Then we had anoher 1 hour 15 minutes on our own to explore the ruins, go to the beach and visit the shops. The beach is beautiful! It was not a hot day so we did not opt to get wet, but we did have a nice little walk. The snack provided was not much. Cheese crackers, a sweet nasty little chocolate cake, a bag of cheetos and a bottle of water. No sandwich. There is a Subway and a taco stand in the shopping/parking lot area. After the bus ride back to Playa del carmen, we were given maybe 45 minutes to look around/shop. Then back to the ferry. It rained most of the trip back, the seas were a lot rougher and it took about 1 1/2 hours to get back. Part of that trip involved dropping off Carnival cruisers directly to their ship. The Carnival ship had to tender in Cozumel, and they were waiting for these people so that they could leave the port. We got back to the pier at 5:30. It was a long day....but we thoroughly enjoyed Tulum. The trip back was not fun, and I do not think there was an option to go back to the ship on our own. I would still strongly recommend this tour. We rarely ever book a Princess excursion, but because of the travel and tranfers, we opted to do the Princess tour. I am glad we did.

[Kismets_mom]

Tulum is a beautiful place and one of the most photographed places in Mexico. I stayed in Playa del Carmen for a week once, and I'm glad I went to Tulum. It's a small place, not as big as Chichen Itza, so I'm not sure why there would be two hours of shopping. It is a long trek from the ferry to a bus to the ruins, but well worth it, especially if you won't be going back to Mexico anytime soon. The water is beautiful and the sand is like sugar. You'll enjoy it.

 

Have not been to Xel-Ha, but I hear it's fun.