Chichen Itza on Cozumel

[wcm24]

Has anyone flown over to Chichen Itza to tour the ruins there? We are looking for a reputible tour and our Princess cruise does not offer one. Also, please offer any info on how you got to the airport.

[driftwood]

The airport is on the far side of San Miguel de Cozumel from the cruise ship docks, so you have to pay more for the taxi ride as it is almost twice as far as the trip to downtown San Miguel alone. I'm not sure any cruise line offers the tour, as we are dealing with light planes here which would not carry very many passengers, and the profit margin for kickbacks is probably very small, airplane fuel being on the costly side, and Chichén Itzá being a good hundred miles [106.14 on Google Earth] one way as the crow flies from Cozumel.

 

On the plus side, now that we have decided the site is the new Sixth Wonder of the World, more capital may have been invested in providing the tours--and the airplanes--, and it may be easier to get there than I can imagine. My wife and I visited by bus from a Mayan Riviera resort during a week-long stay, so we had fewer things to think about . . . .

[wcm24]

Thanks for your reply. I think we may save the Chichen Itza tour for a time when we go stay on Mexico longer than a cruise day.

What about the other ruins around? What were your favorites for a day's adventure?

[driftwood]

The "safe" cruise line packages are Tulum and Coba, which are reached by the ferry ride from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen and then busrides of a little over an hour in very different directions. Tulum is small but gorgeous and not "strenuous"--except for the heat--; Coba is enormous and has the tallest pyramid, Nohoch Mul, on the Yucatan Peninsula. You can climb them if you want to: if you don't want to climb, both sites are quite level ground. Both are quite weatherbeaten, but each is quite beautiful. You may get enough of Tulum in a single visit, as it is comparatively small; you may never get enough of Coba. We have been once to Tulum and twice to Coba so far; in January we are moving on to sites in Belize and perhaps Guatemala for a couple of weeks. So no matter where you start with the Maya, you will probably be inspired, and for all I can see that will lead to addiction. So beware!

 

We have a lot of photographs but I don't know how to attach them here full size; if you would like to see any of them, email me at dreynolds@aol.com and let me know what you want to see. :D

[Tigergenesis]

The "safe" cruise line packages are Tulum and Coba, which are reached by the ferry ride from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen and then busrides of a little over an hour in very different directions. Tulum is small but gorgeous and not "strenuous"--except for the heat--; Coba is enormous and has the tallest pyramid, Nohoch Mul, on the Yucatan Peninsula. You can climb them if you want to: if you don't want to climb, both sites are quite level ground. Both are quite weatherbeaten, but each is quite beautiful. You may get enough of Tulum in a single visit, as it is comparatively small; you may never get enough of Coba. We have been once to Tulum and twice to Coba so far; in January we are moving on to sites in Belize and perhaps Guatemala for a couple of weeks. So no matter where you start with the Maya, you will probably be inspired, and for all I can see that will lead to addiction. So beware!

 

We have a lot of photographs but I don't know how to attach them here full size; if you would like to see any of them, email me at dreynolds@aol.com and let me know what you want to see. :D

 

I haven't seen Coba offered through the cruise line - any private tour operators that can take us there?

[driftwood]

The tour is called "Coba Mayan Ruins" and the description by Princess can be found on their website:

 

http://www.princess.com/shorex/shorexdisplay.jsp?resPortId=CZM&resTradeId=C&tempresTradeId=C&tempresPortId=CZM

 

Just keep scrolling down the page until you get to "Coba Mayan Ruins"--it is a long way down and not in any order I can see.

 

Whether it will be offered during your particular stop at the Cozumel port of call would I suppose depend on how long your ship is scheduled to be in port, or whether Princess can get access to the site on the date you will be in Cozumel. I think that although it might be possible to arrange a tour through an independent provider, it might be almost as risky as your hypothetical flight to Chichén Itzá, as it is a trip that has to be extensively orchestrated because of the time it takes: at least an hour and a half for the ferry, perhaps three hours for the bus trip, and perhaps three hours for the tour and lunch. So you see there is a narrow window of opportunity anyway, and often your Captain will not know until you are at sea in which order your ship will be allowed to dock when it reaches Cozumel.

 

When we went the first time, Holland America's flagship Rotterdam was given the option of docking first, and it was scheduled to remain in port until midnight. But to accomplish the feat the Captain had to cross the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico at an alarming rate of speed, and the ship was chopping all across the Gulf. It was worth it to those of us who wanted a long day in Mexico, but it was not the most comfortable crossing! :D

[wcm24]

Thanks for sharing your experiences! It is so helpful to those of us who are going for the first time!

[driftwood]

if you mean me . . . .

 

I would have seen myself as rather long-winded and off-topic, but other users of the boards have been less kind. Feedback is always useful! :D

 

I should also say that Muyil, which is a "new addition" to the Mayan sites, is also pretty easy on both cruise lines and tourists--it is a bit South of Tulum, but quite accessible--and beautiful. Probably packaged with Sian Ka'an, as it is on the North border of the park.

 

We went there on a shore excursion with Princess, and it was a very nice day indeed. Of which I have pictures . . . .

[queenbluebee]

Driftwood--I sent you an email requesting mayan excursion photos.

[driftwood]

Hi Queenbluebee!

 

I have sent you two each of Tulum and Muyil, and three of Coba--I hope they arrive all right. There are plenty more, of course, if one site interests you more than another. There are a number also that my wife and I took at Chichén Itzá, but to go there during a cruise you would have to spend some big money--you would have to fly! :eek:

 

If anyone else would like pictures--just let me know if you have a high-speed Internet connection: if not, I will try to reduce the size of the files before I email them.

 

BTW the picture of me above was taken at the summit of Nohoch Mul at Coba with my camera, by an energetic New Yorker who also made it to the top. You may see behind me the miles of jungle that stretch away to the west!

[ETHS1965]

I posted this same type of question on Tripadvisor. The responses that I got were pretty funny, but all very similar. They involved the words "crash and insurance". Needless to say, my DH respectfully declined the trip. I tried to get a land tour company to do it, since we will be in port for 11 hours, but they all refused. They said the time constraints were too "iffy" to guaranteeing getting us back to the ship on time. So, it looks as if we will not get to see one of the new 7 wonders of the world on this cruise. I will keep watching to see if some tour develops before we leave in Feb. you would think that the cruises would be adding tours now that it has been declared a wonder of the world! If you end up getting a tour, let me know!

[driftwood]

There are more things that tour providers have to consider than time, unfortunately. INAH is still deep in study at Chichén Itzá, so the ENTIRE site is not always available for the spreading thin of cruise ship passengers across the grounds. They load of tourists they already experience causes damage to the site as it is. I suppose they anticipated the naming of the site as one of the "new" Wonders of the World, but ramping up the facilities to accommodate everyone who now wants to see the ruins is going to take a lot of time and money, and INAH may not want to encourage it anyway. There is a beautiful hotel directly across from the site where we had an excellent lunch, but it was pretty well packed by visitors from the Mexican resorts already--a fresh influx of cruise ship passengers would leave a lot of people hungry!

 

Time might be compressed a little by running corporate jets--or jumbo jets--from Cozumel to the airfield at Chichén Itzá, but then of course the fields would probably have to be improved and jet fuel shipped in. You are NOT near a major city or a major airport at Chichén Itzá, although I suppose one could be built before too long . . . . Or a large Señor Frog's, anyway . . . . :eek: