Chichen itza! Great experience. - This was an awe inspiring experience. To see structures that have stood for thousands of years was amazing. Jorge was super knowledgeable and told details that brought the Mayans to life for me. If you can, ask for Jorge when you go. Our driver, Salvatore, was very good. There was not a single moment where I felt unsafe during the 1 hours there and back.

Our guide Omar and driver... - Our guide Omar and driver Jorge were excellent! Omar was very knowledgeable, personable, and kept us well informed of what was happening.

Early access was good, all else, not that great. - Good: Early access - this meant we were at the site before it opened, so we got to see Chichen Itza in peace - before all the souvenir circus was set up, and before the day got hot. This was a big plus. Our guide Jorje was good - he explained things with enthusiasm and in detail. Not so good - - Even with my hotel being in downtown Cancun, I was asked to come to a different hotel for pick up - which was just 400m from my hotel - on the same road (and the vehicle did come from that direction for pick up) - which would not have been a big deal - except for the pick up being at 4.45am - and me being a solo female traveller. I would have hoped for some consideration on this. - Upon completion of our tour at Chichen Itza - we were supposed to meet at the bus at 10am. The driver was delayed by over 1.5 hours - because the van was fueled up with Petrol instead of Diesel and needed to be cleaned out and refueled. Accidents happen I suppose - but waiting 1.5 hours in the heat with nothing to do - i couldn't help but wonder if presence of mind could have helped avoid this issue. - The buffet lunch - was basic, we were told about 5 times that drinks were not included even before we got there and another 2 times after we reached there. Once we got there, after the long wait - extremely hungry and tired, we were ushered into the shop for a mandatory 15 min shopping break. Then finally - the 'buffet' was not self serve, and the people serving seemed least interested in serving us - they wouldnt ask what we wanted - gave tiny portions, skipped items without even asking. I was not planning on ordering a drink, but I was out of water myself, and decided to go for a mango smoothie, which cost me USD 10. Might as well charge us for the lunch and give good service - instead of providing the free lunch that looks like charity and drinks that are practically robbery? - On return - we were pointedly told that tips is needed - which in itself is pretty common, but with the way the day had shaped up - it just seemed like another way to fleece money off us on a tour - which I might add - was not cheap to begin with. - Cherry on top of the cake - I had confirmed on the previous day that the drop off point would be the same as the pick up point. But the guide / driver decided to drop us 400m further away from the pick up point - at a signal - saying 'it would be more convenient with more transport options available'. In my case, this just doubled my walk back to my hotel in the sun. Again - a 400m walk is not that big a deal - but after everything else during the day - it was extremely annoying. And this was not because of any road closures or anything, it was just because they didn't want to have to go down that road and take a long U turn and return - so just to take a short cut in driving / traffic. So yeah - no tip from me sorry, and no pleasant review either. All in all, I would look for other options with early access.

Too much time messing around vs. actual tour time - The experience is billed as an 'early' tour that takes 10.5 hours. So, after being picked up at the somewhat ungodly time of 4.45am in the morning, we would have expected to be back around 3.15pm. We were not... and it wasn't due to traffic. It was due to the ridiculous amount of drop-offs and pickups up and down the coast of Cancun. The drive from the hotel district to Chichen-Itza is 2.5 hours if you go direct according to Google Maps. We arrived at the equivalent of 9.15pm (8.15am Yucatan time), meaning that 2 hours (each way!) were spent picking up people from different hotels before we departed. It was painful... and many of the hotels were down dirt roads with appaulling road surfaces that meant that it was impossible to sleep on the bus. The tour of Chichen-Itza was fine and the guide seemed knowledgeable... but to spend 12hours+ for 2 hours of tour seemed massively disproportionate. Waiting around for the Spanish version of every explanation in the hot sun was also very painful. I wouldn't recommend this tour to be honest if you value your time and comfort and are travelling from the Hotel Zone.

OK if you've never been to Chichen Itza before but be informed! Wouldn't recommend for return visitors. - Friendly tour guides, but the tour itself wasn't enjoyable and the English speaking guide that my group got unfortunately was difficult to understand. Bus driver was watching a show on full volume (without headphones) while we were stopped for 20-25 mins waiting for them to pick up people from other hotels. Other people on the bus & I looked at each other because we were trying to figure out where the noise was coming from, so I stood up and walked up the bus to find out it was the bus driver...how inconsiderate. The bus did have AC, which was nice, but they assigned us seats, which would have been fine if they didn't split up my group of 4...we didn't even sit in the same row. There is a bathroom on the bus and the guides made it a point that you can only use it for #1, so you better make sure you go before the tour! This is my second time visiting Chichen Itza to show my family around, and our guide often went on long rants about personal things/facts about himself & his family and jokes no one could understand, instead of focusing on just information about the ruins. They gave us maybe 5-10 mins of free time to take photos at Chichen Itza at the beginning of the tour, which felt rushed, then the walking tour began and the guide often stopped at one spot only to stop again a few inches away. It was also very hot, despite doing the early morning tour, so bring a handheld or neck fan (in addition to your hats) if going in the summer! and don't forget, you'll have to pay an additional $42 USD per person for the Chichen Itza tax, on top of your tour tickets. This amount kept increasing from when I first booked the tour $37) to the day of the tour ($42). Also, as other reviews mentioned, the tour itself was like a money grab. The extra stops at shops, the guide trying to sell you on the obsidian stones after a massage demonstration on one of the tour guests, the pushy recommendations to purchase the Mayan calendars at $38 USD each. I assume like most tours, the guides usually get an extra commission/kickback from these shops. Even the newly added buffet lunch was an opportunity to make more money from us. I knew drinks weren't included in the lunch from the description, so we made sure to buy drinks from a convenience store, which was also our pickup location. To our surprise, when we were seated at the buffet restaurant for lunch, they told us we could not drink our own drinks we brought. The staff started forcefully taking drink orders from everyone, and there was no drink menu, so you don't know the price of the drinks. One couple from our tour group was paying at the end for their drinks, and I overheard it to be around $36 for 2 waters and some sodas and they did not look happy. So if you do order drinks at the buffet restaurant, just be sure to ask ahead of time for prices.

9 hours bus ride, but at least tour guide was great - Beware: 5hr bus drive if you're staying in downtown Cancún, not the 2,5 hrs that are advertised for the early access chichen itza tour Pros: -the tour guide Rey was great, very insightful and funny -lunch buffet was touristy but decent -bus had AC and a toilet Cons: -if you stay in downtown Cancún, the bus picks you up around 4am and then drives down to playa del Carmen, stopping at a lot of different resorts (and every stop 10-20 minutes) which means that the overall drive took more than 5hrs -is it early access? Due to the time difference, we were at chichen itza 45min after it opens, so not sure if this really counts So if you're staying at a resort in playa del Carmen, this tour is not bad, but if you're staying in cancún and not that partial to long bus rides, maybe do something else - in the end we spent 9hrs in a bus for seeing chichen itza for 2hrs

Great tour, horrible commute - Honestly I wanted to give this 5 stars but I just can’t. Actual tour of the ruins was awesome. Tour guides (Arturo and Jose) were also great, also took great photos for us and was super friendly. I just can’t justify the number of hours in the car for what was basically a less than 2 hour tour and about an hour lunch. The group was small and only had like 8 people or so but 6 out of 8 people were in Cancun area and the other 2 were in Playa Del Carmen, so we got picked up at 4:45 only to be driven to Playa Del Carmen (which for some reason took like 2 hours after our pickup) and then to Chichén Itzá for another 2 hours. We literally spent over 4 hours going ONE WAY THERE. Lunch was pretty weak, I was looking forward to it after reviews but it was nothing special (got the recommended cochinita pibil and it was disappointing). After being picked up at 4:45 AM, we’re getting back to the hotel past 4:15 PM. I don’t know why the people further from us weren’t arranged in a different group. It’s crazy that the tour makes the majority of the group suffer for another 3-4 hours in the car rather than separating it from location. We booked an early tour in anticipation of returning from an excursion at an early time to enjoy the rest of the day, but this was a huge waste of time in the car. Would have booked a different tour if I knew I would have to spend 8 hours traveling in a van.

Left me stranded - Sadly we didn’t get to enjoy this trip because the day before the company informed me they would pick me up at the entrance of the hotel by the highway, 5 kilometers away from entrance. At 5 am getting transportation would have been difficult as walking is not safe from hotel entrance to security gate. Company knew of my accommodations yet they didn’t advise of the pick up information but a day before. And I paid for transport from hotel. Bad coordination and they didn’t care to reply to my questions.

Tulum protests got in the way - The group is adamant about no refund at short notice. We were trapped in Tulum due to the protest that shut down the highways the day before and were not able to get back to Akumal for our 425am pickup that was about 30 minutes walk away from our hotel. The unforseen circumstance, at no fault of this provider nor ours, prevent us going on the excursion and there was no even partial refund.

Be Cautious with Pickup and Tax Ticket Fees! - I recently had a bit of a rocky experience with my travel arrangements in Mexico. Firstly, the pickup service picked us up from a designated point instead of our hotel which I had paid extra for. However, the bigger issue was with the ticket tax fees for the archeological site. I was charged in USD via a link they sent me, but when I checked the ticket, the price was significantly lower than what I paid. The company tried to blame the card's conversion rate, but I knew that wasn't true since the link showed the amount in USD. *Tip for others:* Get your entrance and tax tickets at the location and pay in Mexican pesos. It's a lot less than what they'll charge if you pay in USD. Don't fall into the same trap I did! Be aware of the fees and exchange rates, and try to pay in local currency whenever possible.