Chichen Itza Tour: History, Culture and Swimming in a Cenote from Playa del Carmen
4.4
600 Ratings
Playa del Carmen
Immerse yourself in the history, culture, and natural beauty of Chichen Itza on this exciting tour from Playa del Carmen. Swim in a cenote, enjoy a regional buffet lunch, and explore the charming town of Valladolid. Book now!
Duration: 12 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Chichen Itza - A VIP guided tour of Chichen Itza is an unforgettable journey to one of the world’s most famous ancient civilizations. Explore the ruins of Chichen Itza and discover the pyramid of Kukulkan, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World and a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. Your expert local guide will share the fascinating facts and folklore of the Mayan civilization as you explore the magnificent structures.

  • Cenote Saamal - This Chichen Itza Premier tour immerses you in the natural beauty of a Yucatan treasure, a cenote of crystalline waters, a sacred place to the ancient Maya where you will swim and refresh in this breathtaking oasis.

  • Valladolid - Our Chichen Itza Premier tour includes a visit to Valladolid, a \

What's Included
  • Cenote Admission
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
  • Box Lunch with sandwich, fruit, juice, and sweet (Plus or Premier Option rate)
  • Lunch
  • Bottled water
  • Spirit drinks (with Premier option rate)
What's Not Included
  • Gratuities
  • State taxes: $40 USD adult or $5 USD child must be paid via cash or card upon check-in.
  • Mandatory life jacket rental in the cenote 3 USD per person must be paid in cash
Additional Information

A Chichen Itza tour includes everything you need for a nice experience in history, culture and natural beauty. An exciting tour with a bilingual local expert, round-trip transportation, premium beverages and snacks on board, exquisite regional buffet lunch with drinks, a swim in a cenote and a visit to Valladolid make this a complete day of Yucatan adventure with all the comfort you could wish for.

  • Vegetarian option is available, please advise at time of booking if required
Location
La Bodeguita del Medio Playa del Carmen
7:40 am
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.4
(600 Ratings)
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619victormanuelm
May 19, 2024
Give us the us the give of your experience and knowledge - Amazing tour beautiful places really nice tour guides name Miguel, Gustavo and Robert are very friendly, happy,and funny made my tour for ma and my family a lot of fun.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Celinemichon1998
May 18, 2024
Amazing tour - The tour and the tour guides were amazing! They gave us loads of information and gave us many tips about the shops and food.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Famous
May 15, 2024
Chichen Itza tour - Roberto , Julio and Francisco were wonderful tour guides. Learned alot about the Mayan culture and its people of today and years past. Chichen Itza tour is a MUST.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Northstar41682295966
May 13, 2024
CHICHEN ITZA TOUR - Excellent service! The guides are very cool. Keep in mind to bring plenty of fresh water since Chichen ItzĂĄ is very hot and wear a hat, take all necessary measures. In the cenote you pay 65 Mexicanos per person for the lifeguard and 50 Mexicanos for the locker. They pick you up at the hotel and drop you off at the same place. Super recommended!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Tracy
May 10, 2024
Amazing tour - We had an amazing tour with our guide Carlos Gonzalez, the driver Jackie Chan was very good nice smooth ride and our concierge Felipe was very attentive. Carlos gave a ton of knowledge and awesome pictures of the ruins and the cenote swim was simply incredible. Highly recommend taking this tour but ask for Carlos to be your guide for the best experience
 ps the Tacos were amazing and the people everywhere we went were very welcoming and friendly. Thank you Carlos and team for an amazing day!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Y8330kbcesars
May 10, 2024
Excellent experience. - The views are incredible, we took many photos and the guides, Roberto, Braulio, excellent people. a very good experience
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Vv
May 9, 2024
Chichen-Itza on a very hot day!!! - I am giving five starts because the tour guides we had - Roberto and Ernesto were awesome! They were all very knowledgeable, fun and made the trip very pleasant. The bus was comfortable and air conditioned. We visited Chichen- Itza on an extremely hot day. We first started with the Cenote which was amazing. We wish we had more time to spend there. We think the time they allow us to stay there is not enough for such an awesome place. We had a little less than an hour to change, take a shower, go to the cenote and then change and run back to the bus. The cenote is in a cute little area that we couldn’t even check out simply because we didn’t have the time. After the cenote was the lunch buffet where we learned more about the Mayan culture. We feel like that experience could’ve been a little less time consuming due to the amount of stuff they are trying to sell you. We understand why they’re doing that but we wish we had a bit more time for the other experiences and less at the souvenir shop and the buffet area. Buffet was good, nothing that special but it was fine. After that we went to Chichen-Itza. Make sure to check the weather prior to going there and bring an umbrella with you as it’s extremely hot. If you don’t have one, you can rent one from there. The tour guides were both very knowledgeable and kept going and going despite the heat. You get like two hours to spend there and explore. It’s a flat open space with very little shade so dress accordingly and wear lots of sunscreen. Right after we drove to a little quaint town called Valladolid. We felt like this is the place to really learn more about Mexican culture. Unfortunately we only had half an hour to spend there which is really not enough since we had no idea where to go and what to do. The architecture is very pretty and unique. It’s a cute little town that you will wish you could explore more. Thank you Ernesto and Roberto for the great experience. And to the tour company - maybe plan it so that people could spend more time at the cenote and Valladolid and less time at the buffet area.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jowellmiguel_r
May 20, 2024
It was ok - The tour was well organised from pick up to checkin until drop offs. But my experience I guess is a bit different since I already went to the Teotihuacan Pyramids which were much grander than Chichen Itza that’s why it was underwhelming for me. The highlight was Valladolid though! The town is so charming and has a certain character. The time at the cenote was just too short to enjoy.
Review provided by Viator
Bradleywaddell1
May 10, 2024
Great stops...Terrible Tour guide - The temple, cenote and stop in Valladolid were fantastic. My reason for the two stars was the main tour guide, there are two guides but the second seems to be supplementary. The guide gave a guise of knowing a lot but the more you listened to him the less you believed his facts. The stops are great...but the tour is terrible. He began the tour leaving Tulum telling us about his passion for tequila. He told us about the best tequila is save only for Mexico so you cannot get it anywhere else. He told us a story about a specific coffee tequila his wife makes tiramisu with that you can get at the centote. For a person with a passion for tequila he told us nothing about tequila. He didn't explain how it made, the types or anything. He told us we would be at the cenote for an hour but to only swim for 30 minutes to ensure we could do the tequila tasting. Turns out the tequila tasting was just a gift shop that sold tequila. Back on the bus he began to talk about the Mayan calendar. This turned into a weird conversation about how the moons phase during our birth decides our fate and how women are angry on their periods because the moons phase is 28 days. He then proceeded to explain how he was going to teach us how to read the Mayan calendar. He brought out a sheet of paper, supposedly hand made, with a date on it, his son's bday. He proceeded to read the date very quickly and ended his explanation with a "now you know how to read it and did you know these are for sale?". This started a 20min explanation of how we could purchase our very own genuine Mayan bday certificate for $30usd at the next stop. He also said it was to support a local artisanal community trying to build schools in the area. Let's just say.....I've seen many of the same hand made objects in the hotel gift shop. We ate lunch and continued on to Chechin Itza. At the gift shop/lunch stop a kid got on the bus and we were told he was going to lead a toast prior to arriving at the temple. He passed of little shot glasses of a green booze and did a toast. Then he passed out small bottles of the booze to everyone on the bus which had our pictures on them and said we could purchase them for $24usd. Almost everyone returned them. When we arrived at the temple we split into two groups, Spanish and English. I was in the English group and we were going to be given our tour by the guide on our bus who has been doing all the talkin. He started the tour with a rant about how we better listen to him and not to take photos until the tour was over. He wanted us to listen and didn't want us spreading fake news on social media. He gave us exactly an hour tour but we learned almost nothing. He shared facts that had no evidence or that you could glean just from looking at the temple i.e. things like " it's made of stone, the engineering is impressive, that's a carving of an eagle ect." The last 10 min were a discussion of how your eyes dilate the most when your making love....great. Chechin Itza is meant to be toured with a guide as there are very few signs explaining things around the complex. It was a real shame the guide was a dud. The temple is very impressive however and it was enjoyable to wander for an hour after the tour. Back on the bus heading to Valladolid he said nothing. Our stop in Valledolid was short but great. Many amazing food stalls to enjoy. From Valledolid back to Tulum the guide again gave no info other than another 20 rant this time about how mexican minimum wage is so low that without tips the two guides and driver wouldn't do this job. He also reminded us of how we had money and they had family's to support. All while talking in a very sad voice. This is when I started to dislike the tour. I came to realize that everytime the guide talked he was trying to sell us something. The only info he gave us was in an attempt to upsell a product. Tequila, Mayan Calendar, Gift shop trinkets, liquor. It felt like we learned nothing and that the 12 hour tour was just a grift to sell us worthless overpriced stuff. The guide also had a habit of pausing for dramatic effect when there was no drama, or pausing hoping for a gasp of amazement but he said nothing amazing. He also continually said " do you need evidence, here is evidence" but then provided no actual evidence or some circumstantial nonsense at best. All in all the Cenote experience is great, Valledolid is a beautiful stop, and Chichin Itza was impressive. The tour guide however was sub-par. I do not want to name him by name, as mabye it was just an off day, but his name was spelt the same as a certain son of God. The other younger tour guide was very nice so I hope this review does not reflect poorly on him. He was helpful but essentially said nothing during the tour as the main guide seemed to be in charge.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
462m_taf
May 19, 2024
Only want to make you buy overpriced souvenirs - Absolutely horrible experience thanks to the guides. The whole purpose of the trip was to get money out of you for overpriced souvenirs. Francesco, Roberto, and I think Julio must have a commission on the souvenirs or they wouldn't be so involved. First they took us to a Mayan place for lunch and kept us there for 2 hours unnecessarily, forcing Mayan birth certificates for $30 already in the car. Then the place offered overpriced souvenirs (about 3x more expensive than elsewhere). Then liquor with your photo on the way back from lunch on the bus. In Cenotes then overpriced Tequila. The time spent sightseeing is terribly short, 2 hours at Chichen Itza, an hour at Cenote, and half an hour in the town of Valladois, given the unnecessary 2 hours at the Mayan souvenir shops, it really wasn't enough time to really see all that Chichen Itza has to offer. At the end of the trip, Robeto said that 60% of their salary consisted of tips, and that we would insult him if we gave coins and stood in the way of anyone leaving the bus with basket for tips!!! Like the tipy were pretty much mandatory. Unacceptable behaviour. I do not recommend.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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up to 15 guests
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May 2024
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