Costa Maya vs. Cozumel

[hpycruzn]

My family and I will be visiting Costa Maya and Cozumel on our Holiday cruise next week. I have read much about both places, including Mahahaul. Mahahaul sounds like an incredible place where you can rent bikes and move at your own pace. We would like to visit 1 ruins while on this trip and I'm not sure whether that should be while at the Costa Maya stop or Cozumel. It sounds like we should explore Mahahaul and then take a ruins trip when we go to Cozumel. However, we could rent a car in Cozumel and drive around the island. Is this a recommended thing to do? And the Tulum ruins excursion is about 7 hours if booked through the cruise line. We will be traveling with our 10-year old daughter. What do any of you recommend? This is an AWESOME sight where a person can learn SO much about different cruise lines and ports of call. THANKS!!!!! (This may be a repeat thread for some but I wanted to hit both Costa Maya and Cozumel readers.)

[Bill paytolcal]

:) Tough question, but you can rent a car in cozumel drive around the island, start off to the south and as you return towards the ship and town stop at the ruins. I am not sure if you would find a guide, but you could do both in one day and have a nice lunch on the east side of the island. Be careful of the undertow on the beaches on the east side of cozumel. I am sure others will add to this to compleatly confuse you. Have fun. Bill

[Ellya]

To tour the ruins from Cozumel you must take a boat to the mainland. You then take a bus to the ruins. It is a very long day and I would recommend using the ship's excursion in this instance to eliminate any risk of missing the ship. If you decide to do the ruins at another port, I would recommend taking a cab to Paradise Beach for a relaxing (and inexpensive) day!

[DonnaLill]

Mahuhal is really a great place to relax, hang out, have a few beers. Water was nice, no currents or waves.

[Bill paytolcal]

:) O.K. , I'll try to make this more clear. From Costa Maya you can go to Kohunlich, by tour, most of the day or Chacchoben, by tour, half day and half day in Mahajual. From Cozumel, you can go to Chichichen Itza, or Tulum, by seperate tours, both full day tours. Those are the larger more well known ruins. Also on the isla of Cozumel is a smaller less well known ruin in the center of the island, easy to see during the trip around the island that I told you about before. I have done the Cozumel trip around the island and to the ruins twice, once in a V.W. convertable and once on a moter scooter, so I know it can be done. ( I recommend a car with a roof unless you have a lot of sun screen.) Bill

[hpycruzn]

Thanks for the suggestions. It helps in narrowing down options when you only have 1 day at each port. Will let you all know how our cruise went. Holiday has been getting some bad rap lately but we are looking forward to our week.

[SusieQT]

We just returned from both. We went to Paradise Beach in Cozumel, it was nice and had a large beach, but NO TOWELS!!!

 

We went to Tapas in Costa Maya, the food was great both places.

 

We liked Costa Maya better, Cozumel could have been Florida or any other place, Costa Maya still feels like Mexico. I am sure in 10 years Costa Maya will feel like Cozumel, sadly. Costa Maya does not have snorkel equipment, etc. DH went out in a kayak at PB.

 

We had our 3 year old daughter with us. The beach at PB is much larger than Costa Maya, but that was the only significant difference from that perspective. She didn't care either way, she just loves the beach!

 

I think from an educational/authentic perspective, Costa Maya is where I would take my daughter to see another culture.

 

But, you will have a great time no matter what you decide! The beaches in Mexico were the best we experienced this trip!

[Lynda S]

Hpycrzn-

To go back to your original question on the which ruins to do, I too had the same dilema back in December. We love to poke around ruins, but really did not want to spend too much time getting there. So, even though the draw of Tulum was spectacular scenery, and many buildings that have been excavated; the drawback was the distance and the time to get there. And the fact that because of the distance and the time involved that we probably should book with the cruise tours to be safe was also a drawback for us; as I am becoming less enamoured with being herded off and on buses along with a tour guide that I never can hear (I wonder why cruise lines don't issue those small microphones to their guides?).

I hummed, I hawed and I sought advice on every board I could think of.

In the end we decided to do Cozumel as the diving/snorkeling day; and Chacchoben as the ruins, as they sounded (and are) so unspoiled, and so un-touristy. (well, almost,depending on how many ships are in port).

I do not regret our choice. Chacchoben is a wonderful place. It didn't seem over run with tourists on buses, even though I did see 4 or 5 in the parking lot. It has a real 'jungle' atmosphere about it (probably because it IS in the jungle!) which to me, is more of what I imagined a Mayan ruin was like. In my reading and researching I read that Tulum was an exception to be built on the coast as opposed to the jungle.

Your daughter will love to explore these ruins, even though she cannot climb the temple steps, she can run up and down the steps at the Gran Basmento as much as her energy will allow her to do - I couldn't handle the climb as it is just as big a climb as the temple, but my son and his friends said the view was fabulous up there.

The only thing I would do different is I would not take the independent 'transportation' that we did from behind the building at the pier, I would hire a private guide/tour agent. The van that took us there only let us have an hour there, which is NOT time enough to explore - you need at least 2 hours. Also our driver didn't say a word there or back, yet he spoke perfect English. And, there were no guides available for hire at the time while there, and as I understand it, there are none available for hire at all there now.

 

So if I could do it all over again, I would go to this website and hire a private guide/tour company - their prices are only $3.00 more than what I paid for just a 'quiet ride'.

 

http://www.chacchobenruins.com/wst_page8.html

 

The guides from this tour company are all local guides - one of them grew up in a house that is on the site of the ruins. Talk about a great backyard to have to play in!

 

Ask them to drop you in Majahaul on the return trip and stop and have a drink at any of the bars on the beach - even if you only have an hour, your daughter will love it, playing in the water and on the beach while you sip on wonderful tropical drinks watching her.

 

And then, now that you have the ruins day done, go to the Cozumel board and explore the possibilities of an all day 'beach/water' day there! We snorkeled and dove with Eagle Ray (loved them - they were great - set up prior over the internet), but I saw Paradise Beach the week before when I was there for a cooking class next door on Playa Mia Beach, and it looked great! I think your daughter would have loads of fun climbing on the 'ice mound' in the water.

 

Let us know what you do and how you liked it!

[rxphilip]

Did you here any comments from fellow passengers who took the "ship excursion" to the ruins? I am wondering how the ships tour compares to the independent tour. I will be on a RCCL ship. Has anyone taken their tour?

[Lynda S]

No, actually I didn't speak to anyone who was on the tour for the ship. I saw a few tour groups there thought - it looked as though there was about 30 - 40 people per bus load - they are the full size buses.

Just the size of the group alone is what I like to get away from - you can't go wrong on a smaller tour with a smaller group I say!

[Divetex]

Whatever you do in Cozumel, don't waste your money on a trip to the San Gervasio ruins on the island. Total waste of money, IMHO. If you want to see Mayan ruins, go to Tulum or Itchy Chicken/Chicken Pizza.