Excursion - Mayan Ruins at Tulum Review

[alliet10]

It was hard to find a review for this trip when we were planning it, so here is my review of it for those interested.

 

We took the Carnival excursion for this tour as we didn’t want to risk not making it back to our ship on time and missing the boat! We were met right at the dock in Cozumel around 1:30 pm and were ushered onto the ferry to go to the mainland, Playa del Carmen. I was very worried about this ferry as I tend to get very seasick and spent the morning dosing up on bomine and wearing my seabands around. I’d read some terrible reviews of this ferry ride and was very nervous. Our trip was a little wavy, but overall a very enjoyable boat ride! We even got to see some dolphins jumping through our wake. Towards the end I did stand up and that helps with the waves. I suggest sitting in the back on the upper deck outside. Once on the mainland, we were again met by our tour guide who led us directly through the streets to an air conditioned tour bus, there were about 20 in our group in total from our ship, so the bus wasn’t crowded at all. The bus ride was about an hour total, 7 minutes before we arrived at the ruins site, we did stop at a tacky souvenir “mega-store”, for lack of a better word. Tons of Mexican crafts and such were inside along with some clean bathrooms. Definitely use the bathrooms there. I felt like the tour guide wasted a lot of our time yakking about this stupid store and how we should buy our stuff there because it was “real” as opposed to stuff outside the ruins, what a waste of our time, I just wanted to get to the ruins! We bought some snacks and got back on the bus.

Once at the ruins, we followed our guide into the site, about a ½ mile walk down a road to the actual ruins entrance, some people took the trolley for $2 round trip, it wasn’t really necessary unless you have trouble walking. I was really excited to get inside the ruins and immediately wanted to run around and look at stuff, BUT our guide had other ideas. He immediately planted us in the back of one of the buildings on the grass and started laboring on about some questionably accurate history. I think he was enjoying himself though. We finally moved to another location, this time BEHIND a ruin blocking out all the other sites so we couldn’t see ANYTHING where he blathered on about human sacrifices, again with historical inaccuracy. Some of the red-necks on our tour were ooing and ahhing over the sacrifice stuff, but we were just getting annoyed and wanting to spend our time seeing things. We then broke off away from the group and went to see the sites by ourselves. We took tons of pictures and even went down to the water. The steps down to the water were pretty scary, even for me, make sure you have good footing and a good hold on the railings. The water was too rough to swim and the guard wouldn’t allow us in the water, but we put our feet in and it was warm. We headed back up and saw a few more things, then headed back out. We tried to go to the bathroom, but trust me, you’ll probably want to wait until you get back on the bus or even your ship. The bathroom I found was not usable by my standards. We browsed at the shops, a lot of jewelry and stuff with some very motivated salesmen and women, we didn’t buy anything though.

Back on the tour bus, we had a bag of chips and a water along with a welcome wet towel, it was very humid. The ride back was again about an hour. We got on the ferry in the dark and headed back to our ship, again, we sat outside on the upper deck and were fine. All in all, a long day but worth it if you’re into that stuff. I was happy as a clam to finally see the ruins. Don’t expect any extra time to do anything else, we got back to Cozumel and our ship around 9pm for a 9:30 pm all on board.

Final thoughts: Don’t be one of the idiots disrespecting the site! Some idiot woman somehow decided that the fence blocking off an access point to the water didn’t apply to her and literally climbed over it to head down to the water. She was prompting whistled at by the guards and made to walk back. She acted like the fence was somehow putting her out. This is an archeological site, don’t be stupid! Stay outside of the fenced in areas and don’t lead against the ruins themselves, they are timeless! Most of the ruins you could not get close to, which was probably a good thing with all the disrespectful morons walking around. Read up on your history before visiting the site, pretty sure some of the guides had no idea what they were talking about. Wear lots of sunblock and a hat for shade, bring some water and comfortable shoes.

[amocksun]

I'm really glad you posted this!

 

I've been all over the place reading, and asking questions, trying to figure out what to do with my time in Cozumel. We're doing Carnival and have the same schedule- 1-10. I want to book soon because I heard that these Mayan excursions fill up fast.

 

Here's my dilemma, and maybe you can help me. I am going back to school to major in archaeology. Seeing ancient ruins is about the most fascinating thing in the world to me-that's the reason we picked the cruise that stopped in Cozumel. I was excited about San Gervasio-until I saw the pic of Tulum. Wow. I figured I'd book it right away, but I haven't yet, I'm still holding back.

 

See, this is our honeymoon, and we already have a child, so we've never had a real vacation alone. Some time at one of these beach parties with an open bar, floats and kayaks sounds so relaxing and honeymoonish, you know? But Tulum- I don't want to regret not seeing it. And if we were there a full day then I would no questions asked. But I'm pretty sure we won't have time for anything else if we do Tulum-again that would be acceptable if we could swim there, or snorkel, or had a lot of time to walk around the ruins. But it almost feels like 7 hours will feel like a chore, if 3.5 of that is traveling there. Is the time you're actually there worth it?

 

So keeping in mind: I LOVE archaeology and it's been a dream to see a real site. Tulum is beautiful. There are smaller ruins on Cozumel island too, though. This is our honeymoon. We don't care anything about shopping really.

 

What should we do? Spend the day on Tulum? Or try to see the sites on Cozumel and still go to a beach party?

[alliet10]

It was definitely an all day excursion, you will not have time to attend any of these "beach parties" you talk about afterwards, which to attend you would have to pay for anyways via a second excursion since there aren't really any random beach parties just going on right off the dock. You'd have to pay for another excursion and be taken to one of these "parties" on the beach, or at least take a taxi and pay an entrance fee.

 

Do your research, I took a look at a few pictures of San Gervasio and knew it wasn't what I wanted to see, they are literally mostly piles of rocks. I love history and archeology and probably would have liked to see these too if I had time, but Tulum is just too tempting. Honestly, the boat ride over and back offers Coronas and the bus ride wasn't bad and went by quickly. You will have time to swim at the ruins, but again, sometimes they don't allow you in because the water can get VERY rough. Not to mention I would rather spend my time looking at the ruins then down at a beach, you can swim on a beach anywhere.

 

My final thought, I think it would be stupid to waste a day in Mexico partying on the beach when you have actual culture to experience so nearby, especially if you're into that. You'll have plenty of time to party on the boat.

[amocksun]

Thanks. I am definitely into history and culture, and generally spend hours a day reading about ruins and ancient cultures.

 

It's just the more that I think about it, a beach party sounds so fun. I've never been to the beach as a free adult-I've been as a child with my parents and as an adult (once, 7 years ago) with my daughter. My fiance has only been once when he was 8. Who knows when the next time we'll get to go to the beach, much less just us. And those parties have kayaks, floats, water tampolines...it sounds so fun.

 

Really I just want to be able to do both lol.

[hawkshoe]

It was definitely an all day excursion, you will not have time to attend any of these "beach parties" you talk about afterwards, which to attend you would have to pay for anyways via a second excursion since there aren't really any random beach parties just going on right off the dock. You'd have to pay for another excursion and be taken to one of these "parties" on the beach, or at least take a taxi and pay an entrance fee.

 

Do your research, I took a look at a few pictures of San Gervasio and knew it wasn't what I wanted to see, they are literally mostly piles of rocks. I love history and archeology and probably would have liked to see these too if I had time, but Tulum is just too tempting. Honestly, the boat ride over and back offers Coronas and the bus ride wasn't bad and went by quickly. You will have time to swim at the ruins, but again, sometimes they don't allow you in because the water can get VERY rough. Not to mention I would rather spend my time looking at the ruins then down at a beach, you can swim on a beach anywhere.

 

My final thought, I think it would be stupid to waste a day in Mexico partying on the beach when you have actual culture to experience so nearby, especially if you're into that. You'll have plenty of time to party on the boat.

 

San Gervasio is much more than piles of rocks. As a person who loves ruins I can tell you it is worth a visit. Yes, Tulum is much more impressive. It also involves much more time to get to from Cozumel. I think the poster would be happy at either site.