Site to see w/ 5 hour private tour driver

[Sir_Randy]

I am looking at hiring a driver for either just the 2 of us or a van with 6 people for 5 hours. I thought about doing the Bar Hop but want more than bars.

Looking for a combinations of bars, nature, views, some shopping, ruins, lunch outside overlooking ocean.

Looking for input/suggestions along with stay away from's, from others that have created their own private tour.

Some places that I have found that might be promising are:

 

Stop at grocery to get some cold beverages for the van

Punta Sur

San Gervasio Ruins

El Mirador

Playa Bonita

An East Shore restaurant with no electricity (no name mentioned)?

Coconuts

El Mercado for vanilla

 

Skip Tequila Factory, Chocolate Factory, El Cedral

 

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experiences!

[CENTEX CRUISER]

We were on the east side last time..Really pretty there and no people..Click on link at bottom for other photo

 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

 

 

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/832/sany2247.jpg/

[Laughing Angel]

Check out this Cruise Critic thread: Hiring a driver for the day. It talks about several drivers on the island and offers many recent recommendations. You'll also hear about some of the more popular stops cruisers like to visit. It's a long thread, so you might want to skip ahead to the last 6 or 7 pages to get the general gist. This is an excellent way to design the tour you'd like.

 

The last time we were in Cozumel, my family hired a driver (there were 9 of us in an air conditioned van) and it was a blast. Our driver was well versed in the history and culture of Cozumel and spoke very good English. We took a brief tour through San Miguel, then on to San Gervasio, several stops on the east side of the island (for drinks, snacks and photo ops), then on to Paradise Beach for a couple of hours before heading back to town for some quick souvenir shopping. We'd do it again in a heartbeat.

 

Good luck with your plans!

[Sir_Randy]

Thanks for the pic, the ideas and the link to the other thread. I picked a couple places off that thread to go with some of what I picked from other threads, and will put a list together and post again here. 5 hours seems like along time, but some say they run out of time before they get to everything.

One thing I will cut out is a sit down dinner/lunch, we are more into grab a cold beverage at a bar and an appetizer and move on.

Possible stops are:

Grocery to put some beverages in the cooler

Rasta's

San Gervaso ruins which appear to be on the way to East Shore?

Coconuts

El Mirador

Mezcalitos Bar and Grill

Playa Bonita

Punta Sur (lighthouse)

Stop to get vanilla?

[Laughing Angel]

Sir_Randy, our tour took about 5 hours and the time just seemed to fly by. We took the clockwise route, so we did a little circuit around town first, then headed out to San Gervasio (spent about an hour there), then on to the east side of the island. Stopped at Chen Rio, Señor Iguana's, Mezcalitos, El Mirador, etc., skipped the lighthouse and then to PB. Made it back downtown just before a big (but brief) downpour, so we ducked in and out of some shops for souvenirs and vanilla before going back to the ship.

 

We had a lot of fun on our tour--hope you do too!

[#1TravelMom]

Definately contact Crescensio Lopez. He is a great driver - sooo friendly. He will take you where you'd like to go and stay with you for the entire day for a great price. We just love having a driver for the day. Crescencio is great!!! Contact him - he will get right back to you. reslopez41955@hotmail.com

[mdgcruiser]

I am interested in going to basically only 2 places in Cozumel - San Gervaso ruins and a beach (probably Paradise Beach). Although seeing a couple quick sites along the way would be nice, I don't know if that is enough to justify the expense of a driver for the day. Does anyone know if taking taxis to these places is reasonably priced? Also, is it safe enough to just hail down a cab? We are 2 adults and 5 kids.

[maldenmusic]

Went to San Gervasio last June and there really aren't a lot of ruins there and the ones that are aren't large or spectacular. It's a jungle like area with tons of mosquitos-in spite of using mosquito spray we ended up with several bites. It is north of the tranverse road and then down a semi-paved road quite a long way.