Suggestions for excursions in Riveria Maya

spartybride3

Hi-

We want to go on a couple day trips to see the ruins, etc but am looking for recommendations on who to go through. I'm sure our resort will have information, but am looking for other suggestions to compare prices. 

Thanks!

GustieRx

We went to Xel-Ha and booked through our resort- I'm guessing we could have gotten a better price booking elsewhere, but we felt more comfortable going through the resort because we knew we'd get where we needed to go and back without any problems.  We had a good time at Xel-Ha, but if we went back I think we'd do the Xplor next.

TravelingJen

My favorites included visiting Chichen Itza, horseback riding with Rancho Baaxal, visitng the spider monkey conservatory at The Jungle Place, cave tour with Rio Secreto, boat tour of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve with Cesiak, the ruins at Coba, and the ruins at Tulum.

MoonlightSilver

We did Xel-Ha, Xplor, Tulum and Chichen-Itza. I LOVED Xplor, it's a great place if you're into being active- ziplining and cave swimming and ATV driving. It's great. Xel-Ha was beautiful, we saw tons of fish while snorkling, including stingrays and baraccudas. Tulum was also fantastic, it's small enough that you can see everything in a few hours and there is a beach to swim at. I liked going to Chichen-Itza, but it was an all day trip and if I had to decide between two I probably would have just done Tulum. 

We booked on resort with Experiencias Xcaret. They have packages for buying multiple days (Xel-Ha, Xplor, Chichen-Itza). 

hz80408

We did Xplor and I am 50/50 on recommeding it to others.  We booked at our hotel via our Apple Vacation rep.  For ~$220 total we had transport, lunch and park admission.  The park has rafting, swimming through caves, ATVs and 2 ziplline courses.  We went through everything once and still had 3 hours to kill until our transportation came to get us.

We would have prefered to do a zipline/swim with dolphins excursions if we could go back in time.

I have a full review on my Ms. Bio under Honeymoon if you're interested.

MoonlightSilver

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_suggestions-for-excursions-in-riveria-maya?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:11Discussion:55673f71-6959-4fcb-ba51-47857321f169Post:cea54ea7-e832-4f99-b650-b6ac2687a7aa">Re: Suggestions for excursions in Riveria Maya</a>:
[QUOTE]We did Xplor and I am 50/50 on recommeding it to others.  We booked at our hotel via our Apple Vacation rep.  For ~$220 total we had transport, lunch and park admission.  The park has rafting, swimming through caves, ATVs and 2 ziplline courses.  We went through everything once and still had 3 ours to kill until our transportation came to get us. We would have prefered to do a zipline/swim with dolphins excursions if we could go back in time. I have a full review on my Ms. Bio under Honeymoon if you're interested.
Posted by hz80408[/QUOTE]

<div>I'm amazed you were able to get all of that done so fast! We drove ATVs twice, rafted once, did the shorter length cave swim (5 minutes instead of 35), had lunch, and did one zipline course, and ran out of time. I wish we had time to go back and do the second zipline as well as the longer cave swimming. </div>

dazyabbey

We did Xplor, Xel-Ha and Xcaret. Xplor and Xcaret are very touristy. They gear towards Americans and that can be a good thing and a bad thing. We took public transportation to everything so we could get there and leave on our own time. (Collectivo's, they pick up and drop off along the main highway that goes from Cancun to Tulum. It was a 5 minute walk from our resort)

Xplor: I really enjoyed Xplor though for the fact that there was so much to do and it was really a lot of action packed fun. Make sure the day you go is nice out because if it is hot you will be miserable waiting in line at the zip lines. My husband really enjoyed the 4x4 that goes into some water. That was a lot of fun. The caves were super creepy because he turned out the head lights one time. Sooo dark! (Reminded me of The Descent if you have ever seen that movie). My favorite part was the snorkeling/swimming under water part because at one point it opens up into one of the bases of the zip lines and it is just a huge waterfall. It was so pretty and neat for a picture opportunity if you have a waterproof camera (recommend!).


Xel-Ha is by far my favorite. It was so much more realistic and is much more spread out. They have this huge lake/inlet from the ocean that is full of fish and you can just swim around and snorkel and see all of the fish. It was an amazing experience. There is also a cliff you can jump off of. There are animals around the park that are just running around. It was a really cool experience. They also have extras which you can pay to swim with the dolphins and a few other things. Almost everything else was included. We spent most of the day here but ended up leaving around 3/4 because we were tired. You could have spent the rest of the day there too and not experienced everything.

Xcaret: Xcaret was my least favorite. My favorite part about it though is the fact that it had all sorts of animals and almost like a natural zoo feeling. I loved the giant turtles. I mean they were Huge! Haven't seen a turtle that big since or before. It was a little more crowded then the other two and much smaller. The night show is supposed to be amazing but we were tired and wanted to take a nap back at the resort and go out into Playa that night so we ended up leaving a little early again. There was still much that we didn't do so I am sure you could spend the entire day there.

We had a great time and these parks were a great experience. We ended up getting a great deal and got all three parks for like $199 or something per person. Seems kind of expensive but it was a ton of fun and it really encorporated a lot of what we wanted to do in the area. I would probably have skipped either Xcaret or Xel-Ha because they are really similar in nature. Instead take a trip to some ruins like Tulum.
Good luck and have fun. Mexico is really amazing!

spartybride3

Thank you! Did you book these through a specific company or your hotel??

dazyabbey

I booked mine through their website.
This website has all three for $195 a person:
http://www.cancuntoday.net/parks/parks_xcaret_xelha_xplor_xperience.php

But I had booked it through this website when I did it:
http://en.xcaretexperiencias.com/xperience.php?camid=

Also I forgot to mention, Xel-Ha has an open bar for all guests. It was really nice for my husband because he had all he could drink Corona's!