Fun, funny, not rushed, worth it - It was an amazing experience and very informative and fun. Cento was lots of fun, chichin itza was breath taking

The great experience to Chichen Itza! - The information about Mayan culture was amazing. The guide did such a good job taking beautiful pics of the group, providing us with valuable and interesting information, answering our questions. Great memories!!

I’m so sorry, we just can’t with this one. - It was, in fact, a 16 hour day. Come on Viator. We booked this tour in 2021 and gave a 5 star review. But looking back, it was with a different tour operator and this is (now I know) a solid distinction to consider: research the tour operator, as Viator is only the booking company. This itinerary has FOUR stops (not 3 as states in the booking description). Our itinerary order was also different from the booking description and different than the itinerary I asked specifically about via WhatsApp the night before. For example, we were told Cenote swim first so we showed up in our swimwear. Turns out it was first a Mayan “village” that was not on the itinerary (with lunch, which was), then Chichen Itza, then Cenote then Villiodad. So we showed up in our swimwear and had to wear that all day. Ok I guess, but wanted to share for others who are considering this tour to be ready for anything…Including a 5 hour hot (nice bus but the AC couldn’t keep up!) bus ride to the Mayan village. This is not an exaggeration. 2 hours to pick up others from all the hotels then another 3 to the Mayan Village. When we finally arrived we were STARVING but before we could eat we had to learn about Mayan shamanism, (and they did “readings” on crowd members) which was cool except it was more of a way for them to sell some of their gift shop pieces so it was hard to fully “believe”. While it was very awkward we purchased our “relic” we were presented with during the ritual because they were indeed pretty and it supports the local economy. But we were hot, starving, and then went through a gift shop (where several other attempts to sell us things were had) before we were all brought to a small room with cocoa powder tasting. Not a whole lot of interest from anyone in our group in anything other than food at this point :) Pro tip: if you want us to spend more money FEED US FIRST :) Then we are happy and feeling less rushed and more likely to buy! At the lunch: remember drinks aren’t included. You cannot drink your own water (they make you put your water bottles out of sight!). Fruit juice was about $8USD each and you could also buy water and alcohol. The food was great! But this really wasn’t a Mayan village-more like a gift shop with a buffet and we feel like it wasn’t of value and made the day longer than it needed to be. If they keep this stop on the tour PLEASE FEED US then do all the sales stuff! Then Chichen Itza was right down the road which was super cool. We arrived around 1:45 and had until 3:50 to explore which is plenty of time. The Cenote was beautiful and it was about 4:30 by the time we got there. There were no crowds, just our bus of 50 people since the Cenote park closed at 5:00. Then on to Villiodad and since we only had 20 min (standard for the tour) we divided and conquered to grab our dinner and other near vendor goodies before the 5 hour bus ride to our hotel (no kidding we arrived at 11pm!). We felt all day like it took forever to actually get going on this tour and then we always felt like surely we were like an hour late all day. We spent 10 hours just driving. Yes we were out at Vidanta but I’ve been with other tour operators who divide and conquer little vans for pick up from the different areas and all meet at the bus. This approach on this tour was just likely to save money but added SO MUCH BHS TIME for the customers. We had 2 tour guides. One who could speak English and the other who only spoke Spanish. The tour was about half and half the languages. In the beginning they did a great job speaking both languages for all of us but later it was Spanish only. So we missed whatever might have been said about the culture etc. I feel terrible giving bad reviews but we would never do this tour again, as it was inefficient and just all around strange and not the best use of our vacation day (and we loved the one in 2021 which didn’t include the Mayan “village” extra stop but instead efficient, amazing Mayan lunch at the cenote). What’s really weird is you’re riding around on a bus for almost the first 3 hours without any of the guides even saying anything about the day, not telling you what to expect or what’s happening until about 3 hours in. When will we arrive? Why is it so hot? Etc. Communication is EVERYTHING. And it was terribly lacking. What a bummer. Our family remained upbeat and covered the “what the heck is happening” moments with jokes rather than cynicism but boy! Never again. Yikes.

Nope - The bus never came for me. It sucked. I won’t be buying with them anymore. That’s all I have to say.