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divematt

divematt

Contributor
Messages
606
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Location
Port Orange, Florida
# of dives
500 - 999
After 7 days of diving, my girlfriend wants to go see some of the ruins on our last day before coming home. Where would any of you who have been there consider going for a full day between these choices or combinations if possible? Tulum Xel-Ha, Tulum Coba, Chichen Itza. I only know that Chichen Itza is far, and that Tulum Xel-Ha has a beach. I know nothing else. Is the Coba trip worth it over the Xel-Ha if you do the Tulum trip with it? Is Chichen Itza worth the extra time in getting there? Thanks in advance for the help of those who have been to these places.

Matt
 
IMHO, here are your options in decreasing order:

1. Chichen Itza - a huge Mayan city, fully restored and worthwhile seeing. You will need to fly - there's a daily charter from Cozumel.

2. Coba - a large ruin, only partially excavated - impressive. You can get there via the ferry to PDC and a bus. Take a swimsuit.

3. Tulum - a very small ruin; but in a spectacular place, on the water. Tulum was occupied when the Spanish showed up. Xel-Ha is a water park.
 
divematt:
After 7 days of diving, my girlfriend wants to go see some of the ruins on our last day before coming home. Where would any of you who have been there consider going for a full day between these choices or combinations if possible? Tulum Xel-Ha, Tulum Coba, Chichen Itza. I only know that Chichen Itza is far, and that Tulum Xel-Ha has a beach. I know nothing else. Is the Coba trip worth it over the Xel-Ha if you do the Tulum trip with it? Is Chichen Itza worth the extra time in getting there? Thanks in advance for the help of those who have been to these places.

Matt
Click to expand...

I don't know if I count here...but I'll tell you what I think :)

I've been to them all and my personal favorites are Coba and Tulum. Chitzen Itza is amazing, but more enjoyable if you have a couple of days to take your time getting there and enjoying it.

Chitzen-Itza (aka: Chicken pizza)
My recommendation is to go over the day before, rent a car and drive to Chitzen-itza. Stay in the Mayaland hotel right at the ruins and explore the ruins early the next day before all of the busses get there. About eleven or noonish, head back to playa del Carmen and either get a room and stay overnight, or spend the afternoon in Playa del Carmen before heading back to Coz.

Coba-Tulum
This is a great day-trip. Head over on the 7:00 or 8:00 ferry and you can either take the bus, or rent a car. If doing the Coba-Tulum combo, I definitely recommend a car rental. You'll be able to stay on your own schedule and it's a nice easy drive. Coba is actually in the jungle and has shade, Tulum has no shade anywhere really, but has a really nice little beach area and a great Ocean vista. You can hire guides in each place or you can walk around on your own, which is the way I do it. I have a really nice guide book about Tulum that I bought here at the museum, so I was able to just educate myself as I walked through at my liesure. the is a very economical and enjoyable day trip. You could easily do this day for less than $100 for the two of you with a rental car.

Tulum/Xel-Ha
This is another great day trip. When my Mom came to visit last time, we did this. We actually went over to PDC the night before and stayed in a fancy shmancy hotel so I could be a tourist for a day...haha. We had a really nice dinner in PDC at "The Glass Bar" which was superb. We started early the next morning, rented a car and were on the road by 8:00 to Tulum. we got to Tulum about 9:00 and spent about two hours there. Then we headed to Xel-Ha. They have different entry options. We elected to do the all-inclusive plan since we had the whole day to spend there. We decided it would be more economical for us by the time we bought lunch, water, soft drinks, rented the "river" floats, etc. I think it was $65 each to get in which was a little high, but not really much more than the other options and actually cheaper in the long-run. Xel-Ha was very touristy, but there's alot to do and I really enjoyed the day there. We snorkeled, laid in the sun for awhile, went down to the beach area for awhile, and did the "river" float which was fun.

Anyway, I hope that helps and gives you some of the information you were looking for.
 
I visited them all (and many many more) on a 2 week vacation last fall. 1st week was just driving around, visiting different ruins (16) on the peninsula. 2nd week was diving out of PDC (Playa del Carmen). You can't really go wrong with any of these places, except maybe Xel-Ha. (Xel-Ha is an eco-park, and I think Xcaret is much better.) There's pretty good descriptions of Chichen Itza, Tulum and Coba on this site: http://www.mayasites.com/sitelist1.html

My impressions-
Chichen Itza: Wonderfully restored ruin, that has been cleared of jungle, allowing perspective. A whole day here can be fun. But it is about 2 hours from Cancun, and a little more from PDC. The road from PDC is nice, but not an easy straight shot, like the one from Cancun. Many bus tours run to this site, which can be nice to sleep on your way to/from, but that means it gets crowded, especially after 10am. If you drive on your own, I would suggest visiting the Dzitnup Cenote as well (not the cenote in Valladolid, but the one outside of town).

Coba: An enormous site. I would suggest renting bicycles once you get inside to see all of it. Much of the jungle hasn't been cleared, so it can be difficult to get a feel for the site as a whole. It was hard driving here, as I passed so many tempting divable cenotes on the way.

Tulum: Beautiful, on the beach, with little shade. Compared to the others, it is very small, but also very picturesque. Most of the pictures of ruins near the water come from this site. This can also get very crowded, as it's an easy day trip from just about everywhere tourists vacation (PDC, Cancun, Akumal).

My suggestion: take the ferry to PDC and go to Tulum in the morning. After Tulum, come back to PDC and have a nice lazy afternoon shopping and visiting the restaurants/bars. PDC is an awesome town, and there's TONS of stuff to do there. This will give you a good taste for the area, so you can determine how soon you want to go back!

I've seen all of these places very recently, so feel free to PM me with any questions.
Mike
 
Another option is to visit the ruins at San Gervasio (spelling?) on Cozumel. These ruins aren't in the same class as Chichen Itza and the others, but are definitely worthwhile. Some of the painted plaster is still evident in some of the structures.
 
In my opinion nomatter what you decide,after 7 days of diving you'll probably bag the idea of ruins at the last minute.
 
jlyle:
IMHO, here are your options in decreasing order:

1. Chichen Itza - a huge Mayan city, fully restored and worthwhile seeing. You will need to fly - there's a daily charter from Cozumel.

2. Coba - a large ruin, only partially excavated - impressive. You can get there via the ferry to PDC and a bus. Take a swimsuit.

3. Tulum - a very small ruin; but in a spectacular place, on the water. Tulum was occupied when the Spanish showed up. Xel-Ha is a water park.
Click to expand...


The flights from Cozumel to Chitzen-Itza have been discontinued. I am not sure if/when they will resume.
 
Valladolid is a nice little town to spend the night in if you want to see Chichen Itza; you can easily bus there from playa in the afternoon (or drive in the evening) and it's very close to Chichen.
 
divematt:
After 7 days of diving, my girlfriend wants to go see some of the ruins on our last day before coming home. Where would any of you who have been there consider going for a full day between these choices or combinations if possible? Tulum Xel-Ha, Tulum Coba, Chichen Itza. I only know that Chichen Itza is far, and that Tulum Xel-Ha has a beach. I know nothing else. Is the Coba trip worth it over the Xel-Ha if you do the Tulum trip with it? Is Chichen Itza worth the extra time in getting there? Thanks in advance for the help of those who have been to these places.

Matt
Click to expand...

It's not clear where your are diving for 7 days... But we spent maybe 4 days in the Tulum area diving cenotes last fall. We were like 5 miles north of Tulum (Tankah Bay) and we knocked that site (Tulum) off in about 1/2 hour (but we can do epcot in about 2 hours :-) ). If your 7 days of diving are in Cozumel and you are going to the mainland to kill a day, check out the centoes and skip the ruins (imho).
 
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