Playa del Carmen is a popular tourist destination in Mexico with beautiful beaches and a wide range of activities for visitors. Additionally, the Xcaret, Xenses, Chichen Itza, and Xel-Há theme parks are must-see places on your visit. At Xcaret, you can explore Mexican culture and the natural beauty of the Yucatan Peninsula, while Xenses is a sensory adventure park. Chichen Itza is an impressive Mayan archaeological site, and Xel-Há is a water theme park that offers snorkeling, swimming with dolphins, and other exciting water activities. In summary, if you're looking for a complete experience of adventure, culture, history, and natural beauty, you can't miss these incredible theme parks in Playa del Carmen.
Posted By : U5769MGdanielt
I picked this tour after strongly considering doing a all-inclusive resort since the price of those with travel ticket was just so damn alluring. On the other hand I was afraid I'd just drink and eat myself silly most of the days and feel really run down. Whereas I really wanted to go and visit the Mayan Riviera area and not just get all effed up at a resort. So when I saw this tour pop up on my screen and not to mention the description details of each day's events really hit the spot, I was pretty excited and ready to rock and roll.
First, the hotel. I wrote a detailed review in the Wyndham garden playa del Carmen hotel section, but to summarize: it was okay but not great. I wish wish it had been a lot closer to the ocean and even though about a 15-minute walk away it was a world away I felt. And I hate not being able to open the windows it just makes the air quality of the room poor. Still the main part about the hotel was a place to sleep at night because I'd be so busy with one day after another after another for most of the adventure. And so it was definitely good enough in that respect.
The xenses tour: I did not really enjoy that. As a Solo traveler and an adult it really kind of sucked for me. The city they built so that it looks like you're walking uphill but you're actually walking downhill was by far the coolest part but that's actually a very small part of the entire experience. It was pretty boring for me overall and I left with about an hour and a half to spare and ended up buying an expensive beer or two at the cafeteria to pass the time. And head to the parking lot to watch the iguanas but gosh they really don't like humans and you can't even get very close to them at all.
The next day I believe was the main theme park of xcaret. The place is huge. It was a level up from my enjoyment of the previous day as there was more to see and it was more chill at the same time. One thing I was really disappointed in was the level of money extraction a place like this had. Only basic activities are actually included in the ticket price and anything really fun costs about $100 US per activity. Kind of good and bad that day there was too much wind for most of the activities to happen so that stopped me from both having to decide and spending a ton of money that I really didn't want to spend anyways. I ended up swimming with the stingray for a little while and that was kind of neat. As far as snorkeling goes cuz they do advertise that it's this tiny little lagoon area with a million people in it all doing the same thing. Not my idea of a snorkeling experience. The night show offered was quite amazing and very very well done.
The next morning's tour started damn early honestly I wasn't expecting so early when I booked this tour as the times weren't ever mentioned to me ahead of time. Anyways it was for the trip to Chechen itza. Not that it's the tour's fault but Chechen itza is a photo taking tourist trap of a million vendors wanting to sell use all the same thing. I didn't like it at all. And the tour guides while very friendly and actually speak English pretty well are not sharing the cool esoteric information ancient alien kind of stuff that I'm into. So I ended up wandering around for a little while bought a couple of souvenirs and that's about it. I wouldn't go back to that. Then we went to a cenote which would have been cool if there wasn't a thousand people in it and a lifeguard making sure that everyone kept their life jacket on and so there was basically nothing to do in the cenote. Then afterwards we went to dinner and frankly the buffet was pretty damn good and was the best part of the experience. That and being able to drink beer provided on the bus. I love that.
The final main tour day the all inclusive water park thing I'd say overall I had a good time at. It helps when you have enough alcohol I guess provided. I did the dolphin thing which was 40% off that day I don't think I would have done it if it was at full price. But anyways yay the dolphins. And a couple of cool water activities. But the lines for getting drinks were long and the lines to get in to the restaurants were ridiculous so a good chunk of my day was just being in lines. If it wasn't for the lineups this would have been my favorite park by far.
And that's about the end of the tour. I'd say for about the 900 bucks I spent total on the tour not including all the extras when you pass through the gates that they make you want to pay, it was a really good deal. Even with the hotel that I found I would have rather have paid more to get closer to the beach action and that all these tours were very very oriented towards basic tourists people with families things like that the furthest thing from being off the beaten path extremely manufactured and to me somewhat disturbing in that way, I'd recommend it for people with families or couples who really don't want to do any bushwacking or actual adventures but just want things handed to them in an easy to consume manner. Thank you
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-03-22 23:49:13 
