Loved our early private family tour of Chichen Itza! Wonderful private tour with our guide, Joshua, and driver, Enrique. From our perspective, the service and knowledge provided allows us the ease to soak in what you want to experience as they handle all logistics and expertise in subject matter. The tour was Chichen Itza and lunch/time in Valladolid. Even my older kids who hate getting…
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Loved our early private family tour of Chichen Itza!
Wonderful private tour with our guide, Joshua, and driver, Enrique. From our perspective, the service and knowledge provided allows us the ease to soak in what you want to experience as they handle all logistics and expertise in subject matter.
The tour was Chichen Itza and lunch/time in Valladolid.
Even my older kids who hate getting up early did say it was worth getting up early so we could enter and appreciate Chichen Itza before the massive crowds. We stayed in Playa del Carmen and our pick up time was 6:15am. There was a mix-up on where to meet as our hotel (Aloft) had the main lobby upstairs and one downstairs so I was worried that our guide wasn't in the lobby (as we had taken an Absolute Adventure tour earlier in the week and that person had met us there.) It might be worth reaffirming this with the company the day before if your hotel has different lobbies. However, after this, all went smoothly and there were no issues.
On the trip to Chichen Itza, we stopped for coffee and pastries. It was nice the gas station had a coffee machine that had an option for cappuccino and expresso.
Our family appreciated the opportunity to access Chichen Itza earlier before all the big tours and crowds and Joshua shared interesting stories and knowledge about the Mayan culture so we could learn an incredible depth of information about Chichen Itza. From our past experiences and in our opinion, guides make the difference in your experience of a place. Joshua's enthusiasm and knowledge shone through!
The most photographed structure is a Mayan calendar system. To hear it was built without metal tools and possibly with obsidian rock is fascinating. Joshua spoke in details about the different structures, and we gained an understanding about the Mayans' life and their incredible knowledge of astronomy. There were so many structures and symbols to learn about - including the ball court. There is an opportunity for your group to either continue learning more about the Mayans/Toltecs or if you would like to shop from the hundreds of vendors onsite. We chose to continue walking Chichen Itza and hearing more about the people who lived there at one point of history. I also liked being told that there are Mayans living in Mexico today.
As we walked out of Chichen Itza to the parking lot, we passed many vendors with their table of wares. Often, vendors would blow on a jaguar "whistle" and the sound would always startle me a bit. I think the vendors are mostly Mayans. Joshua shared that tourism is one of the top 3 industries in Mexico (agricultural goods is another and can't remember the last one). If I was someone who collected "stuff," I probably would have taken some time to purchase something from one of those local vendors.
Valladolid was interesting to see as it has a colonial Spanish feel. Lunch was very good and in lovely restaurant that seemed popular with locals - as it was not close to the main square/church. The menu offered a nice variety of options. After lunch, Enrique drove us to the main square and Joshua did share some ideas of things we could do including a Museum of Chocolate. I think if you had an idea of what you would like to do, then you could request more time. As we didn't have something in mind, we walked through the church and wandered a few streets before getting some ice-cream.
Thank you, Joshua, for being our guide and sharing your knowledge in such a way that it was engaging, inviting and fun! We also want to acknowledge Enrique for his skills as as driver and managing the snacks/drinks! They were committed to our experience and contributed to all loving Chichen Itza.
Absolute Adventure Mexico was easy to work with in booking the trip, timely with thorough communications (email and What's App) and exceeded our expectations!
