Coba Tulum and Cenote

1116 reviews for Coba Tulum and Cenote

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Tracker66 – June 7, 2022

   Rossina was our guide and Toni was our photographer. Rossina was fantastic in her knowledge and friendliness. Interesting tour of Tulum, then really fun snorkeling offshore. Beautiful fish – however, be aware that the coral has been affected by warmer than normal water, so reportedly not as vibrant as a few years ago. The tour and swim through cenotes was amazing, very unique experience. The food at the end of the tour was great. Got very nice photos. Highly recommend.

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Tristan R – June 7, 2022

   We had a great day thanks to Valentina and the amazing team that took us on an action packed tour in the Riviera Maya. My family was thrilled with everything we did but the highlight was definitely seeing the cenotes and swimming through incredible caves.

   We started out being picked up at our resort by Valentina and our driver for the day. The van was great and we felt safe traveling from destination to destination. The first stop was to swim with sea turtles, and we lucked out and found 3 of them snacking away. The visibility in the water was amazing and made for some great snorkeling; we saw lots of coral, some calamari, rays and many schools of fish. The turtles were awesome and we got some great pictures!

   From there we visited the cenotes which were like swimming through another world. Amazing stalactites and the water was so refreshing… like a cool mineral bath! After a tasty lunch we explored more cenotes, this time on foot. The cenotes and caves were wonderful to explore.

   Our last stop was at the ruins in Tulum where we got to walk around the ancient city and here about the Mayan civilization and their advanced astrological belief system. This is a beautiful site overlooking the sea and the beautiful beach at Tulum.

   Valentina was an amazing guide and I really appreciated that she was so knowledgeable and respectful of the environments we were exploring. She made our 6-yr old son feel very safe and engaged. I’d highly recommend Valentina and the team at Ocean Tours to any travelers going to the Mayan Riviera!

3. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   hayziedaejon – June 7, 2022

   We went on this adventure in Dec 2017. It was awesome! Be aware it’s doesn’t feel organized and feels a bit rushed from time to time. They were about 20 minutes late picking us up from our hotel in Cancun around 6am. If you decide to put sunscreen on make sure you put it on when you’re still in the van before the ruins (or you can put it on when at the ruins, but you won’t have much time because right after the ruins we were to go snorkeling). If you have your own snorkeling gear it might be better than there gear. It doesn’t seal the best and everything does feel a bit dirty (but it’s rushed and you’re not snorkeling long.) Also note,we were not snorkeling for long and probably didn’t need to have sunscreen on in Dec but none of this is explained well. The sunscreen piece was frustrating because the guide said to put it on before the snorkeling but we were not aware of the time frame at each event and were not told this from the guide either. After the ruins and snorkeling we were taken to the centoes. Which were the best part and it felt not as rushed and more enjoyable. One thing to note here is the wet suits. DO NOT PUT THEM ON!! I ended up getting a massive rash that took over my entire body and had to get steroids for 7 days to get rid of the rash. I had asked the guide if they clean them and he said they did which turns out was a lie, because after I took it off they hung it up with all the “clean ones.” I was also told that I could not rinse off after taking the wet suit off which was frustrating. Bug spray helped fend off the bugs after the underwater cenote (before the above ground cenote). The guide was average as he was not very nice about the sunscreen or the wet suits. The pictures the photographer took were awesome throughout the entire trip! I would recommend this trip as long as you keep in mind the sunscreen piece and avoid the wet suits at all cost as the rash and steroids made for a bumpy rest of the vacation.

4. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   hebkram – June 7, 2022

   Nothing critical to say here. We got lucky with an outstanding guide, Mariano, who is passionate about his specialty in cenotes. This Argentinian played his role well which is merely a facilitator to enjoy the natural beauty of this region. Everything we saw left our mouths agape and in awe. Mariano has been a guide for many years and knows well how to keep his guests comfortable. Our family, of 5, including 3 boys, ages 9, 11, 13, felt like we had a friend tagging along with us who knows the places we were going to very well. We got lucky and had an awesome family as the other half of our group. The company did a good job of matching us or maybe it was just our random luck. Be prepared for long rides in the van. I was so pleased with this tour that I am having trouble staying organized as I write this to give you helpful information. We made one bathroom/breakfast stop before reaching our first destination, Akumel. Point: the company is organized and seem to communicate from different stops to tell each other where the crowds are, the ocean conditions for snorkeling, etc. so that the tour is customized to be the best accordingly. In our case, Akumel was best seen first. Our family was a little upset that we forgot our snorkel gear at home but the ones provided by the company did a fine job. Our guide also did a wonderful job at making sure that everyone’s gear was optimal and assured us that if it wasn’t he would change it. The visibility in the water was not very clear and I already read on Tripadvisior that the recently past reviewers did not see much wildlife so I was pleasantly surprised to find that we encountered 4 female green sea turtles and 2 sting rays. They basically take you through a path that is roped off in the water through some reef. It was healthy and filled with life. We returned our life vests and had a quick bathroom/shower break and were off to the jungle to visit the cenotes. The jungle ride is a little bumpy as mentioned but our driver, Jose, was very careful and slow treading those bumps. The cenotes are just a natural wonder to marvel. You cannot be disappointed by the nature. Again, our guide took us through the underground caves with ease and with ample time to enjoy. Point here : Because our guide is such a passionate environmentalist, he did not want us using mosquito repellent. The locals seem to have some kind of natural repellent also, because the mosquitoes sis not bother them. Repellent is a MUST in this jungle. Within minutes, our guide was convinced when he saw us being attacked and compassionately allowed us in secrecy to apply the repellent. And it did work. Another applaud to the company for customizing our lunch to meet our family’s dietary needs. The lunch was one of the best tasting (no exaggeration) meals I had in Mexico. Very simple, served on banana leaf, wholesome and natural. Best tasting cheese quesadilla I’ve had. We had ample time to enjoy the cenote swim and enjoyed this part of the tour very much. A short ride later we met Jorge at the Tulum ruins who would be our guide. Another passionate gentleman whose life revolves around the history of this region and the passion to educate others on it. This was a short tour through Tulum. It was rather rushed, which was fine in our case because its difficult to keep the kids interested in historic piles of rocks. They did well in that short time but much longer and we would have had some circuit shortages. The ruins were not crowded when we arrived, about an hour before closing time. I do wish we had more time to take photos or to visit the beach below. Our photographer departed with us at the end of our jungle adventure. The prices she gave us was much more than quoted by other reviewers here of tripadvisor. We arrived to our hotel exhausted at around 7pm after a gorgeous funfilled day. I want to take a minute to thank Ocean tours for their hospitality and well planned adventures.

5. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Elizabeth W – June 7, 2022

   Seeing the ruins, snorkeling, and swimming in the cenote were really great. I was disappointed by how short the time was for each of these activities. Maybe an hour was spent at each. A significant amount of time on this tour is spent riding between each place, which is inevitable. In addition, there was a thirty minute wait on the beach for the boat to go snorkeling. I should mention that half of the people in our group were children, which probably slowed things down.

   The walk through the jungle was a stroll down a very large gravel path. Not a jungle.

   Maybe I didn’t read the information closely enough, but these things were unclear to me:
   – What to wear? Bathing suit is suggested from the start. The order of activities is Tulum (dry), snorkeling (wet), “jungle”/cave walk (dry), swim in cenote (wet).
   – No sunscreen. Wear a shirt for snorkeling.
   – What shoes should be worn? Because the “jungle” walk was basically on a road, sandals would be fine.

   The “lunch” was delicious, but it happened after all of the activities around 4 pm. Everyone was extremely hungry, since the tour started around 8 am. I’m fine with skipping lunch, but we were all really hungry.

   I’m glad we did this tour, but I might try a different one in the future.