Fixed to Travel: Visit Chichen Itzá from Tulum on a Shuttle Tour | 2019

Visit Chichen Itza…Check! Ancient Aliens dreams come true…check!

Where are my fellow Ancient Aliens fans? I know you’re out there! How many of you are planning on storming Area 51? Such foolishness! Us true alien aficionados know that all the good stuff is already relocated (underground no less) to more secure, less known about bases. Whatever, back to Chichen Itza. You guys this was an epic day trip, not just because of the AA relations but because this is legit one of the seven wonders of the world, whether aliens were involved in the creation or not it’s a bucket list trip. Being there was unreal. Also, there weren’t nearly as many tourists as I was expecting, so that was nice. Figuring out the trip was a breeze, sort of, I looked on a few different sites before settling on the Viator tour. Read on for my experience, pros and cons.

First a couple of the pros:

I loved not having to worry about getting from one site to the next. We were told what time to be back on the bus and besides that the ride was out of our hands. I couldn’t imagine trying to navigate from place to place, in a foreign country, with spotty internet on my cell. Hard pass on that. Doing the shuttle was a no-brainer.

Cost effective AF. For a little under $100 you’re picked up, shuttled to three sites, a restaurant with buffet included and home all while being taught fun facts along the way. Did I mention this is around 10-12 hours of your day? This isn’t a one-foot-in-one-foot-out type of excursion. You have to commit. Oh, but once you get your mind wrapped around the fact that you will spend your day doing that, you actually start to have fun.

& some Cons:

Not everyone follows directions, so after spending time at the first stop we literally drove around the city center for about 10 minutes waiting on two girls who were late getting back to the bus. So annoying!

The tour guide situation wasn’t the absolute best. First the one on the actual bus who explains details about the tour and the three stops didn’t speak very good English, which was fine, but he started by saying, “Don’t worry the other guide coming speaks English” and then failed to mention that said guy wasn’t meeting up until we were at our very last stop, Chichen Itza. Then our English speaking tour guide was very lackadaisical, he legit didn’t even take us to each of the structures. There was a guy on the van from Montreal who had gone on the same tour last year and was telling me that his guide was actually incredible so it’s a roll of the dice there.

 First stop: Valladolid

A small town in the Yucatan area of Mexico, this town has inhabitants that are direct descendants of the Mayans. We stopped here and were greeted with complimentary tequila shots then free time to explore the city center. There was a beautiful church on one side of the fountain and to the right of the church I found the cutest colorful street that led to a food court that smelled absolutely amazing. Had I not just eaten breakfast before the tour I’d have had to try some bites. Next time for sure! As we drove in and out of this town we had a guest tour guide join the bus and speak to us about the history of the Mayans. He himself was of Mayan descent and spent about 15 minutes translating words into the Mayan language, his dialect-there are dozens if I’m not mistaken.

Second stop: Cenote Ik Kil

About 45 minutes drive from the city center we arrived to our second stop, Cenote Ik Kil. This place was swimming (no pun intended) with tourists. There were people everywhere taking pictures, eating lunch, having drinks, swimming and various other activities. It was completely different from my first experience with Cenotes last year at the two recommended by locals. Read more about those here. Cenote Ik Kil was however, completely stunning, just beautiful beyond words so let me allow the photo to speak for it. Actually, the photo does very little justice, run over to my Instagram to watch my highlights to see a live video of this natural wonder in action.

The cenote may be packed with tourists so expect waiting in line to jump in the water and mild bumping and shoving but where there are people there are added amenities. This cenote came complete with a restaurant, small bar, showers, lockers and fully functioning restrooms that were all eco-friendly. I’m positive the Crystal cenote that I visited last year had no toilet paper but we were also only one of two very small groups (7 or less) of people there, so that was nice. It all depends on what you’re looking for.

Chichen Itza

The main attraction…saved for last, as if it weren’t epic enough! I expected to ‘see’ Chichen Itza before we were actually there but nope. It’s so wild, it’s almost like going to Six Flags or another amusement park where there’s this huge parking lot and entrance area. It feels very modern, then you walk a bit through a large area where vendors are set up selling little souvenirs and BOOM, there it is! And look at this photo I snapped, two other tourists in it-that’s it! I mean, don’t get me wrong, there were people there all on there own little tours but it was nothing like going to the lawn of the Eiffel Tower or trying to snap a photo of the Louvre. The tour provided us with about an hour to explore and the first 30 minutes were spent with a guide giving us a few back stories on the monuments. Like, did you know that there is a cenote located right beneath Chichen Itza? Mind blown! How has the structure not fallen through from sheer weight alone?

Pro tip: Buy water before you go in!! There are stands located around the property but they were all “closing” for some reason before the park was closed, which meant the only place to get water was in the front-except since we were there right before closing they wouldn’t allow re-entry.

After touring the grounds we boarded the shuttle and were driven directly back to the original pick up location on one of the main streets of downtown Tulum. All in all, I would highly recommend touring the grounds via shuttle service. It was cost effective, seamless in terms of transportation and entries plus we were give special perks (i.e. free tequila tastings and Mayan culture history).

Have you been to Chichen Itza or any other ancient monuments? Comment below!

Xx Sylvia