Ruinas Chichén-Itzá Travel Forum

I am planning a trip to Mexico in May, and will be staying in the area around Puerto Aventuras.
My question is, how long is the drive to get to the ruins of Chichen-Itza? I've heard it can take up to 3 hours!
Is this true?
I would be going with a day-tour group that would drive me there.
Has anyone had experience with this sort of day tour?
Forgive me,,,but I need to ask a practical question...if it takes that long,,do most tours make stops for "bladder relief"? ..I like to know about these sort of things ahead of time:)..
Any advice, experience or thoughts on this tour...
Thanks,
Amy

Be sure and take plenty of water with you when walking among the ruins. We were there in February and were amazed at how hot it was and how much water we drank. If you don't bring water with you, you can buy it at the store near the entrance.

It is a fascinating place and shouldn't be missed.

We will be going to closeby Playa del Carmen in March. A few years ago, we went on a 5 day tour including Chichen Itza. Now we want to visit CI once more. We are thinking of hiring a car (with driver) for a day (I just send out an email to the website of easywayrentacar.com to check what the possibilities are) From the website it seems that a car is around $70 and a driver around $65 a day.

An organized bustrip starts if I remember well also around $70, so if you are with two or more, renting a car could be an option which gives you much more freedom and free time at Chichen Itza, (last time when we were there with an organized trip we even didn't visit the entire site due to lack of time) and you can try to be slightly earlier than the masses. It seems that all buses arrive more or less at the same time (around 11) and let people stay for around 2 hours and then lead time to closeby restaurants for lunch. Nothing wrong with that, but when at Chichen Itza I would rather spend a few hours extra at the site instead of at restaurants and giftshops along the way.

Jan Peter

I've just come back from a weeks trip to Mexico. We actually stayed in Tulum and then went to Chichen Itza for 1 night before heading back to Cancun. There are very decent public buses (about 49 peso's from Tulum to Vallidolid) with airconditioning. You just need to check what times they run but I know there are buses that go via Tulum to Vallidolid about 3 times in the morning. Was almost 3 hours by bus, and then we caught a taxi to Dzipnup and then on to Chichen Itza.

I would say that public buses are a very good option as they're much cheaper, very comfortable, and a good "local" experience! I would also recommend staying over at one of the hotels next to Chichen Itza (we stayed at Hacienda Chichen - excellent) just so that you can rather get in first thing in the morning and don't feel the need to rush at all. But if you can't afford an overnight trip, then maybe a car would be better. But just try and get there as early as possible (opens at 8am). There is also a light and sound show in the evenings (8pm) which is well worth it - just remember to buy a ticket for both the night and day entrance as then it works out cheaply (95 pesos for both, or 95 pesos for just the day or 30 peso's for just the night!!!!).

We also hooked up with a local tour guide when we arrived at Chichen Itza and he was really good! We paid $35 for 3 of us. So you don't need to book in advance - there are usually quite a few on the grounds who's tours you can join. Well worth getting the guide! Oh, and if you decide to go to the evening light + sound show, just remember to get the translating equipment as the show is ALL in Spanish - which we didn't know!!!

Enjoy! It's well worth it!

Amybear
I went on a tour from Playa Del Carmen, not far from where you will be. It does take about 3 hours in a nice air conditioned coach - and you do stop on the way at a large shop with toilets and on the way back you stop for dinner - obviously the tour that you go on may be slightly different to that but I am sure that most of them are like this. Feel free to visit my page. Claire