4x1-tur: Tulum Ruins and Beach Break, Coba og Cenote

I do not recommend this tour. For starters we were shuttled from our hotel to a check in point. This involved walking upstairs getting a tiny slip of paper and walking back down to sit and wait for 20min just to be told what bus to get on. From there we sat on the bus for over an hour waiting just to begin moving. Then we are finally on our way to just randomly pull over with no communication from the guide. Another 10minutes later two passengers are getting on our bus. From here, we finally make it to Tulum. Now, I had been to Tulum already so I wasnt too excited about this part. But it was really odd we were brought through the exit and got in a lot of other peoples way. It just seemed a little backwards and underhanded. Then we sweat to death and finally make it back to the bus where the AC barely worked. I mean seriously is pathetic, hand against the vent and can barely feel it. Somehow, the first five rows of seats are getting all the air and the rest of us are sweating just sitting there. Guess who was in the first several seats? The guide, the drinks, the guy handing out drinks, and another employee...awesome. So we sweat all the way to Coba. Here we stop to eat it was nothing fancy. The chicken I had was bland and the fruit was hot. Off to Coba and the temple. Of course another sweat fest to be expected its outside. But you have the option of walking 2.2km or renting bikes for 50pesos each. Back on the hot bus, where they pretended like they didnt know we were sweating. Multiple people complained and nothing was done about the temperature difference throughout the bus. Off to the Cenote. After seeing several cenotes earlier in our trip this was not impressive at all! If you cant swim you have to rent a life jacket. If you can then jump right in but be warned there is nowhere to set your clothes, towels, or belongings at the bottom. Back on the bus and off to Playa del Carmen. We were dropped off and given an hour. Barely enough time to find somewhere to eat dinner. Remember our trip started with hotel pickup at 7:30am and we didnt reach our hotel until after 9pm, with only one catered meal, no snacks, and all drinks had to be purchasedincluding water!. The sites were okay nothing compared to what I had expected. I think the overall design of this tour is poor but having better guides, more excitement, and some entertainment along the way would help. We definitely spent more time on the bus than off it and that was not what I expected. Not to mention all the added costs they dont warn you about bikes, life jackets, water. Not worth it! To top off the day they dropped us off on the street instead of taking us up to our hotel. ALL of our other excursions took us to the door. Walking on the street in Cancun in the dark was not something I wanted to do. Just dont do this tour. Find a different company such as OceanTours that will take you to much more spectacular Cenotes and the Tulum tour is much better and they TAKE CARE of you!! I recommend doing Coba on a separate trip and only if you like ruins and culture. The sight from the top was pretty but not worth the lengthy travel.

The tour guide was amazing and super funny. Everything was just as in the description. The cenote was one of the first things we did and they don't allow you to go in with makeup or hair products, so I would suggest going really laidback and comfortable especially because is a long day. It was one of my best days in Cancun!

Great trip for the value. This is a long day but the team will make you feel as comfortable as possible along the way. TIPS- extra clothes, towel, swim clothes, bug spray, CASH, sunscreen and water/snacks. You can buy a few items on the bus as a last minutes resource.

We booked this tour for six through Viator as we had heard good things about their excursions. Overall it was a good way to see Tulum and Coba as well as an awesome Cenote in one day. What we were not prepared for was to be included in another tour group or groups on a large bus, and we spent WAY too much time waiting for stragglers to return to the bus to go on to the next destination. After waiting over 45 minutes for two guests the bus left them, and later in the day we had to go pick them up from a location where they had to get a cab and meet us. It was very frustrating. We literally had only one hour at Tulum and about the same amount of time at the Coba ruins. The most disappointing was that we had only 45 minutes to see and swim in the Cenote and that included showering and changing into our bathing suits before we were able to go into the water. The final disappointment was that the Beach Break wasn't included and the tour guide just announced that we were going to Playa Del Carmen, again for only 45 minutes. We left for our tour at 7:30 am and did not return to our hotel until 9:30 pm, and missed dinner reservations because of the delays. The destinations were well worth seeing, but I would ask many more questions about the time spent at each location and how many will be on the tour before I would book this tour.

The worst tour guide with no interest whatsoever in explaining things. Most importantly he was talking in Spanish 90 of the time with only when i.e., what time to arrive back to bus in English. It was the worst tour ever and will not recommend this.

Tour may not have been too bad with a different tour guide and better coordination / time management. The tour guide spoke 90 of the time in Spanish so that negated any informational aspect of the tour. When he did speak in English most of it sounded like he was just making things up as he went along. The tour was to begin at 8:30am and end at 7:00pm with pick up and drop off at the door of the hotel. The tour went from 9:30am, with a lot of sitting around waiting for them to get themselves organized and ended well past 9:00 pm where we where dropped off on the sidewalk a half mile from the hotel. There was no beach break component of the tour. The bus stopped in Playa Del Carmen for about 20min 8:00 at night and it was too dark out at that point to do anything. I expect the only reason we stopped was so the tour guide could check it off the list.

I would have scored this excursion higher, but this company should NOT take non-locals to a restaurant off a resort. My friend and I got sick a few days after returning to the States from the lunch that was provided on this tour. We are assuming the food/veggies were rinsed with the Mexican water. I have great things to say about the tour, tour guide and the beauty we saw, but DO NOT eat this lunch at the offsite restaurant they take you to. Please make other arrangements to bring trusted food with you or eat before/after the tour.

This tour was not that good. At first the company Manolo's Tour had no organization. We were waiting at a mall for some bus to pick us up but we had to ask because no one inform us. Then when we booked the inclusion listed included sodas, beers and water and it we only received a bottle of water because we showed our voucher to the guide and he told us that he will call the company Viator. Also our inclusions had 2 local drinks in the lunch and we had to also showed copy of the voucher to the guys so we can get our drinks. We felt like we had to beg for something that we paid. At last, the tour included the beach break, which was nothing like that. The tour guide told us that it was late and to raise hands who wanted to go to Playa Del Carmen, hello we paid for that. Everyone in the bus raised their hands so they take us to a 20 minutes beach break, yes, I'm not kidding, 20 minutes. Please before buying this packages verify first all of this things, because sometimes buying a 4x1 tours can be to much for a day and paying for something that you will not enjoy. Also the lunch buffet was awful. They take us to a store that had upstairs something that was not a restaurant flies were all over the place and the food was not good.

I did this tour back in Feb of 2017 and it was absolutely AMAZING! Our guide, Jesus, was freaking awesome and extremely knowledgable. It was so enriching being there and also fun with how easy going everything was. Our group was full of different people and families but like minded individuals where everyone was into hearing the amazing stories/history and genuinely nice sharing snacks, checking in on us since we were sleep deprived from the night before haha and included us in friendly side conversations as best as they can my friend and I were the only non spanish speaking people in the group haha. It's an all day trip so definitely get some rest the night before! The day we went we couldn't go on Tulum's beach since the tides were too strong that day so instead they did a detour to Playa del Carmen, after Coba/Cenote, how awesome is that! Definitely an experience of a lifetime. Do it, you definitely won't regret it! : P.S you will be in a nice air conditioned van, they will provide a nice chilled water bottle for you after Tulum, bring your snacks if you'd like because lunch is provided after tulum before coba at a buffet...food was excellent, comfortable sneakers for the walking around tulum and climbing up coba climb it! its scary but the feeling up at the top...absolutely breathtaking! DO BRING A TOWEL, flip flops and change of clothes for the cenote because getting in a AC van after swimming without all those things is not that fun lol. TIP: 1. souvenirs are definitely better at TULUM the first stop so buy something if you see something...thats the only regret I have since I thought I can wait til COBA to get things but there wasn't a lot of stuff like Tulum. 2. bring cash if you'd like to tip them at the end when they drop you off at your hotel. we tipped them generously because it we had such a genuinely nice time. If you get to, talk to Jesus, cool dude who is into coffee! I would definitely do it again just to hang out with them again _

This tour could have been great, because it attempted to fit so much in in one day. Alas, it did not meet our expectations nor met the quality levels of other tours in the area. Coba and the Cenote swim was successful and memorable and the lunch wasn't bad. Otherwise it was a bit of a nightmare. The first issue related to pick-up time. The listing for the tour said pick-up was at 8:30. When we booked, the agent told us that pick up was going to be 7:30. Not what was advertised, but no big deal. However the NIGHT before the tour the local booking agent told us that the pick up would be 6:00 am. The reason we were told, was that they tour operator would like to shift the tour earlier so that we could get out of the Coba jungle before the mosquitos come out. The next morning we found out the real reason for the 6am pickup: we were the first hotel on the route and we would start the day by riding the bus for 3.5 hours as we went to every hotel down the coast picking up people. It was an agonizing way to start the day and end the day. To add insult to injury we were not offered any refreshment during this ordeal. At one point the bus stopped to buy some nice looking tortas and juices. The guests however were not given the opportunity to buy a snack, only the driver and the guide got to enjoy them. The 3.5 hour of pickups was not acceptable. Other tour companies assemble tour groups by having transfer vans take small groups from their hotel to the tour bus to eliminate this problem. Our guide was very knowledgable, and had a great deal of accurate information for which we were grateful. Unfortunately, he was unfamiliar with the logistics of the tour and kept asking the driver what the sequence of events was. He had a fairly lax time table, and at no point were we told what the schedule was. Breaks were long: a long time waiting around at the cenote long after we were out, and very long lunch break in which the staff could relax and talk. All of this was fine and relaxed until the end. Tulum was scheduled last, even though Tulum was supposed to be first according to the tour description. In retrospect this change of sequence was a clue that the tour would be botched.. We were given admission to the Tulum grounds, and the guide started the tour with frequent stops as we made our way to the palace, the main event. Just as we were about to enter the palace area, the palace gate was closed in our faces. It was 5 PM and the staff insisted on closing the gates and getting everyone off the grounds promptly. We were ushered off the premises by the staff. We were not able to see the main palace building and the magnificent cliff view. The problem was the guide's lack of time management. He thought as long as we got on the ground before closing we would have all the time we wanted to explore. He was wrong. We were unable to see the most spectacular site of the day. The heartbreaking part of this is that there were members of our group that had travelled from Europe to see these sites and in all likelihood would have to return home without having done so. Perhaps this tour is too ambitious: it is a lot to do in one day. However, I think it would have been possible if the staff had any time management skills. In any event, even if we had gotten to all the sites I would not recommend the tour. The lack of transfer vans results in 5-7 hours of needless bus riding.