Tulum Ruins and Snorkeling Tour From Cancun & Riviera Maya

I had an amazing tour with Ruben (the guide), Juan Carlos (the driver), Muneli (the ruin guide) and Tony (the amazing photographer who came along to take pictures of us). It was such a well planned out, well-guided tour in which they thought of everything for us and timed it out great so we skipped the massive crowds at the ruins. Ruben and Muneli were super knowledgable on everything and really went out of their way to gives us advanced-level scientific and historical information that I never would've expected from a normal guided tour - even using visual aids to help us understand what what they were talking about. Juan Carlos was super lovely and helpful with everything van and equipment related (snorkels, flippers, wet suits, etc.) and guarded our possessions safely while we were on our excursions. There was so much food and water for us in the van that we had enough energy for the long day of activities. And there was also a delicious cooked lunch at the Cenotes near the end of the activities (vegetarian options too!). Having a photographer on hand: Tony, was such a genius idea (as most people don't own water-proof cameras) and the pictures he took of us and the wildlife/scenery were straight out of National Geographic Magazine! You pay extra if you want the photos but trust me - you will. It was SUCH A GOOD TOUR! I can't thank everyone enough for how well it came together and how much I enjoyed it. They are all true professionals who are well worth the price as there is nothing left for you to do but relax and enjoy yourself in their more than capable hands. THANK YOU Ruben, Juan-Carlos, Muneli & Tony so much! If I'm ever back in Cancun I will book again for sure!

Although we didn't see much by way of turtles due to the time of day we were there (noon), we did see two giant stingrays which were beautiful. Our guide Pia was terrific and knowledgeable.

Tulum was quite interesting, but the heat and humidity of July was stifling. Fernando, our tour guide did his best to manage English and French tourists in the same tour group. He did a great nos finding turtles and showing us how to best get good looks of them.

Prompt pick up with excellent and informative guided tour around Tulum. The snorkelling experience at Akumal was brilliant and many thanks to Sasha for being so helpful and supportive guiding my wife on the swim as she was doing this for a first time. Saw lots of turtles in natural habitat. Great day and well recommended.

We were picked up promptly at 6:30 and driven approx. 2 hours to the Tulum Ruins. We were then taken to a beach for the snorkeling portion of the tour where we saw huge turtles, stingrays and other marine life. I was the only non-swimmer which wasn’t an issue thanks to our excellent tour guides!

We booked this trip before heading to Cancun for Spring Break. Our excursion date was March 24, 2017. The whole family was incredibly excited to experience this trip. We were sent an email several days before our trip explaining that the Akumal had been shut down by the Federal Environment Protection Agency PROFEPA due to the protection of the turtle life there and the excursion was being moved to another location Yalku Lagoon. We were no longer given a 100 guarantee of seeing a turtle but the letter stated we would have a 50 chance in the new location. We were given the option to cancel the trip altogether for a 100 refund but opted out of this since part of the excursion was to view Xenotes as well and we couldn't find another trip we wanted to do. We were greeted the day of the trip by a very nice young man, named Efron. He was to be our tour guide and he did an amazing job. We drove FOREVER to our destination, but walking through the 'dry' xenote was incredible...loved every minute of it. We then walked a bit further to a 'wet' xenote, where we snorkeled through. This was boring and visibility was limited. There are very few fish to see and it was difficult to maneuver through the water. We had a lunch which wasn't very good, but we were so hungry that we ate what we could. The staff did do a great job of creating a whale shark and a turtle out of the watermelons. Very cute touch!! After lunch, we drove some more and reached Yakul Lagoon. This was the worst snorkeling experience I have ever had. We saw nothing but the same 3 different sea life 'Dory' type fish...nothing interesting to view at all and the visibility is AWEFUL. This lagoon is in an area where fresh water meets salt water and creates a blurred vision. The water is murky and the area was well over crowded. My husband couldn't wait to get back to land, get changed and head back to the hotel. We left our hotel at 6:20am and did not get dropped off until 6:30pm. From my understanding, this was to be a half day adventure in my mind, meaning 4-5 hours, not TWELVE. Our poor driver did run into an accident on the road which unfortunately, slowed us down considerably and was obviously not his fault, but this was beyond a long and drawn out day. We asked our guide questions throughout our time with him, How long have you worked for this company, How many times have you guided tours to Akumal to see the turtles, etc. He replied to these two questions with, I have been with this company for 1 year and have never given a tour to Akumal to snorkel with the turtles. As soon as I had heard this, I knew we had been taken advantage of, that this organization knew long ago that Akumal was closed to turtle viewing and was continuing to sell tourists these trips anyway. We loved our guide, our photographer and our driver. All very nice and helpful, fun and knowledgable, but I would NEVER recommend this trip to ANYONE. My expectations may have been too high, but I was looking to see beautiful reefs with LOTS of sea life and of course, TURTLES. We should have waited to arrive at our hotel and speak to the concierge to book us a trip. There were many going by boat just off our hotel beach line where other tourists we met had seen exactly that, and TURTLES too!!! Very Very Disappointed and mostly because we felt so taken advantage of. True bummer for the entire family to throw an ENTIRE day of vacationing away on boredom, driving around, and seeing nothing but one xenote worth anything. NEVER AGAIN.... The Dameron Family Highlands Ranch, CO

Even though their federal government closed the Akumal beach for turtle watching, we really enjoyed the cenotes. That was worth the trip right there. Our guide was Paco and he spoke Spanish, English, French, and one other language Swedish maybe. He has a great personality and a great sense of humor. This cenote trip was awesome. My wife has issues with claustrophobia but was able to do the underground tours quite easily. Maybe it was because Paco was such a charmer. We were not sure how to dress/prepare for the day but here's how it worked. We did not need any suntan lotion for the cenotes since they were underground and we were in the shade for the first part of the day. In one cenote we walked/waded up to our chests and the second cenote, we floated in our life jacket s and wetsuits. I was not going to buy the pictures provided by the professional photographer but changed my mind after we finished touring the cenotes. It was such a cool tour and she did a great job taking photos even a few really cool stock photos included also. Yes, we would do this one again.

BE READY TO BE PICKED UP AT 6 AM IF YOU ARE IN THE HOTEL ZONE-Cancun. That's a fair warning, we stayed at Riu Cancun and pick up was SUPER early and we had to pick up 5 other couples on the way, it turned out to a 11 hour day. The 5 stars are because the experience itself was amazing. The turtle swim was magical and the cenotes at Chikin Ha were breath taking, the staff was very nice and the snack was pretty late in the day so were pretty hungry by then.

We had the most amazing day snorkelling at Akumel Bay, we saw many turtles and stingrays up close, and even snorkeled along the reef and saw many incredible fish. Katrina and Tamara were very professional and informative tour guides and made our trip extra special. A truly magical experience!

Great tour, fun and full of turtles. The best part was the cenotes