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Tulum with Beach break excursion....


kittysoul

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My son and I signed up for this excursion for our August Symphony 2021 cruise.  If it were just me, i would not have picked it, because it seems like a lot of 'work' lol  My son, however, has his heart on going to the Tulum Ruins and so we are going to do it.  I think they will be cool to see, but am more of a beach person and wish I could just skip right to the beach.  From watching youtube videos on excursions to Tulum from Cozumel, it looks like it will be a ton of walking and very, very hot.  I got out of breath just walking from the boat to the ferry for our Nassau excursion on last cruise lol.  I will definitely be 'training' and building endurance before this trip.   Ok .. so my questions are, will we ' have' to stay with tour guide, or will i be able to go early to the beach and rest?   Are their any trams or shuttles to help with the long treks between busses and ferries....?   Any tips or thoughts by those who have done this excursion??

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We did this excursion years ago and loved it. The beach "resort" (it was a glorified tiki hut with a bar) was quite the bus ride away. Everyone had to leave the ruins and go to the beach together. There were several small shops and restaurants at the entrance to the ruins if you didn't want to take the walking tour. The ruins and tour were fantastic. I would have happily skipped the beach break for more time there, but that wasn't an option.

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1 hour ago, Quilter620 said:

We did this excursion years ago and loved it. The beach "resort" (it was a glorified tiki hut with a bar) was quite the bus ride away. Everyone had to leave the ruins and go to the beach together. There were several small shops and restaurants at the entrance to the ruins if you didn't want to take the walking tour. The ruins and tour were fantastic. I would have happily skipped the beach break for more time there, but that wasn't an option.

ohhh so it is not the beach that is down the hill from the ruins, that I see in all of the photos and videos?   I am just worried about heat ... being August in Mexico lol   That is good to know what the situation is... how long did you get to spend at the beach 'resort' ?

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We went in August of 2014 and only have good memories of the ruins at Tulum and of the Mía Restaurant & Beach Club who was the vendor for our beach break.

Yes it was hot and humid, it would be disappointing if it wasn't. I have very high regard for the Mayan culture and I don't think I'm going to far out on a limb by saying and hot and humid as it was touring the ruins, it was very much likely hotter and more humid at other places inland. The Mayans chose the locations for their settlements for astrological reasons; but I also think the Tulum location was chosen for it's ocean breezes and therefore cooler than other areas. The Mayans were not dumb by any stretch. The ruins are wonderful and speak for themselves.

It was the beach break that was the surprise! What a refreshing, well done experience! Yeah, it was hot back on the bus. I think it's fair to say nobody thought the air conditioning was adequate. I remember the ride taking 45 minutes or so. I also remember the road we took being no wider than the bus itself in places. But the Mia Restaurant and Beach Club more than made up for any discomfort. It was wonderful!!! A nice of a place as one could expect. Wave hopping in the surf, clean and friendly, and Oh! the buffet of food!  The abundance of guacamole was stunning. Their molcajetes must only make guacamole in 5 gallon increments, and they are not shy about making another batch.

Would I do it again? ABSOLUTELY! Will your excursion go to the same resort? Well....who knows? Vendors change, prices change; and truth be told you will never actually find out until your bus pulls into their parking lot. A simple search on Google Maps will tell you all you need to know about the location of Mia Beach Club, what it looks like; and it's many neighbors who offer very similar services.

OH! You could grab a quick shower just before getting back on the bus to go to the ferry. That bus ride was far, far less uncomfortable.

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Thanks to you both!  I am excited already about going to see it.... and will be ready by the time it gets here (conditioning..walking in hot weather...) ?  It sounds great... i hope that they are still going to Mia Beach Club... will have to take a peek at it online!

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We went on this excursion in January 2018.  Here are my memories of it.

The 45 minute ferry ride was a bit bumpy, but neither my wife nor I deal with any kind of motion sickness, so I'm not a good judge of whether it was bad.  The ferry does have restrooms down below.  The ferry was completely full both going to the mainland and returning to the island.

The bus ride was around 45 minutes or so and there was air conditioning on ours. We had two guides  One of them gave us a soft pitch on something they were selling.  To be honest, I can't even remember what it was, so it obviously wasn't that intense.  I do remember he talked a lot about a lot of things, not just whatever he was selling.

At the ruins, we went as a group as far as the part that overlooks the water, then made our way back to the bus individually.  The tour guide we had was awesome...you could tell that Mayan culture and history was a passion of his.  We had 40 minutes to get from the overlook back to the parking lot on our own.  The guides told us that anyone who wasn't there at the required time would have to pay for a taxi to take them (and someone who would wait for them) back to the ferry.

It was hot for us when we went (we are from Maine).  I'm glad we had hats and sunglasses because there is very little shade as you are walking through the ruins.  There was an option to take a shuttle rather than walking at the ruins, but that cost extra.  

There is a lot of shopping by the parking lot at the ruins.  It reminded me of how most ports (that we've been to) make you walk in a maze to get through them so you go by the most shops possible.

We went to La Playa Xpu-ha Beach Club for the beach break part of it.  I enjoy the local food, so I enjoyed lunch.  We relaxed on the beach for...maybe a couple hours...I am not 100% sure.

We were almost late getting back to the ferry in order to get back on the ship in time.  One of the tour guides escorted us straight to the ferry and ensured we all boarded.  I suspect that normally, they let people walk back from the bus drop off point on their own in order to encourage shopping.  Since we booked through Royal, we were not at all concerned about missing sail away.  That was a level of comfort I have remembered when we have done things on our own in ports.  I don't know if I would go to the mainland from Cozumel unless I was on an official Royal excursion.

 

Edited to add that we really enjoyed the excursion and would certainly do it again.

 

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