Chichen Itza--New ??'s Post #28

so we'll be spending a week in rm for the wedding and we've started planning a loose itinerary of things we want to do. we're pretty wishy washy on chichen itza. it's kid of far away from playa del carmen, it's super crowded and we'll be in belize afterwards so we'll be seeing our fair share of mayan ruins. on the other hand, this is supposed to be AMAZING.

just curious how many of you think it's something we cannot miss and how many of you think it's skippable...?

kat, i think paulav did a trip there, try searching her username

You can't miss it its amazing and you will be very pleased you went. I loved it and even FI who is a right heathen was impressed lol

My parents went & they won't shut up about me promising to go if I'm ever in the RM so maybe you should go! lol

I heard it was lovely but xel-ha is better. Just FYI...I have never been to either though!

we wanted to do it, but we felt like it was too much time to spend on a bus, but we would have really liked to have been able to do it.

I did the trip to chichen itza when I visited the RM. We though it was great it was the afternoon part of an all day excursion we did called the Copa-Pachan tour which was absolutely amazing. A van picked us and about five other couples up in the am and brought us into a small village. We canoed around their lake then took a hike (ok more of a walk) in the jungle until we came to a zip line which we zipped across a lake (super cool) then as we walked back we stopped at a cenote and repelled in and swam in the crystal clear water. Afterwards we got back to the village and the ladies of the village prepared a traditional lunch (the trip is AI) afterwards we stopped at a house where a lady was hand making a hammock then to finish the day a walk around chichen itza. While there we rented bikes for like $2 and saw lots of the property (although not necessary, the ruins are enough) A fantastic day and one of my favorites from all the excursions I have ever done at any resort.

Needless to say when we got back we crashed!

I went this New Year's Eve to Merida and did half day tour to Chichen Itza ... and it is Amazing, if you get a guided tour is much better!

You could go to Coba which is closer. I'm planning a group trip to coba & then a trip to a cenote afterwards.

I went on a SCUBA trip to Cozumel a few years ago and spent 2 days in Cancun before we flew out. We did Chichen Itza, but on our own w/o going on a tour. We rented a small car, got up early, and drove ourselves there.

I have heard that you can no longer climb the pyramid, but I don't know if this is true. We were able to do it when we were there...but that was a couple of years ago. I'm glad we did it on our own as we went at our own pace and were able to work our way around the large crowds from the tours. We picked up a tour book in the gift shop and read that as we walked around. We did catch a few of the guided tour lectures for some of the sites and didn't feel the book was missing anything. I can say that it was allot bigger than I was expecting, it was pretty amazing.

I think the best part was that on the way back we stopped at a few small villages and a small town. The small town was having a farmers market, which was awesome. For us, going on our own and at our pace was the right choice. I’m not one for tours and think I might not have enjoyed it as much if I’d gone that route.