Tour Reviews

Thomas Glover
Cumming, Georgia
Mayan Experience
Carnival Glory - Western Carib

The absolute highlight of our cruise !

The absolute highlight of our cruise was the Mayan Experience tour, given by Ivan Cohuo of TheNativeChoice.com. My family will always remember their visit to Chacchoben village. Ivan is very knowledgeable, as he grew up on the grounds of the Chacchoben ruins and knew everything that is known about them. I can't say enough how impressed we were with everything. Ivan took his time with our group of ten, and we actually ran an hour over. He never hurried us, and told us fascinating stories about each area we passed. He described a number of the native plants and what is made from them. The allspice leaf was quite surprising to us. He also showed us their Tree of Life, among many other things. The trip to Chacchoben Mayan village was even more memorable. We got to meet the host family, and enjoyed as close to an authentic Mayan meal as possible for a tourist followed by one of their native dances. When we asked for some more spice on the meal, they picked the fresh Habenero pepper of our choice and made the sauce for us on the spot. It was definitely hot, but oh was it good! It is very difficult to put everything we experienced on this tour into a few sentences, but we highly recommend this tour to anyone.

Ashley Jaggi
West Jordan, Utah
Chacchoben Extreme
The Independence of the Seas

The tour was perfect!

To Ivan and David and also to our driver, I want to say thank you. Muchas gracias. Disfrutamos muchisimo. Your tour was perfect and we appreciate you being accomodating and helping us get to the Lagoon as well. I would recommend this tour to anyone a thousand times over. If you want a real tour, informative tour guides, and a true look at the area and culture, this is the way to go! A thousand times better than a tour through the ship. Very safe, very fun, and just an awesome experience. I cannot recommend it enough! Good luck with your families Ivan and David and Feliz Navidad. Thanks for a perfect day!

Ashley and Jacob Jaggi

Bob Dean
Sacramento, California USA
Chacchoben Ruins
RC Independence of the Seas

The experience was a real pleasure.

We were very pleased with the high quality of Ivan's tour. It was nice to ride in a van instead of a big bus, and the small size of the tour group made the experience a real pleasure. Ivan grew up at the ruins and no one knows them better than he. Skip the overpriced tours sponsored by the ship. You pay less and get a superior tour with Ivan.

Lucinda Seaton
Sacramento, CA
Chacchoben Ruins
Independence of the Seas

What a wonderful tour.

What a wonderful tour. Ivan was our guide and the tour meant more knowing that he grew up at the ruins as a child. His family history at the ruins was fascinating. I highly recommend taking this tour.

Thank you Ivan for making this such a great trip.

Fran Kitt
Costa Maya, Mexico
Chacchoben Extreme
NCL Spirit

A fabulous experience.

A fabulous experience. We were traveling on a NCL Cruise as a family ages 2 to 80 and we were immensely impressed with our tour guide David. He was as knowledgeable about the Mayan's history and their local customs as he was gracious. In addition to the Mayan ruins, we also experienced the beautiful Lagoon Azul, a huge fresh water lake supplied by underground springs. There we enjoyed an incredible delicious luncheon feast including beverages provided by the ex-pat German proprietor and staff of a rustic local RV park on the lake, where we swam and kayaked. By far the best excursion on the cruise.

Manon Morache
Montréal, Canada
Chacchoben Ruins
ms Westerdam, Holland America

My most memorable tour

Hello,

Loved the tour for many reasons:

1)the beauty of the sites visited and the incredible view from the top pyramid which is breathtaking; and

2)the knowledge, expertise and friendliness of David who was a perfect guide both a wonderful educator and entertainer.

This was my most memorable tour out of then four excusions I had booked on my 7 day cruise.

Merci beaucoup!

Greg Malak
The Villages, FL
Mayan Experience
Westerdam

The highlight of our vacation.

Our guided tour led by Ivan was a highlight of our vacation. His knowledge of these ruins discovered by his father and his sharing of the Mayan Culture of the past and of today was entertaining as well as educational. Ours was a group of only nine people so we felt as if he was talking to us as individuals and not as a large group. Other formed groups from the ship were larger, rushed and didn't seem to get the same treatment and courtesy as he shared with us. I don't know why anyone would want to take one of those large tours when this one, led by Ivan, was far superior and also less expensive.
After we toured the ruins we had the privilege of going to his Mayan village and were treated as special guests. We ate a fabulous Mayan meal and we were entertained and informed of Mayan life today. The Mayans were most gracious and even invited us into their homes. As a retired tourism professional, having twenty-nine years in the business I have seen and experienced good and not so good tours throughout my career. I would rate this tour at the top of all the tours I have taken. If I use many more superlatives you will think I am exagerating but I'm not- this was a superb day.

Hayley & Matthew Goodwin
Great Britain
Kohunlich Ruins Premier
P&O Oceana

Excellent guide

Hi,

Just a quick email to say how much my husband and I enjoyed the tour that we took with your company on November 20th 2008 when our boat (P&O Oceana) docked in Costa Maya. Our tour was to the Kohunlich Mayan ruins site.

We were impressed that even though we were the only people booked on the tour that it still went ahead and we were met at the port upon arrival and transported in a more than adequate sized, comfortable vehicle to our tour site. However, the main thing that made our tour so enjoyable was our excellent guide, Ivan. Not only did we receive a personal guided tour around the Kohunlich site but both en route to the site and on our way back to the ship we were able to learn many things about the local area and culture from Ivan. The tour at the site was brilliant we were never rushed and we were shown many things with full and in depth explanations of these items.

Whilst at the site we noticed the people from our ship who had taken the trip with our Cruise Ship and their tour appeared far less thorough than ours and they were not accompanied to some of the areas such as the temple so were not made aware of the significance of many of the things that they saw.

We would appreciate it if you could pass our sincere thanks onto Ivan for the tour he gave us and for answering our many questions. We definately made the correct choice whilst choosing your company for our tour and will not hesitate to recommend you to anyone else that we know who is travelling to the area.

Kind Regards

Hayley & Matthew Goodwin