Tour Reviews

Scott ONeill
Florida
Chacchoben Ruins
NCL Getaway

Chacchoben Ruins Excursion

My family booked a 4 hour adventure with Native Choice to see the Chacchoben Ruins on Feb 8, 2018. We had a large family group of 15 of us and wanted to try a private more personalized tour. We were not sure what to expect as this was our first time booking a shore excursion outside of our cruise line NCL. We were amazed at the value and the wonderful tour we received from our guide Patrick. He is very knowledgeable in the history of the site and of the Mayan people. We felt like he was part of our large family group and we were blessed to have him as our guide. We would absolutely do another tour with Native Choice and Patrick again. Already looking at another cruise to same location next year. We will also recommend Native Choice to everyone we know that goes to Costa Maya. Thank you for making our family vacation wonderful and thank you Patrick for the great time.

Lori
Pittsburgh, PA USA
Chacchoben Ruins
Carnival Vista

Outstanding Tour Guide!

Our tour guide, Hugo, made the excursion a fantastic one. He was so knowledgeable and passionate about history, and you could tell he loved sharing it with others. I am so glad we went with The Native Choice versus one of the large tour busses that the cruise ship offered. It saved us a lot of money and the value was superior. We talked to others from the cruise ship and their experience with the cruise ship tour was not like ours at all. It was a little bit of a walk to get there but so worth it... go with Native Choice and request Hugo!

Denise Roberts
Georgia
Chacchoben Ruins
Freedom of the Seas

Chacchoben Ruins - Trip Highlight

After reading the reviews of this tour and company on Trip Advisor, we decided to book with them instead of going through our ship. Great decision! The directions to their office were very clear - just give yourself a little extra time than the recommended 10 minute walk time because - if like what happened with us and there are three ships disembarking at one time - there might be quite the crush of people trying to make it down the pier. I guess because of the number of ships - our tour was larger than most are and they used a bus to transport us with two guides. Patrick and Lorenzo were excellent! The ruins are only about an hour away and we learned quite a bit about the area we were driving through, the history of the mayan culture and the people living there now. The ruins themselves were very interesting. Not crowded at all. Again, our tour guides were a fountain of knowledge about the ancient culture, practices, and civilization. We had plenty of time to meander and did not feel too "managed." The drive home was made complete by our roadside stop to get fresh pineapple from a local grower. A wonderful treat. I liked that this tour - as opposed to the one offered by the ship - was only 4 hours and not 6.5 hours. So we had time to wander through the Costa Maya village, get a margarita (which I warn you was not good), and enjoy the afternoon at our pace. I would definitely recommend this trip!

Juan
Florida
Mayan Experience
Holand America

Maya Experience

One of the best tours I have ever had. The tour was exceptional. The tour guide was very knowledgeable about the site, history and culture. We were engaging in conversation since we left the meeting place. Well organized, water available during the tour. We felt very safe and we never felt rushed. We took our time exploring the site and we learned a lot.
Highly recommend it.

Joe
South Dakota
Chacchoben Ruins
NCL

Great History

This was a walking tour, basically a history lesson of that location/temple. An hour bus ride to and from. Our guide gave us great detail of the area and answered any questions we had. Not little kid friendly!

Jeff
Portland, Oregon
Mayan Experience
Liberty of the Seas

Great Excursion. Would Recommend.

This was definitely one of the more memorable excursions we took.

The only confusing part was trying to follow the directions on the map to get to the Native Choice office. They tell you to go directly through the port shopping exit, and the port security staff won't let you leave without making you walk a couple hundred yards past the quick exit and instead all of the way through their shopping area and then back through another shopping area to get to the road again. Luckily there were 30-40 other people with the same issue and we all sort of trekked it together and knew we were all going to the same place.

Once there, the staff were friendly and we got cold water. We got into our van with another group and our guide, Lorenzo, filled us in on all sorts of local knowledge of the land and Costa Maya history.

We went 50 minutes to the Chacchoben ruins. Lorenzo was a great guide, other tour groups were wanting to ease-drop on our group as their guide wasn't really telling them much, while Lorenzo was giving the complete history of the site.

We then went a few minutes away into the village and to the home of a Mayan family, They prepared a great meal for us and we all got to make tortillas.

They even dropped us off next to the port shopping so we didn't have to walk the half mile back from the Native Choice office.

Very impressed and it was well worth the small extra walk and dealing with finding it to have a small, intimate group and very knowledgeable guides.

JB
Weatherford, TX
Dzibanche Ruins Premier
Liberty of the Seas

Wonderful Day

Tacho, our driver, and Rosa, our guide, provided us with a wonderful experience at Dzibanche Ruins. Our family of four had a private van which was clean and had air conditioning. We were provided water upon arriving and water and Coke at each stop. Rosa was very knowledgeable, giving us much helpful information about the ruins on our drive there. The tour at the ruins was wonderful. She climbed with us all the ruins we were allowed to climb and gave us additional information at the top. Rosa answered all of our curious questions about the Mayan culture. We made a bonus stop at the Kinichna ruins nearby. On the drive back, we were provided a fresh sack lunch with sandwiches, chips, and granola bars. We stopped at a roadside stand for some fresh pineapple which tasted wonderful!

Ashley
Santa Barbara, CA
Mayan Experience
Rhapsody of the Seas

Our favorite excursion ever

We did the Mayan Experience excursion almost two years ago and we still talk about how it was our favorite one we've ever done. Can't say enough good things about this company.

I had just started a medication before our cruise that made me incredibly nervous about things, so much so that we actually canceled an excursion in Belize because I was too afraid to take it. The entire time we were on this excursion, I didn't worry about a thing! It was very nice to have a chance to relax and know that we were well taken care of.

I forgot to inform the company that I am vegetarian, but there was still plenty I could eat and lunch and it was quite delicious. We also learned about putting chili powder on our pineapple and that's the only way we eat it now!

We enjoyed this excursion so much and hope to return to Costa Maya so we can take another trip with Native Choice!