Tour Reviews

Clay Slocum
Watkinsville GA
Chacchoben Extreme
Carnival Dream

Enjoyed every minute.

My wife and I recently booked the Chacchoben Ruins Extreme Tour and we both enjoyed every minute.

Israel was our guide and he and our driver did a fantastic job. He provided great information about the area and the ruins. I would highly reccomend this tour to anyone visiting Costa Maya.

Sonia Jordan
Danielsville, GA
Chacchoben Ruins
Carnival Dream

I'm soooo glad we chose this tour.

We were excited about seeing the Mayan ruins while visiting Mexico, and I'm soooo glad we chose this tour. We are also so glad that we booked outside the cruise line.

We couldn't have asked for a better experience!!
Everything was flawless...the meeting, the transportation, the driver, our guide.....Everything. We were very lucky to get Ivan for our guide. He was born at this particular Mayan ruins site, and he had so much information to share. I have to add that Ivan even went so far as to help us try to locate a bag we had left behind in a restaurant after our excursion.

In a nutshell, we couldn't have asked for more.

Thanks for a wonderful time!:)

Joel & Patti Harris
Charleston, SC
Chacchoben Ruins
Carnival Dream

Absolutely the BEST and most professional tour

Absolutely the BEST and most professional tour we've been on since our cruise of the Greek Isles.

It was a pleasure to have Ivan as our guide. Everything was done cordially, expertly and we actually felt like the client was important.

Erin & Anthony
Atlanta, GA
Kohunlich-Dzibanche
Carnival Dream

Absolutely a once-in-a-lifetime experience

This was absolutely a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we will NEVER forget. We really agonized over which ruins to see, so let me make it easy for you: go to Dzibanche or Kohunlich!! We booked Dzibanche, but were the only 2 people to do so. One couple booked Kohunlich, so they combined our tours and we were able to see both - which actually worked out better than I could have imagined. We ended up being the ONLY people at the Dzibanche site, and were among only a handful at Kohunlich. That alone makes the longer drive worth it, I promise!!
Francisco, our guide, was so knowledgeable - he knew exactly where to take us at both sites, so we never felt rushed or like we'd missed anything important at either site. He was able to point out fascinating details that we wouldn't have even noticed, let alone understood had we been on our own.
I can't recommend the Dzibanche and/or Kohunlich tours strongly enough - as far as we're concerned, this one tour was worth the cost of our entire cruise! There aren't many places left where you can see ruins of this magnitude without a sea of people and ropes keeping you 15 feet away from all the structures. You won't be disappointed.

Kim Wall
Greensboro, NC
Chacchoben Ruins
Carnival Dream

It did not disappoint.

We booked this excursion before our cruise because the price was great (much less than through the cruise line) and the reviews were great. It did not disappoint. The Native Choice is a great company with very helpful and informed guides. Getting to the office and the ruins site was easy. Our guide on the bus was Louisa and she told us a lot about the area and culture before we arrived at the site.

Renee was our guide at the site and she was fantastic-she really knows her stuff! On the way back, Louisa had the bus stop so we could purchase local pineapple with spices. It was delicious, what a fun little treat. We were dropped off at the pier with plenty of time to spare.

Thank you for a smooth, fun, professional experience!

Teri Geitner
Galesburg, Il.
Chacchoben Extreme
Norwegian Spirit

Great times,don't miss out

Very good excursion with Isreal as our leader. The ruins was very informative, and the lagoon afterwards was very refreshing.

This was the best excursion we had on our cruise.

We would do it again.
Great times,don't miss out

Lee-Ann Ah Sam
Salt Lake City, UT
Mayan Experience
Norwegian Spirit

We had such a lovely day.

I booked this tour online for my husband and I and prepaid it. We had no problems finding the public transport bus that took us to the native choice office in Costa Maya. It was our first excursion not booked through the cruiseline, but had read so many great reviews on trip advisor and here on their website, that we decided to try it.
Our Van driver was Rudy and Louisa was our guide. There was a few us doing this tour, so we had two van loads of people. Louisa gave us a brief explanation of the Mayan people on the way to the Chachhoban Ruins Site. On the way, we stopped at a stand along the roadside selling pineapple with a little bag of seasoning that you could top your pineapple with. It was a little like salt and pepper, not too spicy though. The pineapple was absolutely sweet. You cannot beat local tropical fruit for taste.
When we got to Chacchoben, my husband and I ended up meeting up with his grand Aunt and Uncle, and their children who happened to be on the same cruise, so it was a lovely surprise to see them. The world really is a small place. Our guide at the ruins was Eliu, and he was very knowledgable about the ruins, the Mayan way of life, and his information style of drawing on a portable white board to illustrate his information was very good. It made the information easier to remember. We got there before the big ship tours, and went to the bigger ruin first so that we would have to battle with the crowds once they got started.
After the ruins, we went to Chacchoben village and had lunch at a Mayan woman's house, whose name I can't remember. She gave a tortilla making lesson, and didn't speak much english, but Elu and Louisa were great in translating whatever we needed to know. Elu explained what we would be eating, the spices used in the meal, and then we were served a very delicious home made meal of chicken tamales, marinated chicken in the spices shown to us, rice and beans, veges, and of course the hand made tortillas. We drank hibiscus tea and had a coconut type of pudding for dessert. Everything was so delicious. We returned to the ship port with 1 hour to spare and ended up shopping on the pier before returning to the ship. We had such a lovely day, and the trip was well worth it. My husband and I paid $70 each, and I have no hesitation in recommending The Native Choice Tours. They were organized, welcoming and knowledgable.

Thank you for a wonderful day!

Cindy
South Carolina
Chacchoben Extreme
Carnival Dream

What a surprise

We booked a group of 29 teenagers and adults for the Native Choice Chacchoben Extreme tour. Our tour guides were very organized, friendly, and interesting. The vans were clean and comfortable, everybody really enjoyed the Mayan site, and the Bacalar Lagoon resort was magnificent! What a surprise -- we were expecting something simple and instead were treated to an absolutely gorgeous lagoon resort where the kids kayaked and the adults relaxed with plentiful beverages, followed by an excellent lunch of chicken fajitas and rice. We were returned very promptly to the cruise port, and our guide, Catherine, even stopped and got us fresh pineapple snacks on the way. Both of my boys said this was their favorite shore excursion of the entire week. The price was significantly less than the official cruise ship excursion as well.

Highly recommend!!!