Valladolid! 16th century colonial Spanish city that was a…read moreMayan city before this - this place has been around forever. This town park has such a history behind it. Like a typical town square, it has the church on one side of it, and a fountain in the middle of it. The fountain has a woman pouring water from a vase, with frogs on all sides of her spitting water at her. Weird. When we went, some locals came out in their Sunday best (it was Palm Sunday) and did a little dance in front of the fountain to some recorded music. It looks like the park might close in the evenings or so, they have big ol' iron gates and a fence that circumnavigates the park. They have these unique S shaped benches where two people can sit and face each other and still be a respectable distance away. Surrounding the park are lots of little shops and stores full of souvenirs. We got dumped off here by the tour operator while the bus basically did laps around the square and gave us enough time to stick our heads in the various shops. Don't avoid the Valladolid!

It's a square in the main town of Valladolid. Close to many hotels and pretty much next to the…read moreshopping blocks, it's a good place to relax. We went here as a part of the tour. Many tour buses are parked here. In 15 minutes we didn't get much time but the park is good. There are many benches to sit. The two-person seats are very interesting - very much photo-worthy. We got some locally made chips from a vendor which was good - quality and quantity - for 15 pesos. The shops around are good to purchase gifts and souvenirs. I suppose they'd bargain too if you can. Other than that, there are many restaurants, eateries, and hotels around to roam. The park is heavily patrolled for some reason as we saw heavy police deployment with automatic weapons even on a seemingly regular day. Overall, very much recommended.

Lovely Church and Beautiful Park in a Peaceful and Charming Neighbourhood!…read more During my time in Valladolid (November 15-18), I stayed at Hostel La Candelaria, which was situated on the north side of La Candelaria Park/Square. The square was beautiful, with lots of bench seating, a small playground for children, and lots of large shade trees. It was always very quiet and peaceful, and was a great place to sit and relax in the afternoon and evening. The Iglesia de la Candelaria is located across the street from the square/park and is painted a bright red colour. It was a really pretty and charming small church. I enjoyed relaxing and spending time in this park/square and admiring the church. La Candelaria is a lovely neighbourhood in Valladolid and I cannot wait to return here someday!

Safe, entertaining and fun!…read more We stopped here for a half an hour as one of the tour stops from an excursion. I was sad we only had 30 minutes! This little park is in the center of the village and is a beautiful landmark. It's jam packed with history and has a lot to offer. A quick walk around inside the fence will take you less than ten minutes but you can enjoy local vendors, snacks, stray pups, music and seating in a safe area. Each corner outside of the square has something to look into. A beautiful and historic church, shopping, a food market, hotels, bars and novelty shops. Safe for tourists, families and all those traveling. Drivers in the area are careful except tourist buses...they are on a mission and won't break for much.

It honestly was not as big of a wow factor as I had hoped…read more... Our tour guide for the cave was subpar at best! He did a very bad job at sharing the ecological (and anthropological) history of the area He did a bad job answering questions... We were rushed through the cave ........ It is a beautiful cave though, especially the part where you walk over the water over the bridge ((but definitely should not be a top 10 National Geographic cave walk!!!..?!!! I have seen much cooler caves!...) The animal park is very fun. They take nice care of the animals and they actually have a great variety. My two-year-old had a great time with the animals. The cenote Was ***extremely busy !...... full of loud obnoxious tour groups who completely ruined the whole vibe There are catfish in the water that do not bite The cenote is small. The water is crystal clear! It is very fun to explore! Bring a mouth piece for the snorkel, as they do not provide those (the thing that enables you to breathe while you are under water) The water is FREEZING cold Even colder than they advertise There are no wet suits We went Thursday at 1 pm for the cave, and 3pm for the cenote, so I was not expecting it to be busy..... The cenote is 10 minutes away from the cave ( you have to drive there) Aktun Chen is about 20 minutes down a dirt road- once you exit the highway, there are signs saying you are heading the right way to the cave/cenote, but I kept doubting myself.. as the dirt road feels very remote Glad I went, but honestly would not go back again... PS- they say no sunscreen to protect the cenote, but allow bug repellent lololol -- do you know how much more toxic bug repellent is than sunscreen?? Hire better staff, and I will feel inclined to give a better review It felt like a cattle corral ..... did not feel genuinely cared for ((or that the staff genuinely cares for the environment!..!.!.!)

We signed up for the combo package which included ziplining, then a cave tour and then the cenote…read more The whole family unanimously agreed Aktun Chen was the highlight of our 1 week trip to Mexico. The ziplining was 10 ziplines, and the tour guides were fun and allow you to go upside down or 2 people at once on some of them. Make sure to bring money to tip the tour guides! The cave tour was the weakest section but I admit I did learn a bunch of interesting geological sorts of stuff. The cave actually gets a bit muggy and so the cenote was a great way to finish the day and cool off. They have you do a very brief "tour" in the cenote and then we were given about 30 min of free, unsupervised play time there. The water is clear, cool, clean and you adjust very quickly to the temperature. The lighting and colors were MAGICAL and the kids loved swimming amongst catfish. Water shoes were perfect for the whole day. You get a locker at each site. Towels and change of clothes are handy at the end of the day- don't forget those! And keep in mind that getting to the front entrance of Aktun Chen is not the same as getting to the actual reception area - it's ~ 3.5 km down a windy dirt road. Something to consider if you get motion sick easily, or something to consider if you rent a tiny car that might have difficulty on dirt roads.

We stopped by for a quick visit, but did not swim. Looking back on it, we wish we did. This cenote…read morewas more secluded than most and a beautiful setting. We parked by the entrance and checked in. We then walked around the stairs down to the waters edge. It looked quite deep and was a little chilly. You could see quite a few fish, some rather large. It was definitely one of the nicer cenotes we saw on our trip and I would highly recommend taking a swim.

We had the whole place to ourselves! It was so quiet and peaceful, really recommend taking the…read moreinnertubes to float in the water. So much wildlife to see and the water is so lovely!

Beautiful park with delicious food in the cafe! The cafe kitchen is open 9-4, except Mondays when…read morethe park is closed.

Beautiful and very well maintained park. Cute play area for children, and lots of seating if you'd…read morelike to read or just relax. Clean bathroom free to use. There is a cafe, yoga days, and movie nights. The only negative aspect that I could think of is the mosquitos, but easy problem to fix with bug spray.

The food was great (traditional options) and the cenote didn't feel very crowded even though there…read morewas a tour bus. We arrived about 11:00 and when we left at 1:00 the parking was full.

This is the only cenote I was able to make it to during my short Cancún trip. My fiancée and I came…read morehere after visiting Chichen Itza. Yokdzonot is just a 10 minute drive away from Chichen Itza. If you're not on a group bus tour, this is a must visit. When we came here, we were the only people. It was an amazing experience. This cenote is maintained by locals and not many tourists know about it. When we got here, we saw some 3-4 locals got into the water and cleared up the fallen leaves. It is much cheaper than any of the other cenotes we were considering. While some cost at least 50-100 USD, this cost about 3.5 USD. And that included life vests. They also had a rappelling line above the cenote. The water was a clear turquoise blue and had mangrove roots along the edges.

As far as cenotes go, this is probably one of the BEST you can visit in the region. It's completely…read moreunderground (there is some steep stair-maneuvering involved), but once you dip into its cool waters you'll be glad for the effort to get there. We were there on a not-too-busy Wednesday afternoon and our group pretty much had the place to ourselves. It was glorious! This cenote is right next to another magnificent cenote: Cenote Dzitnup. They are both equally spectacular and I highly recommend paying the extra to do both. Just be prepared for the crazy check-in process, where "volunteers" will meet you at the parking lot to "escort" you to the ticket booth 50' away and then demand payment for their services. Just walk on past these folks ("no gracias" is a good term to learn in general when traveling in the area) and directly to the ticket booth. You'll also need 25-pesos to rent a life jacket (required) at *each* cenote. Yes, the coordination could be better here but hey, when do you get the chance to swim in a cenote? Other than the sort of stress-inducing check-in process and the stair climbing, this place is well worth the visit. Plan at least an hour per cenote. Bring towels!

While this is the first time my husband and I visited on August 12, 2019 about 1230p, I felt like…read morethere were drawbacks that weren't worth the 5 star compliments written by everyone else who went. As we came into the establishment, we realized that we only had enough money for 1 cenote. They persisted that we needed a guide being our first time there; but I mentioned that we didn't have enough pesos to even give a proper tip, because we spent most of our money at Chichén Itzá and the tolls and the gas to get us from Cancun and back. The gentleman stated that it was ok anyway. So away we went. They insisted that we needed pictures taken by them and that we could look at them later. We politely declined because we had no money to give them above and beyond the cost of the tickets. I had noticed that previous reviews had stated that we would have to have a life jacket and to rinse off. I was expecting both but had no money for a life jacket anyway. He asked us if we wanted to use the facilities and we politely declined. He shared with my husband the history of centote's; which it was fairly interesting (he decided that walking really fast and talking to my husband and not really bothering for me to catch up, was the best idea). So while my husband told me of some of the history afterwards, I didn't hear much of it straight from him. He also showed us the top of the cenote and asked us if we wanted to be a daredevil and jump down into it. Again we politely declined. As we headed down the steps, he told us to cautiously walk down since it was slippery and to hold onto the rope. We did do both. But again, I was being left behind. He did take our picture with my iPhone; so that was nice. The picture wasn't the best quality but it was nice to have anyway. Then he expected a tip. All we had was 25 pesos. While I know that wasn't a lot and I had told him, he asked "Is this it?" I really wanted to state that I could have it back and you could have nothing; but I kept my mouth shut. Anyhow, the cenote was much much cooler than we expected. It took awhile to get into the water but we finally did it. The black fish in the emerald water is actually cat fish. We were one of the few that didn't have to have a life jacket. We got some great pictures and we were glad that we did it; but I don't think we will be coming back. I did use the bathroom on our way out; and I realized that they had no toilet seats. While squatting was fine for me to do, I'm trying to figure out who takes the toilet seats and what they do with them. ‍

This was supposed to be one of the better Cenote's, but some things need attention. They have no…read moreplace to change, that's a minus, your forced to change in this tiny bathroom with 2 stalls which are very small you have to really twist around to make it happen. Second minus has to do with safety, down the stairs is a bit treacherous so be careful going down. Once you're down there, one of the ladder stairs going into the water is broken and blocked off, one of the other does not have a handrail, which is real dangerous being it's slippery down there. Place gets busy. The vines hanging down had white huge iguanas just hanging out. Water is clear but cold! Beautiful stalactites and stalagmites that are probably millions of years old. Decent place to come check out. Oh they also have an actual pool on the upper level of you have kids and they have food/bar.

Beautiful,stunning, natural and incredible. The best advice is to get here early. Once the buses…read morearrive the center stone becomes a line for photos. Some of the local street entertainers took over the entire center (disrupting the photo line) and performed a show (for tips). We didn't mind because we'd already taken our photos. The show lasted about 10 minutes then the performers stayed in the center stone for photos, blocking any chance for others to take photos. The water is very shallow but people still had life jackets on. Not sure if that is a must or not. We choose not to get In the water.

Our 2nd time to Tulum Ruins was great! We joined a tour this time and enjoyed it. Our guide was…read moreknowledgeable and very accommodating when questioned. We went on a March weekend and was surprised it was not crowded which was great. I would love to come back during sunset next time - the dramatic scenery, combining ancient ruins with a beautiful beach and the ocean view, will definitely be worth it!

Absolutely worth the visit. The setting is hard to beat, ancient ruins perched above turquoise…read moreCaribbean water with a steady ocean breeze the whole time. The walking paths are easy, the grounds are well kept, and there are plenty of viewpoints where you'll stop every few minutes just to take photos. It does get hot and crowded, especially mid-day, but if you go earlier or later it feels much more relaxed and you can really take in how unique the location is compared to other archaeological sites. The beach access below the cliffs is a huge bonus and makes the experience more than just a history stop. Bring water, sunscreen, and patience, but the views alone make it worth it. You will see plenty of iguanas. :)