{"id":1380,"date":"2024-07-18T12:52:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T18:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cancunandrivieramaya.com\/blog\/?p=1380"},"modified":"2024-07-18T13:32:28","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T19:32:28","slug":"magical-private-ek-balam-ruins-cenote-tour-trip-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cancunandrivieramaya.com\/blog\/magical-private-ek-balam-ruins-cenote-tour-trip-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Magical Private Ek Balam Ruins & Cenote Tour: Trip Report!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We took the private tour to Ek Balam & Xcanche cenote and had an incredible day!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Since we were on Isla Mujeres, we took the first ferry of the day at 6:00 AM. Our CARM driver Martin was waiting for us at 6:20 AM at the Gran Puerto Juarez Ultramar Ferry Dock, ready for the 2.5 hour drive.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Martin!<\/p><\/div>\n

NOTE:<\/strong> Since the ruins are in a different state (Yucatan) than Cancun (Quintana Roo), the time there was 1 hour behind us. We arrived exactly at 8:00 AM, just as the ruins opened.<\/p>\n

PRO TIP:<\/strong> Arriving early to the ruins beats some of the heat of the day but, most importantly: allows you bypass the surge of people arriving on huge public tour buses that don\u2019t start arriving until 10:00 AM. So, the sites are not so crowded. On this day, we literally had the entire site to ourselves-there was not one other person until 8:30 AM – incredible! \"\"<\/p>\n

You can choose to add on a certified tour guide during booking, and that guide will be with you the whole day. We opted for no tour guide. But, if we had changed our minds, there are also tour guides available in all languages at the entrance of the ruins.<\/p>\n

\"\"When we entered, a cute mama dog came right out and led us to through the winding site. She waited as we stopped to take photos and admire the structures. Amazingly, she led us the Acropolis (the main pyramid) and started climbing up with us, all the way to the top! The site was so peaceful and the view was incredible! We were able to take amazing photos. What a bucket list item, climbing to the top of a pyramid!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why visit Ek Balam? Ek Balam is the ONLY Mayan ruins site in the Yucatan where you can still climb to the top of the ruins.\"\"<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Sites such as Chichen Itza & Coba no longer allow you to climb the ruins. Also, Ek Balam is a small site, and less crowded and hectic. Chichen Itza can get crowded with tour groups at every turn.<\/p>\n

\"\"We really wanted a more tranquil site, with all the same magic and history. The only sounds were the birds and nature. It truly felt magical. We were NOT disappointed! (TIP: Bring lots of sunscreen and\/or an umbrella if you are sun sensitive. We brought bug spray as well but, did not need to use it).<\/p>\n

We were ready to cool off in the cenote after our adventure and Martin was waiting for us!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

At this point, we could have taken bicycles to ride the 1.2 miles (2KM) to the cenote on the dirt road as it is within the archaeological zone of Ek Balam. But, it was so hot on this day (and being two redheads lol), we opted to have Martin drive us.<\/p>\n

Our luck was extended as we were again THE ONLY TWO PEOPLE at the cenote!<\/strong> \"\"Cenote Xcanche is a beautiful open cenote (aboveground) and has a little ecotourism circuit of activities within the cenote: tiny zip line over the cenote, rappelling, rope swings, handle bar swings. If you don’t want to do any of the activities, just float and enjoy the tranquility!<\/p>\n

There were changing rooms, bathrooms, and you could rent a locker. We opted to keep our valuables in the van with the driver. Before you go into the cenote, you must take a shower at the outdoor showers and only eco-safe sunscreen is permitted.<\/p>\n

\"\" Our guide Jorge immediately showed led us down the stairs into this serene cenote and showed us the activities. Your entrance ticket includes 2 turns on each activity. We first did the handle bar swing into the cenote assisted by Jorge and it was so much fun!!<\/p>\n

You could opt to buy additional turns for 100 pesos but, we were off to a little wooden swing bridge to the rope swing. This was\u00a0 higher than the handlebars: brace for that landing hahaha! We opted not to do the rappelling into the cenote and took our time to swim and float around with the unbothered tiny fish. We had dragonflies land on our hands as we floated, and looked up into the trees to the sounds of birds and nature. There was a tiny little sprinkling waterfall over the cenote as well. Incredible!\"\"<\/p>\n

After about 30 minutes a few other people showed up and we decided to try the zipline. \"\"Neither of us had ever ziplined before in our lives but, we felt very safe and it was a double cable zipline, where you sit in a harness-Look ma no hands! The zipline flew above the cenote, it was just a 30 second flight and was so much fun. A guide helped you take off and other was waiting at the other side to make sure you landed safely. Jorge had my phone the entire time and took tons of amazing videos and photos of our entire stay at the cenote. Please remember to tip your guides, they work hard to make sure you have a great time and the photo memories were incredible to have!! We would not have had them otherwise!<\/strong><\/p>\n

PRO TIP:<\/strong> We had worn long pants, sneakers, and rash guards to explore the ruins that were all sweaty. After the cenote, we changed into another set of clothes<\/strong> for the rest of the day, flip flops, short, tshirts. Bringing an extra set of fresh clothes is a great option!)<\/p>\n

Martin pointed out restaurants along the way that we could stop at if we liked, or we could wait until Valladolid. Lunch is not included in the tour. We had brought sandwiches and snacks in the van so, we opted not to stop anywhere for lunch. (Your van will have a cooler stocked with bottled water and soda. Feel free to bring other drinks for the cooler.)\"\"<\/p>\n

(We opted to go to another cenote called Hubiku first. Note, that this is NOT included in the tour. But, we decided to pay for it ourselves.<\/strong> It was 200 pesos to enter just the cenote or you could opt for cenote plus lunch for 350 pesos. You can opt to add on another cenote by informing CARM beforehand<\/em> of the name of the cenote and that you will be paying your own entrance\/parking. It must be nearby\/on the way to Valladolid<\/em>.<\/strong> And this is time permitting.<\/em> Your van must be on the way back to your hotel before or by 5 PM.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"After the cenote we headed to the beautiful town square of the Pueblo Magico, Valladolid!<\/h3>\n

We wandered the square for a little bit, bought some souvenirs at shops, bought popcorn and ice cream and sat in the famous Love Chairs sprinkled though out the Zocalo. By 2:00 PM we were tired, and on our way back to the ferry.<\/p>\n

My friend looked at me in the van and said \u201cThis was so incredible, I will never forget this day, as long as I live!\u201d<\/p>\n

If you are on the fence…. JUST GO! You won\u2019t regret it!!\"\" <\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BOOK ONLINE AT THE LINK BELOW! <\/strong><\/h3>\n

USE THE PROMO CODE CARMLOVE4U FOR $5 USD OFF PER PERSON!!: https:\/\/www.cancunandrivieramaya.com\/Tours\/ekbalam-private.asp<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Any questions, feel free to email us at: office@cancunandrivieramaya.com<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We took the private tour to Ek Balam & Xcanche cenote and had an incredible day! Since we were on Isla Mujeres, we took the first ferry of the day at 6:00 AM. Our CARM driver Martin was waiting for us at 6:20 AM at the Gran Puerto Juarez Ultramar Ferry Dock, ready for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1385,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[61,62,64,99,83,100,14,81,31,15,80,50,79,98],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cancunandrivieramaya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cancunandrivieramaya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cancunandrivieramaya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cancunandrivieramaya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cancunandrivieramaya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1380"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.cancunandrivieramaya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1427,"href":"https:\/\/www.cancunandrivieramaya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380\/revisions\/1427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cancunandrivieramaya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cancunandrivieramaya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cancunandrivieramaya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cancunandrivieramaya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}