Excursions review in Riviera Maya: Tulum Ruins

[northernflasher]

TULUM RUINS 8/10

27th March 2010

 

This is a 10 minute cab ride from our hotel Dreams Tulum. It was $7 one way.

We got there really early which I recommend. There is a barricade that prevents taxi's from taking you all the way to the entrance, its approx a 10 minute walk from the taxi drop off point to the entrance. There is a shuttle train that you can catch but if you get there early its not running yet. I dont know how frequent they are or if there is an extra charge cos we walked both ways.

 

We virtually had the place to ourselves for the first hour. I suggest as soon as you get in there to head to the left, towards the beach and cliff top ruins which are the most spectacular and also the best to photograph when there are less people around.

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There are tons of large iguanas walking around the ruins which is pretty cool and makes for some good photos.

 

Be advised there are NO facilities here. The toilets are out by the ticket booths. There is very little shade once you get in there so on a hot day like the day we went it really is tiring and much better to be there early. Take plenty of water and wear a hat and sunscreen.

 

There is adequate information displayed around the ruins. Tour guides are also available. By 10am it was already really busy with numerous tour guides taking groups and no clear shots of the ruins without lots of people in the background. We were heading out by this time.

 

The whole thing takes 2 hours max. You could spend longer if you wanted to use the beach which looked beautiful but appeared to be closed when we were there. Possibly it was due to the tide or us being there early?

 

Our photographer visited here and also went to Coba ruins. He much preferred the location and layout of here. His opinion was that the cliff top setting and lush planting around Tulum ruins made for much nicer photo opportunities.

Coba is much bigger and required them to hire bicycles to see everything. He also said there is little information on display about the ruins and the guides were quite pushy.

If you only have chance to do one, his recommendation was Tulum rather than Coba.

 

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