Mayan Ruins with kids – Cancun, Mexico
Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico – Mayan ruins with kids
For our family of lovers of ancient history, we could not consider any tour of the Yucatan peninsula complete without a trip to Chichen Itza. For our family, traveling to the Mayan ruins with kids in Mexico was the top of our list
A tour to Chichen Itza from Cancun is a full 12-14 hour trip. We booked one with a 20 min stop at the colonial city of Valladolid, a buffet lunch at a mayan gift shop/village and a 45 min stop at a cenote, a wonderful cool way to end a full hot day. This itinerary is pretty standard for most tours from Cancun.
The tour bus picked us up from our hotel at 7:30 AM and brought us to a souvenir shop at the Flamingo mall. We picked up our tickets at the store and spent about 45 min shopping while waiting for our fellow tourists to be brought there as well. It was a decent stop to get some water, visit the restrooms before starting the bus tour.
About 9 AM, we finally boarded a bus and left as soon as it was full. The bus was clean and well maintained and had a chemical toilet on board for emergencies. It stopped every hour for bio breaks so nobody really needed to use it. Considering we spent about 6 of the 14 hours on the bus, traveling to Mayan ruins with very young kids may be difficult.
We had a mayan tour guide on board who educated us about the mayan culture, history, their alphabet and number system and kept us entertained the entire way with an extremely funny narrative style.
Stop 1 – Vallodolid, Mexico
Our first main stop was Valladolid, about 2 hours west from Cancun. It is a colonial town, and in the tradition of spanish invasion, it was built on the ruins of a mayan town. Now, it is mainly known for the park of Francisco Cantón Rosado and the beautiful cenotes in the area.
We stopped at the main square for about 20 minutes, enough for a quick restroom break across from the square at the food court and a few pictures in the main square. There is an interesting chocolate store right at the square but there didn’t seem to be enough time to go browse there.
Stop 2 – Mayan Village for lunch
In about 30 minutes, we reached a mayan gift store and buffet lunch place. There was an interesting Shaman ceremony blessing the tourists when we arrived. After that, we had about 30-45 minutes to shop for souvenirs in the gift shop before the buffet lunch was opened up. It was a simple mayan meal with plenty of vegetarian and non-vegetarian options.
Following our lunch, we reached Chichen Itza within 10 minutes. With just getting out of the air conditioned bus, the dry heat enveloped us. We were grateful to see many vendors selling wide brimmed hats, we could get a cheap one for 5 USD.
Stop 3 – Chichen Itza
After getting the group together, it was a short walk to the Chichen Itza archeological site with El Castillo, also known as the Temple of Kukulcan, front and center! It is named after the deity “Feathered Serpent” and has serpents along the steps going to the top of the temple on all 4 sides. On the spring and fall equinoxes, thousands of visitors collect here to see the serpent effect, which shows triangular light along the steps, culminating in the carved serpent head at the bottom of the steps.
The Great Ball Court is another well known structure at the site. Having seen the night show at Xcaret a couple of days earlier, it was almost magical to walk around the ball court and imagine a game being played centuries ago. According to the guide, the captain of the losing team would be sacrificed at the end of the game. Must have been an interesting end of the game for the everyone for sure!!
There were many other buildings like the Temple of Warriors, Group of Thousand Columns, etc. It would have been a good idea to read about all the structures in advance so would have made sure to see them all during the visit.
The tour group had been divided in 2 groups, and we got an english or spanish speaking guide based on preference. We got about an hour of guided tour and about 45 minutes to take pictures after. It was definitely worth the long trip and a 14 hour exhausting day to see the Mayan ruins with kids.
Stop 4 – Suytun Cenote
After a delicious ice-cream at the main entrance, we headed to the last stop of our day, the Suytun cenote. It had showers close to the entrance, everyone had to shower before getting into the cenote. From the showers, it was about a quarter mile walk to the entrance to the cenote so MUST bring water shoes or some waterproof shoes/slippers to walk over the gravel. The cenote is 140 ft deep and there are safety vests for rent for 30 pesos each.
The cenote itself was about 30 steps down into a beautiful, eerie cavern with a skylight letting in some light. The kids enjoyed hanging around in the clear water for a while before heading back.
Heading back, it took a good 3 hours to get back to Cancun, drop people at different hotels on their way. Overall, these are well managed tours and take good care of people during the day.
The highlight of our day was getting a mayan birth certificate for our kids. It was organized by the tour guide for 20 USD each and it was hands down the coolest souvenir we have ever taken home so far!
Ruins of El Rey, Cancun, Mexico with kids
We planned the visit to the ruins of El Rey on one of our slow days so we could get some break from long days of adventure. Getting to the ruins was a breeze, we hopped on a southbound bus from the bus-stop closest to our hotel. 30 minutes and 10 pesos each later, the driver dropped us off outside the El Rey ruins.
The El Rey ruins are very small in scale, maybe not much larger than a football field. Most of the ruins are small structures that have not stood the test of time as well as some other Mayan ruins like Chichen Itza. However, they are more famous for the hundreds of iguanas that run tame all over the area. It makes for a great place to spend an hour with the kids and take some fun pictures with the iguanas.
Ruins of Tulum near Cancun, Mexico
Our exploration of the mayan ruins of Tulum was part of an all day tour with Alltournative Tours covering Jungle Maya adventures and Tulum ruins.
It started early in the day, picking 11 of us from 4 different hotels in the Cancun Hotel Zone from 6:45 AM. We were lucky enough to have another family with 3 kids the same age as ours and one more couple as part of our group.
Tulum is an archeological site of the ruins of the port city of Tulum that rose in prominence around 200 AD. It is a walled fort city with the walls on three sides and a cliff facing the Atlantic on the 4th. It is known for it gorgeous back-drop, with tourists thronging at the cliff side, waiting to take the perfect Instagram picture!
The entry point for the ruins is about half a mile of walk, first through a souvenir market, then a long stretch of road under the hot sun with not a lot of shade. At the entrance are the only washrooms in the Tulum site, so it’s a good idea to hit them before going in. It is however a relatively small site so coming back if needed is not a bit deal.
If going with a guide, you get a good description of the ruins and the mayan days when the city and culture were thriving. You typically get another hour to take pictures, walk around and get back to the vehicle.
The place is over-run by wild animals like iguana and coatis. We got many opportunities to get close to them around the ruins. It does however get really hot while wandering around the ruins, so a wide-brimmed hat and sunscreen and water bottles are a must.
Walk back to the parking lot seemed like a 2 mile walk, it was probably closer to one mile. For a family that is reasonably fit, we were all exhausted by the time we got back.
The souvenir market outside the Tulum was a good place to pick up some gifts or a hat or a cool drink of delicious coconut water to cool down. We definitely couldn’t get enough of them during our trip.
By evening, the place started livening up and we even got a picture taken with people dressed as ancient Mayans for our memory book. Overall, it was an exhausting day but we brought home tons of wonderful experiences and memories!!
