Great Island Tour!!

[rothbear]

We just got back from our cruise on the Sensation and I have to let everyone know about the great island tour that I booked online!!

CozumelTours.com is run by two Americans, one of whom lives there and actually does the tours. Her name is Nelda, and the other person is Harry. I found them by browsing another message board and decided to try them out. It was great!!

My DH and I were the only ones on the tour (except for another resident, Carol, whom she was training to help out). Nelda met us right at the end of the pier and we felt right away that we had been friends forever! They don't have their own transportation, so they rent jeeps as they need to. Nelda decided to rent a 4-door jeep with air conditioning, which was really great to get in and out of. We started through the town and she zigged and zagged showing us all kinds of interesting sites. Then we headed east across the island and then the road south. Because we were the only ones, she stopped wherever we wanted to and we got to see a lot of different things. We decided not to do the ruins, but to spend more time at other sites. Then at the end, she dropped us off in town for shopping and since we were the only ones, she offered to pick us back up and take us to the pier again. We had our choice of places to stop for lunch and chose a wonderful beach club where we were serenaded by a great duo. And the food was wonderful!

Nelda is very knowledgable about tons of things on the island. She was pretty much able to answer all of our questions and even tell us a lot of facts and legends. The one other thing she does is take a lot of pictures and then sends you a CD of them later on. My camera decided to quit working in the middle of the tour, so she and Carol took a lot more and are going to include them as well...........Did you know there is NO mail service onto or off the island to the states??? She has to go to the effort of finding someone going to the states on another cruise ship to mail things for her!

I would highly recommend this company. They are a relatively new company and are very receptive to suggestions. You can book directly with them at www.cozumeltours.com (http://www.cozumeltours.com) and they take payment by Paypal, as well as cash on site (they do require a $25/person deposit ahead of time). Tell them Nancy & Brian sent you! And no, I don't receive any kind of commission. Just glad to pass on a great service that I found!

[mumsiesof2]

Hello there !!!

I just finished reading your post about cozumeltours.com.
Sounds as if you have a wonderful time with Nelda. I have a couple
of questions and I hope you can help me out. What exactly did you do on your
tour...and where did you have lunch...did you pay for Nelda to have lunch with you....how long was the tour...what would you see again and what would you
not bother with.

Thank you for all your feedback :) ...............
Linda
aka....mumsiesof2@hotmail.com
we are from chicago and are looking forward to our cruise on the NCL Dream
in November-it's our 35th anniversary;)

[rothbear]

Linda.........You will love them, if you decide to go!

As far as what we saw, it's hard to list. Nelda asked us right off the bat what WE would like to see, not what SHE was taking us to see. We really didn't have anything specific in mind, so the first thing we did was drive around the town and see some historical places, including the GIANT conch shell in the middle of a roundabout! She took us through areas that really showed us the "local" part of the island. We then headed across the island and she pointed out things that she would be willing to stop at (ruins, tequila tour.....both cost extra for admission), but we decided we were more into seeing the nature part of the island. We stopped at a great beach (don't ask me the name!!) and she told us to take our time as it was early and really explored there. Also stopped at Coconuts just to be able to say we were at the highest point on the island (and also did some exploring.......unfortunately this is where my camera died!). From there we kept driving at she gave us a choice of where to stop for lunch. We decided to stop at a small beach club. The lunch was not included in the price of the tour, but we did NOT pay for hers. In fact, she said that she usually leaves you alone if you want to be, but we asked both of them to sit with us. They purchased their own lunches.

A couple misc. places included the yacht club where Paul Allen (Microsoft) keeps his yacht (scenery is beautiful there) and a little shopping area with some great buildings and a donkey named Pancho that you can get your picture taken on for $2 (Nelda would have paid, but DH told her he would). He is so funny as he has this look on his face as though "Oh S%^&, another tourist...".

If I was able to do it again, I would probably take in the ruins and maybe the tequila tour and skip some shopping, especially right downtown. But that was our choice and not Nelda's. For general shopping she recommends La Cinco Soles, but I'm sure she would be willing to take you to the more local shopping if you request. The tour is 4-5 hours depending on what you choose to do.

Nelda is ver consciencious about nature (she was picking up some trash as we went along) and loves to tell you all about the island. You can tell she really loves it there. She also has a great sense of humor!

[solita]

Nancy...just called Nelda to make sure she saw your review. Glad you had such a good time. She is both a great tour guide and great friend.

[mumsiesof2]

:)
I just finished making a reservation with Cozumeltours. After reading all the
wonderful things about Nelda how could we go with anyone else.
All I have to do now is wait for her confirmation......November is a long time to wait.....

Thanks again,
Linda

[rothbear]

Linda...........You will NOT be sorry!!

I just had to post to say that I received the photo CD from Nelda over the weekend and just had a chance to look at it today. It is wonderful!! I was surprised when she said that a photo CD would be included and shipped to us. I expected just some photos. But no........it is done in a whole slide show with background music! COOL! But you actually can get into it and see just the pictures so that you can even have prints done of them (I'm a scrapbooker, so I definately want some prints). And the pix are great. A lot of nice casual, non-posed ones that I probably would never have gotten had it not been for this.

If you are going to Cozumel, don't even hesitate to book with them at www.cozumeltours.com (http://www.cozumeltours.com) . I am not one to normally book something with just a mention on a message board as I always seem to be disappointed, but I'm so glad I went with this gut feeling. Oh, and I'm also not one to give empty praise just for the sake of praise. You really have to give me my money's worth to earn the praise and Nelda & Carol definately did that!!