HAL excursions to Tulum

My husband and I are booked on HAL's Eurodam in Dec. 2016. We will be in Cozumel on Dec. 7 from 11 A.M. to 11 P.M. We are interested in seeing some of the Mayan ruins that HAL has offered. They are::

Coba Mayan ruins for 8 hours

Tulum Mayan ruins and beach break for 8 hours

Tulum Maya ruins express for 8 hours

I would love some input from anyone that has been on the tours. What did you like, what didn't you like, which one would you choose? I can't tell what the difference is between the two Tulum tours other than one has time at the beach. Thank you in advance for all your information. :)

IMO the Coba ruins are better ruins to see. But Tulum is in a beautiful setting and you may actually have more time there. Remember Coba is 30-45 minutes inland from Tulum which is around 30 minutes south of Playa del Carmen where the 50 minute ferry ride from Cozumel docks. Double those times for the round trip travel portion of your 8 hour tour. Plus add some time to waiting on the ferry, especially on the return. You can't climb on any of the ruins at either site and have to stay on the pathways. As I recall from reviews here, the beach break option for Tulum does give you a bit of time to grab some lunch at one of the restaurants on the beach. The non-beach tours I've seen give you some water and a snack. Not sure if that's the case for Coba, but time wise it might be. There are vendors at both sites with street type food.

I have not done a HAL excursion here...we were in Cozumel with RCL. We did the Coba ruins tour with them and I can say that we really enjoyed it.

I have not been to Tulum but read that those ruins are more out in the open (due to the proximity to the beach) and therefore out in the sun. Also, you cannot 'climb' on the ruins at Tulum but must stay on the pathways.

Coba is situated in the 'forest'...there was welcome shade along all the paths we walked. You can get up close to the ruins and climb on them, including a large pyramid which my husband climbed to get beautiful views of the jungle. (I'm not a climber, so stayed on the ground to take pictures).

This excursion was really for him as ruins were something he was most interested in on this trip. I can say, though, that having seen Coba and learning about the history I now want to see more. We can't wait to head back to another port to find more interesting ruins to see.

I have not done a HAL excursion here...we were in Cozumel with RCL. We did the Coba ruins tour with them and I can say that we really enjoyed it.

If you dont mind me asking, which specific excursion did you go on? We are on RCL NoTS in Feb, but the only ruins tour I see is the Tulum one. We don't really want to spend that much time traveling for a relatively short visit to the actual site.

I have not done a HAL excursion here...we were in Cozumel with RCL. We did the Coba ruins tour with them and I can say that we really enjoyed it.

 

I have not been to Tulum but read that those ruins are more out in the open (due to the proximity to the beach) and therefore out in the sun. Also, you cannot 'climb' on the ruins at Tulum but must stay on the pathways.

 

Coba is situated in the 'forest'...there was welcome shade along all the paths we walked. You can get up close to the ruins and climb on them, including a large pyramid which my husband climbed to get beautiful views of the jungle. (I'm not a climber, so stayed on the ground to take pictures).

 

This excursion was really for him as ruins were something he was most interested in on this trip. I can say, though, that having seen Coba and learning about the history I now want to see more. We can't wait to head back to another port to find more interesting ruins to see.

Tulum is out in the open but the ruins there are interesting and worth seeing. It is out in the open because it has all been excavated. Coba has not. I have been to Coba, Chichen Itza and a few others. They are all interesting in their own way.

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If you dont mind me asking, which specific excursion did you go on? We are on RCL NoTS in Feb, but the only ruins tour I see is the Tulum one. We don't really want to spend that much time traveling for a relatively short visit to the actual site.

Any of the good sites, Tulum, Coba, Chichen Itza are going to be long trips from Cozumel. I did them from resorts on the mainland and I recommend that over a cruise excursion.

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If you dont mind me asking, which specific excursion did you go on? We are on RCL NoTS in Feb, but the only ruins tour I see is the Tulum one. We don't really want to spend that much time traveling for a relatively short visit to the actual site.

If you don't want to spend that much time traveling then you won't want Coba...its actually a little further out than Tulum. We left the ship as soon as it was cleared and didn't return until 10 minutes AFTER all aboard. Because it was a cruise ship excursion we had no worries, but as the last person got on board the gangway was pulled in and less than 20 minutes later we were underway.

From what I understand there are ruins right on Cozumel that would not involve the ferry or a long bus ride...San Gervasio. I don't know anything about them though as we were set on seeing Coba.

Tulum is out in the open but the ruins there are interesting and worth seeing. It is out in the open because it has all been excavated. Coba has not. I have been to Coba, Chichen Itza and a few others. They are all interesting in their own way.

 

 

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I'm not so sure I would say that Coba is 'not excavated'...there are quite a few structures that are fully visible above ground. We found the tree cover quite welcome on a warm day. I'm sure Tulum is quite interesting on its own...the draw to Tulum was that my husband wanted to get up close, closer than you can at Tulum. The opportunity to climb one of the structures was a big deal.

I'm not so sure I would say that Coba is 'not excavated'...there are quite a few structures that are fully visible above ground. We found the tree cover quite welcome on a warm day. I'm sure Tulum is quite interesting on its own...the draw to Tulum was that my husband wanted to get up close, closer than you can at Tulum. The opportunity to climb one of the structures was a big deal.

What I said was Tulum is all excavated as opposed to Coba not being all excavated.

Climbing Nohoch Mul at Coba was fun but two thirds of the people who started up when I climbed it didn't complete the climb. That's not counting those who didn't even bother.

So three photos I took, the first is Nohoch Mul from the bottom, the second at the top and the third is Tulum.

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