hiring a driver for the day

Hello fellow cruisers! Back from our awesome cruise holiday and feel like sharing our wonderful experience with with Javier from tourplaza... We met him at the designated pick up spot at the pier and headed to explore the island.. Started off at a free tequila tour & Mayan village make shift and then headed to a local delicious (and cheap too!) Mexican food restaurant and after ward went off the beaten path to get a feel of the real Cozumel... It sure was worth it to go with all the great reviews he has on CC and T.A. and have him as our driver for the day, he made sure our dollars lasted and even got more souvenirs than planned:D:D

Glad you enjoyed your day! Do you know which Tequila tasting you went to and was it any good?

Just got home from our trip and wanted to also add what a great time we had using toursplaza. Needed something for 14 people to do ranging in age from 9-70+. Two ended up diving but the rest of us went off for the day with Miguel Burgos. He was very easy to find using the directions they had sent us. Walked out of the pier area to the taxi line and there he was. The van looked brand new, very clean, and well taken care of. First stop was at a shop where we could buy cheap water, soda, etc which he put on ice in a cooler. Then we were off to San Gervasio to visit the ruins. He explained about the two fees you pay to enter the area and then told us where he would be when we were ready to leave. Our next stop was for food and he recommended two places but said one was much more family friendly while the other just a little wilder than he thought we would want. He wanted us to look at the menu and then if we didn't like it he would take us to the next place. Wish I could remember the name of the place we stopped but it was perfect. Beautiful beach, pretty pool, and good food. He gave a us a tour of other beautiful spots on our way back to the pier. Wish we had had more time but didn't want the ship to leave without us!

Sofia Scott sent me a email that he was leaving tours plaza. Do you think this will result in a decrease in service as well as communication?

Sofia Scott sent me a email that he was leaving tours plaza. Do you think this will result in a decrease in service as well as communication?

Sofia is a relative of Eduardo. She has not been with the company long - sorry to hear she is leaving. If Eduardo has left I would be concerned, he is the driving force behind the administration and is very knowledgeable and efficient. He has been away for a while and I don't know if that is permanent.

Glad you enjoyed your day! Do you know which Tequila tasting you went to and was it any good?

Hi c-leg5! Javier took us to a place calles peepee station which is in the road that takes you to the east side of the island, transversal road if I remember correctly.. Guides were friendly and very fun! :cool:

Sofia Scott sent me a email that he was leaving tours plaza. Do you think this will result in a decrease in service as well as communication?

Sofia is a relative of Eduardo. She has not been with the company long - sorry to hear she is leaving. If Eduardo has left I would be concerned, he is the driving force behind the administration and is very knowledgeable and efficient. He has been away for a while and I don't know if that is permanent.

Eduardo is still with the company and everything will be fine.

Sofia is a relative of Eduardo. She has not been with the company long - sorry to hear she is leaving. If Eduardo has left I would be concerned, he is the driving force behind the administration and is very knowledgeable and efficient. He has been away for a while and I don't know if that is permanent.

I agree. Eduardo is who runs the show (so to speak)....

Our recent cruise stop at Cozumel was perfectly orchestrated by Tours Plaza guide/driver Marco.Oil spill difficulties in Houston prevented us from being in Cozumel on the agreed upon date however our van and driver were there to greet us and provided a wonderful and educational tour of the Island and its history. I would highly recomend a Tour with Marco if you are visiting Cozumel.

We had GEorge as a driver for five hours on our recent Carnival Glory stop. He was everything we had hoped for and more and would highly recommend him. Also had great communication with the staff at Plaza, so I wouldn't worry if I could not get George, I bet all the staff are top notch. Will definitely use them again!

I arrived in Cozumel on a cruise last week along with 3 lady friends and we had a simply splendid 5 hours with Leo as our driver in a clean van with A/C. He arrived promptly and we discussed the things we wanted to do and off we went. He took us through the city and explained everything we were seeing, and then we went to San Gervasio to see the ruins and had the place to ourselves for an hour. As we departed all of the tour buses were arriving with large groups. Then we took an island tour and Leo stopped at a couple of scenic view points and took photos of us with our cameras. Then, as requested, we stopped at a quiet beach on the south shore. He chose Playa Palancar. We spent 90 minutes relaxing, enjoying the water and having cold drinks. The entire experience from booking with Eduardo to touring with Leo was wonderful. My friends & I were so happy. I would highly recommend using Tours Plaza whenever you are visiting Cozumel.

Margo

I have used both Argel and Adiel when arriving in Cozumel. Argel's email is argelcozumel@hotmail and Adiel is Adielrenan@hotmail.com

They are brothers. If you have a really large group, email them and they will make sure they are at the same port for the day. Argel and I even became facebook friends after an adventurous trip to cozumel and Nachi Cocom.

The next time I visited (8 months later) I made sure to get in touch with Argel prior to arrival and he met us at the port that our boat came in on. Most recently, we had a smaller group (6) and were going to do our own thing but ran into Adiel. We got to chatting and realized that he was Argel's brother.

In short order, we hopped in the van with Adiel and he took us on a quick tour before bringing us to Club Cozumel. What a great facility. Clean, friendly, good beer prices and snorkel equipment included. (not much to see, but still included).

It was 25/pp and included the equipment, beach break, and tequila tour. We did buy lunch at the restaurant and it was fantastic too!

We were on a b2b cruise and both weeks stopped in Cozemel. We had hired a driver. It was 100 for the day. He was a dream to have We saw the other side of the island-- no electricity or really running water so other than a park and beach (which is ocean so not all that easy to swim but possible.) He did take us through out the island and showed us lots of other sites. We could stop anytime we wanted. He took us to a the huge grocery store and bought drinks for the day. He had a ice cooler for us too. We asked for him to take us to a friend's jewerly store and some place to buy a local persons crafts. We stopped for some local food. We had made arrangments to go to the orphanange run by some churches here in the U>S> We had a great day with the kids. That has to be arranged in this country before you can get in. We arranged the driver from the states also. He spoke great English and was a young energetic man. I would do it again in a heart beat. His name is Edwardo but I don't know if he is still in the busy. He had a facebook. Look under drivers

I've hired all kinds of drivers in my 25+ visits to Cozumel.

Had some bad ones, had some good ones, but the best ones are the ones from Toursplaza!

They even have a 20% off for the season...through the end of OCTOBER!

http://www.toursplaza.com/eng/hiring-driver.cfm

I highly recommend them!

~Stir

OK in Cozumel, do you have to "book" a driver through Toursplaza "ahead" of time? Or can I get one of their drivers to take us around for a couple hours, once we get off the ship?

OK in Cozumel, do you have to "book" a driver through Toursplaza "ahead" of time? Or can I get one of their drivers to take us around for a couple hours, once we get off the ship?

You have to book in advance.

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Our recent port stop on RCCL's Liberty of the Seas was in Cozumel. On a previous cruise we enjoyed the "Cozumel Bar Hop" (which we heartily recommend) but this time decided to book a driver for the day through Tours Plaza. We chose Tours Plaza after reading the great reviews on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor, and we were not disappointed! Leo was our driver, and gave us a wonderful tour of the island. We told him we were interested in the history of the island, and he gave us a rich account and then told us about everyday life in Cozumel today. We only had a couple of activities on our "must do" list, and he made sure we did those things and then filled our day with other great suggestions. He had us back at our ship at exactly the time we requested. I can absolutely recommend the company and especially Leo!

We just got back from our cruise to Cozumel and the other ports this past Sunday. The various tour companies that have been mentioned here are OK, but I wanted to let you know what we did. Instead of taking a tour company, we took a Taxi into "downtown." While walking around, a man ask if we would like to take a tour of part of Cozumel, which we did, but there was a place that I wanted to see, and it was not on the tours that we had checked out. The man said he would take us to the place that I had mentioned, as well as taking us to the other side of Cozumel which is beautiful. He took us to the place that I had ask about, and then around Cozumel. He took us for 2 hours, and the cost was $35, well worth it.

We just got back from our cruise to Cozumel and the other ports this past Sunday. The various tour companies that have been mentioned here are OK, but I wanted to let you know what we did. Instead of taking a tour company, we took a Taxi into "downtown." While walking around, a man ask if we would like to take a tour of part of Cozumel, which we did, but there was a place that I wanted to see, and it was not on the tours that we had checked out. The man said he would take us to the place that I had mentioned, as well as taking us to the other side of Cozumel which is beautiful. He took us to the place that I had ask about, and then around Cozumel. He took us for 2 hours, and the cost was $35, well worth it.

" ...there was a place that I wanted to see, and it was not on the tours that we had checked out."

What was this place? :confused:

We just got back from our cruise to Cozumel and the other ports this past Sunday. The various tour companies that have been mentioned here are OK, but I wanted to let you know what we did. Instead of taking a tour company, we took a Taxi into "downtown." While walking around, a man ask if we would like to take a tour of part of Cozumel, which we did, but there was a place that I wanted to see, and it was not on the tours that we had checked out. The man said he would take us to the place that I had mentioned, as well as taking us to the other side of Cozumel which is beautiful. He took us to the place that I had ask about, and then around Cozumel. He took us for 2 hours, and the cost was $35, well worth it.

Glad you enjoyed your day. Was this a random man you bumped into, a taxi or a timeshare operative? Why couldn't the taxi that took you downtown take you where you wanted to go?

I just got back from a land vacation where we stayed 5 nights in Cozumel.

Not our first time either but the longest in many years.

We were lucky to have found this taxi driver- Santiago through Tripadvisor thread .

santizapa69@outlook.es

He spoke good English and of course Spanish ( which I do too) has a nice big van with AC

Our hotel was on the southern end ( El Presidente) and very near the Money Bar.

At first he quoted me $40pp for an island tour, which included downtown, tequila tasting and over to the east side stopping at Coconuts & Mezcalitos.

I was only interested in the southern area which I was not familiar .

So for $35pp and about 3 hours he took us to where I wanted.

Visited the first settlement town of Cedral very near Playa Palancar (which is very nice and beautiful and free). The town had just finished having a festival and we had missed going ( next time we will).

Headed to Punta Sur eco park and had to pay a $12 admission fee pp for the park to see ruins, the small museum, climb the lighthouse and see the crocs.

There is a nice beach area too which we didn't stay at since that was not my plan.

Then off down the road to the very highly visited El Mirador the southernmost tip of Cozumel.

On our way back we were dropped off at Money bar as we had planned to have lunch and snorkel there then taxi back to our hotel for another $5.

In answer to the question of what I wanted to see that was not on the tours, was the chocolate factory. I had read about it in CC, and wanted to check it out. It is called Kow Kow, and a small factory, but very interesting to learn of how they make their chocolate candy. They have at least 12 different kinds, and we had "samples" of all of them, if we wanted.

On another tour, and you might be able to do this through a tour guide (I can't remember which port right now), we also took a tour of the rum factory, which was interesting too. When you see the rum cakes they are selling on the ship, that is where we went.

In answer to the question of what I wanted to see that was not on the tours, was the chocolate factory. I had read about it in CC, and wanted to check it out. It is called Kow Kow, and a small factory, but very interesting to learn of how they make their chocolate candy. They have at least 12 different kinds, and we had "samples" of all of them, if we wanted.

 

On another tour, and you might be able to do this through a tour guide (I can't remember which port right now), we also took a tour of the rum factory, which was interesting too. When you see the rum cakes they are selling on the ship, that is where we went.

This would be San Juan ? or most likely Grand Cayman as they sell rum cakes.

Islabonita, no it was not Puerto Rico where we went to the Rum factory this time. It is possible there is one there, but this was in Falmouth Jamaica, or Grand Cayman.

Reading good reviews both in TripAdvisor and CruiseCritic, we book "a driver for a day" from Tours Plaza. Well, for us it is actually just three hours...:)

Our email is handled promptly by Sophia, and our driver Leo is really good. He is friendly, and also an excellent guide. He even pointed us something of concerns to Indonesians (we are from indonesia).

Before starting the tour, we discuss our itinerary with Leo, and we have our tour of the island just the way we like it!

Another great review for Tour plaza and hiring a driver for the day in Cozumel.

Our driver Gerry was exactly where they said he would be and on time. He was very nice, and took us to see the Myan ruins at San Gervasio. He also arranged for Bianca to meet us there and be our guide for the ruins. Bianca was the best!! She has a vast knowledge of everything Cozumel. Thanks so much Gerry for arranging that for us. Gerry also took us to the KAO KAO chocolate factory where we were able to taste and purchase some awesome chocolate!!

We took a drive to the east side of the island and got some wonderful pics.

I would highly recommend hiring a driver through these folks!!

Eduardo responds quickly through e-mails and sets it all up perfectly!!

THANKS GERRY!!!!! :)