Native Choice - Chacchoben Extreme Tour Question

Hello,

For those of you that have done this tour, I see on the website that it is designated as moderate activity. We have one person with us that is having some knee issues. If we arrange for taxi from the port to their offices, is the tour itself strenuous? He is really interested in going, we just are concerned that it may be too much. Any first hand experience is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

There is a moderate amount of walking around the grounds at the ruins. There was also a walk of several hundred yards from the area where our van parked and the entrance to the ruins. If you let the driver know, they may be able to drop you closer to the entrance. There was also some uneven ground on the tour and some climbing on the ruins, if you choose. You can see the main pyramid without too much walking.

At the lagoon, they parked at the restaurant and it was maybe 100 - 150 yards or so from there to the beach area. We did go upstairs for the lunch, so if stairs are an issue, I would call or email and ask if you have the option of eating downstairs.

The main issue may be getting from the ship to the taxi area at the port. The pier is fairly long, especially if you are docked at the berth parallel to shore. They do have a shuttle that runs from the ships to the port, but it seems to be inconsistent when it runs. Once you reach the actual port entrance, there is still a fairly long walk through the port to get to the taxi area. They had blocked several former exits when we were there in January to force you to walk past every shop to get out of the port.

I’m not trying to discourage you, just giving a realistic overview that there will be quite a bit of walking. Hopefully it will be something he can do as we enjoyed the tour and would recommend it.

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Thank you so much for this information JT it is very helpful - I'm hoping if we just let him take his time then he will still be able to do it and enjoy but we'll make it his choice.

@JT1962: We will be doing the Extreme Tour next week.

Were there any lockers at the lagoon and did you have to pay extra when wanting to use the kayaks? Thank you.

@JT1962: We will be doing the Extreme Tour next week.

 

Were there any lockers at the lagoon and did you have to pay extra when wanting to use the kayaks? Thank you.

I don’t recall there being lockers, but there could have been. There were restrooms for changing. The resort was not crowded, so we felt safe leaving our items on a chair while we kayaked and were in the water. There were no additional charges for the Kayaks.

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Thank you. :-) We´re already really looking forward to this trip.

Hello BlueBear,

Would love to hear how you enjoyed this tour when you return!

We loved our tour with native choice! Will have to look up the name of our guide, I wrote it down somewhere.

We had a great time. At first we drove to Chacchoben and then onwards to Bacalan. For me the highlight was not Chachoben but Bacalan, while my partner says for him it was the other way round.

At Chacchoben we did not spend that much time. We first saw the big pyramid ( and were shown chards of pottery on the way) at the beginning and then our guide did a longer talk about history and meaning of the pyramids. We both aggree that we´d have loved the standing around for the longer talk in one spot to be shorter. We´d have loved to have the same talk but changing venues/ views in between by just walking on to e.g. the other side of the pyramid, telling the rest of the story,... I hope you understand what I mean.

Once this information was over we walked along the path to another ruin/ staircase and then saw more, smaller pyramids.

If you have problems walking you would be able to walk along the path to the first, bigger pyramid but getting to the smaller pyramids you´d have to climb the staircase and it´s not an even staircase but basically part of the ruin with uneven stones and debris.

The road to Bacalan was bumpy but I loved to see how pineapples and bananas grow. As a European I had never seen this before.

At Bacalan we were served lunch and then had time to go kayaking (free of charge) or swimming. They would continously serve drinks and bring them to you, even if you were just standing in the lake or swimming, which I thought to be very funny.

There were no lockers but changing rooms and you could also (if you paid for it) get a massage. Very little people there at the resort and no problems keeping your stuff unsupervised.

On the way home the guide handed round a bag of native mexican sweets from which we all got to choose one. I took a kind of caramel candy while my partner preferred some kind of chewing gum with tamarind inside.

You were constantly offered water and even when visiting the ruins there was a guide with us who would carry the water and immediately hand out a new one to you or take back the empty bottles.

At the end they dropped us of at the beginning of the port so we just had to walk a few metres from the beginning of the parking lot.

I can absolutely recommend this tour as we had a great time and the guides and drivers were very friendly, polite and professional.

Thank you so much for the review Bluebear!! I haven’t been online much - we really need this trip! So glad you enjoyed it.

Hey folks,

I have a couple of follow up questions.  I emailed Native Choice but did not get a response.

1.  Were you able to pay the balance due via credit card?  Their website says cash only but I have seen other reviews that said they were able to pay it with credit card at the office. 

2.  I know tipping is always a difficult topic but I am just wondering how that works in a scenario like this - I am guessing there is a guide and a driver (are there others during the ruins visit?) also, what about the lagoon? drink servers, attendants, etc.  I just would like to be prepared since I am the one that has organized this for our family I would like to be prepared. 

3. What about getting to the office?  I imagine some of us will walk and some will go with the family member that has some knee issues. If any of you have taken a taxi - what was the fare to get to the office?  

All of your help is appreciated - 21 days until our cruise!!!

Can anyone tell me the approximate time the Chocchoben Extreme tour takes??  We only have 8 total hours in port and want to see if we’ll have time to do this tour as it’s exactly what we’re wanting to do.

I believe it was approximately 6 hours. I would check with Native Choice to verify the time. It is an excellent tour and they are very good about working with the time you have in port to make sure you get back in time.

On 9/8/2019 at 4:40 PM, BiloxiBeachDude said:

Can anyone tell me the approximate time the Chocchoben Extreme tour takes??  We only have 8 total hours in port and want to see if we’ll have time to do this tour as it’s exactly what we’re wanting to do.

You *should* have enough time - we did this last week on Symphony of the Seas and our guide was *very* conscientious about time and making sure we had enough time to make it back to the ship. We had an extra hour in port, I think, but we were still good on time.

Thanks so much.  I think we’ll go ahead and book this particular excursion and just keep really conscious of time