Jump to content

Tours Plaza?


bearnuts
 Share

Recommended Posts

Has anyone used this company? We are looking at doing a private tour with them,any help would be geatly appreciated. Thank in advance,Brian

 

We have used them several times.

 

Read the thread "hiring a driver for a day" for further reviews and recommendations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

My Mom, Sister, BFF, and I recently used Tours Plaza. We hired a private driver for the 5 hours. Gerry was our driver and he is fabulous! His english was perfect and he was so helpful with my Mom who uses a walker. The price was reasonable. If i'm in Cozumel again, I will use Tours Plaza again and hopefully Gerry will drive us!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
My Mom, Sister, BFF, and I recently used Tours Plaza. We hired a private driver for the 5 hours. Gerry was our driver and he is fabulous! His english was perfect and he was so helpful with my Mom who uses a walker. The price was reasonable. If i'm in Cozumel again, I will use Tours Plaza again and hopefully Gerry will drive us!

 

We have used Gerry several times.

 

He is a jewel!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Booked Tours Plaza for a day trip while sailing on the Carnival Triumph this December. Our driver Miguel was very courteous and wanted to know of any special stops we wanted to take. We told him to just give us a tour of the island of any sites of interest. We toured through the local town (off the main tourist venues) and stopped at a local chocolate factory for a taste of some really good Mexican chocolate. Then off to the remote parts of the island with the beautiful sandy beaches and the lush jungle area. Final stop was at a local cafe for some lunch a couple of blocks off the main avenue. Our guide spoke excellent English and was very courteous throughout the trip. I would recommend Tours Plaza for those people who do not want to be in a large group for site seeing. The cost was very reasonable for a 3 hour tour.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I really wanted to pack a lot into our one day at Cozumel but didn't want the stress of renting a car (the traffic can be really crazy i.e. sometimes there's things like a whole family all riding on one moped, so there's a real danger of hitting someone if you're not really on your game). Also I don't speak Spanish and the idea of having to haggle with taxi drivers over and over again was daunting (travel rule #12 - never get into a cab without first bargaining the price). There were three of us and the Holland America shore excursion to see the island would have run more than $200 for just 5 hours. Instead, for $150, we got a private six hour tour that included everything we wanted and more.

About 48 hours before our cruise took off, I emailed (in English) Eduardo who runs Tours Plaza. I asked for a tour of Cozumel that included sightseeing in the city, a trip out to San Gervasio to see the Mayan ruins, a tour of the coastal eco park area on the far side of the island with a stop at Coconuts, and a chocolate factory tour. Eduardo got back to me within an hour. I sent him a Paypal deposit of $65 which I was initially a little nervous about until I remembered that Paypal makes these kind of transactions really safe because they have great anti-fraud policies. Right before the cruise took off, I received a very clear set of email instructions on how to find our driver after we docked at Cozumel. Landing at Cozumel is intense. From the moment you get off the boat there are people in your face hawking tours, trying to sell you things, taxi drivers waving you over... it was a little overwhelming (especially with an elder and daughter in tow). I felt so much more secure knowing that there was someone waiting for us. I found our driver Victor easily. He was fantastic! He was born and raised on the island so he knew it really well. He immediately made a few suggestions to the order of our itinerary so it flowed better and we piled into his 8 passenger van (lots of room to spread out and carry shopping bags too) and were off. I had some ideas of what I wanted to see but when I asked him what he thought, I really appreciated that Victor had even better ideas. He gave us a really thorough tour of the city's landmarks, stopping anywhere we wanted to take pictures and then took us to Kaokao Chocolate factory. When we arrived, it didn't look like any tours were happening, but Victor jumped out, had a quick conversation with the owner Josué and arranged a private tour just for us (at the price of a regular tour). Josué is wonderful BTW - he is so knowledgeable about all things chocolate and the factory was super clean and tidy. His love for his work so obvious (and tasty), it was hard not to bring home a suitcase of chocolate! Victor was so concerned that our precious chocolate would melt over the course of the day that he pulled over and bought ice for the cooler so it would stay in perfect condition! What US taxi driver would ever do that? After the San Gervasio tour, a similar thing happened with lunch. I had selected Coconuts because everyone said it was a great view. Victor was happy to stop but suggested that a place just up the road might be less crowded and have better food. I took him up on his suggestion and also invited him to have lunch with us. I was really glad I did - not only because he is so knowledgeable about the island, but also I needed serious help with deciphering the menu (note to self: get Rosetta Stone Spanish already!). The food was outstanding. Easily the best lunch we had on the entire cruise. Last stop was a local market for souvenir shopping which we never would have found and where we saved about half what we would have paid at the mall near the dock. In all, I can't recommend the experience highly enough. I feel like we didn't just hire a driver, but instead got a customized and personalized guided tour with a guide who really cared about us having a wonderful and safe experience in Cozumel. I was so pleased with the five star service that I ended up tipping something like $50 and still feel like we got a bargain overall.

 

PS - I trusted Victor's opinions so much that we fearlessly ate salad and drank water at the restaurant... and were totally fine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Highly recommend the private tour, personal, no crowds, brings you to where you want to go, and then some! Gerry spoke english very well, entertaining, with some great tunes in the van. So much better than touring with a big bus group. Nice to go on your own, safely. Van was clean, comfortable and air conditioned. Next visit take the personal driver for the day, you won't regret it! Call Gerry or Eduardo at 987-103-5504. So much fun!:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've been to Cozumel several times so this time I wanted to go birding. Tours Plaza was recommended not because they are a nature tour company but because they had taken other birders to some good sites. Leo was waiting for us when we got off the boat. He pointed out a few birds on our way to Cozumel Country Club. The golf course is an Audubon Sanctuary. He negotiated for us to rent a gold cart to go around the course looking at birds. Then we went to the undeveloped side of the island. Amazing views! The price was set in advance and was very reasonable for a good driver, clean, safe car, and security. While Cozumel is relatively safe, it was nice to know I could leave my cameras and other stuff in the car while we went for drinks. Leo was a great driver and we would definitely use Plaza Tours again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My wife, daughter and I booked our driver and a 4 hour tour of Cozumel on January 20, 2015 with Eduardo of Plaza Tours several weeks before our cruise.

 

Unfortunately, due to issues with the cruise ships, we had to tender off shore, rather than docking, so it was hectic for passengers getting off the ships for their excursions.

 

Once we made it to shore, we followed the directions given to us to meet our driver, and there was Victor, our driver, holding a sign with our name on it just as promised. He was a very welcomed sight to see amongst all the craziness in Cozumel.

 

Victor told us to now relax and let him take it from here. He went to get his air conditioned van for us and in a few minutes we were loaded and off to enjoy the island. Let me tell you, it is crazy in Cozumel with all the small streets, cars, cabs and scooters. You would be nuts to rent a car and try to drive in Cozumel, let someone else do the driving.

 

Victor already knew the things we wanted to do so he took us through a tour of San Miguel, the Kaokao chocolate factory, a catholic church and other places a tourist would have no idea how to get to.

 

He also gave us a lot of history and other cultural information about Cozumel. We also wanted to see the "other side" of the island and we stopped at Playa Bonita for lunch and many stops along the way including, El Mirador where he took pictures of us and we even got in the water.

 

Our tour ended with Victor dropping us off at Paradise Beach for the rest of the afternoon and we took a cab back to the port. We were so happy to let Tours Plaza do the driving. They are professional, prompt, timely, friendly and informative. If you want to tour Cozumel, please do yourself a favor and book with this group!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We used Tours Plaza last week while in Cozumel. Victor was our guide and took us to exactly where we wanted to go. He was friendly, knowledgeable and a pleasure to spend the day with. We had an air conditioned van for just my husband and me. So we were very comfortable with the size and temperature of the van.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I would highly recommend Tours Plaza.

 

I made the reservation for a Sunday, but wasn't aware that Sundays are traditionally 'off-days' for the island given the heavy traffic from cruise ships Mon-Sat. This meant many stops we had planned (National Park, Chocolate factory, etc) were not a possibility. However, Gerry, our driver, made the day worth it anyway. He arranged a tour (at no cost to us) at the San Gervasio ruins, showed us where to get the *best* fish tacos & enchiladas, and more importantly, turn around what could have been a bad day into a very memorable vacation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I ditto all of the responses. We also had Victor when we were there in Feb. 2015. Cannot say enough about him! He was extraordinarily friendly, kind, helpful. My sister was in a wheelchair and he graciously took the wheelchair in and out of the car and helped her to get out and see some of the sights that we stopped at. He took us to a wonderful local restaurant on the beach where we had the BEST lunch ever! Also gigantic pina coladas!

I highly recommend using Tours Plaza to book your private tours of Cozumel. :)

Edited by shainagirl
font size
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I ditto all of the responses. We also had Victor when we were there in Feb. 2015. Cannot say enough about him! He was extraordinarily friendly, kind, helpful. My sister was in a wheelchair and he graciously took the wheelchair in and out of the car and helped her to get out and see some of the sights that we stopped at. He took us to a wonderful local restaurant on the beach where we had the BEST lunch ever! Also gigantic pina coladas!

I highly recommend using Tours Plaza to book your private tours of Cozumel. :)

Edited by shainagirl
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have to agree with what others have said- Tours Plaza is great!

 

We hired Gerry for a group of six a couple weeks ago and were so pleased. We felt like he got to know us and tailored our day perfectly. We felt really safe the whole time and had such a fun day.

 

All in all a great value!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So what do the drivers do while you are off being a tourist?

 

The kids want to swim with the dolphins in Chankanaab but we also would like to tour around the island with Tours Plaza - see the ruins that are there, the choc factory etc. Is this doable?

 

If you decide to shop for an hour or so, what do the drivers do, wait somewhere?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So what do the drivers do while you are off being a tourist?

 

The kids want to swim with the dolphins in Chankanaab but we also would like to tour around the island with Tours Plaza - see the ruins that are there, the choc factory etc. Is this doable?

 

If you decide to shop for an hour or so, what do the drivers do, wait somewhere?

 

I haven't been to Chankanaab but I have toured several times with ToursPlaza. They will do whatever you want to do and will park and wait while you do whatever activity you are interested in. You pay by the hour with a minimum of three hours. You will find their website if you Google ToursPlaza or Facebook.

 

However I have to say your itinerary seems a little ambitious! I don't know how long you are in port but I would email Edouardo and ask his opinion regarding timing. He is usually very efficient and prompt at replying.

 

Bear in mind the dolphin swims are at set hours as far as I know so you would need to work around that. You also have included in that fee the entrance fee to Chankanaab which, from what I have heard, can in fact be a day's destination in itself. Unless you are just going to go in and do the swim I am not sure that you will fit in all you other activities. There is a second dolphin swim in Cozumel at Dolphinaris which is on the edge of town. I don't know if that would fit in any better with your plans.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

We found Tours Plaza based on Trip Advisor's reviews. We booked online a few weeks before visiting Cozumel. Leo, our driver was waiting for us and picked us up at the port. Before we started our tour, Leo asked us about our interests and made sure we would see everything on our list and even suggested more to see. Leo was very friendly, helpful, respectful, knowledgeable and spoke English well. We went to a local store, visited the San Gervasio Ruins, stopped at the Coconut Bar and had lunch at Playa Bonita. While touring the island, Leo gave us a lot of cultural and historical information of the island and took us to see the amazing views of the ocean. We felt like we were visiting Cozumel with a friend.

We would highly recommend Tours Plaza. Optimal service !

 

Thank you Leo for the unforgettable day we had in Cozumel.

See you on our next visit :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

We booked with Tours Plaza based on reviews and everything went smoothly. the driver who met us was different from the one in the email but he knew what I had requested so it was a great start. We spent half a day with Gerry and found him friendly and very easy to talk to as he showed us the island. We followed his suggestion for a snack/lunch at Playa Bonita and had great nachos, guacamole, pico de gallo, and beer. I will use them again when in Cozumel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...