Cenote Hubiku & Cenote Saamal: Prices, Hours & Which to Choose: The Complete Guide

The Quick Comparison

One table, facts kept per venue and never merged, because almost every error in circulation about these two cenotes starts with a fact from one of them being pasted onto the other.

	Cenote Hubiku	Cenote Saamal
Where	Temozón, on the Valladolid–Tizimín road, Km 1.5	Inside Hacienda Selva Maya, Valladolid–Mérida road Km 3.5 (Dzitnup junction)
What it is	A semi-open underground cavern: a large roof opening drops sunlight and tree roots to clear blue water, with a wooden platform at the water's edge	A large open cenote: high limestone walls, ferns and vines, and a prominent artificial waterfall
Hours	9:00 AM – 5:00 PM daily (state tourism portal listing)	Cenote 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM daily; buffet 12:00 – 5:00 PM daily
Price status	No tariff published. Dated reports run 100 MXN swim-only to 350 MXN with buffet, budgeting range only, confirm at the gate	No tariff published. Basic admission reported at 200 MXN per adult; child pricing unconfirmed, confirm at the gate
The swim	Deep water (reported ~27 m), entered from the platform; jacket mandate and jumping unresolved in the sources, see below	Deep water (over 40 m in parts, an estimate); life jacket required for everyone; designated jumping areas
Best pairing	Ek Balam (about 20 minutes) or a Valladolid day	Valladolid (about 10 minutes), or the Chichen Itza combos that swim here

Hubiku: What to Expect

Hubiku is the cavern of the pair. You descend a long stone staircase into a semi-open underground chamber, reported at roughly 50 m across, as a secondary estimate, where a large opening in the roof lets sunlight and long tree roots fall straight to clear, deep-blue water. A wooden platform sits at the water's edge, and the swim happens under a vaulted ceiling, in light that shifts through the day and is at its strongest near midday, a general pattern, not a schedule anyone publishes.

The water is reported at ~27 m deep, printed here as a report, not a measurement, because no stronger source stands behind it. What that means practically needs no number: Hubiku is deep-water swimming from the moment you leave the platform, with the cavern walls and the light column as the scenery. It is a swim for people who like their cenotes enclosed and atmospheric; travellers who want open sky over the water are describing Saamal, further down this page.

Allow 1.5–2 hours if the swim is the point, and up to about 3 hours if you take in the whole complex around it, the buffet restaurant, the tequila museum and the simulated Maya village covered in the facilities section below. The cenote is reported quieter early, in the 9:00–10:30 AM window (one guide, qualitative), the same opening-hours logic that works at most cenotes in the region.

Swimmers and the wooden platform inside Cenote Hubiku, seen from the stone staircase that descends into the cavern — The view from the staircase down: the platform, the swimmers, and the light falling through the roof opening.

Hubiku Prices & Hours: What Can Actually Be Confirmed

Start with what an official channel does say. The Yucatán state tourism portal lists Hubiku as open 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily, and lists its price field blank. That blank is the most honest price information available for this cenote, and everything else on the internet should be read against it.

What about the venue's own channels? Hubiku's supposed official website is a parked domain, it sells nothing and says nothing. Its booking page renders no prices. There is, today, no Hubiku tariff to link to, screenshot or quote, and any page that presents you a firm “current price” for Hubiku is presenting something it cannot source. A “last entry 4:30 PM” figure also circulates; it traces to an AI overview only, so it is not published here, plan against the 5:00 PM close.

The dated reports: a budgeting range, nothing more. A guide from January 2025 reports 100 MXN swim-only and 350 MXN with the buffet. yucatan.guide (July 2026) gives a 100–150 MXN planning range and says plainly that it is not guaranteed. A 2026 tour document prices admission-plus-buffet at 400 MXN, but that is an operator package, not a walk-in tariff. Small rental fees for jackets, lockers and towels are also reported, without reliable figures, so no rental prices are printed. Budget from the range; the venue publishes no tariff, confirm at the gate.

Hubiku: The Swim, Rules & Facilities

The reported rules first: reported, because no official rulebook is published for Hubiku anywhere this research could reach: shower before entering; no sunscreen, repellent, oils or creams in the water; children accompanied by an adult; no alcohol before swimming. Treat them as the working rulebook and follow staff direction on the day. What to wear and bring for a cenote day in general lives on What to Wear & Bring.

Unresolved: published as open questions

The life jacket, and jumping

Two questions every Hubiku guide answers confidently, and the sources contradict each other on both. On life jackets: one guide says a jacket is not mandatory but recommended; others imply it is required. On jumping: one guide reports it is not permitted from the walls and that there are no platforms, while a 2026 tour document mentions jumping platforms. Neither question can be settled from published sources, so this page settles neither, both are printed in the unknowns section below, and the honest move is to ask at the venue. The same discipline applies to the staircase: step counts in circulation conflict (roughly 115 against roughly 50), so no count is printed, only that the descent is a long stone staircase, and that no source gives the venue an inclusive or step-free classification. Plan the descent honestly; no accessibility promise is made here.

Around the swim, Hubiku is a small complex rather than a bare cenote:

Buffet Restaurant Kin: the venue's buffet restaurant, behind the with-buffet price reports above
The Don Tadeo tequila museum: with tastings
A simulated Maya village, and craft and gift shops
Changing rooms, showers, toilets and lockers
Free parking

One more absence, stated as an absence: no water temperature is published for Hubiku. Figures in circulation conflict with each other and none of them is a measurement, so none is printed. Expect cenote-cool; trust nothing more precise from anyone.

Hubiku: Getting There & the Ek Balam Pairing

Hubiku sits at Temozón, Carretera Valladolid–Tizimín Km 1.5, and its geography decides its day: about 20 minutes from Valladolid, about 20 minutes from Ek Balam, and roughly 1 hour 15 minutes from Chichen Itza (yucatan.guide). Read those three numbers together and the conclusion writes itself, Hubiku is a Valladolid or Ek Balam day, never a quick add-on to a ruins visit.

The established pairing is Ek Balam + Hubiku: the ruins in the morning, the cavern swim after, and named tour products exist built on exactly that shape. That is the summary the pairing gets here, Ek Balam's own depth belongs to its own pages, and this guide does not borrow it. If your day is anchored in town instead, the Valladolid guide covers the town end of the trip.

There is no version of reaching Hubiku that involves our tour, the tour's swim is at Ik Kil, as the tour section below states in full. Hubiku is reached independently, and from Valladolid or Ek Balam it is genuinely close.

Saamal: What to Expect

Saamal is Hubiku's opposite in almost every way. It is a large open cenote, no roof, no cavern, set inside Hacienda Selva Maya, with high limestone walls dressed in ferns and vines, and one feature no photograph of it omits: a prominent artificial waterfall pouring over the rim into the pool. You descend a stone staircase to large wooden decks at the water's edge, and the swim is out in the open air, under the sky the cavern cenotes hide.

On depth, this page publishes Meliá's wording and its grade: “over 40 m in parts”, an estimate. Deeper figures circulate (45–50 m among them) with nothing verifiable behind them, so they are not printed as fact. What matters practically is simpler and fully supported: Saamal is deep water, and no shallow standing area is confirmed anywhere, nobody should arrive expecting to stand. That is exactly why the life jacket, covered in the next sections, sits at the centre of the Saamal experience.

Allow 1–2 hours independently. If you meet Saamal as a combo stop instead, the visit is about an hour, product-specific, and shaped by the tour group rhythm described in the getting-there section below.

Cenote Saamal at Hacienda Selva Maya, the open sinkhole with its waterfall, limestone walls and swimmers in deep green water — Saamal from the rim: open sky, high walls, the waterfall, and swimmers held up by their life jackets.

Saamal Prices & Hours

Selva Maya has no official website at all, only an undated Facebook presence and third-party sellers. So, exactly as with Hubiku, there is no Saamal tariff to quote: what follows is the best-supported account, dated and attributed, with its one honest flag left visible.

Hours: the cenote is open 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily, and the buffet runs 12:00 to 5:00 PM daily (a December 2024 guide and Meliá, the best-supported account). Wider “grounds” hours and a 7 AM opening circulate; both are stale or unsourced, and neither is published here.
Basic admission: 200 MXN per adult, on consistent dated secondary reports (a December 2024 guide; Meliá), covering entry, the mandatory life jacket, a locker and showers/changing rooms per those accounts, with one flag: sources disagree on whether the jacket is included or charged separately. Confirm at the gate.
Buffet package: 400 MXN (Meliá; another strand gives 350–400 MXN).
Child pricing: not published in any guide read in full. A child figure circulates through AI summaries only, so it is not printed, child prices at Saamal are unconfirmed, full stop.
Extras at extra cost: the buffet, a zipline and bike rental. Their prices are not printed either, the package figures in circulation are unsourced.

The pattern to carry away is the same one as Hubiku's, and it is the reason this page dates everything: the venue publishes no tariff, confirm at the gate. A page that gives you a precise, current-looking Saamal price list, child prices included, is showing you numbers it cannot stand behind.

Saamal: The Swim, Rules & Facilities

Reported: consistent across sources

Life jacket required · jumping areas · shower first

Three rules rest on consistent secondary reports (a December 2024 guide and Meliá agree), and this page keeps them at that grade because there is no official site to check them against. A life jacket is required for all visitors, in deep water with no confirmed standing area, plan on wearing one for the whole swim. There are designated jumping areas off the decks, unlike Hubiku, the jumping question here is settled at reported grade. And you shower before swimming and remove sunscreen and repellent before entering. One caution, carried over from the Ik Kil discipline: a guide's “biodegradable sunscreen” tip must never be read as permission to wear it in the water. No source confirms any sunscreen is permitted in Saamal's water; the reported rule is that skin products come off before you get in.

The hacienda around the cenote is a full facility set:

Changing rooms, showers and lockers
Buffet restaurant (12:00 – 5:00 PM) and a bar
Craft market and shops, and an ice-cream shop
Rest areas and gardens, a zipline, and free parking

And the same absence as Hubiku, stated the same way: no water temperature is published for Saamal. None is printed here, and none should be trusted elsewhere without a source behind it.

Saamal: Getting There & the Combo Context

Saamal sits on the Carretera Federal Valladolid–Mérida, Km 3.5, at the Dzitnup junction, about 10 minutes from Valladolid centre. A dated taxi report (December 2024) puts the one-way fare at 120 MXN; fares move, so confirm before you ride. From Chichen Itza it is about 30 minutes by road (Meliá), published qualified, as its source gives it, never as a precise figure.

Most visitors, though, do not drive themselves to Saamal at all, they arrive on a bus. Saamal is the swim inside the best-selling Chichen Itza marketplace combos, and that shapes the cenote's rhythm: late morning into early afternoon is the tour-group peak (qualitative; one guide puts the busiest hour at about 12–1 PM). Independent visitors who want the quiet version come at the 9 AM opening or late in the day. One thing combo buyers should know before they book, stated once and plainly: Saamal's admission is separate from the combo's low base price, the swim you are shown in the listing is paid for on top of the headline fare. The full analysis of that pricing pattern lives on the Cenote Combo page; it is not repeated here.

Our tour is not one of those combos, and it does not stop at Saamal, the tour section below states where it does swim.

Hubiku or Saamal: Which Suits You?

There is no ranking here, because the two cenotes are answers to different days. What follows is the choice framed by traveller, considerations, not promises.

For the setting and the photograph: Hubiku. The cavern, the roof opening and the midday light are the experience; Saamal's waterfall is handsome, but it decorates a swim rather than defining one.
For the swim itself: Saamal, marginally, open air, wooden decks, designated jumping areas, and a hacienda lunch afterwards. Hubiku's swim is about floating in a lit cavern; both are deep water.
For kids and nervous swimmers: read both venues honestly before choosing. Both are deep-water cenotes with life jackets at the centre of the experience, Saamal's jacket is required; Hubiku's mandate is unconfirmed in the sources. Neither page section here makes a safety promise, and neither should any other page.
For mobility: Hubiku's long stone staircase is the harder descent in the sources, and neither venue's step-free access is verified anywhere. If step-free access decides your day, neither cenote can currently promise it, ask the venue directly before travelling.
For the day around it: Hubiku belongs with Ek Balam or a north-of-Valladolid day, museum and village included. Saamal belongs with Valladolid itself, or arrives built into a combo day you did not have to plan.

Can You Visit Both in One Day?

Yes, from a Valladolid base, the geometry works in your favour. Hubiku is about 20 minutes north of town; Saamal is about 10 minutes west; each cenote takes roughly 1–2 hours at the pace the sections above suggest. A Valladolid morning, one cenote before lunch and the other after, is a coherent day on paper and on the road. The other name in the Valladolid-area set is Suytun, covered in its own Cenote Suytun guide. Chichikan, the other Valladolid-side park cenote, has its own complete guide.

Two honest qualifiers. First, that is planning logic, not a promise, neither venue publishes the kind of live information (queues, group arrivals, closures) that would let anyone guarantee the day runs to shape. Second, the pairing that does not tighten up is the ruins: Hubiku is roughly 1 hour 15 from Chichen Itza and Saamal about 30 minutes from it, in different directions from each other, for most travellers, a same-day ruins visit plus both cenotes is a day built out of driving. Pick the ruins day or the cenote day; Valladolid rewards the second one more than the brochures admit.

What Nobody Can Tell You Today

Every guide to these two cenotes fills the gaps below with something. This page would rather name them, because a traveller who knows what is unknown plans better than one carrying invented certainty:

Hubiku's staircase: step counts conflict (roughly 115 against roughly 50). Only the honest summary survives: it is a long stone staircase.
Hubiku jumping: “not permitted, no platforms” against a 2026 tour document's jumping platforms. Unresolved.
Hubiku's jacket mandate: recommended-not-mandatory against implied-required. Unresolved.
Saamal's child price: not published in any guide read in full. The figure in circulation comes from AI summaries only.
Both venues' water temperatures: conflicting strands, no measurement behind any of them.
Last entries: Hubiku's “4:30 PM” traces to an AI overview only; no verified last-entry time exists for either venue. Plan against the 5:00 PM close.
Saamal's “two cenotes” ticket: an undated venue Facebook post once sold one. It is mentioned here as history, not as a current product, nothing dates it, so nothing here sells it.

This is also why every price on this page carries a date and a source. The venues publish almost nothing themselves, a parked domain on one side, no website at all on the other, so the record is built from dated guides and a state portal listing, and it ages. When the gate tells you a figure that differs from a dated report here, the gate is right and the report is history.

The Tour

Stated once more, in the tour's own section, so no reader can leave this page confused: this tour swims at Cenote Ik Kil, not Hubiku, not Saamal. Our shared tour runs Chichen Itza, the Ik Kil swim and Valladolid at $130 per adult and $115 per child (up to age 12), with the 697 MXN Chichen Itza entrance fee included. You are picked up from your own hotel or pickup point, your exact pickup time is confirmed on WhatsApp the night before. If Hubiku or Saamal is the swim you want, the sections above are your plan: Hubiku pairs with Ek Balam, Saamal with Valladolid or a marketplace combo.

Booking takes a 30% advance to reserve your seats, with the balance paid on the day of the tour; cancellation is free up to 48 hours before the tour, with the advance refunded in full. City by city: Cancun, Tulum, Playa del Carmen, Riviera Maya and Merida.

Work out your total

Pickup city

Adults: $130 each

Children (to age 12): $115 each

$260Total for the day

$7830% advance to reserve

$182Balance on the day of the tour

The 697 MXN Chichen Itza entrance fee is included in these prices, it is not added at the gate. Free cancellation up to 48 hours before the tour.

Check this date on WhatsApp

Questions About Cenote Hubiku & Cenote Saamal

How much does Cenote Hubiku cost?

There is no published tariff to quote: Hubiku's supposed official website is a parked domain, its booking page shows no prices, and the Yucatán state tourism portal lists its hours with the price field blank. The dated reports are 100 MXN swim-only and 350 MXN with buffet (a January 2025 guide) and a 100–150 MXN planning range (yucatan.guide, July 2026, explicitly not guaranteed). Treat those as a budgeting range and confirm at the gate.

How much does Cenote Saamal cost?

Selva Maya publishes no tariff, there is no official website, so the figures are dated reports: basic admission of 200 MXN per adult (consistent secondary reports, including a December 2024 guide and Meliá) covering entry, the mandatory life jacket, a locker and showers, though sources disagree on whether the jacket is included or charged separately, so confirm at the gate. A buffet package is reported at 400 MXN (Meliá). Child pricing is not published in any guide read in full, so no child figure is printed here.

Is Cenote Saamal included in Chichen Itza tour combos?

Saamal is the swim stop inside the best-selling Chichen Itza marketplace combos, but its admission is separate from the combo's low base price, you meet Saamal on those tours, and you pay its entry on top of the headline fare. The full breakdown of that pricing pattern is on the Cenote Combo page.

Can you jump at Cenote Hubiku?

Nobody can tell you for certain today, and this page will not pretend otherwise. One guide reports that jumping is not permitted from the walls and that there are no platforms, while a 2026 tour document mentions jumping platforms. The sources conflict, so the question is published as open, ask at the venue on the day.

Are life jackets mandatory at Cenote Saamal?

Yes, on the consistent secondary reports: a life jacket is required for all visitors at Saamal (a December 2024 guide's FAQ and Meliá's account both describe mandatory use). Selva Maya has no official website to confirm it against, so the rule is published at reported grade, but plan on wearing one.

Which is better, Cenote Hubiku or Cenote Saamal?

They suit different days. Hubiku is a semi-open cavern, roof opening, hanging roots, midday light, that belongs to an Ek Balam or Valladolid day, with a tequila museum, a simulated Maya village and a buffet restaurant around the swim. Saamal is a big open-air sinkhole with a waterfall and jumping decks inside Hacienda Selva Maya, about 10 minutes from Valladolid, and it is also the swim inside the big tour combos. Choose by the day you are building, not by a ranking.

Can you visit Cenote Hubiku and Cenote Saamal in one day?

Yes, from a Valladolid base: Hubiku is about 20 minutes north of town and Saamal about 10 minutes west, and each cenote takes roughly 1–2 hours. That is planning logic, not a promise, and neither cenote pairs tightly with a same-day ruins visit for most travellers.

How far is Cenote Hubiku from Ek Balam?

About 20 minutes by road (yucatan.guide), Ek Balam and Hubiku are the established pairing on that side of the state, and named tour products combine them. Hubiku is also about 20 minutes from Valladolid and roughly 1 hour 15 minutes from Chichen Itza, so it is a Valladolid or Ek Balam day, never a quick add-on to a ruins visit.

How far is Cenote Saamal from Valladolid?

About 10 minutes from Valladolid centre, Saamal sits inside Hacienda Selva Maya on the Valladolid–Mérida road, Km 3.5 at the Dzitnup junction. A dated taxi report (December 2024) puts the one-way fare at 120 MXN; fares move, so confirm before you ride.

Are Cenote Hubiku or Cenote Saamal on the Chichen Itza tour?

No, neither one. The shared Chichen Itza tour sold on this site swims at Cenote Ik Kil; its three stops are Chichen Itza, Ik Kil and Valladolid. Hubiku belongs to Ek Balam days and Saamal to Valladolid and the marketplace combos, and this guide covers both as independent visits.

¿Cuánto cuesta entrar al Cenote Hubiku?

No hay una tarifa oficial publicada: el supuesto sitio oficial de Hubiku es un dominio estacionado y el portal estatal de turismo de Yucatán lista su horario sin precio. Los reportes con fecha son 100 MXN solo nado y 350 MXN con buffet (guía de enero de 2025) y un rango de planeación de 100–150 MXN (yucatan.guide, julio de 2026, sin garantía). Úsalos como rango de presupuesto y confirma en la entrada.

How deep is Cenote Saamal?

Over 40 m in parts, on Meliá's account, and that is published here as an estimate, not a measurement. Deeper figures circulate (45–50 m among them), but no source behind them could be verified, so they are not printed as fact. Either way, Saamal is deep water throughout: no shallow standing area is confirmed anywhere, and the life jacket is required for everyone.

Cenote Hubiku & Cenote Saamal: The Complete Guide