The Chichen Itza Tourthechichenitzatour.com

El Castillo pyramid at Chichen Itza in the morning light

Chichen Itza Tour from Riviera Maya: Ruins, Cenote Ik Kil & Valladolid in One Day

One shared tour collects you anywhere along the resort corridor, Puerto Morelos, Playacar, Puerto Aventuras, Akumal, and drives the toll road straight to the ruins, a swim at Cenote Ik Kil, and Valladolid on the way home.

$130 per adult, $115 per child (to 12): the 697 MXN entrance fee is included
Pickup at your hotel lobby, resort main gate, or a town meeting point near you
Free cancellation up to 48 hours before the tour, advance refunded in full

Book on WhatsApp → How pickup works

30% advance to reserve · Balance on the day · No payment before your booking is confirmed in the chat

Your real total

Entrance fee included. No gate money, no surprises.

Same $130 from every departure. Your exact pickup point and time are confirmed on WhatsApp the night before.

$130 per adult $115 per child (to 12) 697 MXN entrance fee included Pickup along the whole corridor 2.5–3 hrs each way Free cancellation to 48 hrs

This is the shared Chichen Itza day tour for everyone staying between the named cities: the resorts, condos and Airbnbs of the Riviera Maya corridor. It costs $130 per adult and $115 per child up to 12, with the 697 MXN Chichen Itza entrance fee already included, nothing to pay at the gate. The day runs ruins, a swim at Cenote Ik Kil, and free time in Valladolid, with pickup from your hotel, resort gate or a nearby meeting point. Booking is on WhatsApp: 30% reserves your seats, the balance is paid on the day. Es el mismo tour a Chichén Itzá desde Riviera Maya, con la entrada incluida.

Staying in one of the named cities instead? The same tour runs as the Chichen Itza tour from Playa del Carmen and from Tulum, each with its own pickup details.

Chichen Itza Tour from Riviera Maya Cost: Your Real Total

All prices on this page are per person, in US dollars, and the entrance fee is already inside them. This is the whole price: compare it with any headline price that adds the fee at the gate.

Your group	Total	30% to reserve	On the day
1 adult	$130	$39	$91
2 adults	$260	$78	$182
2 adults + 1 child	$375	$112.50	$262.50
2 adults + 2 children	$490	$147	$343
Each extra adult / child (to 12)	$130 / $115	30% of your total

The entrance fee inside your price is 697 MXN, made up of 105 MXN federal (INAH) + 592 MXN Yucatán state charges. Children under 13 enter the site free at the gate: the $115 child price is for the seat, the transport and the day, not the gate.

Prices and entrance fee verified November 2026.

Why $35 tours cost more on the day

Corridor tours are advertised from about $35. That headline almost never includes the entrance fee: add roughly $40 at the gate and the $35 tour is about $75 before lunch, drinks or extras. Shared tours from the Riviera Maya sell across a wide band, roughly $55 to $165, and the all-inclusive tier reaches about $199 per person. Our $130 is the all-in figure: fee included, confirmed in writing on WhatsApp before you pay anything. Figures checked November 2026.

For the fee itself, how it is set and what it covers, see Chichen Itza tickets and entrance fees in full.

What Is Included, and What Is Not

One table, no fine print. Where something depends on the day's arrangements, it says so plainly instead of guessing.

Chichen Itza entrance fee (697 MXN)	Included Nothing to pay at the gate.
Round-trip shared transport	Included Corridor pickup and the 180D toll-road drive, both ways.
Time at the ruins	Included Two hours or more at Chichen Itza.
Cenote Ik Kil swim	Included The swim stop is part of the day; the swim itself is optional.
Valladolid stop	Included 45–60 minutes of free time in the town.
Guide at the ruins	Confirmed on WhatsApp Ask in the chat and we confirm the day's guiding arrangement before you book.
Lunch	Confirmed on WhatsApp Ask in the chat and we confirm what applies on your date before you book.
Lockers & life jackets at Ik Kil	Available to rent Life jackets are required for the swim and are rented at the cenote; lockers are rented there too. Neither is in the tour price.
Drinks and tips	Not included Bring pesos for drinks and for any tips you choose to give.

The Day, Stop by Stop

An 11–13 hour day, built backwards from one fact: the ruins are best early, before the heat and the 10 AM–2 PM crowds. Durations are honest ranges, and pickup clock times are confirmed the night before, never invented here.

Early morning
Pickup along the corridor
Collection from your lobby, resort main gate or meeting point, working along the corridor before the vehicle turns inland.
2.5–3 hrs
The 180D toll-road drive
Straight across the peninsula on the toll road: the fastest route from the corridor to the ruins.
2+ hours
Chichen Itza
El Castillo, the Great Ball Court, the Temple of the Warriors and the Sacred Cenote, entered through the CATVI visitor centre.
About 1 hour
Cenote Ik Kil
A swim in the open-air cenote a few minutes from the site, or watch from the rim if you would rather stay dry.
45–60 minutes
Valladolid
Free time on the main square and around San Servacio church, on the direct route back to the coast.
Evening
Back at your resort
Drop-offs along the corridor in reverse order, in the evening.

At the Ruins

You enter Chichen Itza through the CATVI visitor centre and get two hours or more inside, enough for the central group without rushing. El Castillo, the great pyramid, is the centrepiece: its staircases align with the equinoxes, and a handclap at its base echoes back as the call of the quetzal. Climbing it is prohibited, and the ban is enforced.

Around it: the Great Ball Court, the largest in Mesoamerica, with carved rings high on its walls; the Temple of the Warriors and its forest of columns; and the Sacred Cenote, the deep natural well into which the Maya cast offerings. The site opens at 8:00 AM daily, and this tour's early corridor start is timed so your walk happens in the cooler, quieter part of the morning.

El Castillo pyramid at Chichen Itza seen across the main plaza — El Castillo: seen from the ground, as every visitor sees it today.

The Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza with its high stone walls — **The Great Ball Court**The largest ball court in Mesoamerica.

Rows of carved columns at the Temple of the Warriors, Chichen Itza — **Temple of the Warriors**Columns carved with warriors and offerings.

The Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza, a deep green natural well ringed by trees — **The Sacred Cenote**The offering well of the ancient city, not a swimming cenote.

Cenote Ik Kil: open-air cenote with hanging vines and swimmers in deep blue water — Cenote Ik Kil, a few minutes from the ruins near Pisté.

Cenote Ik Kil: The Swim After the Ruins

After the heat of the ruins, the tour stops at Cenote Ik Kil, the open-air cenote a few minutes from the site near Pisté. The water sits about 26 metres below ground level, reached by a long staircase cut into the rock, with vines hanging from the rim above. It is deep, cool and, after two hours on the limestone, exactly what the day needs.

The swim is optional: you can watch from the rim instead. Life jackets are required for the swim and are rented at the cenote, and lockers and changing rooms are available to rent there too, neither is included in the tour price, so bring some pesos. Keep sunscreen out of the water; it harms the cenote's ecosystem.

Choosing between cenotes is its own question: Ik Kil is this tour's stop because it sits minutes from the gate. The wider comparison lives on our best Chichen Itza tours page and the cenote guides.

Valladolid: The Stop on the Way Home

Valladolid sits on the direct route back to the coast, so the 45–60 minutes here cost the day nothing. It is a working Yucatán town, not a tourist set: pastel colonial streets around a main square, with San Servacio church on its south side and local shops and ice-cream stands around the park.

Use the time your way: a coffee in the square, a look inside the church, a short wander down the Calzada de los Frailes. Then it is back on the road for the drive to the corridor and your resort drop-off.

The main square and San Servacio church in Valladolid, Yucatán — Valladolid's main square, with San Servacio church.

Pickup Along the Corridor: Lobby, Main Gate, or Meeting Point

This is the question that decides a Riviera Maya morning, so it gets the full answer. The corridor is not one place: it is 100 km of resorts, and pickup works differently at a Highway 307 mega-resort than at a small hotel or a condo.

Lobby or main gate? Most large resorts on Highway 307 take pickup at the main gate or security entrance: tour vehicles are not allowed through to the lobby, and the walk from the lobby to the gate at a mega-resort can be long, so leave time for it. Smaller hotels usually allow pickup at the lobby. Where neither works, condos, Airbnbs, resorts with no tour access, a town meeting point is used: points like the 7-Eleven Aria in Playacar, the Go Mart Agua Verde in Puerto Aventuras, or the church and 7-Eleven in Puerto Morelos town.

Whichever applies to you, the exact point and time are confirmed on WhatsApp the night before, once the next morning's route is set. All pickup times are Quintana Roo time: Chichen Itza, in Yucatán, is one hour behind, all year round.

Pickup area	Typical pickup point	Drive to the ruins (180D)
Puerto Morelos	Town meeting point (church / 7-Eleven) or hotel gate	~2 hrs 15 – 2 hrs 30
Playa corridor & Playacar	Resort main gate; Playacar meeting point at 7-Eleven Aria	~2 hrs – 2 hrs 30
Puerto Aventuras	Town meeting point (Go Mart Agua Verde)	~2 hrs 30
Akumal	Resort main gate or lobby, by resort policy	~2 hrs 30 – 2 hrs 45
Tulum corridor resorts	Resort main gate on Highway 307	The longest corridor leg: confirmed on WhatsApp

Drive times are ranges via the 180D toll road: published sources differ by 15–45 minutes for the same leg, so a single figure would be false precision. Your pickup order along the corridor is set by the route, not by who booked first.

Named resorts are pickup areas, not exceptions. Guests at Bahia Principe, Vidanta, the Princess resorts, Iberostar, Barceló, Hard Rock Riviera Maya and Ocean Riviera Paradise are collected at their resort's gate or its usual meeting point, like everyone else on the corridor: tell us the resort name on WhatsApp and we confirm your exact point. Staying inside Playa del Carmen town itself? The Playa del Carmen page carries that city's own pickup zones.

Corridor pickups run by resort gates and zones rather than street addresses; your pickup in the Riviera Maya works through them resort area by resort area.

How Far Is Chichen Itza from the Riviera Maya?

2.5 to 3 hours each way by road, depending on where along the corridor you start. Here is the honest comparison if you are weighing the tour against going on your own.

This tour	Simplest Corridor pickup, 180D toll road both ways, entrance fee inside the $130, no driving, no gate queue for tickets. You are back at your resort in the evening.
Self-drive rental car	The 180D toll road is the fast route; the free 180 is far slower. Tolls are extra and are not in any tour price, and you pay for parking at the site. You also drive 5–6 hours, round trip, on top of a full day of walking.
ADO bus	Buses exist, but from the corridor it is a slow, multi-stop route compared with the toll road, and the timings rarely line up with the site's quiet early hours.
Tren Maya	There is no morning train from the Riviera Maya that reaches Chichen Itza in time for a day visit. Train travellers stay the night before near the site instead, a good trip, but a different one.

Transport depth, every route, station and fare checked in detail, will live on the site's How to Get to Chichen Itza page; this page keeps the comparison you need to decide.

Before You Go

The practical half of the day: what the site allows, what to carry, and who this long day honestly suits.

Site rules

The site opens at 8:00 AM daily; this tour is timed for the quiet early hours.
Climbing El Castillo, and every structure, is prohibited and enforced.
No drones, tripods or large backpacks inside the site.
Busiest 10 AM–2 PM; Sunday is the busiest day, Monday–Wednesday the quietest.
The dry season runs November–April; May–October is wetter and hotter.

What to bring

1.5–2 litres of water per person: there is limited shade at the ruins.
Hat and reef-safe sunscreen (kept out of the cenote water).
Comfortable closed shoes for uneven limestone paths.
Swimwear, a towel and dry clothes for Cenote Ik Kil.
Pesos for locker and life-jacket rental, drinks and tips; photo ID.

Who it suits

It is a 12-hour-class day with 3–5 km of walking on uneven stone, worth knowing before you book.
Children from about age 6 get a lot from it; toddlers find the day long and tiring.
A baby carrier beats a stroller: limestone paths are rough on small wheels.
At Ik Kil, the swim is down a long staircase; watching from the rim is fine.
Shared buses rarely take car seats: tell us your child's age on WhatsApp.

Is a Chichen Itza Day Trip from Riviera Maya Worth It?

Honestly: it depends on how many days you have. The day is long: 2.5 to 3 hours of driving each way is real, and nobody should sell you otherwise. What you get for it is the most important Maya city in Yucatán, walked in the cool of the morning instead of the midday crush, a swim in Ik Kil, and a colonial town on the way home, all without renting a car or solving a single bus timetable.

With 3–4 days or more on the coast, it is the one excursion we would call essential. With only a day or two at your resort, stay on the beach: the ruins will keep. If you go, Monday to Wednesday are the quietest days, and the early start on any day beats the 10 AM–2 PM crowds and heat. Guests comparing departure points can also read the Chichen Itza tour from Cancun: the day itself, and the $130 price, are the same.

A New Tour, Honestly Described

This tour is new, so this page carries no review scores and no star ratings: we will not invent them. What we can show you instead is everything checkable: the real total price with the entrance fee inside it, the cancellation terms in writing below, the pickup system explained before you book, and a WhatsApp chat where every answer about your date is confirmed before any money moves. When guests review the tour, those reviews will appear here with their source.

Group size and operating days are confirmed on WhatsApp for your date: we would rather tell you in the chat than print a number here that the day might not match.

Riviera Maya Pickup & Tour Questions

Pickup questions first: they are the ones this departure actually turns on.

Do you pick up at my hotel in the Riviera Maya?

Yes. We pick up along the whole Riviera Maya corridor, from Puerto Morelos in the north to the Tulum corridor resorts in the south, including Playacar, Puerto Aventuras and Akumal. Your exact pickup point and time are confirmed on WhatsApp the night before your tour.

Is pickup at the lobby or the main gate?

It depends on your resort. Most large resorts on Highway 307 take pickup at the main gate or security entrance, because tour vehicles are not allowed through to the lobby. Smaller hotels usually allow lobby pickup. Your confirmed point is sent on WhatsApp the night before, so there is no guessing on the morning.

What time is pickup from the Riviera Maya?

Early: the drive to the ruins is 2.5 to 3 hours, so pickups run early in the morning and your exact time depends on where along the corridor you are staying. It is confirmed on WhatsApp the night before your tour. Pickup times are Quintana Roo time; Chichen Itza, in Yucatán, is one hour behind, all year round.

How long is the drive from Puerto Morelos to Chichen Itza?

About 2 hours 15 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes each way via the 180D toll road. Puerto Morelos is the closest pickup area on this page, at the northern end of the corridor.

How long is the drive from Akumal to Chichen Itza?

About 2 hours 30 minutes to 2 hours 45 minutes each way via the 180D toll road. Akumal sits toward the southern end of the corridor, so allow the longer end of the day's driving.

How long is the drive from Puerto Aventuras to Chichen Itza?

About 2 and a half hours each way via the 180D toll road. Pickup in Puerto Aventuras is usually at a town meeting point such as the Go Mart Agua Verde, confirmed on WhatsApp the night before.

What if I am staying in a condo or an Airbnb?

You get a meeting point near where you are staying, set by your location, typically a known town point such as a 7-Eleven or the church square in Puerto Morelos. Send us your location on WhatsApp when you book and we confirm the nearest point and time the night before.

Is the Chichen Itza entrance fee included?

Yes. The 697 MXN entrance fee is included in the $130 price, so you hand over nothing at the gate. The fee is made up of 105 MXN federal (INAH) and 592 MXN Yucatán state charges.

What is the total price for 2 adults?

Two adults pay $260 in total. You pay 30% in advance to reserve, $78, and the remaining $182 on the day of the tour.

How long is the day, and when do we get back?

Plan on 11 to 13 hours door to door. Early pickup along the corridor, 2.5 to 3 hours to the ruins, two hours or more at Chichen Itza, a swim at Cenote Ik Kil, 45 to 60 minutes in Valladolid, and back at your resort in the evening.

Which cenote does the tour visit?

Cenote Ik Kil, a few minutes from the ruins near Pisté. It is an open-air cenote with the water about 26 metres below ground level, reached by a staircase. The swim is optional. Life jackets are required for the swim and are rented at the cenote, and lockers are also available to rent there.

Can children come on the tour?

Yes. Children up to 12 pay $115. The day suits children from about age 6: it is a long day with a lot of walking, and toddlers find it tiring. At the ruins a carrier works far better than a stroller on the limestone paths. Under-13s enter the site free at the gate; the $115 is this tour's per-child price for the seat, transport and the day.

Is there a car seat for my child?

Shared tour buses rarely take car seats, so do not count on one being fitted. Tell us your child's age on WhatsApp when you book and we will tell you honestly what the vehicle that day can do.

How do I book, and how much is the advance?

Booking is on WhatsApp. Send your date, where along the Riviera Maya you are staying, and how many adults and children. You pay 30% in advance to reserve your seats and the balance on the day. The advance exists because no-shows block seats that ready customers could have taken.

What is the cancellation policy?

Cancel up to 48 hours before the tour and your advance is refunded in full. Inside 48 hours the advance is kept, because the seats were held for you and could not be resold at that notice.

Is the trip worth it from a Riviera Maya resort?

If you have 3 to 4 days or more on the coast, yes: it is the one full-day excursion that shows you the Maya world beyond the beach, and the early start means you walk the ruins before the 10 AM to 2 PM crowds. Monday to Wednesday are the quietest days. If you only have a day or two at your resort, the honest answer is to stay on the beach.

Is this tour shared or private?

This page is the shared tour: one vehicle collecting guests along the corridor, at $130 per adult with the entrance fee included. If your group wants its own vehicle and its own timing, ask on WhatsApp and we will tell you what a private day would cost.

Book the Riviera Maya Departure on WhatsApp

Tell us your date and your resort or town, and we reply with your confirmed total, your pickup point and your pickup time window, before any money is due. Free cancellation up to 48 hours before the tour, with your advance refunded in full.

How booking works

Message us your date, where you are staying, and your group size.
We confirm your total, entrance fee already included, and your pickup point.
Pay 30% in advance to reserve; the balance is paid on the day.
The night before, your exact pickup time lands on WhatsApp.

Start on WhatsApp →

The 30% advance exists because no-shows block seats that ready customers could have taken. Cancel 48+ hours ahead and it comes back in full; inside 48 hours it is kept. Payment details are confirmed in the chat before you book.

$130 per adult 697 MXN entrance fee included · from anywhere on the corridor Book on WhatsApp →