Chichen Itza, or visiting a cenote, anyone been? Visited any other ancient ruins?

We are debating booking an excursion to Chichen Itza and some nearby cenotes (not the one on site) while we are in Mexico. Has anyone been? Have any thoughts, tips, suggestions, or general feedback? If you went, did you do a group tour, private tour, or did you go on your own?

The excursion we are looking at would send a private van to pick up my wife and I. We would start very early in the morning (6am) so that you arrive at Chichen Itza a couple of hours before all the big tour buses show up. It is also cooler if you go earlier. We could spend whatever time we wanted to there. Then they will take you to Samula Cenote and Xkeken Cenote, where you can swim. They also will take you to off the beaten path, truly local restaurants. There are other side trips you can do on the way back, though I think we would keep those to a minimum as we'd prefer to be back to the resort by mid/late afternoon. Though the cost is a little more, we think the benefit of being able to be on your own schedule, have your own vehicle, and go to non/less touristy places makes it well worth it.

For reference, this is the company we are considering using: Cancun With Me Day Tours (Mexico): Top Tips Before You Go - TripAdvisor

Xkeken Cenote:


Most probably know Chichen Itza:




Total cost for the entire day would be around $400 for two people. That includes all transportation, food, tolls, admissions, tip, etc.

Though neither of us are incredibly into ancient ruins or anything, it's hard to be 2 hours from something like that for 9 straight days and not at least visit. Plus I think swimming in a couple of cenotes would be really cool.

Anyone visited there, or any other ancient ruin? Did you think it was worth it?

 

I'm sad that I got here and realized it's not Chicken pItza

 

We did go ahead and book through the company I linked in the OP. The entire experience went very well. If anyone plans on visiting the Cancun area and wants to see Chichen Itza, I highly recommend doing a private tour like that. Not only did we go to a cenote and restaurant that was "non-touristy", we received personalized recommendations based on what we showed interest in. Also, we left early in the AM, so we beat all the crowds and beat the heat. We basically walked right in with no lines when we arrived. By the time we left the lines were very long, and it was probably 15-20*F hotter than when we arrived.

Chichen Itza itself was pretty cool. Definitely worth visiting, at least once. The cenote we visited and swam in was the Xkeken Cenote, shown here:

 

I would love to go to these.

 

They are apparently all over the area west of Cancun. Some are open air, others are completely in caverns. You can see sunlight in the one we went to because their used to be a well on the surface that left an opening of about 4' x 8'.

Access to the tourist park that this cenote was in cost like $8 total, and would've included access to a second cenote and a handful of other activities if we'd have wanted to take the time.

I also think there were never more than six or eight people in the cenote at the most. So we basically had it to ourselves. I've heard that some of the ones the bus tours stop at are wall to wall people. It definitely made it cooler being in there without many other people.

 

Yeah, I've been researching it a long time @Borla
It's just a matter of finding the time, mind and money.

In the contracting game, often they don't give you paid days off.
When I did get it...they came up with rules to suck your PTO dry (PTO for closures, PTO for doctors appt, PTO for anything)

Then I was catching up and rebuilding for years after the fiasco of my ex-wife.

I've only now, finally gotten to the point I've got the disposable cash. (dating is expensive too)
And in a job that allows for some flexibility.

You'll be hearing me traveling a lot more now.
Like you saw with the New Orleans/Mardi Gras trip.

So Europe is a big priority...as I've never been there.
And I've already done North & South America a lot...but not these. (it's a BIG world)

However, it IS on the too do list...
When I can, I've going to dive in...I would think it's great.

Plans within plans...