Anyone done the San Gervasio ruins on your own?

[SUZI]

My children are interested in seeing the ruins but have no interest in the other aspects of the excursion (tequila farm, discovery park, etc).
So, I wondered: could we just take a taxi to the ruins? Will there be a guide (English speaking) there we could hire to give us a tour?
Any suggestions/advice would be really appreciated. Thank you!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

My husband and I did the ruins on our own, we were actually staying in Playa del Carmen and took the ferry over to Cozumel. Once off the ferry we found a taxi driver and he drove us to the ruins and stopped wherever we wanted him to stop. We stopped at a few scenic places and a beach bar (Bob Marley's), after the ruins.

At the ruins you have the option to hire a guide, the cost isn't that expensive but I can't remember what it was. But we decided to tour on our own with the brochure (in English) and by reading the plaques in front of the ruins. I do recommend bringing mosquito spray as there are lots of mosquitoes. You can get spray there but it is pricy, there is even a vendor there that offers to spray you for a couple bucks.

The ruins are interesting to do on Cozumel. We have done other bigger ruins like Tulum and Chichen Itza but we still found these intriguing and had fun exploring. Overall the site took us about an hour, but we did skip a few things. Oh, it can also be muddy there so wear tennis shoes. I wore Nike flip flops and almost lost one as I was walking, as well as almost falling on my butt!

 

[justmestace]

We've done San Gervasio on our own. Just took a taxi when we got off the ship....and he waited for us, to take us back to the port. The roads getting there are paved and it was a nice ride.
My husband and I have been to one of the largest Mayan ruins, Tikal in Guatemala, but we wanted to give our son a chance to see some ruins. We didn't want to take the boat to the mainland, friends who have gone to Tulum have been disappointed. San Gervasio actually had more to look at than I was expecting, more than what pictures I've seen of Tulum, and the "beach" at Tulum is laughable.
You will definitely want bug spray for the mosquitoes... we didn't, and while it was annoying, it wasn't horrible...but next time, I'd spray. The grounds are well cared for and only two of the paths furthest from the entrance were dirt. No mud for our trip, but I could see that if it had rained recently you'd want to take the advice of the previous poster.
We had plenty of time to wander around town if we had wanted to, but since we've been to Cozumel many times, we went back on the ship and enjoyed the nearly empty pools.
I recommend going, it was interesting, and we had a good time.

 

[BigJon]

We did San Gervasio a few years ago on our own, and we paid a guide, who was at the entrance, to lead us around. I'm glad we did, because this guy gave us a lot of interesting facts. (of course, it may have been made up...who knows!) And the guide was pretty cheap. I figured this would be my one and only visit to these ruins, so I figured the guide was worth it. These were the first (and only) Mayan ruins I've been too, so they were pretty interesting.

 

[SUZI]

ajrwdwgirl, justmestace, and BigJon,

Thank you so much for sharing your experience!
Like I said our children don't want to see the other items on the DCL excursion but I wasn't sure it was something that could be done on our own. Sounds like it is simple to do and does not require any pre-planning (just get a taxi and find a guide)

Thanks again!

 

[TamieH]

Anyone know what the taxi fee would be for 5 people to the ruins and back to port? If we take the Disney ruins & beach excursion, it will be close to $300. Just taking the taxi to the ruins, paying the $8 pp entrance fee and having more flexibility with the rest of our day sounds pretty good. Reviews for that excursion haven't been great.