I personally think the beach part of it is a waste of time. The ruins is such a beautiful site - you'll have a fun time exploring. The beach part for us was only 30 minutes of actually beach time. My dd swam a bit, but I didn't think it was worth the wet ride back to jump in for all of 20 minutes (if you count dropping off stuff, rinsing off after, getting back on bus). Unfortunately, you're still too far away to get back by yourself and it's highly unadvisable to try to catch a ride on your own - too risky according to our bus guide. I put on the excursion survey card that the beach part should be eliminated to allow more ruins time. What happened with us is although they say to be back on the bus by a certain time, many people meandered slowly back which put the entire group behind by about 20 minutes - they cut into your beach time. On the plus side, the beach has about 8 hammocks & lots of tables so you don't have to go in the water or sit in sand if you don't want to. There are also a few vendors selling blankets, jewelry, pottery, "stuff" if you want to purchase a souvenir. Have fun and take lots of pictures. They charge extra if you bring a video camera to the ruins.
