Chichen-itza Maravilla - Cenotes & Valladolid Private Tour

Planning to go to Chichen-Itza and swim in Cenotes? Don't go without Saul Cortes as your tour guide. He is incredibly knowledgeable, and enhances the experience tremendously. Trips to Chichen-Itza can require long drives and long days. Saul is personable and entertaining. Not only does he know volumes of history, but he is proud and respectful of the heritage he's sharing on his tours. If you want someone who is knowledgeable, personable, professional, and engaging, Saul is the best choice for your tours.

Booking a private tour with Tulaka Mexico Travel and our guide Saul was hands down the best decision we made on our trip to Cancun. From the very beginning, Saul made everything easy—he was responsive, professional, and truly understood what I was looking for when planning a family-friendly adventure. We chose the Private Transportation with Expert Guide Full Day Tour, and it exceeded all of our expectations. Saul picked us up right at our resort in a spacious, comfortable van that fit my husband, myself, and our three kids perfectly. On the drive to Chichén Itzá, he shared fascinating history about the Maya people and culture, making the ride both educational and engaging for all of us. At Chichén Itzá, Saul acted as our personal guide, pointing out hidden details and ensuring we didn’t miss anything important. His knowledge and passion really brought the site to life for us and kept even our youngest interested. He then took us to a fantastic local restaurant for lunch, followed by a stop at Cenote K’om H’a. This was such a highlight—beautiful, safe, and perfectly suited even for my son who was in a cast. We ended the day in Valladolid, where Saul introduced us to the best coconut ice cream we’ve ever had before returning us to our resort. To top it all off, when we realized we had left our souvenirs in the van, Saul kindly went out of his way to bring them back to us that same night. That level of care and thoughtfulness speaks volumes about the kind of guide he is. This tour was everything I hoped for and more. My kids (ages 5, 7, and 9) were engaged the entire day and are still talking nonstop about what they learned. If you’re traveling with kids—or even without!—I can’t recommend Saul and Tulaka Mexico highly enough. Truly unforgettable.

Saul is an experienced and very knowledgeable guide. Gracious, friendly and fun. So accommodating and pleasant to be with. Great sites, eateries and all in all a wonderful day!

Had a great time with Saúl as our guide taking us to Chichén Itzá, swimming in a beautiful cenoté, an authentic Yucatán lunch (we made our own tortillas!), a quick trip to Valladolid for a stroll and some coconut ice cream in the central plaza, and tequila tasting at a local distillery. A full and fun day with good energy and many cultural and historical details! And a special shout out to Fernando for making sure we traveled comfortably and arrived safely to each destination.

Saul was fun, knowledgeable and totally flexible to our needs. The history and monument were amazing but his choice of authentic lunch location and a private cenote were unexpected bonuses.

Pedro and Luis did a great job! We had a super knowledgeable guide at Chitchen Itza and a fantastic lunch,. The cenote was beauiful and refreshing after a hot day!

Saul and Luis really were the perfect tour guides for my first trip out of the United States, Not only were they very knowledgeable of the areas/sites that we went to they were overall outstanding! I will definitely be recommending them to friends and family when they want to come to Mexico! Five out of five stars! Once again gracias amigos!✌️

Knowledgable, respectful, caring and passionate guides. We were very lucky to have met Saul and Luis for our mayan tour. We are from Asia and it’s our first time to South America and everything turned out way above our expectations. I love how they are still so passionate about what they do, they swam, put mud on, sweat, drove for many hours and still are so energetic and smiley. We really saluted them. Thank you for showing us this level of passion. Thank you. We had a great and safe time because of you.

We had the most amazing experience with Saul doing this tour! He is so knowledgeable and fun. Our kids loved him just as much! I highly recommend booking anything Saul has to offer!!!!

Amazing and fun tour guides that were professional, patient, and courteous. 100% recommend, loved it

Can I just say for my first trip to Mexico and experiencing Chichen Itza and Cenote with Saul and Louis was the best time. I can’t say enough of what a fun crew they are. From the pick-up, to the drive and also the teaching us, which is a group of 10 women about the Mayan culture, food and language was above and beyond. Thank you Saul and Louis for a lifetime experience. I am definitely going to join another private tour with you. Gracias

Wonderful experience seeing the wonder that is CHICHEN - ITZA! Fun swim in Cenote - in the middle of the town :) Valladolid - classy little town. What made this experience even more fantastic was our tour guy - SAUL! Thank you very much! The guy is knowledgeable, funny, not overbearing you with information, all round conversationalist and generally nice guy! We were there as a private group of 8 and we had a wonderful day and a lot of laughs. All the best Saul! Good luck to you! Definitely recommend!

The best man in the business! Very informative and funny, we would all highly recommend Saul. 10/10 experience

If you’re looking for a perfect adventure, definitely book with Saul. Our family of 6 had the best day touring Chichen Itza learning about the Mayan culture (Saul managed to present historical data in a manner that engaged even our 3 11 year old boys.), enjoying authentic Mexican cuisine complete with the farm tour and making our own tortillas, swimming in the most beautiful hidden cenote we’ve ever seen, and meandering around the city of Valladolid. Saul covered every detail that we didn’t even know we needed or wanted, for instance, coconut ice cream! He’s definitely the best!

Saul was an amazing tour guide he was friendly and funny. He taught us a lot about the Mayan culture and even a few Mayan phrases. He took pictures of us throughout the tour. He arrived right on time to pick us up at our hotel in a clean, air conditioned van. With an ice chest full of cold beverages. We arrived early to Chichen beating the crowds. Saul was very informative and never rushed us through any part of the tour. After Chichen we headed to a cenote to cool off. There was only one other small group of locals there so it was almost like we had it to ourselves. We had an amazing authentic lunch and got to make our own tortillas. Afterward we got a tour of the grounds and Mayan beehives and tasted the honey straight from the hive. We had a great time shopping and walking around Valladolid. The tour was the highlight of our trip and I would highly recommend using Tulaka Mexico and Saul for your tours.

We had an absolutely amazing all day private tour to Chichen Itza and Oxman cenote yesterday. I highly recommend using Saul C. for any tour- he is very friendly, professional, super knowledgeable and took amazing care of us all day. We felt like we were in such good hands. He even customized the trip to our liking and found an amazing vegan restaurant for our family. He also took pictures of us all day and made the experience so enjoyable from start to finish. We learned so much about the Mayan culture from Saul- we also never waited in a line - totally VIP experience and so worth it. You will not be disappointed with any tour you take with Saul!

Saul is one of the best guides I ever had on any of my many vacations. He is funny, positive, very knowledgeable and educated. He makes you feel comfortable and he is always has a smile. I would highly recommend him to all my traveling friends and definitely he will be my tour guide the next time I come to his part of the world. Robin and I we thank you for the wonderful experiences

Saul was an amazing guide. Right from the time I booked the tour he was available to answer any questions. He was flexible, gave good tips about the tour and took good care of special requests we had. It was fun to be with someone who knows the area and makes things easy. Loved Lupe’s driving too.

My wife and I had a private tour day with Saul and we loved every minute! He picked us up at Unico Resort packed with beverages for our day long trip. He told us the history and everything you’d ever want to know every step of the tour. All of the fascinating info about every village and town we passed through. His knowledge of Chichen Itza was absolutely beyond anything we could have done on our own. By request he took us to a local hole in the wall restaurant that turned out to be one of our favorite parts of our entire trip. Then we were off to test a cenotes waters. It was one of the most amazing sights we’ve ever seen (but the water is certainly cool since it’s all fed underground) but you have to go to one. Then off to a walking tour of Valladolid. The architecture was just beautiful and again Saul knew all about the old monastery, governors house and other interesting local structures. Our drive back went through Tulum but we’ll have to see more of it next trip. All I can say is “you gotta call Saul” and I guarantee it’ll be the best tour you’ve ever had! His sense of humor along with his knowledge kept our interest throughout a full day trip.

We went into our vacation to Cancun aware of the options for guided tours to some of the wonderful locations and sites that are keystones to Mexican heritage in the Yucatan, but were wary of being in large groups with increased risks to exposure to COVID-19. We started to explore our options, and my wife found the info for Tulaka Mexico, and specifically, the rave reviews for Saul's tour guide experience. He ABSOLUTELY lived up to, and exceeded, our expectations as a truly local and knowledgable ambassador to Mexican culture and the Mayan/Yucatan aspects of the culture. The pricing was very comparable to the large group tour company packages, and I can pretty confidently presume the information and customization provided by Saul was infinitely more detailed and enjoyable than we would've found anywhere else. Saul's flexibility, knowledge, and sense of humor made this excursion an unforgettable experience, and kept our 3 boys (17, 14, and 8 years old) engaged and interested throughout. We all feel you could make no better decision on your vacation than to hire Saul and the Tulaka Mexico team to curate a truly heritage-rich adventure for you!

Amazing!! Thanks to Saul, my friends and I were able to have a perfect day, and got everything we hoped for and more. Saul is a wealth of information and it’s clear he is passionate about the area and the culture. We toured the incredible Chichen Itza, swam in a beautiful cenote, and had an amazing meal at a local Mayan restaurant. A tour day with Saul is a day you won’t forget. Thank you so much!!!

The favorite part of our 2 full day tours; above seeing all the magnificent sights and explorations was SAUL CORTES. If you want the experience of a lifetime with the most personal attention, go with Saul, hands down. He will make all your desires come to reality. He even let me without hesitation, wipe my sandy feet off on "his shoes". Can you believe that? He is worth every penny....he even secured an electric scooter for my husband. Service extraordinaire. If you can imagine it, Saul can make it happen hands down. He may now have the # of reviews as others, but he is 10 stars, no kidding and I have VERY high standards. We can't wait to see him again in May 2021. He removes any fears you have. AND, he is a fantastic photographer to keepsake your experiences. GO SAUL.