Full day tour to the Yucatan Peninsula

This full-day tour brings together the main treasures of the Yucatán Peninsula in a single trip, traveling in a group of up to 15 people aboard a bus that stops in four different places: the colonial city of Valladolid and the ancient Maya cities of Chichén Itzá, Cobá and Tulum. The day runs about eight hours from pickup to drop-off.

The tour opens in Valladolid, a colonial city known for its colorful buildings and its 16th-century Convent of San Bernardino of Siena, which holds an ornate wooden altarpiece. You will also see the baroque San Gervasio Cathedral and Casa de los Venados, a home turned into a showcase of Mexican folk art and furnishings. Valladolid sits above a network of cenotes, including Cenote Zací, a sinkhole pool lined with stalactites, and the underground cenotes of Samulá and X'Kekén nearby.

From Valladolid you head to Chichén Itzá, one of the most recognized Maya archaeological sites in Mexico. The step pyramid known as El Castillo, or the Temple of Kukulcán, dominates the ancient city, which flourished from around 600 A.D. into the 1200s. Around it, carved stone structures survive at the ball court, the Temple of the Warriors and the Wall of the Skulls, evidence of the sophisticated geometry the Maya built into the site.

The tour continues to Cobá, another ancient Maya city, this one at the center of the largest network of stone causeways, or sacbeob, built by the Maya. Cobá also preserves carved and sculpted stelae that record ceremonial life and events from the Late Classic Period, between roughly 600 and 900 A.D. Here you climb the Nohoch Mul pyramid, one of the tallest in the Yucatán Peninsula.

The last stop is Tulum, a town on the Caribbean coastline known for its beaches and for the well-preserved ruins of an ancient Maya port city. Its main structure, also called El Castillo, sits on a cliff above white sand and turquoise water. Next to the ruins lies Tulum National Park, a coastal area of mangroves and cenotes.

The day is suitable for all physical fitness levels. On board, you get bottled water, tea and coffee, WiFi and air-conditioned transportation, with parking fees covered as part of the tour; dinner, alcoholic beverages and gratuities are not included. The bus picks you up directly from your hotel.