Best off-premises excursion?

[desireaddict]

We almost never leave the Desire resorts during our stay

We agree with the above and the other comments about booking elsewhere for a day or two and do off-site excursions then.
Why waste a $500, $600 (or more) day at Desire and NOT BE THERE?

Chitzen Itza is awesome and worth the time & effort -- but be prepared if your trip dates are in the summer.
It's hotter than hell without the nice breeze off of the ocean to cool you off.

Life is Good!
DA

[Cpl du Nord]

We can 100% support Cokeman's recommendation. Our first trip my wife was hell bent on doing an excursion. I convinced her to wait until we got there and by doing that we might meet cool people to join us. From the moment we arrived at Pearl, the thought of leaving for a day never crossed her mind again. Too much fun to be had at the resort. We do go on the snorkeling trip from the Pearl dive shop once or twice a trip, though. It is a very low time commitment. Only about an hour and a half and the reef is amazing, We will be doing it again in November.

Mr du Nord

Thank you, I also did not want to go on full day trip out of resort hence tried to get info about half day trips. No worries, I have already sorted private guide for an express tour so should be back by 4 p.m.

Thanks again for all advice.

Also, about snorkeling, do they provide gear?

Yes, snorkeling gear is provided when doing an excursion through the dive shop.

[candjwv]

My last piece of advice is do not book any excursions in advance - you can if you wish book any of them once you are on site at Pearl - my guess is that once you are at Pearl the last thing you will think about is leaving Pearl to go on an off campus tour - lol !!

Absolutely agree here. We haven't been to DP yet, but when booking DRM, I wanted to try a cenote tour. Wifey suggested that we wait until arrival to decide. I figured it was a good idea - we'd miss the $10 discount of booking ahead, but get the benefit of being able to pick according to the weather. I didn't want to chance spending a beautiful day underground, and trade that for a rainy day at the resort.

Once we got there, it never even occurred to us to do something off-property We completely forgot about the tours until we were home.

[RusLon]

We can 100% support Cokeman's recommendation. Our first trip my wife was hell bent on doing an excursion. I convinced her to wait until we got there and by doing that we might meet cool people to join us. From the moment we arrived at Pearl, the thought of leaving for a day never crossed her mind again. Too much fun to be had at the resort. We do go on the snorkeling trip from the Pearl dive shop once or twice a trip, though. It is a very low time commitment. Only about an hour and a half and the reef is amazing, We will be doing it again in November.

Mr du Nord

Thank you, I also did not want to go on full day trip out of resort hence tried to get info about half day trips. No worries, I have already sorted private guide for an express tour so should be back by 4 p.m.

Thanks again for all advice.

Also, about snorkeling, do they provide gear?

Yes, snorkeling gear is provided when doing an excursion through the dive shop.

Thank you, but does it mean snorkeling trips cost extra? We go only once in a while, but we used to Sandals where all these kind of things like diving, snorkeling, sailing etc. are included.

[trubluz]

Snorkling, Diving & Sailing from Pearl are not included they are additional to the resort stay.

[RusLon]

Snorkling, Diving & Sailing from Pearl are not included they are additional to the resort stay.

Thank you.

[RusLon]

Hi, all, we just came back from our trip.

FYI only, we've gone to 2 excursion during our trip:
- express excursion to Chichen Itza + cenode swimming (incl.lunch). We've hired private guide with car (all including lunch and all tickets cost 350 USD for two). We started 9 a.m. and returned by 5 p.m. just in time for our massage at resort spa. Road took 1.5-2 hrs one way, but with pack of beer and interesting guide time flies. We recommend it very much, visit Mexico and don't visit Chichen Itza it's like visit Paris and don't go and see Eifel Tower.
- another trip was to Crococun (crocodile farm), only 10 min drive from resort, taxi booked with resort. Cost 30 USD pp plus 20 USD taxi each way and taxi waits us there during visit. Excursion itself is fun, with very small groups with guide, you get to hold, feed, take picture with crocodiles, parrots, snakes, deers etc. Very cool, you are literally walking among 100s crocodiles without protection! During one of walks crocodiles around us started running around, it was so scary, but cool. Highly recommended as well. It's open 9 to 5, so can go anytime, no reservation necessary.

Hope it helps to those who are interested in sightseeing as well as partying )

[jandr1013]

While we agree with the "why bother leaving the resort?" sentiment, if you are looking to get away for a couple of hours, we did a horseback riding excursion at Rancho Baaxal while staying at a vanilla resort a few years before we discovered Desire. It's not too far south of Puerto Morales, we enjoyed ourselves, and it didn't take up a huge chunk of the day. It's not the traditional Mayan temple or cenote visit that you might think of, but figured we'd mention it as an option.