When we stayed at El Dorado Seaside Suites, my husband and I decided to take a day trip to Xel-Ha because it was one of the closer Xcaret Parks and because my husband really likes to snorkel!
We planned this out only about a week before booked this package: Xel-Ha Park All-Inclusive Admission. It’s really the best way to go because you have the snorkeling gear, lockers, food, domestic and soft drinks, and all included activities at one price. If you want to go ahead and book transportation too, let me know and I can book that for you as well. It all just depends on where you are coming from and which hotel you’re staying at! Click here to book a free phone consultation with me!
If you don’t know what Xel-Ha is, it’s a beautiful ecological and environmentally friendly adventure park that focuses mostly on water and ocean wildlife. It’s set on a river that leads to the ocean that carries a mixture of fresh and salt water, so the water can be a little blurry, but you still get to see all of the fish!
We put all of our belongings into a locker (that’s included with your admission) and then we went to wait for the breakfast restaurants to open. We were a little confused as to why they waited an hour to open everything after opening the entrance to the park, but you can still technically swim and then head to breakfast when they open. It is a completely buffet style for all of the restaurants on the site. But it is pretty good food for what it is and authentic Mexican food as well.
After having some breakfast, we took a walk up to the start of the river. You can either walk, bike, or take the train/trolly up to the top. When you get there, you grab a lifejacket and some snorkeling gear if you want. From there, you can either choose to go left or right to get in the mangrove that leads to the river. One way is if you just want to float with your snorkeling gear and the other direction is if you want to float on an inner tube (you can choose between a single or a double inner tube). Most people chose the inner tube way but also grabbed some snorkeling gear. The problem with it was that it was so freaking crowded, everyone kept bumping into each other which caused everyone to bump into the trees and trunks of the mangrove. Some even got stuck for a bit.
After you get through the mangroves, the two separate entrances to the river meet. The first couple activities you can get out and do along the river include cliff jumping. I’m not one for doing this, but my husband loved it. You climb up the side of the cliff using the foot holds they have and a rope and then you jump for it! It’s not too terribly high, but for me, it was still high up enough where I was not gonna do it!
Then you travel down a bit longer and we saw some jumping fish and other fish that were just swimming along with you. There are a couple of rest spots along the way, but you don’t really have to swim. You can just float with the current even if you don’t have an inner tube. I abandoned my tube at the next activity because it was just taking so much longer and more energy since it was going the way I wanted it to.
The next activity was a really cool obstacle course. The first included rope walking. Once you got to the other end, you could either choose to do a couple different zippiness or keep on an obstacle course that included rope swinging and climbing up to get the next obstacle to get across to the platform. I didn’t last long on the second course but I did manage to get across the rope walker more than a few times (it was my favorite for some reason!). Then I went zip lining. You could choose to either hang on to the handlebars or sit in a hammock. You didn’t go across anyway, but it did land you into the water.
After that you continue down the river. There are several photo ops along the way where you can scan your bracelet and get in front of the camera. We didn’t really do this. But several people did.
Then you ended at the place where all of the restaurants were. There were a few other places where flags wit fish on them were. This designated where a lot of fish liked to congregate and was great for snorkeling.
After we did a bit of that, we got out and headed for lunch. After swimming all morning we were really tired, so we found the hammocks place to relax. We actually fell asleep for about an hour in them! A true Mexican siesta!
When we woke up, we had a hard time getting out of hammocks. We didn’t want to leave them. But we also wanted to explore the park a bit more! So we took the other way up to the top of the river to visit a cenote. We were heavily disappointed because the one you could swim in was small and crowded and the other one, you couldn’t swim in at all. But there were caverns you could go in along the way, the famous slide you could go down, and even a spiritual place that described more of what the Mayan culture was! I thought it was really awesome and it was my second favorite (behind the rope walk of course).
When we went down the river a second time, it was way less crowded, but it had also started to rain and the wind started to get strong and blew the other direction from the way the current was going. It made it so hard to get to the end of the river. By that time we were in a bit of a bad mood. But the park was closing soon so we went to shower and get dressed.
Unfortunately this was also everyone else’s decision to do the same so it was crowded in all of the locker rooms. While there, it started to rain really heavily!!! Usually the rain stops pretty soon even though it’s pretty heavy, but this one went on for a long time! We were completely soaked in walking to the bus, which put me out even more. I’ve been wet all day and I just wanted to be dry at this point! Plus, we were late for our dinner reservation back at the resort! But we got the resort okay and to be honest it was quite a fun time!
However, I don’t think I’d go back for a while. Not because it wasn’t fun and not because I wouldn’t want to try it again, but because Xcaret has so many different adventure parks now! We still haven’t been to Xcaret, Xavage, Xplore, Xoximilco, or Xenses! Plus, I still really want to stay at Hotel Xcaret too, and go on their tours of Tulum, Chichen Itza, and their special Xenotes tour! However, I’d still highly suggest to my clients to visit one of these parks, including Xel-Ha!
Here are some suggestions for you while you visit Xel-Ha:
Water shoes. Don’t even think about going there without them. You won’t make it. They have some for purchase there, and they’re actually at a good price, so if you haven’t bought them ahead of time, you’ll be able to while you’re there
Eco-Sunscreen! This is an eco-park after all with so much wildlife around. Most sunscreens can damage the ecosystem and coral reefs, so even if you aren’t going here but you are planning on swimming in the ocean anywhere in the world, please use an eco-sunscreen! Again, you can buy this there at the park and it’s the only kind of sunscreen they sell. It actually works really well! My husband bought some because his face was starting to get sunburnt!
Rash Guard! If you’re not into buying eco-sunscreen, get a rash guard. A rash guard is a long sleeve shirt suited for swimming that has SPF in the fibers. I chose this route because my shoulders get burnt so easily while mostly nothing else does on me. I bought mine ahead of time as a long sleeve swimsuit off of Amazon. My husband bought a rash guard shirt at the park. It was also really cheap. Some ranged from the equivalent of 5 USD to about 20 USD. They also dry quickly so that you won’t just be sitting covered in a wet long sleeve shirt.
Plan all day! There wasn’t anything on the website for how and when you get your transfer back to the resort if you got the pass with transportation included. All you got was a confirmation of when you’d be picked up to go to the park. Well, turns out, they don’t bus anyone back before the park closes. This is the same with all of their other parks, so plan for the whole day. You’re not leaving until around 5pm. It’s an 8am-5pm kind of day, and you will be exhausted! Alternatively, you can always go to a counter to ask for a safe taxi, but you obviously have to pay extra for that and to the taxi driver.
Waterproof cases! And not just waterproof cases. The ones that float and go around your neck to carry your phone. You drop that sucker in the water without one, and you’re done. They have them at the shops at the park to buy. They’re super easy to use and they won’t sink! I didn’t have one but I had a Lifeproof case for my phone. And I was scared every single minute of life I was going to lose it!
Bring a portable charger! If you’re taking a lot of photos and videos, you’ll need to recharge your phone. Bring a portable charger with you and then leave it in your locker so that when lunch rolls around, you can leave your phone in there with it!
Free Wifi! It’s not true. Well, it is , but it isn’t. When you use the free Wifi at the park, you have to sign in with a link sent to your email. Can’t get to your email unless you have international data or Wifi. Well since you’re trying to sign into free Wifi, your only option is international’s data to even be able to sign in to the free Wifi. You can get them on the buses though without going through all of this. But the park? Forget about it. Don’t plan on posting to the gram or facebook while you’re here.
Need to book Xel-Ha tickets? Click here
Rather go to a different park by the Xcaret Group? Here’s all the links you need!
Xcaret
Xplor
Xplor Fuego
Xavage
Xoximilco
Xenses
Thinking about visiting the Riviera Maya, but not sure where to start? Book a free phone consultation with me to find out if working with a travel agent is right for you! Book here!
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Adventuresome Nicole 