If you’ve been to Cancun at least once, I’m sure you have heard of the famous theme park, Xcaret. There are a total of six parks that fall under the Xcaret banner, which includes the Xcaret by Mexico, Xel-Ha, Xplor, Xplor Fuego, Xenses and Xoximilco.
We visited the Xcaret by Mexico park for a day and enjoyed it very much. There is just so much to do around the whole park and it’s a great day trip for all age groups. There are many things I wish I knew before we went that would have made our day a little more efficient and smooth. So, I decided to write a post about it for any of my followers who decide to go one day!
Admission
1 Print a copy of your confirmation or ticket, whichever is emailed to you before you leave on your trip. It is difficult, although not impossible, to find a internet cafe to print out the confirmation papers. As of 05/2021, they don’t allow you to show your confirmation on your phone or any devices.
2 Once you get there, you need to stand in line to get bands and other information needed for the whole day. Staff will try to sell other packages and offers to you; but you have already paid for a days worth of activities, so try to enjoy what you already have. Don’t waste time standing around once you enter.
3 Go Early! There is so much to do and not enough time, especially if you are a group of more than two. If you want to space out the activities and see the whole place, you want to go when they open. There are many places to take pictures and lines for activities or booths, both of which require even more time.
Getting Around
4 They don’t have paper maps anymore, so if you don’t want to walk around looking at your phone all day, print out a map ahead of time. I wish we did this so that we could have planned the day better. One thing we missed out on was the snorkeling, because by the time we found the place, we had already changed out of our swimwear.
5 That brings me to the next point. Look at the all the activities ahead of time in the Xcaret you booked and plan your day. It’s better to group all the water activities together and the land activities together. Lunch has to fall somewhere in between there, so the better you plan according to your families needs, the more you can make out of the trip.
Food
6 There is a buffet option that you can choose when you book your ticket. We took the plus ticket, which comes with 1 buffet per person. If you opt for the basic ticket, the buffet price is $30 USD. With that said, it’s an all you can eat buffet which follows all the COVID precautions. There are staff to serve you what you want and PLENTY of options to choose from. We ate at one of the several options given in the plus package. The quality of the buffet is as expected. The food was below average, the service was good.
7 Freeze your drinks and bring a backpack filled with snacks and water if you want to save a little money. The booths located inside Xcaret are very overpriced, starting at around $14 bucks for a slushy. It gets very hot in the afternoon and you’ll need to stay hydrated. Since the buffet is a one time pass, it’s likely you will get hungry in between, especially if you are doing the water activities.
8 The bakery inside the Mayan Village is a must-go! Their fresh bakery good and coffee was the best. We went back a second time for an afternoon snack but unfortunately, they were closed by then! I wish we knew ahead of time so we could have planned it out better.
Attractions and more
9 There is a big show at the end of each day at the huge theater. Don’t miss it. It was a great show with lots of history about the Mayans. We were iffy about staying for it since it was getting dark, but we are glad we did. We were able to find a less crowded region since there are no assigned seating.
More things to know for visiting XCaret:
- Prices vary based on when you book and if there are deals going on. We paid a total of $238 for two adults, including tax.
- Towards the end of the day, more places starting closing. We were trying to look for staff and they seemed to be disappearing. It wasn’t until later that evening, we figured out why everyone was gone! The performers for the evening show were the same people who were staff who were working all day.
- Although our package said we would get towels after the water activities, they were not for free! We had to rent the towels out if we needed it. We were not happy about this because our ticket clearly said towels included.
Click here to get to their website and to book tickets!
Did I miss anything? Comment below and let me know!