Port and Shore Excursions in Costa Maya (Guide)

So you booked a cruise with a stop in Costa Maya, also known as Mahahual, Mexico. Here’s our port and shore excursion guide to Costa Maya and which shore excursions you can consider based on our personal experience. 

We have visited this cruise port at least twice on a Virgin and Royal Caribbean cruise, and you can read our other cruise-related articles below to help you plan and know what to expect. 

Related Virgin Voyages cruise articles: 

• Why book a Virgin Voyages Cruise
• Virgin Voyages Restaurants Guide – what restaurants are there and where to eat onboard
• The ultimate guide to Virgin Voyages activities on the ship/What to expect during Scarlet Night
• Port Guide and shore excursions in Costa Maya 
• Port guide and shore excursions in Bimini/What to expect at the Beach Club at Bimini
• Virgin Voyages Shopping Options

Our Other Cruise Travel Series

• Two weeks in Alaska
• Rhapsody of the Seas (Royal Caribbean Cruise Review)
• Holland America Alaska Cruise Review (MS Noordam)
• Our First Ever Cruise (Royal Caribbean Majesty of the Seas Review)

What is a Shore Excursion? 

When your cruise ships docks at a port, you essentially have a choice: stay on the ship or explore the city where the ship is currently docked in. If you choose to explore the city surroundings where your boat is docked in and get off the ship, you are essentially going on a shore excursion. 

There’s two ways to do a shore excursion: go with a tour or DIY it. Some ports are easy to DIY and can save you a bit of money since you don’t have to pay for tour guides and you rely on walking or public transportation to get around. 

The other option is going with a tour that’s either sold through the cruise ship or going on a tour with an outside tour company. 

Is it better to book a shore excursion with the cruise company? 

It depends. Here are some pros and cons of booking a shore excursion with the cruise ship. 

The cruise line guarantee that the ship will wait for you in case something happens while on a tour

This is perhaps the biggest thing that the cruise lines tour on why you should book with them. If for some reason something happens while you are on a tour, the cruise ship will wait for your party until you are back, no matter how long the delay is. 

Say your bus breaks down in the middle of the road or there was an accident forcing the roads to close and be blocked, whatever the reason for the delay, the ship will wait for you. 

If you choose to go with an outside company and get stuck in the road, you are on your own. This is the absolute worst case scenario as other outside companies do guarantee that you will be back on time. The case above happens very rarely, but it does happen! 

It is more convenient to book with the cruise line than outside companies 

Once you have your ticket for your excursion, all you need to do is show up at the appointed date and time at the location mentioned on the ticket. Cruise line representatives help you get to the correct bus and make sure that you get out of the ship on time. 

When booking with outside tour companies, you will have to make your way to the meeting point yourself at the appointed time. 

Pros of booking with outside tour companies

Cost. It is generally cheaper to book with outside tour companies than with the cruise line. For a shore excursion in Kohunlich in Costa Maya, we paid $75 per person for a private tour. 

Compare that to around $130 per person for the 7 Colors Lagoon tour from the cruise line. We are saving almost half! 

For our other tour to Chacchoben, we paid $50 per person on a public tour. It costs almost twice as much with the cruise line! (Royal Caribbean at the time)

You support the local economy by booking direct with a local tour company

By choosing to book with an outside tour company, you help support the local economy by supporting small businesses. Usually the tour companies who supply tours to the cruise lines discount the price of their tours to the cruise companies. The profits are then kept by the cruise line itself instead of being reinvested back to the local economy. 

To make a profit, these tour companies are relying on economies of scale: the more people book, the better their margins are. 

You get a more personalized and intimate tour when booking with local tour companies and you help support their small businesses along the way. You support their bottomline while saving money for yourself too! 

Shore Excursions in Costa Maya Port

There are a few tours you can do in Costa Maya, with a mixture of the major variations below. Here are the most popular tours. 

Chacchoben Ruins Shore Excursion in Costa Maya

Within an hour from the cruise port, one can visit the site of an old Mayan ruin called Chacchoben. If one is looking for culture and history while on vacation in Costa Maya, then Chacchoben is the place for you. 

Because of its proximity to the cruise port, it is the most popular tour destination from Costa Maya. You have to do this tour if ruins are your thing. 

A local Mayan guide taught us how to count in Mayan, provided a history of the place, and gave us lots of useful information about the site. The tour includes entrance fees and transportation to and from the cruise port. 

You can even climb up the ruins if you are physically able to. Don’t miss the chance, there are only a limited number of ruins you can physically climb in Mexico.

7 Colors Lagoon Tour Shore Excursion in Costa Maya

Located in the town of Bacalar, the 7 Colors lagoon got its name from the 7 different colors the lagoon takes, depending on the season and how deep the water is. 

One can swim, kayak, and participate in other water sports while at the 7 Colors Lagoon. Or you can just opt to relax and laze around by the water, soaking the warm sun of Mexico. 

There are tours that combine the lagoon with Chacchoben, or you can opt to just do the 7 Colors Lagoon by itself. 

Kohunlich Tour from Costa Maya

Another Mayan site that’s accessible from Costa Maya is Kohunlich. Not many people go to this site, as it is 2 hours one way from the cruise port. 

We took this tour the second time we had docked in Costa Maya and honestly, the two hours flew by so quickly. On our way there, we chatted with our guide, who gave us a lot of information about Mayan ruins. He even told us about the people of Teotihuacan and the Aztecs and how different they were from Mayans. 

He pointed out towns and the history of the cruise port of Costa Maya. The port is owned privately, and was a recent development. He even mentioned that before the cruise port was created, the roads were not paved. There’s loads of wildlife in the area, where you may see them crossing the road at night. 

Kohunlich is interesting. It was a merchant town where people from all over used to sell their goods in the market. Kohunlich’s ruins used to be houses where the nobles lived, with a temple. The highlight of the site are these huge faces carved in stone, rebuilt every time there’s a new leader. 

Dzibanche Shore Excursion in Costa Maya

Another Mayan site 2 hours away from the cruise port is Dzibanche. The site is only 20 minutes away from Kohunlich, so some sites offer a tour of both Kohunlich and Dzibanche. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time at port to do both. 

Dzibanche looks a bit more like the typical Mayan site, so if you had a choice to pick between Dzibanche or Kohunlich, pick Kohunlich. 

We did not get a chance to visit this site yet but we will definitely go when we get a chance to have a shore excursion in Costa Maya. 

Which is a better Costa Maya Tour: Chacchoben, Kohunlich or Dzibanche? 

If you don’t have much time at port, pick Chacchoben. You can get your Mayan ruins visit without the need to rush around. 

However, if you have a bit more time ashore, around 9 hours or more, do Kohunlich. Seeing those huge faces engraved in the stone was a definite highlight. Unlike other Mayan sites that we visited, Kohunlich is relatively quiet. There’s not as many visitors to the site given that it is a bit farther. 

Even though there’s 4 ships at port while we were there, we managed to get a private tour of Kohunlich since nobody else booked the same tour we did. 

The Native Choice Costa Maya Review 

We booked our Chacchoben and Kohunlich tours with a local company called The Native Choice. They are not located inside the cruise port, but they provide detailed instructions to find their office. 

Located 4 blocks away from the port, the Native Choice only accepts cash if booking a tour on partial payment. Unless you are paying in full when you book, there are no other credit card options. 

Each tour has a local guide and they utilize minivans for their tours. Our first tour to Chacchoben pre-covid, there were around 14 of us in the van. 

During the pandemic, we had a private tour to Kohunlich as nobody else booked the tour! 

This company is great, only asking for $15 per person in deposits for the tour, with the remainder payable when you arrive at their office. They guarantee that they will get you back to your cruise ship before they depart and have flexible cancellation policies in case your ship changes their itinerary and can’t dock anymore. 

Not a sponsored listing, by the way. We paid for the tours ourselves nor did we get any freebies from this company. We just like them a lot so we gave them a shoutout. 

What to do in Costa Maya Port 

The port of Costa Maya is like it’s own shopping and mini theme park mecca. You could opt to just stay and explore the port if you wish. There’s a pool area where you can hang out and swim (not sure if additional fees apply), a mini zoo with flamingos, a ropes and obstacle course, and shops. 

The shops are your usual souvenir shops, peppered with a bit of jewelry and local goods. There’s even a duty free shop where you can opt to buy alcohol. There are some deals available on the souvenir shops on knick knacks you can bring home to commemorate your trip. 

Do Port Costa Maya Shops take USD?

No need to exchange your USD to Mexican Pesos, most of the shops in Costa Maya Port price their goods in USD and take credit cards and dollars. 

You will see signs for $5 for a whole rack, mix and match for $10 to $15 and more. 

Even the chocolate shop, restaurants and activities on the port itself accept USD as a major form of payment.

Are you planning your Costa Maya port excursion? 

Did we miss any exciting shore excursions you can do while at Port Costa Maya? Leave them in the comments below. Would love more ideas about where to go and what to do on our next visit to the port!