Get an overview of Mexico and the island of Cozumel in less than five hours on this wonderful private tour.

Departing from the pier, you will be driven to Discover Mexico Park for an unforgettable immersion in the country’s vibrant culture and traditions. During your hour visit you will view an immersive four-screen video collage that takes you from the Riviera Maya to Oaxaca to Chihuahua and brings one of the world’s oldest and richest cultures vividly to life. Trace the evolution of Mexico’s ancient civilizations as you tour replicas of Chichén Itzá and other pyramids built by the early Aztec, Maya, Olmec and Totonac people. The Spanish colonial era is reborn in the park’s reproductions of grand monuments, cathedrals, and the Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City’s elegant boulevard.

Stroll through tropical gardens ripe with coconuts, papayas, and bananas—keeping an eye out for macaws, turtles and iguanas. Admire rare black-clay pottery, quirky alebrijes (carved wooden animals), brilliant textiles and other handcrafts fashioned by native artisans in Discover Mexico’s Museum of Popular Arts. Then head to the souvenir shop to take home your own made-in-Mexico arts and crafts, much of it available nowhere else in the Caribbean.

The island’s oldest Mayan ruins, El Cedral, while nowhere near the size or importance of those on the mainland, were once Cozumel’s center of cultural life. Have your cameras ready to capture the scenic beauty of the village’s thatched-roofed bungalows and flower-filled gardens during your 30 minute walk through the ruins.

Then journey further across island to El Mirador, on the rugged, undeveloped east side of the island. Here you will stop for photos or just to watch and see where ocean waves pound natural rock formations and see long stretches of tawny sand and dunes.

You will then return to the town of San Miguel where guests will have the option of ending their tour downtown for shopping / dining or returning to the pier.

Guests departing downtown are responsible for arranging their own transportation back to the cruise pier. For guests on ships at the International or Puerta Maya Piers located south of town, taxis are plentiful and should cost $4 - $5 per person based on number in taxi.