Ronnie H
Guatemala was wonderful as a country, but the value of the services provided were not worthwhile when looking at how much transportation and lodging actually cost there. What's more, the tour company's itinerary written personally written for me was written ambiguously. It said "transfer to Panajachel", so when the van driver dropped us off in Panajachel, I was berated on the phone by a male voice when I called and asked how to get to the Mayan homestay. He said, "It's not my problem you don't speak good Spanish" when I explained that the van driver did not ask where exactly we were going. He was scolding me on the phone and said that I had to follow the schedule exactly as stated on the itinerary. I just assumed the van driver knew where to drop us off seeing as this is a tour company that arranges transportation for us. What's more, prior to leaving Antigua to go to Panajachel, I gave my phone to the male employee at Marvelus who spoke to the van driver, so I assumed that he told the van driver where we were supposed to be driven. That apparently was not the case. I have never been spoken to by a tour operator in my life with that condescending, scolding, rude tone of voice. When I screen shotted the ambiguity of their schedule, the male voice on the phone acknowledged that it was ambiguous but did not apologize. He then transferred me to a female person Olivia who did apologize for the ambiguity of the schedule and was professional in her messaging for the rest of the trip. I'm mostly offended by the condescending and offensive nature in which I was spoken to by the male staff member at Marvelus. I actually have a decent grasp of Spanish, but I cannot say I am fluent. It is not practical for every tourist to speak the local language of every country they visit on the planet. Also, many points were not planned well. In the stop from Panajachel back to Antigua, we were told to "simply wait outside the Marvelus office" for 1.5 hours. They claimed the office was closed at 10 AM on a weekday, forcing us to sit outside. Thankfully, it wasn't raining. Many of the 14 passenger vans were filled to max capacity, leaving no room for people with luggage beyond a backpack. It was an extremely uncomfortable van ride when the van was filled to max capacity for 2 hours of driving. Thankfully, my family member and I travel light, but I don't see how this would be feasible with people who don't travel lightly. Also, the Mayan homestay can be booked through other 3rd party web sites. They are not the only ones who provide this unique experience. I'm just writing this for future travelers to know. I'm assuming the tour operator takes the biggest cut, and the homestay family makes a pittance comparably, so if you want more money to go to the Mayan homestay, book through a third party web site that provides that and then tip the Mayan family generously for their hospitality. Also, the stated age range for this tour was up to age 71. My family member is in the 70's, and the volcano trek was unbearable for him. There was no warning for how physically taxing the volcano trek would be. I would advise those with older travel group members or those who are not physically fit to reconsider the volcano trek. We met younger travelers who also said the volcano trek was too taxing to be enjoyable, but they felt forced to finish because they had already walked halfway. The volcano trek takes 3-4 hours and is extremely steep in many parts of the trek. Also, the hotel Hotel Posada Los Bucaros in Antigua--the hotel room was the size of a sardine can. There was nowhere to put your luggage. The room was new and spotless though and well maintained. Wifi was good. Hotel Arca de Noe - There is no wifi except in the hotel lobby, and even there, it was unreliable. I can't expect every place on the planet to have amazing Wifi, but the other downside to this hotel was that it was extremely dusty and musty. It was like no one had ever dusted the room ever. And there were a ton of bugs. I saw every bug of every species and size in my hotel room. All in all, I will come back to central America some day, but not with this company.
Operator's comment: Hello Customers thanks for shared your travel experience with Marvelus Travel, its important to us to hear you as well, we are taking action about what happened with you as travellers, we are sure we make this better for others future customers, we are sorry to hear that Marvelus Travel didnot filled you out the expectation, again thanks for let us, we should make better, precisely at the point you comment, Cheers Marvelus Travel Team
13th July 2023
Daniel Bromley
Fantastic tour around the Yukon and especially Mayan ruins. Marvelous travel were great communicators along the way. They kept me informed about when and where I needed to be and answered all my questions quicky. Cheers!
23rd June 2023
Kwan Ho Tsang
The trip was exciting, the sites were exotic and the people were friendly and helpful, especially the entire team at Casa Amarilla. ????????
16th June 2023
Thi Linh Dan Nguyen
Accommodation: hotel in Cancun Plaza Kokai 2 nights: the aircon was so terribly noisy that we had to turn it off whole night to sleep. Hotel in Merida (Reforma 2 nights) was okay due to its location. We got a leaking aircon upon check in but it was fixed afterwards. Hotel in Tulum Chilam Balam was the worst. It's smelly with lots of mosquitoes and a torn bedsheed :-). We could not sleep that night. Moreover we were dropped back to the hotel at 1pm instead of 3:30 pm like mentioned in the agenda while our bus to Playa Del Carmen is at 5pm. Where should we go under that 40 degrees weather so the hotel charged us 700 pesos for the late check out :-). It never mentioned by the tour company nor did the agent who worked with us daily. The tour: we enjoyed the Chichen Itza, Tulum Ruins and the archeological site in Merida very much. The cenote near Chichen Itza was just okay and we was hoping for a better one next day but we were disappointed. We were charged 100 pesos for a smelly, dark, full with bats cenote near the archeological site and I suggest you should not go there. The Chocolate Factory is a waste of time and you need to pay extra for that private farm visit. The tourguides in general were good, they speak English well and given the short time they tried to explain everything in both languages. We were a bit shocked the last day with the Tulum Ruins tour (the day we were charged 700 pesos more). In the agenda it mentioned we would be at the beach after Tulum Ruins and would be back at the hotel around 3:30 pm. But the tourguide said our tour ended at 11 am and we have to go to the beach by ourselves. Tour Rada staff Olivia explained that tour was free so they can cut it short :-). Very upset and disappointed because they just ruined our day. We had to spend for taxi to the beach and late check out. Despite the hot weather (we walked almost 10km everyday) we love our trip, the food, the dance and especially all the Mayan archeological sites. Luckily we decided to stay 1 more night on the beach to relax and end our trip in a greatest way possible with great food and wine. Thank you.
23rd May 2023
mark hughes
Our tour was very well organised and Guatemala and Belize are wonderful places with so much to offer.
7th May 2023
Amy Lutteur
Whatsapp is a must. I was not aware how poorly the internet connections would be in parts of the peninsula. Each of the ADO bus stations is within a block of a supermarket, so stock up on your water/snacks there to save money. Tours buses were of the highest quality, and the subcontracted tour companies were of high quality and very professional.
10th January 2023
Zeenat Khanbhai
The Mexico trip I did was excellent but only because of the agent Olivia who was excellent right from the beginning till the end of my Yucatán Quintana Roo trip. The schedule is not clearly explained and the hotel accommodation started off very well and depleted in standard as you came towards the end of the trip. I had to travel on my own from city to city, it was not clearly explained as I assumed I was joining a tour, but it wasn’t so. I was with a new group everytime and travelled solo! Olivia was right there, anytime of the day to answer my worries and queries and helped me out all the time. If it wasn’t for Olivia, I would have given one star, as it was very daunting for me to be in a new country and couldn’t speak Spanish.
29th May 2022
Hayley Buckingham
Overall the activities during the tour were great. Loved all of them, however I would strongly advise against upgrading your accomodation. We upgraded and upon comparing things on booking.com most of the hotels we were placed in were not an upgrade and did not warrant the extra amount we paid. Communication was great throughout, the places visited were really worthwhile. Loved Merida! Would recommend this to people.
15th April 2022
Catharina Hytti
Overall great service and value for the money. Great variety of tours and excursions. Good standard of hotels. For a few tours the pick up service was delayed and it was sometimes a long waiting time to get tickets for the bus transportation between different cities.