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Xel-Há Itinerary: Options for Families with Toddlers, Kids and Teenagers
- andrewsco3
- Mar 7, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 9
Are you planning a family adventure at the stunning Xel-Há Xcaret water park located on the Riviera Maya coast of Mexico? We wrote an extensive post on Xel-Há, that gave general information on what you can do at the park, and even highlighting some of the mistakes we made that ended up costing us time in the park. We recommend that you read that post first: Xel Há: Tips to Help You Make the Most of Your Visit
This post is focused on helping you develop your own Xel-Há itinerary to cater for your own kids, as there are definitely areas of the park you will want to focus on with younger or older children.
If you'd like to jump ahead to specific sections of this post, please use the links below:
Option 1: Families with Toddlers / Young Children
XEL-HÁ ITINERARY OPTIONS
OPTION 1: Families with Toddlers / Young Children
8.30: Arrive at Xel-Há - You want to arrive as early as you can to Xel-Há park! The park opens at 8.30 and this is a great opportunity to beat the crowds and get a head start on the day. Spend a few minutes watching the dolphins on your way past their enclosure, then I would grab a locker at the Red station (it's the most conveniently located) and get yourself ready to kick off your day around 9am.
9.00: Children's World - with toddlers, this is a great place to start your day and will get them excited for the rest of your day at the park. The kids can play on the play structures, sand pit, etc, or spend some time going down the slide into the river and crawl across the lily pad obstacle course. Our kids were 6 and 9 years old when we visited and both of them spent ages playing on this.
10.00: River Tour - around 10am head towards the river tour. With toddlers it will be difficult to do the bike ride, so jump on the kids bus to take you there (otherwise it's around a 1km walk). Pick up your life jackets (they have lots of small sizes for kids) and pick up an inner tube (you can choose between singles and tandem).
It is a nice and relaxing float down the river, and does take a fair amount of time to float all the way down, so I would recommend exiting the water by the zip line activity. If the kids are old enough, have a go at the zipline - it's lots of fun! Once you are done, make your way back towards Children's world and the restaurants.
11.30: View the Manatees - On your way back to Children's World, take some time to stop at the manatee enclosure - even if you are not doing the extra manatee activity, you can get a good view of them from the side.
12.00: Lunch - by this point you may be running low on kids snacks and it's time to grab some lunch at one of the restaurants. I would recommend eating at the Mexican restaurants as the food was much better, but there are lots of options for all tastes. I give an in depth summary of the food options here.
1.30: Snorkeling – Head over to one of the red or purple stations to take out some snorkels. As the snorkels are full face mask snorkels, it was really easy for our kids to get the hang of it. They might just need some help getting the flippers on.
Xel-Há Map
We found that the best place to snorkel were the areas by the bridge, just to the left of the manatee enclosure. We snorkeled from there all the way around to the lily pad activity course in Children's world and saw lot's of tropical fish. The smaller fish tend to congregate near the bridges, so that's a great place to look.
3.00: Afternoon Activity - You have a few options here. With young children they are likely not tall enough for the waterslide and even the climb to the top of the lighthouse could be challenging. I would recommend heading over the 'wobbly bridge' to the cenotes and underground caves. The caves in particular are stunning and you shouldn't miss it. Make sure the kids have a life jacket on the whole time, especially while crossing the bridge.
Alternatively, you could do worse than letting the kids run wild in the children's area, and sit back in a hammock with a margarita in your hand.... Just saying!
4.30: Dinner – Head to the Xula Vista Restaurant before it closes at 5pm for an early dinner. It's nice not to have to worry about food when you get back to the hotel. We just got the kids some ice cream later on in the evening.
5.30: Leave the Park - if you have your own transport (like a rental car) then you can take your time leaving, but as most people arrive on a coach, the changing rooms tend to get fairly busy and it can be a bit of a rush to get ready to leave the park. If you are wanting to pick up any souvenirs in the gift shop, give yourself some extra time. Do not be late! The coaches won't wait!
OPTION 2: Families with Older Children / Teenagers
8.30: Arrive at Xel-Há - This is the same as for the Option 1 itinerary. You want to arrive as early as you can to Xel-Há Park, ideally at 8.30.
9.00: Waterslide - if your children are over 3.5ft tall and like waterslides, then I would recommend going there straight away as the queues in the afternoon can get quite long. A word of warning though, the slide is fast (apparently the white is faster than the blue but they both seemed pretty fast to me)! For adults that could think of nothing worse than screaming down a waterslide, you can take the walk up to the top and catch some amazing views of the park - it's well worth doing.
10.00: Underground Caves - I would recommend heading over the 'wobbly bridge' to the cenotes and underground caves. The bridge is wobbly so make sure the kids have got their life jackets on. The caves in particular are stunning and you shouldn't miss it. Most people start their day with the river tour in the morning so this is a great opportunity to see the caves while they are quiet.
11.45: Lunch - It's time to grab some lunch at one of the restaurants. I would try to get there around 11.45 to avoid the noon lunch rush. I would recommend eating at the Mexican restaurants as the food was much better, but there are lots of options for all tastes. I give an in depth summary of the food options here.
1:00: River Tour - If you have younger children you might want to stop at Children's World on the way up to the tour, but with older kids, you can probably head straight to pick up a bike and ride along the 1km path to the start of the river tour. Pick up your life jackets (mandatory) and select an inner tube (you can choose between singles and tandem). I would recommend singles if your kids are old enough. It is a nice and relaxing float down the river, and does take a fair amount of time to float all the way down, but there are lots of fun activities to do on the way down.
1.30: Cliff of Courage / Zip Line / Rope Walk - If you have teenagers I would think that a large portion of their day will be spent around these water activities. The cliff jumping and zip lines in particular are perfect for older kids looking for some adventure. The zip lines are definitely suitable for younger children as well (our 6 year old did it no problem).
Spending time in this section of the river could easily pass a few hours.
3.30: Snorkeling – Head over to one of the red or purple stations to take out some snorkels. As the snorkels are full face mask snorkels, it was really easy for our kids to get the hang of it. They might just need some help getting the flippers on.
With younger children, I would recommend snorkeling by the bridge, just to the left of the manatee enclosure. We snorkeled from there all the way around to the lily pad activity course in Children's world and saw lot's of tropical fish. If you have older kids then I would suggest heading further out into the lagoon, near the wobbly bridge, where you have a chance to see larger fish or even small rays.
5.30: Leave the Park - if you have your own transport (like a rental car) then you can take your time leaving, but as most people arrive on a coach, the changing rooms tend to get fairly busy and it can be a bit of a rush to get ready to leave the park. If you are wanting to pick up any souvenirs in the gift shop, give yourself some extra time.
Make sure Teenagers know not be late! The coaches won't wait!
Optional Activities Available for Extra Cost
You will notice that I have not included any time to do any of the extra 'paid for' activities as part of these two itineraries. That is for two reasons. Firstly, we didn't do any so we would find it hard to gage how long you would need for the activities, but secondly, we didn't manage to get around the whole park as it was, so think that there are plenty of things to do without paying for extras.
That said, if you're interested in finding out more information on the available extra activities, we detail everything that is available here: Xel Há: Tips to Help You Make the Most of Your Visit
IN CONCLUSION
We hope that this post helped give you some tips and suggestions as to how you can plan your day to make sure that you get the most out of your time at Xel-Há with kids. If you have any questions about this Xel-Há Itinerary, feel free to message us - we'd be happy to help.
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