Visiting Xcaret: Hours, Tickets and What Each One Buys

Hours, prices and access verified by the Xcaret Tours team — last checked 2026-09-22.

Xcaret has one gate and three different tickets through it, and the one you hold decides what your day looks like. If you are comparing xcaret park tickets, read which admission a price buys before you read the price itself.

The three Xcaret tickets, side by side

Grupo Xcaret sells Xcaret Basic, Xcaret Plus and a night ticket. They open the same gate and they buy different days. Basic gets you in; Plus adds the buffet and the private changing area; the night ticket trades most of the water for the evening. Whichever you hold, the show at the end is included.

This matters more here than the headline fare. Where a listing sells a choice of grade, its "From" figure is the cheapest one and its inclusions describe the dearest. A card that prints both is claiming a lunch nobody paid for.

Ticket	What it buys	Lunch	Snorkel deposit
Xcaret Basic	The gate from 8:30 a.m.: the underground rivers, the beaches, bays and natural pools, the aviary, the butterfly pavilion, the Coral Reef Aquarium, the rainforest trail, loungers, hammocks, life jackets and tubes, and the evening show	Not included	$25, refundable
Xcaret Plus	Everything above, plus a buffet lunch with one beer and unlimited soft drinks while you eat, and the Plus Area: private changing rooms, restrooms and lockers	Buffet included	$10, refundable
Xcaret at Night	The gate from four in the afternoon, with the rivers until 5:30, the aquarium until 6:45 and the aviary and butterfly pavilion until 6:30; then the horse show, the flyers, the pre-Hispanic dances, the jungle trail and the evening show	Not included	Not published

Know which ticket you want?

Entry on its own, a coach day with the driving done for you, or two parks over two days: compare what each fare covers.

See the Xcaret tours Compare every tour

Park hours, and the one that matters

The park opens every day of the week, 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.. The hour to plan around is not the closing time but 5:30 p.m., when the underground rivers shut. Travellers who enjoyed the day most went straight to the water and left the animals and the theatre for the afternoon.

What	When	Why it matters
The gate	Every day, 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.	One gate, at km 282, for every ticket and every tour
The underground rivers	8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	They shut five hours before the park does, whatever your ticket
The Coral Reef Aquarium	Until 6:45 p.m. on the night ticket	An afternoon arrival still catches it
The aviary and butterfly pavilion	Until 6:30 p.m. on the night ticket	The animals close earliest of all
The evening show	Ends at closing	Coaches leave at 10 p.m., after it

Arrive at opening if you can. The rivers close five hours before the park does, and the middle of the day is the busiest. The same answers, one by one, are in the FAQs.

What the ticket does not cover

This is where the complaints come from. Grupo Xcaret publishes only three figures for anything inside: the snorkel rental and its two deposits. Everything else that costs extra is named by the listings as an exclusion and priced by nobody. Decide on the grade before you arrive rather than at a counter.

What	What it costs	Where the figure comes from
Snorkel gear rental	$10.99	Grupo Xcaret's own underground-rivers page
Snorkel deposit, standard ticket	$25, refunded on return	Grupo Xcaret, and the same figure repeated by a listing
Snorkel deposit, Xcaret Plus ticket	$10, refunded on return	Grupo Xcaret, and the same figure repeated by the listings
Lunch on a Basic or night ticket	No published price	Excluded by the listings; one traveller paid $45 a head on the day
Snuba, Sea Trek, Adrenalina, swimming with sharks, the spa, parachute rides	No published price	Named as exclusions by the listings
Photographs and souvenirs	No published price	Excluded by every listing; one traveller was quoted $250 for a package
Parking	Free	Named as free by a listing's own inclusions

Two of those deserve a sentence. The snorkel deposit is charged even where a fare says the gear is included, so carry a card for it. The buffet surprises more people than anything else, because it sits in the inclusions of a listing whose cheapest option excludes it.

Children, and who pays

Children aged four and under go in free. Above that Grupo Xcaret prices by age band and publishes no figures at all, so the only real quote you will get is the one that appears when you add children to a booking. Do that at booking, not at the gate.

Mundo de Niños, the children's water park, is included with every grade of ticket, as are the life jackets and inner tubes for the rivers. Several listings state that they carry no infant seats on the coach, which matters if you are travelling with a baby.

Accessibility, honestly

The grounds are largely flat and paved, and mobility around the main paths is workable. What does not exist is an access statement from the park covering the rivers, the boats or the theatre. That leaves only what each tour's own listing declares, and the listings disagree with each other.

Tour	What its listing says
The entry ticket with the night show	Listed as wheelchair accessible
The coach day from Cancún	Listed as wheelchair accessible
The two-day, two-park combination	Listed as wheelchair accessible
The full combination day from Cancún	Not listed as wheelchair accessible
The Plus day with a buffet from Cancún	Not listed as wheelchair accessible
The Plus day with return transport	Not listed as wheelchair accessible
The Plus day with lunch from Playa del Carmen	Not listed as wheelchair accessible

One listing claims wheelchair access and wheelchair-accessible transport on a day built around rappelling into a cave and riding a zipline, which is why that claim is not repeated anywhere here. Ask the operator about the specific activities you want before you book.

What to bring

Water shoes or old trainers. The river floor is sharp, and one traveller found sliders and flip-flops turned away at the water.
A card for the snorkel deposit, refunded when you hand the gear back.
A towel. One traveller found them on sale and not supplied.
Reef-safe sunscreen and a hat for the beaches and the open bays.
Insect repellent for the jungle trail and the evening.
Something warm for the show. It runs two hours after dark.
Comfortable shoes. One traveller logged 23,000 steps in a day.

Booking, changing and cancelling

Almost every tour here refunds in full if you cancel at least 24 hours before the start. One does not: the cenote day that meets at the park is sold as final, with no refund and no change for any reason. Grupo Xcaret also advertises up to 15% off for buying early on its own site, without saying what counts as early.

Tour	Cancellation
2-Day Combos Offers: Xcaret, Xel-Há, Xplor & Chichén Itzá	Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
Xcaret Park Day Trip, transportation and Cultural Night Show	Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
Xcaret Park Entry Tickets with Cultural Night Show Included	Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
From Cancun: Full Combo to Xcaret Park!	Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
From Playa del Carmen: Xcaret Plus Park, the full experience	Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
Full day Xcaret Plus & Buffet & from Cancun & Playa del Carmen	Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
Park Xcaret Plus with Transportation from Cancun and Riviera Maya	Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
Tour to Cozumel by Catamaran with Snorkeling and Lunch included	Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
Xcaret Park Plus With Round Transportation From Cancun & Riviera Maya	Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
Xcaret Park Plus Tour! Nature, Culture and Nightshow from Cancun	Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
Full-Day Tour to Xcaret Plus with Lunch from Playa del Carmen	Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
Xenotes tour	Sale is final: no refund and no change, for any reason

Pickup is the other thing worth confirming in writing. Operators collect from hotels on their own lists and assign a meeting point to everyone else. More than one traveller has arrived to find the pickup that was in the booking missing from the voucher.

Asked before you go

How much does it cost to get into the park?

Grupo Xcaret publishes no figure for any of its three tickets on its own site, so the only honest prices are the ones the tour listings quote. Those run from $113 for entry alone up to $280 for a two-day combination with transport and a guide. Which of the three tickets a figure buys matters more than the figure, and every card here says so.

What is the difference between Xcaret Basic and Xcaret Plus?

Basic buys the gate: the underground rivers, the beaches and bays, the aviary, the butterfly pavilion, the aquarium, the children's area and the evening show. Xcaret Plus adds a buffet lunch with a beer, the Plus Area with its private changing rooms and lockers, and a snorkel deposit of $10 instead of $25. The night ticket is a third thing again, and starts in the afternoon.

Does my tour fare include lunch?

Only if the fare buys the Plus ticket. Where a listing sells a choice of grade, its headline price is the cheaper one and food is excluded until you upgrade at booking — one traveller who missed that paid $45 a head for the buffet on the day. Every card here prints which grade its figure buys.

What is the night ticket, and when does it start?

Xcaret at Night lets you in from four in the afternoon and keeps you until closing. The underground rivers still shut at 5:30, the aquarium at 6:45 and the butterfly pavilion and aviary at 6:30, so an afternoon arrival costs you most of the water. What it buys instead is the horse show, the flyers, the pre-Hispanic dances and the evening performance.

Do children pay?

Children aged four and under go in free. Above that the park prices by age band and publishes no figures, and most tour listings quote a child fare only once you pick a date. Add the children at booking rather than at the gate, where nobody will be quoting you a package price.

Is snorkel gear included, and is there a deposit?

Rental is $10.99 and the deposit is $25, refunded when you hand the gear back, or $10 if your ticket is Xcaret Plus. Several tour fares fold the gear in and still ask for the deposit at the counter, so carry a card for it. Bringing your own mask avoids both.

Is the park wheelchair accessible?

The grounds are largely flat and paved and several listings mark themselves accessible, but the park publishes no access statement covering the rivers, the boats or the theatre, and one listing claims wheelchair access on a day built around rappelling. Ask the operator about the specific activities you want before you book.

Can I cancel a tour?

Almost all of them: free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start, with a full refund. The cenote day is the exception and is sold as final — no refund and no change for any reason — and its card states that on its own. Check the card before you book, not the site-wide rule.

Next: read the reviews for what a day here is like, look through the gallery, or compare every fare on Xcaret Tours.