Xcaret Park

Xcaret Park (Spanish: el parque Xcaret) is a privately owned and operated theme park, resort and self-described ecotourism development located in the Riviera Maya, a portion of the Caribbean coastline of Mexico's state of Quintana Roo that has been designated as a zone for tourism development. It is part of Xcaret Experiencias Group which also owns Xplor Park and Xel-Ha Park. It is situated approximately 75 kilometres (47 mi) south of Cancún, and 6.5 kilometres (4 mi) south of the nearest large settlement Playa del Carmen along Highway 307. It is named after the nearby archaeological site Xcaret, a settlement constructed by the pre-Columbian Maya some of whose structures lie within the boundaries of the park's 81 hectares (200 acres) of land holdings.

From 2010 to 2015, Xcaret Experiencias has been recognized as one of The Best Mexican Companies (Las Mejores Empresas Mexicanas), a recognition sponsored by Banamex, Deloitte México and Tecnológico de Monterrey.

History

The Ecological Park is built in the same area of the archaeological site and has the same name, Xcaret.

Xcaret

Xcaret (Mayan pronunciation: [iʃ.ka'ɾet]) is a Maya civilization archaeological site located on the Caribbean coastline of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the modern-day state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. The site was occupied by the pre-Columbian Maya and functioned as a port for navigation and an important Maya trading center. Some of the site's original structures are contained within a modern-day tourism development, the privately owned Xcaret Eco Park."While Xcaret [Eco Park] offers many tourist packages, ranging from about $75 and over, a visitor can request to visit the archaeological ruins only for about four dollars according to an agreement with the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH). However, park officials report that only about one person every three months requests that opportunity."

Toponomy

Xcaret means "small inlet" in Mayan. Its name comes from its situation next to a small inlet that in the past served as a strategic location for navigation and commerce for the Maya. The original name of the site was p'ole', from the root p'ol that means "merchandise" or "deal of merchants", which gives an idea of the economical relevance of the site.