1

First, all buses going to Valladolid do not stop at Coba. Only a few do. And you cannot use the same ticket. all seats are reserved and it is necessary to buy a Tulum to Coba ticket and a Coba to Valladolid or Merida. Having said that, I only see one ADO bus departing Coba and it is at 10AM to Valladolid. It may be necessary to take a second class bus from Coba to Valladolid.

2

As RobertSDF has pointed out, in Mexico one buys separate bus tickets for different legs of a journey.

Tulum-Coba and Coba-Valladolid are both relatively short trips, of about one hour each, so travel on second class buses is quite bearable there. That's fortunate because most of the service along that particular route is 2nd class. The times that those buses run matter more to most travelers than how fancy the vehicles are. (Coba is out in the boondocks. I'm surprised that any ADO ever stop there.)

When I traveled Tulum-Coba and later (the following afternoon) Coba-Valladolid in early January, 2010 my trip went smoothly without my having made any prior bus reservations. In Coba I inquired on the spot (at the bus stop/Bocadito Hotel) concerning when future Valladolid bound buses were likely to show up. I found making those inquiries, and also exercising patience, to be helpful. If I remember correctly, there were many empty seats on the Coba-Valladoid run and I paid my fare for that directly to the bus driver.

3

Agree with chris. For these short trips, the second class buses are fine. Both Mayab and Oriente serve the route and both are ADO owned. Both are air condtioned with reclining seats and plenty of luggage space. Only problem is, they could arrive at Coba with seats full but you can stand and hope someone gets off.

4

Okay thanks. I was only confused because I didn't see Coba as a destination on the ADO website, so I figured a stop off there was somehow 'implied.' And 2nd class will be fine...as long as it's relatively safe, I can put up with basically anything.

You guys on this site are incredibly helpful, and this novice traveler really appreciates it.

5

For some reason, the Coba schedule is not shown on the ADO website but if you look at ADOs other site, http://www.ticketbus.com.mx, you will see the Coba schedules.

Edited by: RobertSDF

6

Second-class buses are fine. I traveld exclusively by second-class buses and colectivos on my last trip to the Yucatan and Chiapas, lasting five weeks last winter. In only one case were all the seats full when the bus arrived at my stop, and that was a story in itself. I had taken a colectivo van from Palenque to Playa Catazaja (at the intersection of highway 186) and found some locals already waiting for the Escarcega-bound bus. Three hours later, one finally arrived! (In the meantime, the two local agents selling tickets had made themselves scarce, unable to answer the many questions about why the buses weren't arriving on time, usually every thirty minutes on the Villahermosa to Escarcega route). But through some miracle, everybody waiting at the side of the road managed to squeeze onto the bus, there had to be at least one hundred of us, and we proceeded to pick up even more passengers along the way! Finally at Escarcega I changed to another second-class bus to take me to my destination of Champoton. On that bus another passenger, a beautiful, tall (6 ft), young woman obviously from a well to do family asked if she could sit next to me and talk. I hardly need to say I didn't hesitate to accept her gesture. She was studying veterinary science at Escarcega and either daily or weekly, I forget, returned to her family's ranch near Champoton. The worst and the best second-class bus trips, all in the same day.