no alt text

Best experiences:

Swim with wild crocodiles on the Mayan Riviera

Xcalak, Quintana Roo, Mexico

|
Bucket List Experience
Swim with wild crocodiles on the Mayan Riviera

Swim (cage-free) with American crocodiles in glassy-clear water in a pristine biosphere reserve on these 3-day adventures. Crocs aside, this wreck-scattered atoll teems with sea life – so superb diving and snorkelling too.

Adult price: £850

Min age 16

Best for ages 16+

Duration: 3 days

Chichen Itza

Piste, Yucatan, Mexico

|
Bucket List Experience
Chichen Itza

The most iconic of Mexico’s mystical pre-Hispanic Mayan ruins, whose oldest structures date back to the 5th century. See the Castillo pyramid, the Temple of a Thousand Warriors, and exquisitely carved palaces.

Adult price: £20

Best for ages 8+

Swim in a cenote [snorkelling & scuba diving]

Mayan Riviera, Mexico

|
Bucket List Experience
Swim in a cenote [snorkelling & scuba diving]

With caverns covered with stalactites, glassy water, terrapins and cave fish, these natural sinkholes offer uniquely spectacular swims, snorkels and scuba dives.

Best for ages 4+

Duration: 1+ hours

Temazcal Ceremonies, Mayan Riviera

Mayan Riviera, Mexico

|
Bucket List Experience
A small round stone building with colourful paintwork

Ancient, shaman-led Mayan purification ceremony designed to cause intense physical, emotional and mental release – and a transformative feeling of rebirth.

Adult price: £80

Min age 13

Best for ages 13+

Duration: 3 hours

When: Daily

Frequency: daily

Cenote Dos Ojos [swimming, snorkelling & scuba diving]

Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico

|
Bucket List Experience
Cenote Dos Ojos [swimming, snorkelling & scuba diving]

A stunning cenote with spectacular cave formations and glassy water, passing through caverns encrusted with stalactites. Mind-bogglingly beautiful for both snorkellers and PADI divers.

Adult price: £12

Best for ages 8+

Dive with bull sharks on the Mayan Riviera

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico

|
Bucket List Experience
Bull shark in caribbean sea

An adrenaline-pumping close encounter with this top-of-the-food-chain predator, in glassy-clear water. A unique & unforgettable experience.

Adult price: £150

Min age 16

Best for ages 16+

Duration: 6-8 hours

Swim with whale sharks on the Mayan Riviera

Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, Mexico

|
Bucket List Experience
Swim with whale sharks on the Mayan Riviera

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to snorkel or dive with these harmless, 12-metre long, filter-feeding fish. Humbling and unforgettable.

Adult price: £40

Best for ages 13+

Duration: 4-5 hours

Swim with manatees on the Mayan Riviera

Xcalak, Quintana Roo, Mexico

|
Bucket List Experience
Aerial view looking down at a person swimming next to a manatee

See wild manatees in their natural habitat on a dive or snorkel excursion in the far south of the Mayan Riviera.

Adult price: £40

Best for ages 10+

Duration: Full day

World-class snorkelling on the Mayan Riviera

Mayan Riviera, Mexico

|
Bucket List Experience
World-class snorkelling on the Mayan Riviera

A unique destination for exceptional snorkelling experiences – underwater art galleries, lakes fringed with jungle, cenote sink holes in stalactite-encrusted caverns, plus crocs, manatees and whale sharks.

Best for ages 6+

Duration: 1+ hours

World-class diving on the Mayan Riviera

Mayan Riviera, Mexico

|
Bucket List Experience
World-class diving on the Mayan Riviera

Dive with whale sharks or crocodiles, drift over spectacular drop-offs or through stalactite-filled caves: the Mayan Riviera is a world-class scuba destination

Adult price: £100

Min age 18

Best for ages 18+

Duration: 2+ hours

Mayan ruins of Coba

Quintana Roo, Mexico

|
Bucket List Experience
Mayan ruins of Coba

An authentic, atmospheric and less-visited Mayan site, set in lush, wildlife-rich forest. Climb to the summit of the 126ft-high Nohoc Mul pyramid – the tallest on the Mayan Riviera.

Adult price: £5

Best for ages 13+

Calakmul

Campeche, Mexico

|
Bucket List Experience
Temple top surrounded by a sea of rainforest

Huge, impressive and little-visited 2000-year-old Mayan city set in the second largest rainforest in the Western Hemisphere. The giant pyramids of this ruined city are unforgettable.

Adult price: £8

Best for ages 13+

Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve

Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico

|
Bucket List Experience
Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve

A UNESCO-listed biosphere that preserves wetlands, forests and turtle-nesting beaches – one of the Yucatan’s last truly wild places.

Adult price: £50

Best for ages 8+

Xcaret Park

Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Xcaret Park

With glassy pools and shallow lagoons offering dolphin, nurse-shark and manatee swimming, tame jungles, and spectacular Mayan dance shows, this huge eco-theme park is a Maya World, and a snorkel-friendly Disneyland.

Adult price: £80

Best for ages 4+

Aktun-Chen

Akumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Aktun-Chen

A simple nature-based theme park with a safari-park zoo, a cenote for swimming, a spectacular cave and a rainforest canopy zip-line adventure.

Adult price: £30

Best for ages 4+

Xel-Ha

Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Xel-Ha

A snorkellers’ theme park, comprising a series of broken, crystal-clear bays and glassy streams, teeming with brightly coloured marine life and fringed with low tropical forest.

Adult price: £80

Best for ages 4+

Gran Cenote

Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico

|
Bucket List Experience
Gran Cenote

Lily-covered, glassy-clear and filled with terrapins and tropical fish, this cenote near Tulum is easy to reach and fabulous to swim in. Big caverns make for spectacular cave diving.

Adult price: £7

Best for ages 6+

Mayan ruins of Tulum

Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Mayan ruins of Tulum

Iconic, though modest, Maya ruins perched on a cliff overlooking a beautiful beach and a turquoise ocean.

Adult price: £2

Best for ages 10+

Cenote Ik Kil

Yucatan, Mexico

Cenote Ik Kil

A beautiful, deep-green cenote set in lush jungle and dripping with vines; it’s close to Chichen Itza, though, so heavily visited.

Adult price: £13

Best for ages 6+

Cenote Xkeken

Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico

Cenote Xkeken

Hidden in a stalactite-encrusted underground cavern, this cenote dazzles with its jewel-blue pool, pierced by a single shaft of light. Tiny black cave fish nibble your feet.

Adult price: £3

Best for ages 4+

Uxmal

Yucatan, Mexico

Uxmal

As impressive and as large as Chichen Itza but far less-visited, this ancient Mayan city is considered one of the most important archaeological sites of Maya culture. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it’s covered in carvings and has a famous round-sided temple.

Adult price: £3

Best for ages 10+

Website >
More details >

Izamal

Quintana Roo, Mexico

Izamal Yucatan San Antonio Convent drone shot

One of the Yucatan’s prettiest villages, Izamal is known as the ‘Yellow City’, as buildings are painted almost entirely warm-yellow. It’s dominated by a Spanish colonial Franciscan monastery and surrounded by unexcavated temples.

Best for ages 13+

Website >
More details >

Ek Balam

Temozon, Yucatan, Mexico

Giant Mayan pyramid ruin at Ek Balam, Yucatan

With its eerie masks and a lush, wildlife-filled rainforest setting, this Mayan city dating back to AD 700 is well worth going out of your way for; and you’ll have the ruins pretty much to yourself at any time of day.

Best for ages 18+

Website >
More details >

Cenote Azul

Puerto Aventuras, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Cenote Azul

This big, open swimming hole – set in low jungle and filled with fish is safe enough for small kids, has changing rooms, life jackets and water-entry platforms. It’s easy to reach, sitting right off the main Cancún-Chetumal highway 15 minutes’ drive from Playa.

Best for ages 4+

Website >
More details >

Cenote Cristalino

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Cenote Cristalino

A family-friendly cenote adventure park – with cliff-jumps, rope-swings, jungle trails and onsite changing rooms and lockers. Cristalino sits right outside Playa del Carmen, making it easy to reach, and immensely popular.

Best for ages 4+

Website >
More details >

Cenote Suytun

Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico

Cenote Suytun

With a platform jutting into the middle of a turquoise pool under a roof of stalactites, this cenote near Valladolid town is a busy Instagram favourite. Stay at the onsite cabañas and you can book a slot just for yourself.

Best for ages 4+

Website >
More details >

Cenote Hubiku

Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico

Cenote Hubiku

A big restaurant, a tequila museum and a tour bus car park: this big, open-air pool near Chichen Itza is hugely popular but empty at the beginning and end of the day.

Best for ages 4+

Website >
More details >

Cenote Sac Actun

Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Cenote Sac Actun

One of a string of less-visited cenotes lying close to more celebrated Dos Ojos, Sac Actun sits in a dramatic cavern filled with stalactites and illuminated by a single hole in the roof. It’s on the Tulum-tour radar but arrive before 10am and you’ll have it to yourself.

Best for ages 4+

Website >
More details >

Cenote Tak Be Ha

Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Cenote Tak Be Ha

Turquoise-blue, set in a low cavern covered with small stalactites and illuminated by soft light through roof holes, this cenote is a beauty. Its remote location at the end of a long dirt road between Tulum and Akumal keeps it fairly crowd-free.

Best for ages 4+

Website >
More details >

Cenote Aktun Ha

Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Cenote Aktun Ha

This large, lily-covered pool filled with wispy water weed, terrapins, fish, and the occasional small crocodile, has water as clear as air. It’s easy to visit from Tulum, yet it’s far less busy than nearby Gran Cenote.

Best for ages 4+

Website >
More details >

Cancun Museum of Underwater Art

Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Cancun Museum of Underwater Art

British artist Jason Decaires Taylor’s underwater art gallery feels like a latter-day Atlantis – with statues covered with wispy sea weeds and baby coral, fish swimming all around sitting on the sand in vodka-clear water off Isla Mujeres.

Min age 18

Best for ages 18+

Dzibanche

Quintana Roo, Mexico

well preserved statue on the Temple of the Measks at Kohunlich maya archaeological site in Quintana Roo Mexico

For an immersion into Mayan culture with the crowds, head to this little-visited Mayan sites near Chetumal. It sits in it own lush rainforest parks, with abundant wildlife and towering pyramid temples.

Adult price: £3

Best for ages 10+

Website >
More details >

Museum of Mayan Culture

Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico

exterior of the Museum of the Mayan Culture in the city of Chetumal, Mexico

A must for any culture vulture, this small museum in Chetumal has precious artefacts and state-of-the-art exhibits offering real insight into Maya life and culture.

Adult price: £2

Best for ages 13+

Website >
More details >

Snorkel on Cozumel’s Reefs

Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Snorkel on Cozumel’s Reefs

Cozumel’s best snorkelling is a boat ride from the shore. Most dive shops organise designated snorkel trips or take snorkellers on dive excursions.

Adult price: £50

Min age 13

Best for ages 13+

Duration: 30+ mins

Website >
More details >

El Camaleon Mayakoba Golf Course

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico

El Camaleon Mayakoba Golf Course

Designed by Greg Norman, the course weaves its way through dense jungle, beautiful stretches of white sand and mangrove forests, with cenotes – natural sink holes – providing natural hazards.

Adult price: £125

Best for ages 13+

Duration: -