Travel bucket list idea:
Mayan Riviera, Mexico
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The Mayan Riviera cannot compare with Indonesia or the Barrier Reef for spectacular corals, or the Maldives for fish life, but there are few locations anywhere which offer a better variety of snorkel experiences.
Reefs lie in swimming distance of the shore, plunging coral walls are a boat ride away, there are underwater art galleries, lakes fringed with jungle and hundreds of cenotes: sink holes filled with terrapins and fish that drop into stalactite-encrusted caverns. You can even snorkel with whale sharks, manatees or crocodiles
Most snorkel excursions are easy to do alone, there are designated family-friendly water parks like Xel-Ha and myriad agencies in the main towns offer boat trips.
Akumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Want to swim off a beach and see turtles right offshore? Your best chance is at Akumal, where the coral shallows attract many and offer safe, easy snorkelling in glassy-clear water.
Best for ages 6+
Duration: 30+ mins
Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico
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+
Puerto Aventuras, Quintana Roo, Mexico
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+
Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico
|![Cenote Dos Ojos [swimming, snorkelling & scuba diving]](https://cxgveiouca.cloudimg.io/familyhotelfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/Yucatan-Cancun-and-Tulum-Cenotes-Dos-Ojos3-SH.jpg?w=426&h=285&func=cover)
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+
Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico
![Cenote Manati [snorkelling & scuba diving]](https://cxgveiouca.cloudimg.io/familyhotelfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/Yucatan-Cancun-and-Tulum-Cenotes-SH-Cenote-Manati.jpg?w=426&h=285&func=cover)
A large and little-visited cenote next to the beach north of Tulum. Filled with fish and with a resident Morelet’s crocodile. Excellent for snorkelling.
Best for ages 6+
Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico
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+
Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico
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+
Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico
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
Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico
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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+
Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Playa Norte beach offers good snorkelling, right off an easy-to-reach white sand beach. Big schools of fish gather around the reef in front of the MIA hotel, and on the oceanside, the occasional turtle.
Best for ages 6+
Duration: 30+ mins
Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico
The Riviera Maya barrier reef comes within a few hundred metres of shore just south of the Mayan ruins at Tulum, offering easy snorkelling over coral gardens in calm water.
Best for ages 6+
Duration: 30+ mins
Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, Mexico
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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
Playa del Carmen, Mexico
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+
Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico
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+
The main Mayan Riviera’s barrier reef is within swimming distance of the shore in Isla Mujeres and around Tulum and in Cozumel and Playa.
Dive shops also take snorkellers on trips to locations (try Deep Blue Cozumel). Cenotes are best snorkelled self-guided; that way you avoid the crowds which congregate in the middle of the day.
Use biodegradable, reef-friendly sunblock in the water or a UV-blocking shirt and leggings. The sun is fierce and the coral along the Riviera Maya has been damaged by careless use of sun creams.
Snorkelling is good all year round, and snorkelling experiences are run daily, all year round.
The weather in the Mayan Riviera is generally pleasant all year round, and the water is always warm enough for swimming, but if you can, avoid peak season in December to January, when it gets oppressively crowded, especially around Christmas and New Year.
Destination guides including or relevant to this experience
Mexico
Talc-white beaches, reefs teeming with life, ruined temples in misty rainforests – the Riviera Maya offers a family or romantic beach holiday with a dash of Indian Jones adventure.
