Destination
Cozumel
An island of one town and one ring road, with the second-largest reef system in the world on its sheltered side.
What We Run Here
Cozumel · Fishing Charters
30ft Fishing Boat — Cozumel
A 30-foot boat for fishing out of Cozumel — close-in trolling along the drop-off rather than a long offshore run.
Price on Request
Cozumel · Family & Celebrations
Atlantis Submarine — Cozumel
A real submarine to around thirty metres on the Cozumel wall — deeper than any snorkeller goes, and dry throughout.
$81 USD per person
Cozumel · Yacht & Catamaran Charters
Catamaran to Palancar, Colombia and El Cielo — Cozumel
A catamaran day from the Cozumel malecón down to the southern reefs — snorkelling at Palancar and Colombia, lunch aboard, and the sandbar at…
Price on Request
Cozumel · Diving & Snorkelling
Clear Boat Snorkel Trip — Cozumel
A transparent-hulled boat over the reef, shared with other guests. Just under two hours, up to sixteen aboard, and you can see everything without…
$49 USD per person
Cozumel · Diving & Snorkelling
El Cielo, Palancar & Colombia — Snorkel Trip
The three-stop snorkel run down Cozumel’s south-west coast — Palancar and Colombia reefs, finishing at the El Cielo sandbar.
Price on Request
Cozumel · Fishing Charters
Fishing Charter — Cozumel
Fishing out of Cozumel, charged by the hour — typically five hours, with the deep water close enough that the run out is short.
$150 USD per hour
Cozumel · Diving & Snorkelling
Private Clear Boat — Cozumel
The clear-hulled boat taken privately — up to ten guests, just under two hours, and priced for the boat rather than per head.
$588 USD per group
Cozumel · Wellness & Spa
Relaxation Massage — Cozumel
A sixty-minute relaxation massage in Cozumel, with several therapists available at once so a group can go together.
$60 USD per person
Cozumel · Cultural & Archaeology
Tequila & Mezcal Tasting — Cozumel
An hour on the history and difference between tequila and mezcal, with tastings. No charge — it is a tasting room, not a tour…
Price on Request
Cozumel · Diving & Snorkelling
Two-Tank Dive — Cozumel Marine Park
Two dives inside Cozumel Marine National Park, for certified divers only. Around four hours, fifteen divers maximum.
$100 USD per person
Cozumel · Land & Adventure
VW Buggy Island Tour — Cozumel
Drive yourself around Cozumel in an open VW buggy — the wild east coast, the beaches on the south, and the parts of the…
Price on Request
Cozumel sits about twenty kilometres off the Quintana Roo coast — forty-five minutes by ferry from Playa del Carmen, or a direct flight into its own airport. It is a flat limestone island with one town, San Miguel, and essentially one road around the outside.
Everything about what you can do here follows from which side of it you are on. The western, leeward side is sheltered by the island itself: calm, clear, and where the town, the marinas and every reef worth snorkelling sit. The eastern, windward side faces open Caribbean with nothing between it and Cuba — spectacular to drive, genuinely dangerous to swim in places, and almost entirely undeveloped. There are beach bars and no hotels.
The reefs are the reason the island is known at all. They form part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the second-largest reef system in the world, and they sit inside a marine national park — which is why they are still in the condition they are. Palancar, Colombia and Santa Rosa are the names people come for. Cousteau filmed here in the 1960s and the island has been a diving destination ever since.
The current runs south to north along that western wall, and it is why diving here works the way it does: you drift with it and finish somewhere other than where you started rather than swimming against anything. Visibility is commonly thirty metres and often more. Snorkellers get the same water — Palancar and Colombia are shallow enough that no certification is needed to see the good parts.
Away from the water there is less than the brochures suggest, and that is worth saying plainly. San Gervasio is a modest Mayan site rather than a Chichén Itzá. The island interior is scrub. What Cozumel is genuinely excellent at is the sea, and a day here is better spent on it than driving around looking for something else.
Getting Around, and When to Come
Check which day you are booking
This is the single most useful thing anyone can tell you about Cozumel, and no booking platform will. It is one of the busiest cruise ports in the world, and on a day with four ships alongside the town, the popular reefs and every beach club are a different place from a day with none. The schedules are published in advance and we watch them. If your dates are flexible by a day, ask — it can be the difference between sharing El Cielo with six people and sharing it with two hundred.
Getting around
One road runs the perimeter, so navigation is not a challenge. Rentals are scooters, jeeps and buggies; hire cars are available in town. Taxis are plentiful, fixed-rate and not cheap over distance — for a full day of moving around, hiring something is usually less.
Coming from the mainland, the ferry runs from Playa del Carmen through the day. If you are staying in Cancún or Tulum and considering a day trip, factor the crossing in both directions before deciding.
Seasons, and the honest version
The water is warmest from August to October and coolest from January to March, though “coolest” here still means comfortable for most people in a shorty. Visibility is good year-round.
Hurricane season runs June to November, with September and October the statistical peak. In winter, nortes — strong northerly winds — occasionally close the port for a day, which cancels ferries and boat trips. Neither is a reason to avoid those months, but both are a reason to have a flexible day in the plan and to take the trip insurance seriously.
The marine park
The reefs sit inside a protected national park and carry a per-person fee, usually collected on the boat and normally not included in a quoted tour price. It is small. Ask so it is not a surprise, and treat any operator who is vague about it as a signal.
Reef-safe sunscreen is the rule rather than a suggestion, and touching or standing on coral — or on the starfish at El Cielo — is prohibited. Operators who let guests do it are the ones to avoid.
Not Quite What You Had in Mind?
A good deal of what we arrange is put together per booking and never appears as a listing.