Destination
Riviera Maya
A coast with no rivers — all its fresh water runs underground, which is why the cenotes are here and why they matter.
What We Run Here
Riviera Maya · Yacht & Catamaran Charters
Aicon 100 Yacht Charter — Riviera Maya
A 100-foot Aicon for up to twenty guests along the Riviera Maya coast, in four, six or eight-hour charters.
$103,000 MXN per vessel
Riviera Maya · Cenotes & Freshwater
Cenote Taak-bi-ha & Akumal Turtles — Private Tour
Freshwater and saltwater in one day — the Taak-bi-ha cave cenote, then snorkelling with green turtles in Akumal bay.
Price on Request
Riviera Maya · Cenotes & Freshwater
Cenote Tankah Park — Private Tour
A private day at Tankah Park, inland from Tulum: four cenotes on one property, with swimming, zip-lining and canoeing, run for your group alone.
Price on Request
Riviera Maya · Cultural & Archaeology
Chichén Itzá — Group and Private Tours
Chichén Itzá from the Riviera Maya or Cozumel, as a shared coach tour or a private vehicle. The private option exists for one reason:…
$100 USD per person
Puerto Aventuras · Diving & Snorkelling
Cozumel & Playa Palancar — 8-Hour Day Charter
A full day across open water to Cozumel: snorkel Palancar on the island’s southern tip, lunch at a secluded spot on the coast, then…
From $2,400 USD per vessel
Riviera Maya · Cenotes & Freshwater
Dos Ojos Cenote Park — Private Tour
Three cenotes inside the Dos Ojos park — Dos Ojos itself, Nicte-Ha and Jaguar — with snorkelling and a zip-line, run privately.
Price on Request
Riviera Maya · Cenotes & Freshwater
Gran Cenote, Taak-bi-ha & Xunan-Ha — Private Tour
Three cenotes in one day near Tulum — Gran Cenote for snorkelling with turtles, Taak-bi-ha for the cave, Xunan-Ha for the swim. Private, so…
Price on Request
Puerto Aventuras · Diving & Snorkelling
Inha & La Bocana Tour — 5 Hours
Five hours and two stops: the Inha reef for the snorkelling, then La Bocana to finish. The only trip with hot food off the…
From $1,550 USD per vessel
Puerto Aventuras · Diving & Snorkelling
Inha Snorkel Tour — 4 Hours
Four hours out of Puerto Aventuras to the Inha reef — sea turtles, rays and tropical fish on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, with ceviche…
From $1,300 USD per vessel
Puerto Aventuras · Diving & Snorkelling
Paamul Bay Tour — 4 Hours
Four hours north to Paamul — a semi-secluded bay with calm, clear water and a beach you can actually land on. Snorkel it, swim…
From $1,300 USD per vessel
Riviera Maya · Fishing Charters
Private Fishing Charter — Riviera Maya
Private offshore fishing from Cozumel, Playa del Carmen or Tulum — sailfish, marlin and mahi depending on the month.
Species vary by month — confirm what is running before booking
$500 USD per vessel
Puerto Aventuras · Yacht & Catamaran Charters
Riviera Maya Cruise — 3 Hours
Three hours out of Puerto Aventuras: up the Riviera Maya coast, then anchored in La Bocana — a sheltered reef pocket with flat water…
From $1,050 USD per vessel
Riviera Maya · Cenotes & Freshwater
Suytun, Oxman & Xux-Ha — Private Cenote Tour
The Valladolid cenotes — Suytun’s stone platform under the light beam, Oxman for the rope swing, Xux-Ha to finish. A long day inland, and…
Price on Request
Riviera Maya · Cenotes & Freshwater
Tulum Ruins & Cenote Taak-bi-ha — Private Tour
The clifftop Mayan site at Tulum in the morning, then the Taak-bi-ha cave cenote to swim once the heat arrives.
Price on Request
Puerto Aventuras · Diving & Snorkelling
Tulum Ruins from the Sea — 8-Hour Coast Tour
A full day south to Tulum to see El Castillo from the water — the only Mayan site on this coast built on a…
From $2,400 USD per vessel
The Riviera Maya is the mainland coast running roughly from Puerto Morelos south to Tulum, with Playa del Carmen in the middle of it and Highway 307 down the spine. Puerto Aventuras, Akumal and Xpu-Ha sit along the way.
The single fact that explains this place is geological. The whole peninsula is porous limestone, and there is not one surface river on it. Every drop of fresh water travels underground, through the largest network of flooded caves on earth. Where the rock roof has collapsed, that water is exposed — and that is a cenote.
So the cenotes are not a curiosity bolted onto a beach holiday. They are the water system, and there are thousands. They differ more than people expect: open ones look like ponds in the jungle, semi-open ones have partial roofs and shafts of light, and cave cenotes are fully enclosed, reached by staircase, with stalactites down to the surface. Dos Ojos is the front door to Sac Actun, one of the longest underwater cave systems ever mapped.
Offshore, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef runs the length of the coast. It is the same system as Cozumel’s, but be realistic about the difference: the mainland side carries far more development, boat traffic and river-free runoff, and the reef shows it. The snorkelling here is good. Cozumel’s is better, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you the closer boat.
Inland, this is also the base for the Yucatán’s archaeology. Tulum sits on its own cliff above the sea; Chichén Itzá is two and a half hours west and worth the drive if you leave early enough to arrive before the coaches.
Getting Around, and When to Come
Sargassum — the thing nobody selling you a beach day will mention
Between roughly April and October, and worst from May to August, sargassum seaweed washes onto this coast in volume. In a bad week it piles up on the sand, discolours the shallows and smells as it decomposes. Resorts rake it; that helps and does not solve it. It varies hugely year to year and beach to beach, and no one can forecast it reliably more than a few days out.
Here is why it matters for planning rather than for worrying: it does not touch the cenotes at all — that water is underground — and it affects Cozumel’s sheltered western side far less than the mainland. If you are here in the season and the beach is unusable, the honest advice is to go inland or get on a boat, and both are things we can arrange at short notice.
Cenote etiquette — and one rule people get caught by
You cannot wear sunscreen or insect repellent in most cenotes. They are closed freshwater systems and chemicals do not flush out. Nearly all require a rinse-off shower before you enter, and staff will turn people away. Apply nothing that morning, or plan to shower properly first — it catches out a lot of visitors who assumed reef-safe was enough.
Bring a towel, water shoes for limestone underfoot, and expect the water to be genuinely cold. It is fresh, not tropical sea.
Distances, honestly
The coast reads as compact on a map and is not. Cancún airport to Tulum is around ninety minutes to two hours. Playa del Carmen to Chichén Itzá is roughly two and a half hours each way, which is why that day starts before dawn if it is going to be any good. Valladolid — Suytun, Oxman — is a similar distance.
Nearly every worthwhile day here involves real driving. That is the main argument for going privately: not luxury, but leaving at the hour that beats the crowd rather than the hour the coach departs.
When to come
November to April is the dry season and the most reliable. May to October is hotter, wetter and the sargassum window. Hurricane season runs June to November, peaking September and October.
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.