Cancún sells you the beach. Stay for the cenotes and the pyramids.
Which Chichén Itzá day leaves early enough to beat the coaches. What the Isla Mujeres catamaran costs once the open bar is in. Whether Tulum or Cobá is the better half day. Reviews of every tour you can book in Cancún.
A cenote, a pyramid, a deck on the crossing, a jungle track.
The four bookings a first week in Cancún hangs off. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The long day inlandChichen Itza, Cenote, and Valladolid TourEl Castillo, a swim in a cenote and lunch in Valladolid. The bus leaves before six and every minute of that is worth it.
02The island crossingCatamaran with Open Bar, Snorkeling and LunchA catamaran to Isla Mujeres with a snorkel stop on Manchones reef. Open bar aboard, beach club at the far end.
03The coast ruinTulum Ruins and Cenote Guided Tour, from CancunTulum on its cliff above the reef, then a cenote on the drive back. Half the walking of Chichén Itzá.
04The jungle morningCancun Best ATV Tour, Ziplines and Cenote Swim with LunchQuad through the scrub behind the lagoon, a zipline run, then cold fresh water. Back at the hotel for lunch.
The best swimming near Cancún is inland, and it is underground.
Limestone collapses into the water table and leaves a cenote: cold, clear, roofed with tree roots. Three ways to reach one from the Hotel Zone, what it costs to get on each, and how much of the day the drive eats.
Cancún is the airport and the strip. The week happens around it.
A ferry island twenty minutes offshore, two Maya cities inland, a cliff-top ruin down the coast, and a sandbar three hours north where the cars stop. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
Four Maya cities sit inside a day’s drive of Cancún.
El Castillo at Chichén Itzá, the cliff fort at Tulum, the jungle pyramid at Cobá and the quiet acropolis at Ek Balam. One long day each, or two of them stacked with a cenote and a plate of cochinita in between.
- 1Chichen Itza, Cenote, and Valladolid Tourfrom $45
- 2Viator Exclusive: Tulum Ruins, Reef Snorkeling, Cenote and Cavesfrom $129
- 3Tulum & Coba with Cenote, Cave Exploration, Lunch & Tastingsfrom $79
- 4Chichen Itza, Ek Balam, Cenote & Lunchfrom $900
The crossing to Isla Mujeres is the easiest good day Cancún has.
Twenty minutes on the fast ferry from Puerto Juárez, or a catamaran that takes all day about it with a snorkel stop over Manchones reef and lunch at a beach club. Playa Norte is the shallow, flat, west-facing end of the Caribbean, which is why the weed rarely reaches it.
The days out of Cancún more travellers take than any other.
Every Cancún review →The tours that fill first on this coast, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Chichen Itza, Cenote, and Valladolid Tour
Travel from Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, or the Riviera Maya to Chichen Itza with a bilingual guide such as Cesar, Luis, Edwin, or Hugo. Visit Cenote Chichikan, eat a buffet lunch, and see Valladolid. Expect an early start, a large group, and possible shopping stops.
From · $45
Read our review →
2
Chichen Itza, Cenote & Valladolid Tour with Tequila and Lunch
from $34
3
Chichen Itza, Cenote & Valladolid Tour with Lunch
from $49
4
Early morning Chichen Itza Tour: Cenote and Tequila Tasting
from $26
5
Cancun ATV Jungle Adventure, Ziplines, Cenote and Tequila Tasting
from $49
6
Viator Exclusive: Tulum Ruins, Reef Snorkeling, Cenote and Caves
from $129
7
Chichen Itza Early Access All Inclusive: Hotel Pick up & All Fees
from $165
8
ATV Adventure, Interactive Bridges, Ziplines, Cenote and Lunch
from $49
Xcaret and Xel-Há are theme parks built on top of a cenote system.
Underground rivers you float down rather than queue for, a reconstructed Maya village, and a three-hour night show that runs three hundred performers through a thousand years of Mexico. Xel-Há is the snorkelling one: a natural inlet where the fresh water meets the sea and the fish stack up at the seam.
Compare the park tickets →
What a day out of Cancún actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what you pay to get on it. A good number of the best days on this coast come in under the price of a hotel dinner.
Museum tickets, the sightseeing bus, and the long inland runs to Chichén Itzá that leave before six.
Catamarans with the open bar included, park tickets, ATV and cenote mornings, the Tulum reef days.
Whale shark boats, chartered yachts, private drivers and the ruins days with a guide to yourself.
Three things that happen on this coast and almost nowhere else.
Reefs and beach clubs run the length of the Caribbean. Five hundred sculptures on the seabed, the biggest fish in the ocean turning up on a schedule, and a Maya sweat lodge do not.
The Underwater Museum
Five hundred concrete figures stand on the sand between Cancún and Isla Mujeres, sunk from 2009 onward to pull divers off the living reef and give the coral somewhere new to settle. The deep galleries are a dive; the shallow ones sit about eight metres down and read perfectly well from the surface on a snorkel boat. Visibility is best in the morning before the wind gets up.
- 15-in-1 Cancun Snorkeling: Turtles, Reef, Musa, Shipwreck, Cenote★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,678 reviews
- 2Isla Mujeres Snorkeling Adventure at the Underwater Museum★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 219 reviews
- 3Jungle Tour & Snorkel at Punta Nizuc Reef , Underwater museum★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 201 reviews
The Whale Shark Run
Every summer the biggest fish in the sea gathers in the plankton bloom north of Isla Mujeres and Contoy, sometimes a hundred animals in one patch of water. Boats leave at dawn for a ninety-minute run offshore, and swimmers go in three at a time with a guide. Nobody touches anything. The season shuts in September and there is no substitute for it.
- 1Whale Shark Adventure in Isla Mujeres and Cancun★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 951 reviews
- 2Whale Shark Tour from Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Riviera Maya★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 929 reviews
- 3Whale Sharks Small-Group Tour in Cancun and Riviera Maya★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 916 reviews
The Temazcal
A low domed sweat lodge, volcanic stones carried in glowing, herbs and copal thrown on until the air turns white. A temazcalero runs four rounds facing the four directions and it gets properly hard by the third. Most of them are booked as the afternoon half of a cenote day, which is exactly the right order to do them in.
- 1Reef Snorkeling & Jungle Speedboat Adventure with Mayan Ceremony★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,208 reviews
- 2Tulum, Coba, Cenote, and Mayan Ceremony Full-Day Tour plus Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 973 reviews
- 3Night Mayan Temazcal Purification Ceremony★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 37 reviews
Four Cancún bookings that will not wait for you to land.
Most of this coast can be arranged from a beach bar the night before. These four run on seasons, park permits, boat caps and a show whose good seats go weeks out.
- 01Whale Shark Adventure in Isla Mujeres and CancunThe animals are only here from roughly June to September and each boat carries a fixed number of swimmers. Outside the season there is nothing to book at any price.
- 02Isla Contoy Eco AdventureIsla Contoy is a national park with a daily visitor cap and a short list of licensed boats. In high season they are gone days ahead.
- 03Xcaret Park Entry Tickets with Cultural Night Show IncludedYour seat for the night show is allocated with the ticket, and the ones worth having are taken long before the gate opens.
- 04Chichen Itza Early Access All Inclusive: Hotel Pick up & All FeesThe early slot is the only way to stand under El Castillo before the coach convoy and the midday heat both arrive.
Sargassum season and the two o’clock heat have the same answer.
From roughly April to August the brown weed piles onto the east-facing sand in mats, and by early afternoon an open Maya site is punishing. Both problems point the same way: inland to fresh water, or under a roof. Cenotes run cold all year, Playa Norte faces west and usually stays clear, and the museums are air conditioned.
The Hotel Zone is one road, and it does not go quiet.
Coco Bongo is the one everybody names: acrobats over the floor, tribute sets back to back, open bar, and a queue that forms by ten. Around it sit the pirate dinner boats out on the lagoon, the sunset sails, and a Fifth Avenue in Playa del Carmen that stays open later than either.
- 1Catamaran with Open Bar, Snorkeling and Lunchfrom $59
- 2Isla Mujeres Cruise with Beach Club, Snorkel, Lunch and Open Barfrom $53
- 3Jolly Roger Pirate Show and Dinner in Cancunfrom $136
By place — the island, the ruins, the coast
By kind of day — water, ruin, jungle or bar
Hotel Zone, the island, the pyramids, then south down the coast.
Hotel ZoneThe newest Cancún tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Cancun in its entirety: Chichen Itza ruins, cenote, and Valladolid
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Handmade Traditional Mexican Tortilla Making Class
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Cancun Guided Sightseeing SkyWheel, Letters and Shopping
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Guided Unlimited Taco Lunch & Shopping Experience
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Cancun Guided Sightseeing, Shopping and Tasting Tour
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Exclusive sunrise at Chichen Itza, expert tour guide
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Cancun Guided Sightseeing El Meco Site, Letters and Shopping
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Dolphin Swim Adventure with buffet and soft drinks
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