CANCÚN · MEXICO
Turquoise water and the Maya world.
Day trips off the Hotel Zone: Chichén Itzá and the cenotes, Tulum and the reef, the Isla Mujeres catamaran, Cozumel diving and the Lake of Seven Colours at Bacalar.
The big day trip
If you only leave the beach once.
One long day inland: a Wonder of the World, a swim in a cenote, and a colonial town for lunch. This is the trip the whole coast is built around.
The classics
Cancún's Most Popular Tours
Chichén Itzá, the cenotes, the Isla Mujeres catamaran, Tulum. The trips most travellers come to Cancún to do.
By place
Pick a stretch of coast.
Cancún for the beach clubs and the boats. Playa del Carmen for the reef and the avenue. Tulum for the ruins on the cliff. Cozumel for the diving. Isla Mujeres for the catamaran day. Bacalar for the seven-colour lagoon.
Only here
Three things you can only do here.
The Yucatán has a handful of experiences that don't exist anywhere else on earth. These are the three.
Swim in a cenote
The Yucatán has no rivers. Rain sinks through the limestone into a flooded cave network, and where the roof has collapsed you get a cenote. The ring of them traces the crater the asteroid left.
- Cancun Best ATV Tour, Ziplines and Cenote Swim with Lunch
- Tulum Ruins and Cenote Guided Tour, from Cancun
- Chichen Itza Gastronomic, Valladolid and Cenote Extremo
- Chichen Itza, Cenote and Valladolid Small Group Day Trip
Stand under Chichén Itzá
El Castillo was built so that on the spring and autumn equinox the afternoon sun throws a serpent of shadow down the staircase. The Maya did the maths on purpose.
- VIP Chichen Itza Private Tour
- Chichen Itza Day Trip Exclusive Nool-Ha Cenote & Valladolid Visit
- Tour to Chichen Itza-Tickets, food and cenote
- Tour Chichen Itza 2 Cenotes Suytun and Ik-kil
Dive Cozumel
The second-longest reef on the planet runs past Cozumel. Cousteau filmed it in the sixties; the wall drift and the visibility are still why divers fly straight in.
- Cozumel: Paradise Beach Club All-Inclusive Day Pass
- Cozumel Snorkeling Tour: Palancar, Columbia and El Cielo Reefs
- From Cozumel: 3 Reefs Boat Tour with Drinks and Snorkeling
- The Cozumel Turtle Sanctuary Snorkel Tour
By activity
Or pick how you want to spend it.
Cenote swim if you want the cool fresh water. Catamaran if you want Isla Mujeres. Snorkel cruise for the reef and the turtles. ATV and zipline if you want the jungle. Chichén Itzá if you only see one ruin.
From the Hotel Zone
How far do you want to go?
Almost the whole peninsula is a day trip from Cancún. Here's the run, near to far.
Out to the reef
The reef, the statues, the turtles.
The Mesoamerican reef, the sunken sculptures of the underwater museum off Cancún, and the sea turtles at Akumal. The three days on the water we'd book first.
Ruins on the sea
Tulum, the Maya city on the cliff.
The only walled Maya city built on the coast, with a swimmable beach right under the stone and jungle cenotes a few minutes inland. Three ways to do Tulum we keep coming back to.
Sails up
The Isla Mujeres day.
Catamaran out across the channel, a snorkel stop on the reef, the white sand at Playa Norte, open bar on the way back. If you ask us, start with these three.
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