COZUMEL · MEXICO
The clearest water in the Caribbean.
Drift dives along the Mesoamerican Reef, the starfish shallows of El Cielo, all-inclusive beach clubs, jeep loops out to jungle cenotes and the Maya side, and tacos waiting when you are back on land.
Only in Cozumel
Three things you sail home talking about.
Snorkel trips and beach days turn up on every Caribbean island. A reef wall this famous, a sandbar this clear, and Maya temples in the jungle behind the beach do not.
Glass-clear shallows
The El Cielo Sandbar
Off the island’s south tip the seabed rises into a shallow turquoise flat so clear it gave the spot its name, El Cielo, the sky. Boats and catamarans anchor on the edge and you wade in waist-deep over white sand scattered with big red starfish, with the reef and the turtles a short fin-kick away.
- 1 ATV 4×4+Snorkeling+Beach Club+ Lunch+Sabores de Cozumel
- 2 Cozumel Snorkeling Tour: Palancar, Columbia and El Cielo Reefs
- 3 From Cozumel: 3 Reefs Boat Tour with Drinks and Snorkeling
Cousteau’s walls
Diving the Mesoamerican Reef
Cozumel sits on the second-largest reef on Earth, and Jacques Cousteau put it on the map in 1961. The current does the work: you drift along the Palancar, Santa Rosa and Columbia walls past coral towers and swim-throughs while eagle rays and turtles glide past. Few places make a first open-water dive this easy or this good.
- 1 Discover Scuba Diving in Cozumel Paradise Reef
- 2 SeaTrek Underwater Helmet Diving Experience in Downtown Cozumel
- 3 Cozumel Scuba Dive at Chankanaab
Off the water
The Jungle & the Maya
Cozumel was a Maya pilgrimage island, sacred to Ixchel, goddess of the moon and fertility, and her temples still stand in the bush at San Gervasio. Inland the limestone hides cenotes you can swim in, reached by jeep or ATV down red-dirt tracks through the jungle that covers most of the island away from the coast.
- 1 Jade Caverns and Mayan Village Cozumel ATV TOUR
- 2 Private Buggy Tour and Punta Sur Park: All-Inclusive
- 3 Cozumel Mayan Ruins and Beach Break
The one everyone books
Cozumel's most-booked day out.
More travellers reserve this than anything else on the island. If you lock in just one thing before the trip, make it this.
The classics
Cozumel's Most Popular Tours
El Cielo snorkel days, the reef walls, the all-inclusive beach clubs and the island loops. The trips most people lock in first.
Where to begin
The days a Cozumel trip is built around.
Reef snorkeling and El Cielo, scuba on the walls, the beach clubs, the open-jeep island loops and the Maya side. The categories most trips are planned around, and the best of each.
Off the ship
Six hours off the ship.
Cozumel is one of the busiest cruise ports in the world, and most visitors get a single day. Here are the three ways regulars spend it, depending on whether you want the water, the sand, or the whole island.
El Cielo & the reefs
Snorkel a sandbar full of starfish.
Cozumel’s south end is ringed with reef that sits just under the surface, so you do not have to dive to see it. Catamarans and boats run out to El Cielo and the Palancar shallows, drop anchor on water you can see straight through, and let you drift over coral heads, sea turtles and the big red starfish the locals are sworn to protect.
See the reef snorkeling trips →The west shore
The all-inclusive beach day.
The leeward side of the island is calm, shallow and lined with beach clubs built for exactly one thing: a day of doing very little. A single wristband at Mr Sancho’s, Paradise or Chankanaab covers loungers, pools, kayaks, a buffet and a bar a few steps from the water. The easiest good day on Cozumel, and the one most cruise passengers book.
See the beach clubs and day passes →Underwater
The second-largest reef on Earth.
Cozumel rides the edge of the Mesoamerican Reef, the longest in the hemisphere and second only to the Great Barrier. Jacques Cousteau filmed its walls in 1961 and divers have come ever since for the visibility, the gentle drift and the coral towers off Palancar, Santa Rosa and Columbia. You need no tank to see it, but it is why serious divers fly in.
Browse the dive trips →The island’s old soul
Maya temples in the jungle.
Long before the cruise ships, Cozumel was a sacred Maya island, a pilgrimage for women honouring Ixchel, goddess of the moon and fertility. Her low stone temples still stand among the trees at San Gervasio, and the same limestone hides cool freshwater cenotes you can swim in. Reach them by guided jeep, ATV or bike down the red-dirt tracks into the island’s green interior.
- 1 Jade Caverns and Mayan Village Cozumel ATV TOUR
- 2 Private Buggy Tour and Punta Sur Park: All-Inclusive
- 3 Cozumel Mayan Ruins and Beach Break
After the beach
Tacos, tequila and a night in town.
Cozumel eats well. Spend an evening on a taco crawl through San Miguel, learn cochinita pibil in a cooking class, sip your way through a tequila and mezcal tasting, or take ringside seats for the masked theatre of lucha libre. The other half of the island, once you have rinsed off the salt.
See the food and drink tours →Around the island
Cozumel, end to end.
El Cielo for the starfish shallows. The walls off the south point for diving. The calm west shore for the beach clubs. Chankanaab for an easy snorkel, San Gervasio for the Maya, and the jungle tracks for the cenotes.
By activity
Pick your kind of day.
Snorkel if you want the reef without a tank. Dive if you want the walls. A beach club if you want to do nothing at all. Plus open-jeep and ATV island loops, catamaran cruises, the Maya ruins and a table full of tacos.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
Here for more than a cruise stop? A few days that move from the reef shallows to the dive walls to the jungle and the Maya side.
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