The Caribbean coast of the Yucatan peninsula is for sure its most touristic part, lined with the huge all inclusive resorts and packed with people and tourist buses. Although it might sound like a place to avoid, there are actually a lot of places worth visiting. Starting south, almost at the Belizean border, the picturesque Laguna Bacalar, doesn’t seem like it at first glance, but deserves a stay of at least 2 nights. There are also a few beautiful cenotes along the Hwy 307 and Playa del Carmen was a very pleasant surprise.
Laguna Bacalar is without doubt the most instagrammable place of the Yucatan peninsula. As the day progresses, all shades of green and blue parade themselves in front of your eyes. Rent a kayak and explore its waters, find a secluded beach to enjoy a swim, get on a pier and swing above the water surface or lie down in a hammock and soak in the bucolic calming surroundings. Or, even better, get an accomodation that has all of this included in its price, as we did – Lagoon Front Suite was the perfect place to stay. For the evening out, you’ll find most of the nicest places around Avenida 1. A few minutes drive south from the town, a 90 m deep Cenote Azul offers beautiful swimming.
Up north, we were looking forward to some great party in Tulum, as its reputation promises. And we couldn’t be more disappointed. The best thing about Tulum was actually our accomodation, the newly opened Ariche Hotel, with very friendly Argentinian staff running the place. The beach is overcrowded and lined with pricey bars. And the archeological site? Apart from being extremely crowded, as expected, it was actually also very boring compared to all the pyramids we have seen around the peninsula before.
We left Tulum quite quickly and along the way, visited the Cenote Dos Ojos, where you can snorchel in the caves, or also dive with a guide, if you have your license. Very interesting place, different from the others.
Closer to Playa del Carmen, we found another beautiful cenote, again named Cenote Azul, at km 266 of Hwy 307. This one is so chilled out, especially the small ponds at the beggining, which most people skip to get quickly to the main one, where you can jump off a small cliff. But those small ones are so beautiful, with crystal clear water, fish that will chew off your old skin (and you don’t even have to pay extra for that 😃), and rock formations on which you can sit and just chill there.
As the last spot of our holiday, we chose Playa del Carmen. Here, we actually expected it to be not much more than a touristy spot, but we were very pleasantly surprised. Seaweed was cleaned from the beach and sea every day, so it was actually possible to swim. The beachside bars and restaurants were mostly pleasant, we particularly enjoyed the Fusion Beach Bar Cusine, with seating right on the sand, very good food and drinks and even live music.
