Snorkeling near Playa by trvlrtom
There are several good places to snorkel near Playa. The best snorkeling we experienced in the region was at Puerto Morelos, midway between Playa del Carmen and Cancun. Just get to the main square in Puerto Morelos, by the pier, and you can hire someone with a launch to take you to the reef a few minutes away. We arrived there at 8:00 am and were amongst the most amazing schools of fish within 1/2 hour. It's a natural preserve, and the coral is great, at a distance of between 4 and 12 feet. The guy who took us out was friendly and helpful. It's much more low key than Cozumel or Playa. We were just about the only ones out on the reef.We earlier had spent a day at Cozumel, and were quite disappointed. There are a lot of guys when you get off the ferry trying to get you to go, but the guide and captain we got happened to be grumpy. They took us to three sites south of the town, but the coral reef is nothing to see, and it is pretty deep, between 20 to 30 feet. But what bothered us the most was that the guides lure the fish in with food. The fish come swarming around when the food is out, but there are also a lot of other tourists swarming around these feeding frenzies. At Puerto Morelos, feeding is not allowed and the setting is much more natural. There were more fish too. In Cozumel I asked about going to better sites further south, but that has to be arranged by hooking up with a diving excursion, which takes more time and money.
Another day we went to the lagoon at Akumal, between Playa and Tulum. This is also a preserve, and you can swim out to the coral at the mouth to the lagoon. It was impressive and fun, if not as brilliant as Puerto Morelos. Akumal, however, is further from Cancun.