Akumal Beach, Playa del Carmen

3 more images

Lovely beach and here I experienced the biggest highlight of my vacation - I got to dive with a turtle! I also saw two big guitarfish, a barracuda and a huge pack of small fish. We rented a boat that took us about 150 meters away from the shore. That was a bit of a laugh..
You may want to combine your visit to Akumal with trip to Tulum.

2 more images

We got a taxi to Akumal beach because its a bit of a drive off the main high way or we would have got the bus. The taxi cost us $10 from our hotel but we was quite close. We ended up spending half a day at this beach. It is a public beach but its protected because of the sea turtles that live there. We went out into the sea with our snorkelling gear on and it took us 10 minutes to sea our first sea turtle no more than 2 meters away from us. They are huge is size to what i thort they would be. We ended us seeing 6 by the end of play but there was quite strong waves the day we went and swimming was hard work. It is free to go on the beach and swim with this animals. There is a dive shop on the beach front which hire snorkels and diving gear out plus do all the diving course etc. They also do a tour for turtles at $25 each but we didn't do it was it was easy to find them as the water is that clear. We did though hirer a life jacket each at $5 each because it makes it easier to float above the turtles. I believe the snorkels etc was $10 each set and fins where $5 more. Also they had lockers in side to put personnal belongings. The locker cost us $7 for the day and the gear hire is per 24 hours hire. You could also hirer sun beds on the beach but we didn't bother so i carn't help with the prices on that. There where places to grab food and drinks on the beach and also a few little shops for gifts etc but the main highlight of this beach is the sea turtles and they are a must sea. We got told they come on the beach at certain times of the year but i am not sure what time of the year because they wasn't there on the beach when we went but they are easier enough to find in the sea.