Quintana Roo is a must visit when travelling to Mexico. It’s the perfect gateway if you love tropical weather and if you dream for an exciting romantic escape in paradise. Get ready, because here you have plenty of idyllic white sand beaches, nice snorkelling and of course… tacos.
Due to its popularity it is very hard to enjoy the best of Tulum without the crowds, but there are some places, or time of the day where and when you can have a place almost to yourself. We visited many beaches in our 3 weeks stay in Mexico and here are some of my favourite:
- Las Palmas
- Akumal
- Paraiso
- Maroma
- Delfines
- Mahahual
LAS PALMAS BEACH
If you want to run away from the crowds and have some chill time, this beautiful beach is the perfect spot. It’s quieter and more secluded than the super famous Playa Paraiso. This beach is mostly virgin, so at this beach there are no restaurants or bars, so if you want to spend all your day at this beach maybe you should bring water and snacks. If you want to enjoy your time in the sun you should also bring your own umbrella, because as I mentioned before this place is pure nature and there are no sun beds or umbrellas. But if you want to eat in a restaurant, there are a few, like 5 minutes by car from the beach, offering typical Mexican food.
snorkelling
At this beach you’ll enjoy a serene expanse of pristine sand and turquoise waters, you’ll be in love with this place as soon as you see it. But not out of the water is absolutely amazing, underwater is magical. You can swim among tropical colourful fish, above corals and if you are lucky you can even spot manta ray.
AKUMAL BEACH
Akumal Beach is about 30 minutes drive from central Tulum. This beach it’s more commercialised than Las Palmas beach, but it’s a spectacular spot to spend a lovely morning at the beach under the shade of the huge palms, have a delicious lunch while listening the sounds made by the waves of the Caribbean sea and of course the main reason why this place is so visited, to swim with the turtles that are in the bay. You will spot them even from the beach while they have lunch or they just hang out pacifically with no fear at all of the human presence. How awesome is that?
entrance fee
In the past years this beach was overcrowded, because it seems that everybody wants to swim with the turtles. So they came with a solution to limit the access at the beach. The solution was to have a paid access to the beach where they can control how many people visit each day. At the entrance you pay and walk the trail to the beach. If you come here by car, there are parking lots a few meters before the little house where you can access the beach, where you can pay 50 pesos for the day and the entrance fee at the beach is 120 pesos.
facilities
This beach has all the facilities you might need, restaurants serving delicious typical food and drink all day, tour guides, sun beds, umbrellas, bathrooms, lockers. It’s the perfect place for the tourist.
swimming with turtles
The sea life at this beach is amazing, with cute turtles often making an appearance. The beach is roped off and you can access the most popular area for turtles with a guide. It is reserved just for a set amount of persons per day in order to protect the turtles. We reserved a tour which included a guide who will lead you to the best spots, free sun beds and snorkelling gear for those who need it (we have our own). The tour costs 120$. I have to mention that we booked a private tour, with a group the cost of the trip is cheaper.
And once you’re in the water you can also expect to see plenty of tropical fish like barracuda, needle fish, stingrays, eagle rays, angel fish, grouper and even corals. Underwater it’s a magical and tranquil place!
You can, however swim in the area and have the possibility to see turtles if you don’t want to book a tour or if you want to see them again by your own. In case you are lucky and a turtle might swim close to you be respectful and do not touch them!
Even this was not my first time swimming with the turtles I still get very excited to swim with them. They are cute and friendly. I love to watch them floating with such elegance and lightness. Some of them were they huge, other ones had a few beautiful yellowish green remoras on their backs. I I have only videos with the turtles and I can’t share with you photos with them. The ocean doesn’t stop to amaze me.
flying drone
Flying the drone in Mexico was a challenge. Usually it is not prohibited, but here I met some of the most weird situations. Anyway, at this beach we could fly the drone, but we asked for permission before flying. I waited until the crowds stared to fade to have the beach empty for better photos.
PARAISO BEACH
This was the first place we’ve seen when we arrived in Tulum and every morning we came here to watch the sunrise. Playa Paraíso is the most famous beach in Tulum and is very crowded. But we managed to find a time of the day with less people around. One of the reasons why is such a touristic attraction, beside just when you step here is obvious how fabulous is, is that Playa Paraiso had been ranked as one of the world’s best beaches, with spectacular white sand that perfectly matches the colour of the water.
Playa Paraiso is opened to the public and you can visit without having to stay in any hotel. You have the freedom to visit the beach any time you want and to do whatever you want to.
where is Playa Paraiso
Playa Paraiso is only 15 minutes from Tulum and you can get here by car, by bike or walking, depends how you want to. The warm weather is perfect if you chose to walk or go by bike and it feels quite nice when you feel the fresh air on your face, as it is not an overwhelming heat.
facilities
This beach has many resorts and restaurants so you can have a cold drink or lunch, or dinner at the place you want to, as there are plenty to chose from. We never stayed here for more than just to watch sunrise and a few sunsets but if you want to spend the day here and if you want to lay down on a sun bed, some resorts will allow you to if you pay. But if you can stay at the beach for free and just lay down you own towel and have a fun day at the beach.
sargassum (seaweed)
Because of the climate change, recently has appeared the sargassum, this is a type of macro algae and its accumulation on the coast is a phenomenon that has occurred in recent years.
In Quintana Roo, the effect of sargassum on the environment is being investigated, while measures are being taken to keep the beaches clean. However, sargassum does will not affect you to enjoy the beach, as it is something natural.
MAROMA BEACH
Maroma Beach is one of these beaches where public access can only be obtained through a local hotel or through a restaurant. And once you step on the beach you will fall in love with the tranquility and powdery white sand. We came here because we wanted to see the sunrise from another beach that was not Paraiso beach, because we’ve been there almost every morning for the sunrise.
This beach was a good choice, it was one of the most peaceful in Tulum, here was no loud music, not too many people (actually there were only 2 girls and the hotel staff), so we had a little bit of privacy. This is a small paradise, hidden away from craziness of the other beaches and only a few kilometres from Tulum centre.
have a fancy breakfast
Here we wanted to have a fancy breakfast in this amazing setting view at this dazzling beach. But I don’t recommend the restaurant because the food was not too tasty, neither the coffee. It was too expensive ant not worth the price, but we had to try it.
DELFINES BEACH
Delfines beach is a very quiet place and if you like tranquility and you prefer to stay away from the crowds, like us, this beach is a good idea. We discovered this place by coincidence while we were looking for a place to have lunch. You can have access here only thru a hotel, but the place is not crowded at all and there are only a few people, the hotel guest.
There is no entrance fee, but we had lunch and they allowed us to use their hammocks and stay at the beach as much as we wanted to. This place is surrounded by the jungle and it’s pure paradise. That’s all part of its charm, but the little inconvenient is the hotel, but not as bad as in Tulum.
snorkelling
The snorkelling is also superb around here, with impressively vibrant reefs just beneath the waves. Just say you’re there for the beach and they’ll let you through.
MAHAHUAL BEACH
This beach is huge ,so here is enough space for everyone. Depending on which part of the beach you chose to stay, it is more or less crowded. We opted for the lees crowded part, of course. There are a few small hotels and restaurants, but with all that the beach is surrounded by the jungle.
This beach here is ideal for long walks while looking for seashells and for something that I haven’t experienced before at the beach and believe me I’ve visited plenty of beaches.. here you can walk among seagulls while they are flying, yes.. you can walk among them.. how amazing is that. It was such a great experience for me, as you can see, I love nature and animals and having all those birds flying so close to me, it was simply magical.
snorkelling and swimming
We haven’t snorkel here because when we visited the beach the waves were huge and the visibility wasn’t at it’s best. But we did swim and it was awesome, the water was super warm and nice to get into.
Madeleine 𓇼 