CANCÚN · MEXICO
Turquoise water, cenotes, Maya stone.
Cenote swims and reef snorkelling, catamarans to Isla Mujeres, Chichén Itzá and Tulum, jungle ATV runs and the long road into the Yucatán. Every good day out of Cancún, and the best way to book each one.
Only here
Three things you can only do here.
Beach days and boat trips exist on every coast. Swimming a Maya cenote, climbing a wonder of the world and floating beside a whale shark do not.
Inside the earth
Swim a Cenote
The Yucatán has no rivers; the rain drains through soft limestone into thousands of flooded caves and sinkholes called cenotes, clear as glass and lit blue from below. The Maya thought them gateways to the underworld. You can float through a cathedral of stalactites or leap into an open jungle pool, and there is nowhere on Earth with this many.
- 1 Cancun ATV Jungle Adventure, Ziplines, Cenote and Tequila Tasting
- 2 Viator Exclusive: Tulum Ruins, Reef Snorkeling, Cenote and Caves
- 3 ATV Adventure, Interactive Bridges, Ziplines, Cenote and Lunch
A wonder of the world
Climb the Maya World
Chichén Itzá is one of the New Seven Wonders, and on the spring equinox the afternoon sun throws a serpent of shadow down the steps of El Castillo, exactly as its builders planned a thousand years ago. Tulum stands walled above the Caribbean and Cobá hides a pyramid in the jungle. This was the heart of the Maya world.
- 1 Chichen Itza, Cenote, and Valladolid Tour
- 2 Chichen Itza, Cenote & Valladolid Tour with Tequila and Lunch
- 3 Cancun: Chichen Itza, Cenote & Valladolid Tour with Lunch
The biggest fish in the sea
Swim with Whale Sharks
Every summer the largest gathering of whale sharks on the planet drifts through the warm water off Isla Mujeres and Holbox, feeding at the surface. You slip off the boat and swim beside a spotted giant the length of a bus, harmless and unbothered. It happens here, between June and September, and almost nowhere else at this scale.
- 1 Whale Shark Adventure in Isla Mujeres and Cancun
- 2 Whale Shark Tour from Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Riviera Maya
- 3 Whale Sharks Small-Group Tour in Cancun and Riviera Maya
Start here
The day almost everyone books first.
If you only take one trip out of Cancún, the numbers say it is this one.
The classics
Cancún's Most Popular Tours
Cenotes, Chichén Itzá, the Isla Mujeres catamaran and the reef. The days most travellers come to Cancún for.
Where to begin
The trips a Cancún week is built around.
The cenotes, the reef, the Maya cities, the island catamarans and the jungle. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big day trip
How to do Chichén Itzá.
It is well over two hours inland each way, in serious heat, to the busiest ruins in Mexico, so the how matters as much as the if. Three ways to see the great pyramid, depending on how you like to travel.
Eat the Yucatán
Tacos al pastor, cochinita, mezcal at dusk.
Cancún is the gateway to one of Mexico's great regional kitchens. Cochinita pibil slow-cooked in banana leaf, panuchos and salbutes, marquesita carts after dark, and a mezcal flight to finish. A taco crawl through downtown beats anything in the Hotel Zone.
Read the guide: the best food & taco tours in Cancún →After dark
Cancún does not sleep.
The night is half the reason people come. Coco Bongo's acrobats and confetti storms, a sunset booze cruise with an open bar, the Cirque du Soleil JOYÀ show in the jungle, and rooftop bars looking out over the lagoon. The party runs until the sun comes up.
See the evening experiences →The reef
The second-biggest reef on Earth is right offshore.
The Mesoamerican Reef runs the length of the coast, a wall of coral, rays and parrotfish a short boat ride from the beach. Snorkel it off Isla Mujeres or Puerto Morelos, drift over the sunken sculptures of the MUSA underwater museum, or swim with sea turtles in the bay at Akumal. Mask on, face down, and the Caribbean opens up.
Reef snorkelling tours →Tulum & Cobá day trip
Maya ruins on a Caribbean cliff.
Tulum is the only Maya city built on the coast: a walled fortress of grey stone standing over a turquoise cove, with an iguana on every wall and a beach below for a swim afterwards. Pair it with Cobá, deeper in the jungle, where you can still climb a 42-metre pyramid for the view out over the canopy.
- 1 Viator Exclusive: Tulum Ruins, Reef Snorkeling, Cenote and Caves
- 2 Tulum Ruins and Cenote Guided Tour, from Cancun
- 3 Tulum & Coba with Cenote, Cave Exploration, Lunch & Tastings
Plan by distance
Pick how far you want to go today.
Cancún is a base. Stay on the water off the Hotel Zone, push half a day into the jungle for the cenotes, or commit a whole day to the Maya cities inland.
On the water
Stay by the beach.A catamaran out of the marina, a snorkel off the reef, jet skis on the lagoon and a sunset booze cruise. Days you never leave the coast.
Half a day inland
Into the jungle.A cenote swim under the canopy, an ATV-and-zipline run, or the reef at Puerto Morelos. Gone after breakfast, back for the beach by mid-afternoon.
A full day out
Out to the Maya world.Chichén Itzá and the cenotes, the clifftop ruins at Tulum, or colonial Valladolid. The big days that need an early start.
Into the jungle
Mud, zipwires and a cenote splashdown.
Behind the beach the jungle starts, and the adventure parks make the most of it. ATVs slithering down red-dirt tracks, ziplines strung over the canopy, a rappel into a cavern and a swim in a hidden cenote to wash off the mud. Half a day of the kind of thing the resort pool cannot offer.
See all 136 adventure tours →By place
Cancún, and the road into the Yucatán.
Cancún for the beaches and the catamaran piers. Isla Mujeres for the bay. Tulum for ruins above the sea. Chichén Itzá for the great pyramid. Valladolid for colonial streets and cenotes. Puerto Morelos for the reef.
By activity
Pick what kind of day you want.
A cenote if you want the water clear and cold. A catamaran if you want the sun and an open bar. The ruins if you want the history. ATVs if you want the mud. Whale sharks if you came in summer.
Plan it
Three days that cover the essentials.
First time in Cancún? Here is how three days plays out without a wasted hour.
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