Akumal Swimming with Turtles & Ancient Tulum Ruins Tour

When you hear about the...

When you hear about the cenote, it's less like a pool and more like a watery cave or at least for the one the tour showed. You should probably be warned about the amount of swimming is involved, in total there's about 60-90 minutes of swimming time but a life jacket is included. On the beach there may be a lot of seaweed in the water. When swimming with the turtles you can't wear sunscreen because it might hurt the turtles so be warned.

via Viator

Book it!

The staff was friendly, prompt, and we had a wonderful time on this excursion. The Sea turtles made a great grand finale. I saw the biggest sea turtle I've ever seen before! We had a bagged breakfast on the bus ride and hot lunch after swimming in the Cenote. Get the pork tacos if they are serving them, delicious.

via Viator

Great experience

Very great experience , is only suitable for good swimmers. The swim with the turtles takes about 40min, but unfortunately the way from Cancun is very long

via Tripadvisor (translated)

Amazing, unforgettable experience!

Our trip began promptly at 7am outside our hotel which was the Grand Oasis, we were shown to our coach by a lovely man and we drove a short distance to another location where we had to change to the mini bus we stayed on for the day. We were introduced to another man who handed us a breakfast bag which contained a ham and cheese sandwich, an apple, some juice, a snack bar, and a bottle of water - having just had breakfast at the hotel we saved this for later. We were firstly taken to the Tulúm ruins which took us around 2 hours - the coach was well air conditioned so we didn’t mind the journey. We picked up lots of others on the way. We then got to our first destination - we were given instructions on what to take into the ruins but with the tour operator only speaking Spanish we couldn’t understand too much! Another tourist let us know to take water, a hat and sunscreen. We got to the ruins and were shown to a guide who showed us around and explained a lot of the history behind the ancient ruins! Very interesting and informative although again - English not great but we did get the gist of it. On the way back from the ruins it is a long walk back to the meet up location and having run out of water and not having anywhere to buy any more at the ruins it was exhausting and quite scary. We got to the meet up location and bought a litre of water immediately and drank the whole thing - if you are going - MAKE SURE to take LOTS of water!!!! We then got inside the boiling hot tour bus and because I was already feeling extremely faint I honestly thought I was going to pass out and felt extremely ill at this point. We were luckily taken just around the corner to a beautiful Cenote where we were given a life vest, told to take a cold shower off (this saved my life) and shown down a short path to the Cenote! We all got in and we were introduced to a lovely guide who explained very well all about the Cenote depth and what to expect etc. It took around 30-40 mins to swim through this beautiful Cenote and have opportunities to have photos etc inside. After this we felt extremely refreshed and we were excited for our turtle tour! We got to the bus and it was nowhere near as bad after having our cold dip in the Cenote - the journey to Akumal took around 20 mins, during this trip we ate our breakfast bag that we were given earlier on - which was delicious! We arrived at Akumal beach around 3pm and we were provided with a life vest and snorkelling equipment and shown down the beach to where you swim out to see the turtles - this was the highlight of the entire day! We were told in English the signs for turtle, stingray and jellyfish and the rules of what to and not to do. We walked in and started swimming out to where the turtles are feeding on the sea grass and almost straight away we spotted a turtle! We saw at least 20 turtles and other exotic fish as well which was an amazing experience and one that we will never forget! We managed to take in our phones and the lovely tour operator (a young girl) managed to get my phone working through the plastic case while we were swimming for me to capture these incredible moments so thank you so much! We then showered off afterwards, got changed and had to leave the beach almost immediately which was a bit disappointing as we thought we would get a bit of free time to enjoy the beach and maybe get a drink - the swimming was exhausting so for non swimmers I probably wouldn’t advise - although one of the guides did have a safety ring which a few held on to towards the end. We then got back onto the bus and taken to our final destination which was a lovely authentic Mexican restaurant where we picked out what we wanted for our food - I chose the beef fajitas and my husband chose the grilled chicken - both came with rice, veg and sauce and this meal was absolutely amazing! We were also provided with a side of tortilla chips and salsa which went down a treat! I wish I could remember the name of this place because I highly recommend it! After our meal we all got back on the bus and taken home - we arrived back at our hotel at 7pm - so 12 hours all in all. Got home with just enough time to get showered change and go out for our evening entertainment at the hotel! Amazing experience - highly recommend, the only thing I would recommend is that the tour guide maybe have some printed instructions in English for those who struggle to understand Spanish. Everyone was friendly and welcoming and we will definitely be back to Mexico 🇲🇽 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Response from the operator: We’re so happy to hear you had an amazing time! It’s always rewarding to receive such positive feedback, and it reminds us of the impact we aim to have on each guest’s journey. Thank you for letting us be part of your travel story—we can’t wait for the next time!

via Tripadvisor

Half a tour

The information advertised on TripAdvisor was not the service we actually received. We only swam with the turtles and visited one Cenote. No Cavern, lunch, or 2nd Cenote. A 50% refund is supposed to be credited back to my account. I hope that happens.

Response from the operator: Hello Melissa, effectively for reasons beyond our control, you were only given the tour with turtles and only one cenote, we had to skip the visit to the cavern, unfortunately, due to bad weather, hurricanes, and storms that have happened in the last month, the Aquifers are at their maximum capacity and it was impossible to visit the cavern. I reviewed your reimbursement and it was effectively applied, I ask you to verify your bank account to confirm the reimbursement, in case you have doubts please contact me at info@islamujerescozumel.com with Jesus Diaz

via Tripadvisor