This Riviera Maya itinerary is the perfect balance of activity and relaxing in Mexico’s beautiful Yucatan Peninsula. It covers staying in Playa Del Carmen and Tulum whilst also visiting one of the seven wonders of the world Chichen Itza. Whilst visiting this area of Mexico there are so many resorts you could stay at. We opted for hotels rather than resorts. This gives more flexibility to eat out wherever and explore fully. Visiting the Riviera Maya was one of my favourite holidays, the food, the sights, the culture and the weather, everything was amazing!
How to get to there?
The easiest way to get to Playa Del Carmen/Tulum is to fly into Cancun International Airport. From there it’s about 1 hour to Playa Del Carmen and 2 hours to Tulum.
How to get around in Riviera Maya?
If you’re comfortable driving, then I would definitely recommend renting a car. It will give you so much more flexibility than relying on taxis or tours.
We booked our car through booking.com with mex rent-a-car. Initially, we were a bit nervous due to not hearing of them before and them having low reviews on TripAdvisor, but then we checked and so do Hertz and Sixt. For further reassurance we also bought full insurance incase they tried to charge us for anything.
Driving in Mexico was quite easy. You drive on the right side of the road and generally the roads are very wide. In the Yucatan Peninsula to get to each of the main sights it’s essentially a straight road there and back. There are A LOT of road bumps, and when going over them you have to go really slowly as they are very high. Everyone also puts their hazards on if there is traffic or you need to slow down. During rush hour the roads in Playa Del Carmen and Tulum can get quite busy so you can find yourself waiting for some time.
Alternatively, you can take taxis or collectivos if you don’t want to drive. Whether you rent a car also depends on how much you want to leave your hotel and what sights you want to see.
Where to stay?
You can choose to stay in one hotel for the whole duration of your trip or like us you may spend half your time in Playa Del Carmen and half in Tulum. We chose to spend 3 nights in Playa Del Carmen, 4 nights in Tulum Downtown and 1 night in Tulum Hotel Zone by the beach.
In Playa Del Carmen, there’s really one central area with all the hotels so it’s quite simple to choose from. We stayed at El Taj Oceanfront Beach Hotel and Condos, which was fantastic! We were a 5 minute walk to the central road with all the restaurants and shops and it had it’s own little private beach and beach club which was nice.
In Tulum it’s a little different, there are really two options:
- The hotel zone by the beach
- Downtown Tulum
The hotel zone, is essentially a long strip of huge hotels. Many of which located right on the beach front, but as expected these are hotels are very expensive. You’ll see this reflected in the price of food, drinks and massages/activities within the hotels too. At night, this area becomes a little like Cancun, with lots of clubs, bars and late night parties.
Downtown Tulum has many more reasonable hotel options, many of which are beautiful and have amazing facilities. It’s also a good place to stay because you’re close to the centre you have a whole range of restaurants to choose from. You can also easily cycle to the beach area.
We chose to spend 4 nights in downtown Tulum at Naay Tulum and our last night in the hotel zone at Hotel Dos Ceibas Eco Retreat. Naay Tulum was amazing, had a beautiful rooftop pool and was a great place to chill out. Dos Ceibas was also very cool, it was really nice to be right on the beach. We were glad we stayed in Downtown for the majority of our time in Tulum, it would’ve taken much longer to visit all the sites travelling down the beach road every day and food would’ve been much more expensive.
When to go?
December – April is peak season here. It’s great to visit in the shoulder months of Novmeber and May where prices tend to be a little cheaper and there are less people.
June – September is hurricane season so it’s best to avoid visiting during this period, and also the heat in these summer months is so hot and humid it can make visiting the sites very tiring.
We visited in January and it was great, perfect weather and we didn’t find it too crowded.
What to do in Riviera Maya?
There are many different activities you could do. One of the best things about the activities here are that you can always mix up the days and swap them round especially if you have a car as you’ll have lots of flexibility. Below I’ve shared the itinerary I used when I went and it was the perfect balance of relaxing, activities & cultural sights.
Day 1-4 Playa Del Carmen
Day 1: Arrival into Cancun & make your way to Playa Del Carmen
If like us you arrive into Cancun late in the afternoon, you’ll probably get to Playa Del Carmen early evening. Head to the restaurants and get some food then you’ll likely be feeling jet lagged so will want to head straight to bed.
Day 2: Beach day and wonder around Playa Del Carmen.
Start the day with a delicious smoothie bowl from Habito Fresca. Then head to the beach, whether your hotel has a private beach or head to the main beach. Today is all about relaxing, so enjoy it!
Day 3: Snorkelling with turtles in Akumal & Cenotes
Today you’ll have the chance to swim with turtles in Akumal Bay! This was one of the highlights of the trip and if you’ve always wanted to do this then you have got to go here. Check out my full guide here. It’s best to get to Akumal early, so you’ll still have the afternoon free. What better way than to visit one of the many cenotes along the way back. I’d recommend Cenote Azul which is stunning! For more ideas about cenotes to visit check out my post here.
Day 4: Coba Ruins & Cenotes
As today you’re moving hotels to Tulum, it makes sense to visit Coba ruins.. Coba Ruins are really fun to visit as they are different from Tulum. Firstly they are much less popular and so you’ll find yourself exploring the ruins with no one else there. Secondly one of the most famous sites there are these sabces which are essentially stone roads that connect the main sites of the ruins. You can actually hire bicycles for a couple of pounds and cycle along them to explore the ruins. After visiting the ruins themselves, it would be shame not to visit the nearby cenotes. You’re in luck, there are three that are very close together, Choo-Ha, Multam-Ha, Tamcach-Ha. Each cenote costs 100MXN to enter. We visited two and they were really cool!
Day 5 – 9 Tulum
Day 5: Chichen Itza & Cenotes
Start early, leaving around 6:30am to make sure you get to Chichen Itza for when it opens. It’s a pretty straightforward drive there but definitely have maps.me on hand or google maps so you know the route. Read my separate guide to visiting Chichen Itza for all the tips for visiting this wonder of the world! After visiting the ruins, it’s time for a few more cenotes nearby. There are two amazing ones, Cenote Ik Kil & the instagram Cenote Suytan.
Day 6: Cenote Zacil-Ha & cycle hire / beach day
After a nice breakfast, head to another cenote in Tulum. We chose to go to Zacil-Ha but you might choose to go elsewhere. Then when you’re done visiting the cenotes, hire bikes from your hotel and cycle round downtown to grab some lunch.Then hop back on your bike and head to the beach. It takes about 25minutes to cycle to the beach from Tulum downtown. Once you enter the National Park area it is beautiful, you’re cycling along a road surrounded by lush greenery and then as you get closer you’ll catch a glimpse of the bright white sand and stunning turquoise sea. At the main entrance of the beach you’ll probably see about thousand bicycles parked there. You can keep cycling further down so it’s up to you where to access the beach from.
Day 7: Tulum Ruins & chill
Today you’ll be exploring the amazing Tulum Ruins, make sure you get there early as it does get really busy. We ended up waiting for about 45 minutes just to get into buy our tickets which was a bi annoying. These ruins were once an important trade route and are perched on the cliff top looking out into the blue Caribbean Sea. After you’ve finished here, head to beach, chill at your hotel or go to a cenote
Day 8: Final visits to anymore cenotes & chill time
It’s your last full day, so make the most of your time. Visit any remaining cenotes or chill out at the beach/your hotel. We chose to visit Gran Cenote in the morning to avoid crowd. Then as we were moving hotels from downtown to the beach we relaxed the pool in our downtown hotel until we could check in to the beach hotel.
Day 9: make your way back to Cancun for your flight home
Now it’s time to head back to Cancun, so pick up any last minute souvenirs and make you sure allow at least 3.5 hours to get to Cancun from Tulum. It took us 45mins alone to get out of the hotel zone and then we hit a lot of traffic near Playa Del Carmen!
With more time…
- Cozumel: Visit Cozumel from Playa Del Carmen. This beautiful island is a hub for diving and snorkelling. Although one thing to beware of is that many cruises stop here so try to avoid visiting when they are docked!
- Isla Mujeres: This lazy island, so I’ve read, looks amazing to visit. It’s best to visit here from Cancun so either add it on the beginning or end of your trip. From what I’ve read you’d want to stay at least for 1 night.
- Sian Kaan Biosphere: This ecological biosphere is great for a half day or day trip. You can book a tour and they will take you round the lagoon and you can spot animals and swim in the water! For more information have a look at their website here.
