You’ve seen the crystal blue water, the swings by the ocean — Tulum is picturesque and one of the best vacations I’ve been on! We relaxed, we adventured and we left with great memories.
Going to a cenote is a MUST DO in the yucatan peninsula. There are hundreds of cenotes from Cancun down to Tulum. Some of them can get crowded so here’s are guide to avoid the tour buses full of people and get that grammable picture you want! Our top three are:
Cenote Calavera
You can swim with turtles, swing from a rope and face your fears by diving through a small hole into the water below as bats pass you by! Check out this video of my boyfriend Roman jumping in:
Although the though of jumping through a small hole into a small space with bats might intimidate anyone — it is SO worth it! After you just in once, you’ll want to do it again, I promise you. It’s thrilling and a fun way to cool off. But if this doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, no fear, there is a latter that takes you in and right back out if you don’t want to jump.
This cenote is still relatively unknown…a best kept secret if you ask me. We went early afternoon and there were only a handful of people there. That makes it a great place to get your IG photos because the sinkhole itself is relatively small.
This is located just a few miles north of Tulum, make sure you bring cash with you. There will be snorkel gear for you to rent here, but you won’t need it. Save your money for a bigger cenote.
To get here: drive north from Tulum on Carretera 109 towards Coba, keep your eye out, it will be a small cut out from the road on the right hand side in about five minutes.
Gran Cenote
Make sure this cenote is the first thing on your to do list one day. You’ll want to arrive here early — it opens at 8 am — because tour buses will start stopping here mid afternoon and it can get very crowded.
This is one of the most popular cenotes in Tulum and you can see why, check out the aqua blue water!
I saw stunned by how many turtles you could find at this cenote — they were everywhere! You truly felt like you were in paradise. You could swim around in the sun lite water for awhile, and then swim through a cave where you could hear bats nesting up top.
Here I would recommend renting snorkel equipment if you’d like! You can go in the caves and see all the stalagmites and stalactites, and the caves go pretty far back. At one point, we got a little spooked because you can hear the bats flying overhead but you feel alone and one with nature, it’s just a beautiful experience. We did see some divers here as well.
So what do you do with your clothes and phone while you swim?? They are lockers you can rent here, but honestly we were fine just piling our stuff up on the side of a ladder, tucked out of the way, and we were fine. Just keep your eye on it and you’ll be fine.
There’s also a place to rise off, bathrooms, picnic tables and gardens here to explore! Entrance fee is about 8-10 US dollars so make sure you have cash.
To get here: drive north from Tulum on Carretera 109 towards Coba, you will pass Cenote Calavera, then Gran Cenote will be on your right hand side about 2 km from Cenote Calavera.
Cenote Dos Ojos
This is by far the most popular and instagrammable cenote near Tulum. It’s absolutely breath taking! In fact Dos Ojos (two Spanish eyes) is a single cenote, however there are two sinkholes and those are connected by a 400 meter long passageway. You’ll find the water here nice and warm and it looks like the water is sparkling teal blue by the suns reflection. You could literally spend all day here and love every minute of it!
The water here is colder than expected but you will be fine in the water after a few minutes. The first sinkhole gets direct light during the beginning of the day which adds to the blueness of the water. Go further down and the second sinkhole is more in the shade and you’ll find more bats and shadows!
So the way you come in here is a tad confusing. You’ll enter a main gate and then about a two minute drive in you’ll come to a stop. You’ll need to get out of your car here and then pay for the cenotes that you’d like to stop at. You can stop at all of them or just a few, we stopped at a few, but unless you have time, I’d just make sure to go to Dos Ojos.
In all honest, this cenote system is so vast that you can visit this anytime of the day and find a place to yourself. But fair warning however, tour buses do flood this area mid-afternoon. The gates open at 8 am.
The fees here will get you, it’s steeper than the other cenotes we visted. The entrance fee was about 20 US dollars per person, and then you have to pay more to stop by Cenotes down the road from Dos Ojos. The further you drive past the entrance, the more cenotes you will find. The other one we stopped at was Pet Cemetery. It’s about 20 minutes past Dos Ojos down a rough jungle trail. It got it’s name from animal skulls found in the cenote — talk about creepy!! (But I love stuff like that!)
To get here: drive east from Tulum towards Playa Del Carmen on Carretera Federal 307 for about 20 minutes. There will be signs as you get close and it will be on your left hand side. When you see the sign for Cenote Dos Ojos, make a U-turn and then turn right into the park.
What to bring:
- Biodegradable sunscreen
- Towel
- A waterproof case for your phone
- Water shoes
- Swimsuit
