Things to Do in the Riviera Maya & Yucatán: 14 Places Worth Visiting

Tulum is where the jungle meets the Caribbean, and the hotel zone along the beach road is the easiest place on this list to lose a day. You don't need to stay at Azulik, Papaya Playa Project or Nômade to enjoy them: book lunch or dinner and you can spend the afternoon on their stretch of beach. Most beach clubs ask for a minimum spend, and weekdays are calmer.

The ruins sit on a cliff above the sea and are small enough to see in an hour or two; arrive at opening and you'll have them nearly to yourself. Cool off afterwards in a cenote: Gran Cenote, Dos Ojos and Casa Cenote are all within 20 minutes of town, and Tulum pueblo has the best tacos.

• The beach road clogs after 10 am. Park once and rent a bicycle.
• Bring cash and biodegradable sunscreen for the cenotes; most ask you to shower before you swim.
• The beach road continues south into Sian Ka'an (below), so the two combine well.

Read more on our journal: Cenotes near Playa del Carmen

A museum unlike anything else in Mexico. SFER IK was built by Roth, the studio behind Azulik, and has two spaces: a smaller one inside the Azulik hotel on the Tulum beach road, and the larger SFER IK Uh May in the village of Francisco Uh May, about 20 minutes inland on the road to Cobá. Both are made of bejuco vines, local wood and polished cement, with curving floors and walls that feel grown rather than built.

Shoes come off at the entrance and you wander through barefoot. The exhibitions change, so check what's on and which days it opens before you drive out. It pairs well with a morning at Cobá, which is further along the same road.

• Check opening days and the current exhibition before going.
• Combine with Cobá (same road) or an evening at Azulik.
• The floors are uneven: not ideal for anyone unsteady on their feet.

Keep driving south on the Tulum beach road, through the arch, and you're inside Sian Ka'an: a UNESCO World Heritage biosphere reserve of more than 5,000 square kilometres of forest, mangrove, lagoon and 120 km of coast with hardly anyone on it. The Yucatec Maya name is usually translated as “where the sky is born”.

The easiest way in is from the Muyil ruins on the main highway: walk the boardwalk through the forest to the lagoon, take a boat along canals the Maya cut more than a thousand years ago, then float the last stretch in your life jacket. The longer option is the sandy road to Punta Allen, a lobster-fishing village at the tip of the peninsula, where boats go out looking for dolphins, turtles and manatees. The road is rough; allow two to three hours each way for about 50 km.

• For the Muyil float, bring water shoes and a dry bag.
• Punta Allen only with a high-clearance car, or book a tour from Tulum.
• There are no shops inside the reserve. Bring water and snacks.

Read more on our journal: Jungle retreats in the Riviera Maya

Cobá is what people picture when they imagine Maya ruins in the jungle: temples and causeways scattered through the forest, with howler monkeys and butterflies for company. It was one of the largest cities of the Maya world, and its white stone roads, the sacbés, run for kilometres; the longest reaches 100 km to Yaxuná. Rent a bicycle or hire a bici-taxi at the entrance, because the site is too spread out to walk in the heat.

The main pyramid, Nohoch Mul, is the tallest in the northern Yucatán at 42 m; the photo above is the view from its top across unbroken jungle. Climbing is no longer allowed, so these days you take in the canopy from the base. Afterwards, the cenotes of Choo-Ha, Tamcach-Ha and Multún-Ha are ten minutes away: cave cenotes with ladders and wooden platforms, and usually quiet.

• Arrive at opening (8 am) for shade and monkeys.
• Mosquito repellent, always.
• Stop at SFER IK Uh May on the way back to Tulum.

Read more on our journal: Maya history, Cobá & Chichén Itzá

Cozumel is the easy island from Playa del Carmen: ferries leave from the pier downtown roughly every hour and take about 45 minutes. The island sits on the Mesoamerican Reef, the second-largest reef system in the world, which is why divers come from everywhere. For snorkellers, a boat tour to Palancar and Colombia reefs is the thing to do, and El Cielo is a shallow sandbar full of starfish (look, don't touch).

We haven't explored it as much as we'd like, but guests come back with the same recommendations: Punta Sur eco park at the southern tip, with the Celarain lighthouse to climb and a turtle conservation program, and a rented car or scooter to loop the empty east coast, where the surf is rougher and the beach bars are simple.

• Walk-on ferry tickets rarely need booking ahead, except at holidays.
• Turtle nesting season runs roughly May to October; some programs let you watch hatchlings released.
• Downtown San Miguel is nicer for lunch than the cruise-pier strip.

A small island with a laid-back Mexican-town feel and a sea that is hard to believe. The ferry from Cancún (Puerto Juárez or Gran Puerto) takes about 20 minutes, and once you're across a golf cart is the way to get around. Playa Norte, at the top of the island, is shallow, calm and regularly ranked among the best beaches in Mexico.

At the southern tip, Punta Sur has a small Maya temple to the goddess Ixchel, low cliffs and a sculpture garden, and it is the first point in Mexico to see the sunrise. Snorkellers can book trips to the MUSA underwater museum, and from June to September boats go out to swim with whale sharks.

• Go midweek; weekends fill with day-trippers from Cancún.
• Rent the golf cart early, before they run out.
• Stay a night if you can: the island empties after the last ferry.

Holbox is a long, thin island off the northern tip of the peninsula, separated from the mainland by a lagoon. There are no cars, only golf carts and bicycles; the streets are sand and the houses are painted every colour there is. You leave the car in Chiquilá and take the ferry across.

Days are simple: walk the sandbar out to Punta Mosquito at low tide, swim in water that stays waist-deep for a very long way, and watch the flamingos and pelicans in the lagoon. From June to September the whale sharks arrive and boats go out to swim with them; on dark summer nights the water glows with bioluminescence. Isla Pájaros and the Yalahau spring are the standard boat trip.

• Book rooms ahead; the island is small and popular.
• Parking in Chiquilá is paid and watched. Don't leave valuables in the car.
• Mosquitoes and sandflies at dusk: bring repellent.

El Cuyo is the quiet alternative to Holbox: a fishing village on the same north coast with a wide, empty beach, a lighthouse, a handful of guesthouses and a strong, steady wind that has made it a kitesurfing spot. There isn't much to do, which is the point.

It sits between Holbox and Río Lagartos, so it makes a good base. Las Coloradas and its pink lakes are about 40 minutes west along the coast road, and the boat operators of Río Lagartos are an hour away. Holbox is just across the water, but there is no road link; you go back around through Chiquilá.

• Kite season runs roughly November to August, strongest in spring.
• Bring cash; there are no banks and few card machines.
• Sunset from the beach is the evening's entertainment.

Río Lagartos is a fishing village on a long, shallow estuary and the gateway to the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve. Despite the name, the lagartos are crocodiles rather than alligators, and you will probably see them sunning on the banks. The real draw is the flamingos: this is Mexico's main nesting colony, and the pink flocks are around for most of the year.

Boat tours leave from the waterfront and take two to three hours: flamingos, crocodiles, pelicans and herons (the reserve has close to 400 bird species), a stop to cover yourself in the white clay the guides call a Maya bath, and often a look at the pink lakes of Las Coloradas from the water. Go early in the morning or late in the afternoon for the light and the birds.

• Ask for a guide who knows the birds, and bring binoculars if you have them.
• Lunch on the waterfront: the seafood is excellent.
• Combine with Las Coloradas, then Valladolid or Chichén Itzá on the way back.

Las Coloradas is a salt-producing village where the evaporation ponds turn bright pink, a colour made by the salt-loving microorganisms and tiny shrimp that live in the brine (the same diet that colours the flamingos). It's a stop rather than a destination: the lakes belong to the salt works, swimming is not allowed, and you visit the viewpoints with a local guide.

The pink is strongest under a high midday sun; on an overcast day it fades to lilac. Most people combine it with a Río Lagartos boat tour and a night in El Cuyo, or drive back to the coast through Chichén Itzá. Bring a hat: there is no shade at all.

• Midday for the pinkest colour.
• No swimming or wading. A local guide is required at the viewpoints.
• Swim in the sea at El Cuyo afterwards instead.

The most famous Maya city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. The pyramid of Kukulcán (El Castillo) is the image everyone knows, but walk on to the Great Ball Court, the largest in Mesoamerica; the Temple of the Warriors and its field of columns; the round observatory called El Caracol; and the Sacred Cenote where offerings were thrown.

It gets hot and crowded by 10 am, so be at the gate when it opens at 8, and take a guide: the site says little about itself. Afterwards, swim at a cenote (Ik Kil is next door and busy; Suytun and Xkekén near Valladolid are better) and have lunch in Valladolid, a pretty colonial town 45 minutes away that makes a good overnight if you're continuing north to Río Lagartos or west to Mérida.

• Climbing the pyramid is not allowed.
• The toll highway is the fast way from the coast; the free road through the villages is slower and prettier.
• Avoid the equinoxes unless the crowds are the point.

Read more on our journal: Maya history, Cobá & Chichén Itzá

Mérida is the capital of Yucatán state and the cultural heart of the peninsula: a big, lively, safe city of pastel colonial houses, shaded plazas and free evening concerts. The Spanish founded it in 1542 on top of the Maya city of T'hó, reusing its stones for what is now one of the oldest cathedrals in the Americas, and you still feel both worlds side by side: Maya markets and hammocks, Spanish churches, and the French-style mansions of Paseo de Montejo.

Come for the food above all. Yucatecan cooking is a cuisine of its own: cochinita pibil, sopa de lima, panuchos and salbutes, marquesitas from street carts at night. Sunday is the best day, when the centre closes to cars for Mérida en Domingo. From the city, day trips reach the ruins of Uxmal and the Puuc route, the cenotes of Homún, the old henequén haciendas, and Celestún on the coast.

• Stay in Centro or the Santiago neighbourhood to walk everywhere.
• It's hotter than the coast; save afternoons for pools and museums (the Gran Museo del Mundo Maya is excellent).
• There is a free event almost every evening; ask your hotel for the week's program.

Celestún is a fishing town on the Gulf coast, inside the Ría Celestún Biosphere Reserve, and the classic flamingo trip from Mérida. Boats leave from under the bridge at the entrance to town and follow the estuary to where the flamingos feed by the hundred and sometimes by the thousand; the flocks are largest in the winter months, from around November to March.

The tour continues into mangrove tunnels and stops at a freshwater spring, the ojo de agua, where you can swim; some add the petrified forest of dead mangroves. Back in town, lunch is fresh seafood on the beach, and if you stay the night, the sunset over the Gulf is the reward.

• The earliest boats get the calmest water and the best light.
• Flamingos are here year-round; winter is the peak.
• Pair it with Mérida. From the Caribbean side it's too far for a single day.

Bacalar is a freshwater lagoon more than 40 km long, famous for its seven shades of blue: pale turquoise over white sand, deepening to the indigo of the cenotes that feed it from below. Of everything on this list, it's the place guests most often say they wish they had given more time. The town is small and relaxed, a Pueblo Mágico with a fort from 1729 built against pirates, and life happens on the piers and the balnearios along the water.

The Yak Lake House has private rooms with a lovely view over the lagoon, a friendly crowd, and activities and tours you can join, which is why we send people there. Days go like this: sunrise from a pier, a sailing or kayak trip to the stromatolites (ancient living rock, so no sunscreen in the water), a swim at Cenote Azul, and an hour floating in the current at Los Rápidos. The colours depend on the light; the lagoon is at its best on bright mornings.

• No sunscreen or lotion in the lagoon: the stromatolites are fragile and the rule is enforced.
• Weekends and Mexican holidays are busy; weekdays are quiet.
• Bring cash; cards aren't accepted everywhere.