Playa Del Carmen Sea Turtles – How to Swim With

Once in a Lifetime

Swimming with the Playa Del Carmen sea turtles is one of those “once in a lifetime” things you must do when in Playa Del Carmen Mexico. It’s so simple to do it yourself, at your pace, and for a lot less money than a tour. I’m all for tours when it comes to making things simple, or there’s a language barrier or just to have someone teach you about what you’re visiting. But to swim with the turtles, none of these things apply.

Do It Yourself

To get to where the turtles are, just hop in a taxi and have them take you to Akumal beach. When you arrive, ask them to take you all the way down to the arches. This way, you’ll bypass all those people trying to sell you something including fake entry fees that I’ve read about multiple times. When he drops you off, head down to the beach. Once at the beach go right until you see the last dive shop (before the beach ends). You can’t miss it, and it’s about 50′ off the beach.

The Akumal Dive Shop is where you can rent your snorkeling gear. You can rent everything you need. When you ask for snorkeling gear, keep in mind that the fins are extra. My advice would be to get the fins. It makes keeping up with the turtles easier. They even have lockers so you can secure your stuff and a shower to rinse off afterward. Once you have your gear, ask the people at the dive shop where the best place to snorkel is to see the turtles. They will gladly point you in the right direction. The dive shop also rents underwater cameras/GoPro’s if you want to get some great footage. There are signs in and just outside the store that tell you about the fish and turtles you will see. That’s all there is to it. Now get ready to get wet.

The Turtles

To find the turtles, you need to not be on the reef but rather where there is grass on the bottom. We saw our first turtle after about 10 minutes in the water. You can also watch where others are grouped up snorkeling, most likely, there are turtles there.  The turtles were so cool. They didn’t care at all that you were around. They just go about their business which is mostly eating and coming up for air every so often. When you get your fill of turtles, be sure to go out a little further to the reef. You won’t see turtles there, but you will see all sorts of colorful fish. The entire experience was fantastic. Since you are behind a reef, the water is calm, and the current is minimal making it easy to float around at your leisure.

Back in the grassy areas are manta rays. You might get lucky enough like we did and see one. The one we saw was small but none the less fabulous.

A Restaurant and Bar Too

What I like about Akumal Beach is that they have a restaurant and bar right on the beach. So when you get tired, you don’t have to turn in your gear for the day. Walk over to the restaurant, sit at a table on the sand and order a drink or some food. The beach restaurant is an excellent way to rest up and then head on back out for another snorkel. When you’re ready to leave, there are attendants in the parking lot who will get you a taxi.

Playa Del Carmen Sea Turtles

That’s it. So simple to do this amazing day on your own. Swim with the Playa Del Carmen sea turtles and you can do it at your pace. Relax on the beach, have a drink and some food and snorkel until your heart’s content.

Check out this 2-minute underwater video of these marvelous creatures!