DHolmes

All of you have been so helpful with my trip over xmas week. I know it will be very crowded. I have a couple of private drivers/tour options or can rent a car.

Here is my question - how much do I squeeze into one day? Tours seem to do ruins, swimming, snorkeling etc all in a day. I have 4 full days. What distance/how many activities do I do in a day?
Must sees besides Akumal turtles, ruins (which or all?), cenotes.

Thank you again for your great suggestions!

kja

Sorry, but IMO, that's something that ONLY you can decide, as travelers differ markedly in their preferences for activities and pace.

SambaChula

A comfortable day for us was seeing a ruin in the cooler and less crowded morning hours and spending the hot afternoon in/near water (cenote or beach).
On the first trip, we moved around to a couple of posadas (in Valladolid and Tulum) to be closer to certain ruins, so distance/travel time was not a factor.
Ek Balam and Coba seemed more atmospheric to us, more evocative of Maya life.
Akumal for turtles, and we enjoyed a boat trip into the Sian Ka'an biosphere, both from a base in Tulum.

Rohelio

Akumal with turtles, Coba, Tulum and Muyill for ruins, Carratera federal (307) highway for cenotes... all of which are within one hour,s drive of each other.

jamie99

Agree pretty much with Rohelio although with only 4 days, maybe 1 max 2 ruins. You could see Coba and then a cenote and Tulum. There are also 4-5 cenotes close to Puerto Aventuras across the Highway 307 near the Barcelo resort.

Brenkjtravel

I preferred Coba over Chitchen Itza, less crowded and you can ride bikes around and climb the temple. If you do visit CI try and get there as early as possible, that was our one saving grace, we arrived before the tour busses and insane amounts of vendors. Tulum is great too but just know they close (beach included ) around 4:30. We had our own car and did all three in one day. We left our hotel at about 7am. It was fun, but maybe you are not as crazy as us! We also took the ferry out to Isle Mujeras one of the days and rented a golf cart to drive around the island then enjoyed a little evening beach time and watching the sunset. That was great fun! One other thing we did was a zipline tour which included a trip to a nearby cenote and a meal. We were staying at an all inclusive so we didn't eat much but felt the cost was a good value. We had our own car and speak a little spanish so these things worked out well. Feel free to check out our trip report in my profile. Have a great trip!