Hello. We recently spent time in Tulum and Playa del Carmen.

We did not rent a car and found the ADO buses to be super easy and cheap way to travel. Taxis were also affordable.

We stayed 4 days in Tulum which was beautiful. The North beach was incredible, beautiful water, soft white sand and calm waves. The south beach was also lovely and fun for body surfing [or kiteboarding] as there was a constant breeze which kept us cool.

We chose Cabanas La Luna, romantic and rustic with wonderful deck overlooking ocean. There are many cool places to stay along the south beach area.

We spent a day in Akumal which was fun although I'm sad to say I did not swim with turtles, try as we did to find any.

We snorkeled Dos Ojos...sooo cool. Highly recommend finding a cenote to snorkel that has caves. We also did cenote Azul which was an open cenote [like a freshwater pool] which was fun and refreshing with lots of local families which we liked.

We rented bikes and headed north to the Ruins [opening] and it was so neat...45 minutes later we were biking to north beach bars to hang out.

Once in PDC, we spent a day ziplining at SElvatica which was fun. You also bike to an open cenote and swim in the refreshing water [you can zip over it and jump in]. It was more like a little fresh water pool but was nice. If I had to cross anything off, this would be it. DH really wanted to do this, so we did.

PDC was FUN. And it was great spending the last 2 nights there. We loved La Tortuga and didn't hit the beach but for pictures there sadly. The pool was fantastic. The food was soo good and cheap here and the streets were fun to roam at night with all the crowds [food more expensive in Tulum but also good].

I have posted a trip report here that gives specific details if anyone's planning a trip.
It's really long:
http://www.tulum.info/showthread.php?t=2245

It was also very affordable. We spent less than $2500 on EVERYTHING, including airfare for 2, souveniers, tips, food, hotel, adventure, even airport parking.

Trish

Thanks so much!
I actually just booked La Tortuga for the fiance and I....we're young/mid 20's...any suggestions on what we MUST do? Thanks so much, it's much appreciated!!!!!

-Chris from Boston

visit tulum at least for the day...ruins at opening then cab or walk to beach just south of there....zazil kin or el paraiso....mayan grill or mezzanine for lunch.

snorkel in cenotes. we did dos ojos and it was $30 per person for guided tour [only way to 'rent' dive lights...we even had our own snorkel gear but had to pay the $30 pp]. it was AWESOME.

There's a family run tour group called edventures [do a google search to find] that takes you to dos ojos and akumal and yal-ku lagoon. you can swim with turtles in akumal. [i had no luck the day we went but we did it on our own.] i believe they do the ruins also...but i would do tulum separate and hang at the beach after for a while.

we also did selvatica which is zip lines. it was fun but not my favorite, dh liked it more than me.

my trip report has many many details...i would also recommend going to playa.info for TONS of information if you haven't discovered it yet. they have a VERY active board.

Trish

oh and june through september you can swim with whale sharks. that would be awesome. it's north from PDC but worth the hike. they leave from isla mujeres and isla holbox i believe [search playa.info or google].

trish

Hi! Great report. I have been looking forward to it. We stopped at Cozumel on a cruise and it didn't do it for me (maybe we just didn't go to the right places), but I would like to try the mainland. We are off to GC again in a few eekns then next year's trip is to St. John so maybe the one aftre that

if you could only stay in one area/hotel, which which you pick?

pardon my typos!! I am a really poor typist Meant to say that GC was in a few WEEKS.

Everyone says to hit east end in Cozumel to avoid the tourists but didn't look too interesting to me...

I would recommend you scope locogringo.com, tulum.info and playa.info great active boards all about that area. People return year after year and sometimes multiple times as Mexico's more affordable and typically easier to get to than other areas.

Where in GC are you going to be?

Villas of the Galleon condos...right next to the Ritz. We got married on the beach there in 2003 and this will be our first time back since then.

I'm looking into the perfect honeymoon experience. I have been researching but it is hard to get all the info you need within one website. I love that the ruins are so close to the riviera too. This planning is so overwhelming that I don't know where to start. Here's what I want.
A beautiful beach and clean water.
A cool town to stroll on the outskirts of the resort.
To do some site seeing without being mugged.
Romantic accomodations.
Is the Mayan Riviera what I'm looking for?