ekscrunchy

Fell in love head over heels with Merida; Highlights were swimming in various cenotes not far from the city.
Found a fantastic B&B (happy to share name) in Santiago barrio de Merida.


SO: For next winter, thinking I'd like do do more swimming either in a clear, clean sea, or cenotes.

Bacalar is on my radar....not interested in Playa del Carmen or Tulum..been there decades ago....no reason to return from what i read...

So where can I swim in warm waters in the Yucatan...coming from Miami this is quick flight...already know most coastal resorts in Mexico but feed me info!!!! Swimming in clean warm waters is key.. Fluent in Spanish, not afraid to go off the path, but do like my comforts and have a good budget...

MisterB2

Bacalar is a good choice, but it's not on the open sea.

There are a couple of small beaches at Calderitas a few km north of Chetumal, but they're not the nicest of beaches, and not worth the trip.

The best beach I've seen down that way is at Mahahual. But, be aware Mahahual is a cruise ship port, and during the daytime (up to around 5pm) whenever a ship is in port, the town will be crawling with tourists. After the ships sail, the place is dead. If you go, pick a hotel as far south as possible because many of the cruise shippers probably don't go any farther than Señor Frog's.

I guess you know about the problems with sargassum, but from about Oct/Nov to late February, there is little to no sargassum. In 4 of the past 5 years, it has returned around late February.

november_moon

We went on a day trip to Celestun from Merida several years ago and it seemed like a nice beach town to spend a few days - it's on my list to go back to. The beaches are wide, plenty of beachside restaurants and bars, when we were there, the water was pretty nice - not as clear as on the Caribbean beaches, but still a nice light turquoise color. It seemed like a good mix of visitors and locals on the beach and in the restaurants. The downside is that due to the currents, some stuff does wash up on the beaches and unlike along the Mayan Riviera, there isn't as much raking of the beach, so there is some plastic bottles, wood, etc around - it wasn't really bothersome when we were there, but we did notice it more than say in Tulum.

mlgb

Bacalar is nice swimming but we did it from one of the boats.There must be some other way to go in? Clear water but not bathtub warm..swimming pool warm.

The beaches can get a lot of wind around Celestun, etc.

jamie99

We stayed at Hotel Laguna a number of years ago and they had a swim platform in the lake with a diving board and a swim ladder to get in and out of the lake.

ekscrunchy

Thanks, all!!! So what IS the best place to stay on the Caribbean side of the peninsula? Are there easily accessible cenotes near Bacalar where I could actually swim? I am afraid to bank all on swimming and then get there and find that water is too cold, or dirty, or in some way unappealing. I guess I could do both Celestun/Sisal and Bacalar..need to think about this for next winter.......it would probably be in January when I would go with partner.