Tulum or Coba
 

We only have 4 days in Playa del Carmen this coming week. Which is better and can we do both in one day?

We rented a car and did both in one day. We did Coba first, then Tulum.

This is a toughie.

If you are really into ruins, you will feel you shortchanged yourself if you do both in one day, but if you just want to get an overview, Tulum is realtively small (but dramatic) and can be seen in a couple of hours.

Get there early before the crowds and while its cool(er) and then go on to Coba.

You can see the highlights of Coba in a few hours.

It will be a long day, but I think you can do both and decide if you want to go back to either or both and see more on another trip.

Both are worth seeing, you could see both in one day if necessary, but two days is best. AT Coba, rent bicycles, it is a very large area to walk and you will be thankful if you are on a schedule

Well, here I am again raining on everyone's parade.

Tulum is impressive IF you don't see another Maya ruin.

But, see Coba, or Chichen, or Uxmal or a dozen others and you will wonder why you event bothered with Tulum.

Both sites can be seen in one day, but it will be a long day for you. If coming from PDC, stop at Tulum when the park opens, before the crowds. The location is amazing, and ruins are pretty compact so the site doesn't take much time to cover.

Coba is about a 45 minute drive from Tulum, but the site is much more impressive. I actually enjoyed Coba more than Tulum. We spent a few hours there hiking on the paths in and around the various ruins. The site looks straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. The advice on renting bikes is a good one.

It depends on your priorities. Tulum is much closer and much smaller, but very scenic. Coba is at least a half day commitment, and has a different feel to it. I personally would do Tulum as an early morning trip, spending the rest of the day on the beautiful Talum beach and walking around the funky city of Talum, and do Coba on a separate day.

If you are going to take a day and see ruins, go to Chichen Itza which blows both of them away. There are plenty of daytrips that go there. If you've already been, you could follow Pepper's advice, get an early start and see Coba first and then stop on the way back to see Tulum.


Or you could go to Tulum in the morning and head over to Xelha in the afternoon which is what we did. While it's true that there is not much detail at Tulum and it can be seen in a couple of hours, the setting on the Caribbean is simply beautiful. And you don't need to rent a car for this, we got there by using shared vans (colectivos) and used a taxi to get between the two.

We did Coba and Tulum on 2 different days.
I do think you can do both in one day (go first thing in the morning!).
However, I do agree with Diana that you'll be short-changing yourself.
I think that unless you're an archeologist or have a true love of archeology, there's so many ruins you can take in one day! :-)
I think Tulum is more scenic but Coba is more impressive.
If you decide on just one, you'll enjoy no matter which one.
Have a great time!