Costa Maya

Costa Maya trip ideas

Snorkel boat tour in search of turtles

Costa Maya, Mexico

1 hour 30 minutes
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

Enjoy snorkeling in the calm and protected waters of a shallow reef lagoon. Visit two different snorkeling areas, both just a short boat ride away from Mahahual. Look for turtles, tropical fish and coral in the water. Snorkeling guides are on hand to provide assistance if needed, perfect for those with limited snorkeling experience.

Snorkel at two locations in a shallow reef lagoon near Mahahual
Ideal for beginner snorkelers and those with limited time
Includes use of snorkeling equipment and snorkeling guide
Small group size means more attention and help from your guide

What's Included

Use of Snorkeling equipment
Bottled water
Snorkeling guide

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

Huachinango, 77976 Q.R., Mexico
Take a taxi and ask the driver to take you to Blue Kay Ecocabañas. Taxi costs $4 US each way. Get off at the parking lot next to the Reception building. Take the path towards the promenade and you will find the diving center on the right, next to the restaurant.

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

What To Expect

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
Service animals allowed
Near public transportation

No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
Most travelers can participate
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 12 travelers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.

Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.
This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Featured review

Katherine_P

The trip was fabulous! We saw a turtle, an eel, a lobster, stingrays, lots of colorful fish and lots of really spectacular coral reefs. The water was crystal clear, the guides were very helpful and knowledgeable. The equipment provided was excellent. We were provided with instructions and the guides made sure your equipment fit properly. I could not ask for a better excursion!

Reviews

4.5

163 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

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Showing 1-10 of 163 reviews

Our enjoyable trip

Kathy_S, Apr 2024

I participated in this excursion with my 75yr old mom and 12yr old daughter last week. Getting there and back to port was easy by taxi ($4 pp each way.) We were on the excursion with 3 couples. The boat was good and we were helped on/off it's ladder by the crew, incl my mom who handled this just fine. The snorkeling gear was fine and they applied fresh anti fog gel to it. My daughter had a lot of difficulty with snorkeling the previous day in Roatan but Neto (Ernesto) our guide patiently helped her and though the water was rougher with more waves in Costa Maya, she did much better with her snorkeling thanks to his help. The area they took us to had much more live coral which was way nicer than our experience in Roatan and we saw an abundance of fish plus i saw turtles 4x. Truly a great time. Our only criticism is the life jackets provided did not have the strap that goes between your legs so it kept riding up - had to swim with one arm holding it down which was extra challenging with the choppy waves. It was a workout of a swim for an hour but nonetheless very enjoyable.

Good excursion

William_L, Apr 2024

Good tour of coral reefs. We saw turtles! Friendly staff. We enjoyed the beach after snorkeling. Would recommend.

The best snorkel experience so far. (Parce team)

Alex_M, Apr 2024

OMG not enough words to described the experience. I booked this tour to celebrate my wife bday in company of my parents and my parents in law. The experience was on point from the beginning. We got to see a variety of fish and also a turtle. Super recommended 100%.

Snorkeling in Costa Maya (ship port) Majahual, Mexico

Deanna_B, Mar 2024

This was our first time to snorkel in Costa Maya. The tour guys were very professional & did a great job keeping us safe & locating fish. The water was a little rough & probably not as clear as it should have been for snorkeling. There were fish here & there & we also saw a turtle feeding on the bottom. They were very careful not to disturb the turtle & they did not feed it. On the boat ride back (which wasn’t very far) we saw dolphins, which I am guessing that was not that common there, by their reaction. 🤷‍♀️. We had our own snorkeling gear. The dive shop was very accommodating. It was a fun excursion. You must be able to climb up a ladder to get into the boat. We didn’t have any problems with that. The taxi ride was about 10 minutes & cost $4 per person, each way. It was easy.

Wonderful tour operators!

Christine_D, Mar 2024

This company is fantastic! We missed our snorkel trip due to the time difference from local time to cruise ship time. Our fault. But they worked with us and we had a great day!

Cancelled

Kathy_S, Mar 2024

Tour canceled Need refund Had to pay for a taxi to dive shop Told seas too rough Had to pay for taxi back to cruise terminal

Nice family trip, some improvements would be easy to make

amy_b, Feb 2024

Calm waters, crew was helpful. They ran out of lifejackets to fit my husband (he only wears an XL), but I had to take an XXL, which made it uncomfortable b/c it rode up on him during the entire snorkeling swim, so definitely a suggestion would be to have enough accurate sizes on hand. The other reviews from cruise ship attendees are mostly accurate...it is a bit of a puzzle to wind your way out of the port to get to the cabs, but once you do, it's literally a mile away to the drop-off point. Problem: once they drop you off, you have no idea where to go. You come to a spot that just looks like you're facing a beach, with no signage directing you to the gearing-up location. It's down a concrete walkway to the right; very difficult to find...all could be improved just with a nice easy to find a sign at the drop-off location.

Where were the turtles?

ibfinetwo, Feb 2024

This was not a great experience. The waters were rough and the boat was small. My husband was the only guest with 3 crew. The crew did a good job.However it was supposed to be a 4 hour tour but he returned after only 1 hour exhausted. He never saw a turtle!.

Response from Host, Feb 2024

I'm sorry to know your husband did not enjoy the experience. The snorkel tour is conducted inside a reef lagoon sheltered by the sea by a reef crest. So it does not correspond to the waves you could see at the beach you were waiting at.I think it's also important to make clear the snorkel tour is one hour in the water and 15 minutes in each direction.These 30 minutes take in account the delay normal of larger groups. As for the turtles, they are normally seen -say 75% of the time- but it's not an aquarium but a reef where they roam in liberty.

AMAZING!!!

Alisha_D, Jan 2024

The entire experience was amazing. Our tour guide was very personable and made sure that we stayed safe the entire time. He was very informative and took the time to educate us on the aquatic life and the importance

Amazing!

Jaime_W, Jan 2024

We had an amazing time! The location and guide were perfect! We will definitely be visiting again! It was perfect!

Great little dive shop with the sweetest staff!!

Erin_P, Jan 2024

Did this tour with just myself and my 8 year old son and had a wonderful time!! Had to take a taxi from the cruise port to the dive shop (5 minutes and $6) but when we got there, we were greeted with smiles and told that no one else had reserved the tour so it was just the two of us. Most tour companies would've cancelled! Water was a little rough from some earlier storms but the guide navigated us to the grass beds and pointed out sea life, shells and other things that my son would find interesting. He was patient and kept searching until at last we found some turtles. Captain was in the boat the whole time, keeping an eye on us the whole time which made me feel safe with my little one in the rougher waters. Guide's english wasn't perfect and I'm sure we had a few misunderstandings on certain words but we all got the point and could communicate just fine. The boat was small and older but it was only a 5 min ride to the grass beds so it didn't make any difference. I noticed another boat from the shop taking scuba divers out when we got back and plan to do this next time!

Wasn’t aware that infants...

Howard_H, Dec 2023

Wasn’t aware that infants couldn’t go on boat so I paid for 2 adults who had to stay ashore with child. Actual snorkeling and guide very good

Lots of fish, great guide!

Kimberly_J, Dec 2023

Everything was just as explained. Loved our guide and boat captain. Saw way more fish than I expected to see!

Would 1000% choose again

TangiWhite, Dec 2023

This is my second time snorkeling in life and what I wished was that my first time (which wasn’t this company) would have been as amazing as this one was. Not only was our tour guide Nieto (I hope I spelled that right) was informative, patient and just overall great. This was also my daughter’s first time and their set up was perfect for beginners. The small group size and area made it perfect.

Not so great Snorkling excursion experience!

arun_s, Dec 2023

It was below expectation for us. Place where we got into boat was very basic, not clean and there were no proper well lit rest room or change room facilities. We were given old boat and Snorkling equipments given were unhygenic, unclean. Package mentioned snacks, fruits and water bottle but we were offered only bananna. We did not find any interesting corals or sea creatures except 2 turtles!! We would not recommend this tour for the price.

Ali was the great!

fsdh5ddbfn, Nov 2023

Ali was a great guide! Minor issues, but not his fault at all. To and from was smooth in the Taxi. One note is the taxi is $4 per person one way.

Another disappointment with Viator!

Marilyn_M, Oct 2023

The boat was a poor site! Not like the picture. It had a very very rusty ladder that was very difficult to use. There was no bottled water as stated. When I asked he offered me a dirty looking refillable water bottle to fill! We did not go to 2 areas as stated in the excursion. We just went out a little ways from where we started and anchored close to shore. There were no turtles. The snorkel gear was not cleaned! Usually the gear is sanitized in buckets before use. He gave us a squirt of dishwash soap in our mask! Gross. We almost didn't get on the old, small boat and wish we had just walked away and not gone. Very dissatisfied

Good Crew but Rough Waters and Hard to Find

Stephen_W, Oct 2023

Our tour guide, Nacho, was very knowledgeable. He and the boat captain knew the waters well. The excursion was really hard to find. IT’S LOCATED NEXT TO THE BLUE KAY MAHAHUAL! The taxi people didn’t recognize the address provided in the booking instructions so they dropped us off in the middle of town, over a mile away from the boat. We finally found it but not after being accosted by about 200 local vendors trying to get us to buy stuff. I had fun on the excursion, but the water was VERY rough, and I think I’m the only one who had much fun. At least half of the folks on the boat that came with us were sea sick and throwing up. I will say that the crew was very kind, friendly, and accommodating, and even gave us extra time to snorkel.

Amazing experience

Leah_R, Sep 2023

We had a great time! Having a small group made it more personal and we got to see lots of neat sea life, including a sea turtle! They made sure everyone was comfortable and helped point out anything interesting to see.

Turtles, Stingray, corals and co

Carla_M, Aug 2023

Very good organized, very friendly, helpful guide with good knowledge and good equipment = fun and great photos The taxi-ride was rather expensive for a family. 4 USD one way per person (!) for a 5-10 minutes ride in a fully packed standard taxi without AC.

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